Q&A with Simon, Customer Support Specialist

Why did you join Wise?

I had just finished an internship and was looking for a job that would enable me to stay in Budapest. Wise had just opened their office here, and I heard it was a cool company. I knew someone who worked in the Tallinn office as I did an exchange in Estonia. He said I’d love the culture. So even though I knew nothing about banking systems or payments, I decided to try my luck and got in.

In a nutshell, what do you do at Wise?

As a Customer Support Specialist, I help French-speaking customers with their issues and questions using Wise. For a long time, I was the only French-speaker in the Budapest office, working cross-office with the rest of the team based in Tallinn. After some time we hired more French speakers in Budapest so now we have our own team here.

What’s the biggest challenge working here?

Prioritising. There are so many things you could do, but time and resources are limited. So you always need to figure out what’s the most impactful thing for the business and our customers. With the autonomy we have here, everyone picks the projects they want to focus on. So sometimes getting buy-in can be tricky once priorities have already been set by teams.

What’s the most interesting project you’ve worked on?

My side project working with the Wise for Banks team, has taken me many places both professionally and personally. I’ve done things I never expected to do. I’ve sat in the Paris headquarters of a large bank, helping my team to present our solution in French to bankers who know nothing about Wise. I’ve helped the team do presentations, facilitated meetings and translated meetings we’ve had with French banks.

How does this translate to my day job in Customer Support? Well, I take care of inbound and outbound contacts from our bank partners and customers. I report how many emails we receive and why they’re contacting us so we can perfect the product. This also involves training our Customer Support team on related matters, reporting bugs and making sure everything goes smoothly with our bank integrations. Our motto is to have ridiculously happy banking partners!

Most interesting place you’ve used your Wise debit Mastercard?

Merzouga on the Saharan desert.

What does working with freedom and autonomy mean to you?

Nobody will look over your shoulder to check what you’re working on. This means you have to be responsible and organised to make sure you’re working on the most impactful things. Freedom here means that nobody tells you what to do – it’s your call as long as you meet your goals.

What’s your side hustle?

I do lots of stuff outside of work. I travel as much as I can. I love skateboarding, wakeboarding, any sports with a board involved really.

I also compose music – I play the guitar, drums, flute and a DJ mixer and DJ Sets. I don’t have any tracks live, but I have a home studio where we make music with friends.

Favourite slack group?

#techno-head-info where we techno music lovers share music tracks we’re listening to at work.