From Partnerships Executive to Junior Software Engineer (plus a few roles in between!), Sam has a wealth of experience at Moneybox. We caught up with him to find out more about his progression journey to date.
How did your career at Moneybox start?
I originally interviewed for a Customer Delight position after studying Business Team Entrepreneurship at university. During my time there I’d sold a business and worked at a startup, which Ben and Charlie (our founders) found interesting during my interview. They pointed me in the direction of a different role, which ended up being a Partnerships Executive role for the Moneybox+ product.
At this time Moneybox only had around 30 employees, so we’ve grown a lot since then!
Partnerships Executive
As a Partnerships Executive, I worked autonomously to scale the Moneybox+ product. The role was varied and gave me the opportunity to widen my skill set. I learned a lot from Ben, mostly around building models, creating revenue and scaling products. It was a fantastic opportunity at the beginning of my career and gave me a solid foundation for a successful career at Moneybox.
Pensions Executive
After 12 months working on Moneybox+, the business was looking to launch a pensions product. I was offered a secondment to learn more about the pensions industry by exploring barriers to entry and how we might overcome them. I was by no means an expert in the pensions field, but I enjoyed constantly learning! During the secondment I had the opportunity to scale the pensions team, build processes and tackle new challenges. I also had my first taste of interviewing candidates too which was good fun!
Moneybox+
After my secondment, I returned to working on Moneybox+. During this time I learnt a lot about managing third-party relationships, which is a great skill to have in any business.
At this time I decided to enroll in a part-time coding bootcamp in my spare time. I never considered that coding was something that I would do as a full-time role, I was just interested in understanding how things are built at tech companies.
My line manager knew that I was doing the course, and incorporated the use of SQL into my role so I had the chance to practice what I was learning at work. I then started to use any free time I had at work to help the Insight team out as an extra pair of hands!
Junior Software Engineer
I spoke with my manager about finding a new challenge within Moneybox, and he suggested a role in the Insight team. However, by that time I knew I wanted to try out being a developer.
Thanks to connections that I’d built in previous roles with the Platform team, they were very open to having a conversation about where I could fit into the team. There was already someone in the team who had a similar journey upskilling in their free time into the development team, which gave me confidence that I could do the same.
I joined the Platform team in April 2022.
How have you found the transition to becoming a developer at Moneybox?
The team has a wide range of backgrounds, and is set up in a way that helps new developers learn with a good level of autonomy, but without being left completely alone! On day one in the team I was appointed an onboarding buddy, who created a ‘30, 60, 90-day’ plan for me to work through. It’s been useful to have milestones in place to feel a sense of accomplishment while learning the ropes.
Even though the programming languages I’d learnt at the bootcamp were different to what Moneybox uses, I’ve found the transition to be a smooth one. I’ve already been given a good level of responsibility and haven’t looked back since joining!
The team also has a progression framework which gives a clear indication of what my future could look like in the team.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned?
I would say to anyone: ‘Never be afraid to say what you want, and never stop learning.’
Do you have any advice for someone looking to apply for a role at Moneybox?
Read the role description carefully and understand where you shine, and where you may need to improve. Be aware of these areas and carefully consider the questions the interviewer might ask.
There are plenty of roles at Moneybox so keep an eye out for one that excites you, and make sure you show this excitement when you interview!