Fruitful Remote Hiring During Lockdown
At Plum we try to remain human while talking about personal finance. We approach remote hiring in the same way — adapting to a virtual reality as our new reality.
We are lucky to have a solid business model, despite fast-changing global circumstances, which allows us to continue moving forward with the same speed. Since March, we have had 6 new hires, 4 of whom we hired and onboarded remotely, close to 20% growth over the last couple of months — a steady pace considering our size (now 40pp).
As Plumsters we are split between our two offices in London and Athens and, as such, we are used to slacking and video hangouts to connect, keep track and progress even before the Coronavirus pandemic began. During lockdown, our new joiners come to experience Plum friendliness immediately over these channels from day one.
Swag Onboarding gifts are, thankfully, not virtual, and the Plum-to-bes receive real gifts in the post on their first day. We also have many welcomes and chats across the whole first week, which are important for all of us to make sure we feel we belong.
Having interviewed a lot of candidates remotely, here are my top tips for standing out if you have an interview at Plum:
- Be on/mindful of time — it may feel like life has slowed down in lockdown but time goes as fast as usual ;)
- Act like you are on stage — make sure your camera and microphone is on and shine your light ;)
- Prepare your pitch — let us know why you want to join us.
- Keep eye contact with your ‘audience’ — leave your nervous hat at home and enjoy the show, we are getting to know each other!
- Show a genuine passion for Plum and what we stand for — personal finance is everyone’s business!
Sharing my thoughts on a Bank Holiday — historically, the name originated in 19th century when banks used to be closed for trading on these days — today, bank holidays are public holidays for everyone in the UK. In the same way, two centuries later we are constantly adapting to a new reality — to follow tradition we can keep the name but it will now reflect the new times we live in.
If this feels like home and you are interested in building exciting new products to make people financially better off, check our open roles and join us at Plum for a journey of the future of personal finance!
