Q. How did you first hear about Jumio?
It was through a not-for-profit organization called Year Up. When I was in college before the pandemic I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next when a lady from Year Up came to our class and told us about their program. It included six months of training and a six-month work placement which could lead to a permanent position. The fact that it was all free and it was likely to result in a professional career was attractive. I signed up and got an internship with Workday as a project manager. I didn’t convert to a full-time employee after the placement so I was looking for work — I think someone from Year Up put my resume in front of Peter (global director of IT at Jumio), who got in touch.
Q. How was the interview process?
It was really fast! Peter responded within about 3 minutes and we were having our first interview about 30 minutes later. That same day he introduced me to Jesus (IT engineer) and we had a good conversation. Jesus had also been through the Year Up program. The next day I had another interview with Peter and I was on board the following Monday. Peter was a big part of me joining Jumio — he appreciated my honesty and personality. I was open about having no real work experience that related to the role but I was eager to learn and felt I had the soft skills and work ethic needed to succeed.
Q. What had you done before?
From about 15 to 21 I worked in restaurants. I’ve done everything in restaurants from making dough in a pizza place to being a line cook in a movie theater and then a steakhouse. The restaurant business can be tough. It’s long hours, very busy and there are lots of expectations. It can be pretty stressful but it’s also hard on your body. I always wanted to get an office job and start a professional career and there are some parallels with IT as I need to deal with lots of people and prioritize or triage a lot of inbound requests quickly.
Q. What do you do at Jumio?
I’m an IT administrator, so I do a lot of work on Active Directory — there’s a lot of password resetting! I’m always online and will be the first to respond to any IT support requests. I also do the IT onboarding for all the new employees in the U.S and Canada, setting up their laptops and anything to do with account creation, and adding them to the right groups. I’m learning more now so I can progress to more in-depth IT work. This is really my first experience so I’m happy to be hands-on and learning.
Q. What are the most interesting / fun bits of the role?
I really enjoy meeting the new joiners. It makes me feel good to get on well with everyone and to be able to help, no matter how senior they are. I want everyone to have a great experience when they join Jumio.
Q. What do most people get wrong / misunderstand / not appreciate about the role?
I thought it was going to be a lot harder when I looked at it from the outside! Initially, I wasn’t sure about IT as a career — I wasn’t sure I’d be up to the technical challenges and dealing with people but as I’ve got more experience I really enjoy being able to help people, and being able to complete tasks is rewarding. It’s not as hard as I expected it to be.
Q. What’s the secret to being good at your job?
I think I’m good at it because I enjoy it. Sometimes when I worked at a restaurant I hated it and wouldn’t want to start early or work late. At Jumio it doesn’t feel like hard work — I enjoy dealing with people and solving problems. This is what I wanted when I was in a restaurant, and now I’ve got what I wanted and really enjoy it. That helps me to do a good job I think.
Q. What didn’t you expect about the role / what surprised you most?
I expected that I would have to be super formal and professional in how I communicate with people in an office job. Obviously I was very professional through the interview process but in reality, once you’ve started work you soon realize that everyone is just normal and easy to talk to. Obviously people are different and everyone is professional but you don’t have to be super formal and can just be yourself.
Q. Have you been able to progress your career or learn new things at Jumio?
I have to thank Jesus (IT engineer) who has shown me how to do so many different things, I was clueless really. I’d interned as a Project Manager and I’d done some IT at college but had no real-world work experience so Jesus has been a huge part of my learning. Peter has also created training programs and paths for me and the team so it’s clear what I need to learn and how to do it. I get to meet with everyone on the team regularly so I’ve been able to learn from everyone.
Q. What would you say to potential employees wanting to work at Jumio? What qualities should they have?
I think one quality you have to have is the ability to talk to people. Being able to connect with people makes a big difference. I think it’s important to be transparent — if you don’t know how to do something, be honest and you’ll either work it out or someone will help you learn how to do it. Everyone at Jumio is really open. There’s a lot of work and everyone has to work hard to succeed of course but I’d say the communication skills are the most important.
Q. Finally, can you tell us something not a lot of people know about you or the job you do?
I really like muay thai and snowboarding. They’re my biggest hobbies outside of work.