Junior to senior in 18 months.
The Adsolution career path for media buyers is not a corporate ladder with rungs that take three years each. Here is what the 18-month path actually looks like, month by month.
Why 18 months and not three years.
Most Western European agencies promote in slow waves. A junior who joins in January waits until the next year’s review cycle, and then maybe the year after. The reason is structural: layered teams, account hierarchies, partner economics.
Adsolution is operator-led. The decisions about who runs what are made by the people who do the work. Promotion is paced by skill, not by the calendar. The 18-month timeline is the average for someone who shows up, ships, and tells the truth.
Month 0 to 3: The shadow phase.
You join, you are assigned to a senior media buyer or a market lead. You watch live campaigns get adjusted. You learn the dashboard, the alerts, the SOPs that already exist. You make notes obsessively.
By week two you are touching real campaigns under supervision. Small budgets, low risk. The point is to start failing safely and noticing what the failures teach.
What we look for in month 0 to 3:
- How fast you tell us when something is broken
- Whether you try before forwarding
- Whether you remember what you were taught last week
- How you respond to direct feedback
Month 3 to 6: First ownership.
You take over a campaign, a vertical, or a market segment. Your name is on the dashboard line. You make decisions independently, you still escalate the big ones. You start writing your own SOPs based on what you have learned.
By month 6 you should be running a meaningful budget per day across one or two markets. A junior at Adsolution who is not running real spend by month 6 is a sign that something is off.
Month 6 to 12: Mid-level.
You own a market or a vertical end to end. You run live spend without a senior in the loop on every decision. You make mistakes that cost real money and you fix them.
The pay step happens here. Roughly 25 to 40 percent above what you started on. The title step (Junior to Mid) happens if you have shipped the work.
By month 9 you start training the next junior who joins. This is the moment most people first realize what they actually know, because they have to explain it.
Month 12 to 18: Senior.
You make the decisions about the work in your area. You hire and grow the next mid. You sit in the room when the budgets and the bets get decided. You speak for your function in the company.
The next pay step happens here. Roughly another 30 to 50 percent above mid. You are running something real and you have a team underneath you, even if it is just one person.
What is different at each step.
Junior.
Measured on: how fast you learn, how often you tell the truth when something breaks, whether you ask the right questions.
Compensation: entry-level competitive for Tirana.
Decision authority: small budgets, supervised.
Mid.
Measured on: output. Are you running real spend, is the spend efficient, are the campaigns clean.
Compensation: 25-40 percent above starting.
Decision authority: full ownership of your campaigns.
Senior.
Measured on: outcomes. Is the area you own contributing to the company’s numbers.
Compensation: 30-50 percent above mid.
Decision authority: full ownership of your area, hiring authority for your team.
Lead.
Measured on: strategic outcomes and team growth. You shape the bets, you build the bench.
Compensation: above-senior, with performance variability.
Decision authority: full P&L slice ownership.
What does not get you promoted.
- Time served. We do not promote on tenure.
- Being well-liked but not shipping.
- Making the dashboard look good while the numbers are not.
- Hoarding knowledge to seem indispensable.
- Speaking in plans rather than results.
If you are looking at this from the outside.
The Adsolution path is faster than most agencies. It is also more honest about what gets you to the next step. If you want a place where the next promotion conversation is about whether you actually did the work, this is the place.
Open roles are on our LinkedIn. Read more about the office at Working at Adsolution.