It was a cool job and I wasn’t considering looking for another one, but then I saw a vacancy at bunq. I had been using bunq for a few years already and have been bothering my friends about the awesomeness ever since. So when I saw the job offer I knew I had to try my luck.
Just did it 🙌
I didn’t know anything about banking, but the job opening was for Performance Marketer, which seemed like something I could do. And ‘breaking the banking industry’ sounded like a lot of fun. So I submitted my resume and had to fill in a few words as a cover letter. I just entered: “I’ve been activating new users for bunq for a while now, it’s about time I get paid for it.”
Apparently they agreed with me because about a week later I got an email from Olly, Recruiter at bunq, saying that he would love to have a chat.
It’s on 🏃
Introducing your very Dutch name to an Australian was about the hardest part of the conversation I had with Olly. So we settled on “Barry” (instead of Barend) and moved on. The rest of the conversation felt like a real, fun talk. It’s not that kind of one-way job interview where you have to present yourself. No, it’s the kind where both parties have an actual conversation with each other to see if there is a match. Sounds a bit like a date, actually.
Anyway, both Olly and I were enthusiastic about continuing the recruitment process!
The process 📝
Look, it can seem a bit overwhelming at the beginning. Mine was about six steps long. But a word of advice: don’t be spooked by that. It actually helped me a lot to see whether joining bunq would be a good step for me to take.
After my conversation with Olly I had to do a few assignments and another interview but let’s skip ahead to the end: the most stressful but also the most fun part of the whole process.
Get shit done day 🌈
I got to the office where my soon-to-be Team Lead Maciej was waiting for me. Today was my ‘get shit done day’, the last step to see if I was bunq worthy and my chance to have an inside look at my potential future employers’ office.
“We have a meeting with Ali at 9.32, we can’t be late”, Maciej said. Ali is our CEO and he’s a very busy man, AKA every minute counts. Ali explained my challenge of the day. I had to come up with a plan to grow bunq’s user base by a certain % (can’t be spilling assignment beans) for the coming quarter, before the day ends.
Activating all my friends for bunq wasn’t going to cut it, that was clear. So I rolled up my sleeves and got shit done. With the advice of some very helpful bunqers, I managed to come up with a plan and presented it to Ali at the end of the day. I’m not going to lie, that was pretty scary. But damn it was cool, sitting in front of bunq’s CEO, telling him how he should scale his user base.
I got what I asked for ✅
It’s now been 7 months since I got hired. I’m responsible for the user base growth of our Premium and Premium SuperGreen subscriptions. In other words, I have the privilege to get paid for spreading the best banking experience out there. And not just amongst my friends, amongst the whole of Europe. All while having the smartest and most talented people around me to assist and advise me.
I think it’s safe to say that I got what I asked for in my cover letter, and more.
