PLACEMENT REPORT

(1)

PLACEMENT REPORT

MA International Relations and International Organizations Placement

LYX000M10 Master's Work Placement IR 2020/2021

Candela Martínez Doceda

S3546721

Coordinator Ms. C.A.M Wagstaff

Employer Peaks B.V.

Supervisor Mr. Coen de Ruwe

(2)

INTRODUCTION

Finding a placement in a country where you speak the native language is already difficult. Finding a placement in a country where you do not speak the native language and do not hold citizenship is even more difficult. Finding a placement in a field that you like and are good at, is easy… but not challenging. Finding a placement in an unknown field to push your boundaries, is difficult… and very challenging. Imagine how it is to find a placement in an

unknown field, in a country where you do not speak the mother tongue, and in the middle of a global pandemic. Yes, as chaotic as it sounds.

Luckily for me, I stumbled upon Dutch fintech and scale up Peaks, an app that allows you to start investing and take control of your financial future. Beleggen met je wisselgeld! their pink app encourages you. Destiny and a daily scrutiny of vacancies on LinkedIn for months, I found myself taking an offer by the company to advise, assist, develop and plan a multi-layered business strategy and approach for their launch of the app in the Spanish market. Am I going to be good at this job, never having worked in the private sector, nor

business development, not anything investment related? You can imagine my face of surprise

mixed with a little panic when I got the phone call telling me I had been accepted.

Two months ago, the placement adventure began, and can finally understand why the placement assignment is a foundational pillar of the International Relations Masters at the University of Groningen. In the lecture halls the student will learn how to think, how to be critical, how to analyse, generate new knowledge, new answers. In the workplace, furthermore, the student will learn how to put this theory into practice, develop skills, get things done and see their results. Fitting like wine and cheese together, one cannot exist with the other. And the result is none other than completely prepared professionals, ready to embark upon the employment experience, eager to take new opportunities by storm and excel in them.

In the following sections, I will delve deep into all my tasks, responsibilities and personal reflections. Brace yourself: I am an avid writer, enjoy introspection and am very observant of my own growth. I had a notebook with myself during my placement, and also kept a digital archive with notes, clippings and reports, saved to showcase my work and my progress. These reflections are sometimes personal, sometimes revealing parts of myself that I am not proud of, nor comfortable putting on the internet. However, I do believe that in these times of uncertainty, competitiveness and lack of transparency, it is a must that I remain open and sincere. So, if sometimes it gets too much, remember that I wrote this thinking on a fictional reader that, like me, would have loved to get to the guts of someone else’s experience, see the good and the bad, and be told the real truth.

(4)

PART I: PRE-PLACEMENT

About me: introduction and context

My name is Candela and I am 24 years old at the moment of writing this report. I am originally from Spain, where I graduated with honours in BA Journalism and Communications by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Bachelors in Spain normally take up to 4 years, 360 ECTS. During my third year, I completed an Erasmus exchange year at the University of Groningen, where I had freedom of choice regarding courses to complete (as long as they were aligned with my home university curricula), so I picked courses that interested me personally. European Politics and Ethnicity, Race & Conflict were some of the ones I took, which were not really in the media branch that I was expecting to cover. And I loved it! This is why after completing my studies, I decided to come back to Groningen and study International Relations and International Organizations. At that point, I was certain I wanted to explore politics and global affairs journalism and this switch would complete my skillset.

However, halfway during my studies, I became more and more interested in how IR penetrates through different sectors of society. For a while, I wanted to work in NGOs or organizations, as a researcher or policy advisor. However, this did not seem as a feasible path for me, because I cannot leave behind my journalism and media background: communications and getting useful messages out there, and empowering others through information and access to resources that contribute to a more responsible world is something that I chose to study because it truly makes me jump out of bed every day. Hence for a while, I really struggled in my MA program. Everyone around me had clearance on what they wanted to do: I want to

work in the EU, I want to work in business development, I want to be a researcher, I want to work for this commission or NGO… Yet, I was lost in a sea of possibilities, and was not really

sure of where I was really going with my two degrees. Am I a journalist? Am I a researcher?

Am I a global affairs expert? What do I want to do? In all honesty, the 1 year I spent doing

my pre masters and Masters later on was not the best one in terms of self-esteem, as I was very unclear on what I wanted to do and it was affecting my perception of myself.

Another remark, that I find is often silenced on the higher education bubble, is that not everyone can afford to do internships for 200 euros a month, or that not everyone has the financial safety network around them that would allow them to keep traveling, exploring different paths, even going into university. Perhaps, you, fellow student reader, do not have to fund your studies, or work to pay your rent. And that is great! But not all of us have the privilege to accept amazing internships or placements at supra governmental organizations, or to move between countries or even overseas without our own money. During my pre-MA and MA, I was working 24 hours a week in a retail store in Groningen, doing 8 hours standing shifts, very physically exhausting, and had a freelance job at the UKRant newspaper to keep writing and growing my professional portfolio, plus an extra wage. All of this, while studying

(5)

a fairly tough (if I might say so myself) program, and wanting to exceed my limits and get good academic results. While also trying to cultivate friendships, staying sane and healthy with my sports practices, and having to say no to a lot of beers or catching up because I had to work/finish an essay/write a piece/meet my deadlines. I am not complaining: it was hard but I did it. However, I am giving this extended explanation so you, reader, can understand my situation, my choices, and how proud I am of everything I am slowly achieving.

Peaks: about my employer

Peaks is a Dutch fintech company founded in 2016 in Amsterdam by three friends who wanted to make investing accessible to everyone. It is an app for smartphones that lets you save money and invest it, through different portfolios containing several sustainable index funds. Normally, investing in the stock market is quite expensive, and not accessible for normal people who are not in the financial bubble. Therefore, what Peaks does is facilitate micro investments to individuals, and through a personalized experience that every user can adjust to their own financial circumstances. There are several ways of setting money aside the user can choose from, and different portfolios each with their own risk and return possibilities. What I like about Peaks is that it incites you to take responsibility of your finances, some sort of counter-movement to consumerism and mindless spending, and instead work with patience towards financial freedom long-term.

Peaks has been operating in the Netherlands for four years now, and in Germany for a year and a half. At the beginning of this year, they decided to expand their business to several other european countries, and France and Spain were the chosen countries to introduce Peaks to. Though the costs of that expansion are mostly subcontracting services in each country, they had the need to onboard to the team people from those countries that would help develop and expand the concept of Peaks, work on a strategy and communication approach, and had expertise to advise the company on several steps of the expansion process.

Their office is located in Amsterdam, where now more than 60 people from all over the world, background and fields, work together to develop the app, operations, marketing, design, finances and customer care. I have gotten to know each of them through a lot of coffee breaks (respecting the safety distancing), and I can assure that the diversity of profiles in the company is one of the factors why it has been working so smoothly and successfully for the last years. Peaks is not the most used investing app in the Netherlands for no reason!

The process: how I got a job in a Dutch fintech

At the beginning of 2020, I was already looking for potential internships or placements for my IRIO MA program. This was particularly stressful for me, twofold: first, I had no clue of what I wanted to do as I mentioned above, and two, I had the money limitations that really reduced my possibilities to higher paying placements, and in affordable medium or

(6)

small-sized cities, as I would not be able to afford anything else. To solve the first problem, I had a meeting with my placement coordinator, C.A.M. Wagstaff, who was incredibly helpful and understanding from day 1 with my messy expectations and financial limitations. She asked me about my previous experience in media, and my interests in the field of IR. She gave me a lot of professional advice based on my curricula and ambitions, and recommended to look into PR and communications advisory and consultancy jobs. She made me realize that with my extensive expertise in media and the knowledge from IRIO, I could very well help organizations or businesses to put their messages out there, across countries, in an international setting. This was truly inspiring, and I am very thankful for the RUG to offer such motivated supervisors to guide the students along the way. I even picked up my German lessons and started learning Dutch at the RUG because she pointed out how important languages were to get good positions.

The second problem was more difficult to tackle, though. I came across billions of amazing internships at the UNEP, UN delegations, UE, NGOs all over the world, even embassies and governments of which I fulfilled the criteria and had tasks I would have loved to complete. However, I was not in the position to accept unpaid internships. I knew I did not want to go back to Spain and rather work at international settings, so I narrowed my search down to the Netherlands (Utrecht, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Maastricht, etc), Belgium (Antwerp and Brussels) and Germany (Mainly Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Koln, etc.). And my criteria was not to accept anything under 500 euros remuneration, otherwise it would not be possible for me to live off my savings with no other income. And so the search began…

I scored some interviews and offers later on. In this step I was already being challenged by professional life, as I had to say no to amazing opportunities just because they were not providing enough benefits to me, either not really IR related or not enough recompensation in exchange for everything I could do for them. I think it is important to remember your worth even if you are looking for placements, as sometimes companies and organizations look for interns to either to completely dread administrative tasks or to fulfill a full time professional role, but for the smallest amount of money or supervision. So it is also important, I find, to know your worth and set your boundaries.

In my case, the worst moment was rejecting a position in a research institute on sustainability in Amsterdam, a sustainability consultancy in Maastricht and a UN delegation in Bonn, all of which I got to the last round and had to decline because maths were not adding up. And of course, also received several rejections, ego-shattering responses, but this is also normal. After those three though, I was already on the verge of giving up and asking to do a Minor instead of a placement. I felt dreaded, hopeless and angry with myself that I had such high standards.

And then, I saw a vacancy posting on LinkedIn by this pink fintech company. Obviously, it caught my eye. They were looking for a native Spanish speaker living in the Netherlands with communications background that would help them develop their product to Spain. The job description was very broad, read: advising on cultural differences, contact with subcontracting parties, developing tone of voice, assisting with the expansion of the market reach, all from a native perspective. They were looking for someone that had both communications and international business profile. Flash forward to nowadays, I asked my

(7)

employer why they had chosen me above more qualified candidates, and they said my profile of journalism + international relations sounded very interesting, and the perfect match for what they were looking for. Indeed, one of the marketing leads (who is now a dear friend) has the same background as I do, just that she completed her studies in Hungary. I think it is relevant to point out, already here, that one of the advantages of IRIO is that it is a multidisciplinary field, and the knowledge acquired spans across so many fields, it is possible to mould the knowledge to multiple arenas.

I applied for the job and after 3 interviews and a written assignment, I got the offer. I was so happy about it! A full time job in a completely different setting and job prospects that I had even done before or even imagined for me! Working in the finance and tech sector, plus helping develop the product to a new market! Soon, I contacted my placement coordinator and the responsible person for the overall IRIO MA placements, and exposed my case. I also talked with my employer, and together the three parties agreed I would carry on some extra projects during a span of 2 months that would benefit both my IRIO expertise and the expectations from the employer, as a placement assignment.

I want to emphasize the fact that I chose this employer because it was an utmost challenge for me. Something comfortable would have been to accept a research placement at a political institution, or an institute dealing with the issues I am most familiar with after the Masters (governance, politics, policy-making, sustainability, conflict, etc) but I wanted to try something new. So many IRIO Alumni were working at private companies as I saw on Linkedin, and I wondered… what are they doing there? How was all the theoretical knowledge gained during the studies translated into practical action? I needed to know! And so this was my final choice.

After accepting the job, I quit my other two jobs in Groningen, found a flat in Amsterdam, paid the monthly deposit and first month with almost all my savings, and crossed my fingers that everything would go well. The part about moving to a new city, organizing my finances, and preparing the technical aspects for the internship, as well as how I prepared for the applications and interviews, will be explained in detail on Part IV of this report. In case you want to jump there already to save some time, visit page 30.

Kick off: expectations and initial tasks at Peaks

While the next section will cover extensively the tasks and assignments I worked on, I wish to highlight the expectations I had before I started the placement and an overview of the tasks I was set out to do. Something I learnt on the way is that activities merge, overlap and morph into different jobs on a day-to-day basis, and this is why I first want to introduce where I started off.

In a nutshell, my tasks at Peaks initially comprised a stakeholder analysis, a strategic business development plan nation-wide scale, an engagement strategy, intercultural consultancy and advice, and assisting the compliance officer. I expected to carry out these tasks in peace, one at a time, just focusing on each project one week at a time. What I was expecting was easiness, theoretical research on my own, going back to my IRIO cocoon,

(8)

referencing, reading, whatnot. What I suspected would happen, but was not sure about, is that the job at a business was going to be challenging, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Two months later, I can confirm: working in business is like nothing else I did before. And I would recommend this to anyone that wants to see their ideas, research and problem-solving skills to materialize into real deliverables; those who are not stopped easily at the insights generation step, and instead want to take it an extra mile. Were my expectations met?

Absolutely not. Am I happy that my placement went completely different to what I had

(9)

PART II: DURING PLACEMENT

Professional development

Tasks: practicalities, challenges and solutions

I have been working on the tasks stated on my internship report, though some have evolved to weight more than others on the course of the placement. In this section, I will outline each specific task and give a detailed overview of how this project has developed through the placement. As expected in a scale-up setting, some tasks have morphed into others, and additional assignments have also been drawn up to my plate. When possible (legal confidentiality involved), I will share snippets of my assignments, reports and responsibilities to demonstrate some materializations of my work.

● Project stakeholder analysis - International projects face a variety of pressures

from inter-state complex external stakeholder environments when they enter a new state market. In order to reduce uncertainty, a project stakeholder analysis builds up interpretations about the environment analysing societal, economic, market, political and fiscal factors that may infer the penetration in another country. In this case, I was initially set to develop a stakeholder analysis for France and Spain, the new markets, to grasp the framework in which Peaks will be introduced and to drive the business decisions.

● Strategic business development plan: define target audience in Spain,

researching consumer habits and competitors to Peaks, identifying advantages and disadvantages and defining strategy.

As soon as I got my hands on the job, I was given access to an international market survey that had previously been done, one which highlighted societal, economic and political salient of each country. This is why the more theoretical side of business development and stakeholder analysis has been morphed into practical, hands-on business approach: setting priorities with other departments (development, finance, marketing, customer service) to align goals and objectives, delineating main difficulties in the Spanish market and prioritizing milestones.

Some examples of these tasks:

➔ Drawing up a set of personas and how to approach these in terms of

communications and objectives (Attachment 1), using all of the data that

I got from the international market research that Peaks subcontractors had already completed. Here I tried to define the objective audience of Peaks in Spain, taking into account all of the socioeconomic factors that I detected on the data set, drawing insights on those consumer habits that people had filled

(10)

in. We also looked at the microeconomics of Spanish households, and like this I came up to set pillars of interest for those personas. From my briefing, the project manager was able to set up KPIs for the departments, and put from marketing to product to redirect their work to these personas.

➔ Defining and delineating Peaks’ USPS in Spain, aligned with the desires of Spaniards in terms of investing and personal finance that I detected and studied from previous datasets from surveys and Rabobank’s data dashboard (Rabobank is Peaks’ main investor, and I had access to specific insights for the Spanish market). Here I decided which characteristics from the company to highlight for the Spanish market, aligning with product and management as to what was the most fitting strategy (Attachment 2, the USPS). In this phase, I also created pitching decks for Spanish investors and

subcontractors, and for Spanish media, presenting Peaks’ most salient

features to attract the Spanish market. For this I worked closely with Tom Arends, CEO of Peaks. He was very keen on listening to all my findings and suggestions, and so together we implemented those in the international strategy decks (Attachment 3).

➔ Analysis of competitors in Spain, not only direct competition (for instance, Goin, a micro investing and savings app that is really popular in the Spanish market) but also relevant savings and investing fintech that are not necessarily the same concept as Peaks but nonetheless could retain possible audience.

One analysis I remember particularly, because it really surprised me, was

researching the proofstamps that each competitor used on their websites.

Proof Stamps and security stamps refer to the little logos of companies and institutions that each fintech displays on their website: these are institutions to which they are connected and backed up by (or so I thought…). The intention using these is to make the customer feel safe using their services. For instance, Peaks uses the stamp of Rabobank on their website displaying they are a trusted partner. Goin, on the other hand, uses all kinds of affiliations on their website. What really shocked me when I did the research was that these companies were using stamps of third parties that were not necessarily associated with them. For instance, some apps were using Bank of Spain stamps, or Spanish Fintech Association stamps, as if they were working together or would have some kind of affiliation. But I found it to be superficial and basically fake, as there are no agreements in between parties most of the time. These proofstamps are just a marketing strategy! The insights I generated were used to decide what stamps and what affiliations we were going to use in the Spanish version (Attachment 4).

➔ Business decisions and action, analysing data for business insights. This was an additional task that was given to me due to my interest in the topic. Since we launched the app at the beginning of September, we have experienced technical problems and we have had to analyse the customer behaviour. Something I particularly enjoyed was to draw upon customer behaviour

and answers to analyse why we had too many people dropping out

during the onboarding process of the app. So, as to say, people were not finishing the registration in the app, and we were wondering why! We had to get all the answers, so we could update the app, change settings, develop a new

(11)

strategy fast and quick to not lose customers. So the Project Manager (Tim Evergroen) gave me the responsibility of setting up a customer survey with relevant questions that we would send out to the dropouts (quantitative data), calling some of them (qualitative data) and afterwards analysing all of this data and transforming it into actionable insights. And so I did! I think this was one of the most interesting things I did, and since my performance was good, quick and useful, I have now given more responsibility in the data insights tasks. See Attachment 5 for the report I presented to the whole company.

Challenges, solutions and reflections

I was very challenged completing these more business-like tasks. As I already mentioned, my background is journalism and communications, not business. I really had no idea what actionables, deliverables, KPIs, insights, dashboards, strategies,

stakeholders, pitches, decks, USPS, and a long etcetera of business terms meant before

doing these tasks. It is not that I was not expecting this part to be a challenge, but it really pushed my limits. I went from 0 business background to drafting personas and business insights in two months, and this meant I had to spend a fair amount of time (even off work hours) reading, understanding, asking questions, preparing my materials, figuring out how to approach all of these new problems.

What I expected from these tasks is exactly what I got: being handed over a problem, and solving it. This was not surprising, and it happened how I had envisioned. However, what was most difficult was the journey, the quest for answers, the how. I imagined it would work like a university assignment: you get a topic, you read on it, you might analyse some data, and then a supervisor gives you an amount of words, reads your paper, congratulates you, you get a mark, done.

Instead, this has been the complete opposite. I was given the problem, resources to find solutions (access to data, and freedom to ask as many questions and get as much help as I wanted), but nothing else. This is where it got interesting! I found myself having to first understand what was the problem, the best way to approach it, analysing and presenting potential solutions, and then turning that into actionable. And after this, seeing if it works, or not. Not a pat on the back or a mark, but instead my whole solutions were being tested, with real people using the app.

For instance, with the dropouts analysis, I suggested it would be good for the report to get both quantitative and qualitative data (as I had studied during my MA, a mixed method is the preferred one) and my supervisor was very pleased and impressed. He shared my insights with the Lead product designer and with the National brand manager to align actions with my findings.

Theory into practice

My IRIO MA, if anything, has taught me to think critically and put my skills to work. Perhaps on these assignments I was not solving conflict triggers in Uganda, or the origin of Trump’s pulling out of WHO strategy. However, the methodology and the goal was the same: to look at problems with a new set of eyes, analize all the available

(12)

knowledge in a strategic way, and put my skills to work generating answers, new understandings, potential strategies. I must admit that the thorough approach to work, organization and just trying to make sense of things that I gained during my MA, completely surfaced during my performance with these tasks. I had to work really hard to create useful reports, and definitely am happy that my program was very demanding, fast-paced and challenging, otherwise I could not have had the ability to complete these tasks.

One point that I want to address is that I realized my IRIO MA curricula was missing something important: statistics and quantitative analysis. I could perform both because I learnt on my own previously, and had some knowledge due to my journalism background, but during the MA we did not have any education on data processing, mining, analyzing, or anything similar. I think this is a very big disadvantage that could make us IRIO MA graduates lose employment opportunities thus not being able to really and professionally work with statistical data. Quantitative research is great for theoretical problems, but in the private sector, even in institutions or NGOs, you might need to perform basic data analysis like I had to for Peaks. I spent a lot of hours learning how to manage Google Analytics, Ads Dashboard and process simple surveys, thus these tasks were extremely challenging for me - they would have been less intimidating if I would have received statistical training during my MA studies.

● Engagement strategy – Due to my background in journalism and communications,

I was initially given the task to conceptualize, create, produce and develop content for marketing engagement outside of the Netherlands and in a new market, taking into account multicultural factors and country-specific environment

➔ I began this task by creating the tone of voice that Peaks would have in Spain. We wanted an approachable tone that also did not treat customers like complete newbies and making them feel inferior. For this, I wrote many articles in different ways, tested the content through A/B Tests and thoroughly monitored how other brands in Spain were approaching the market in terms of engagement. I also wrote all the text that the Spanish website and app displays, this is called UX writing

in-app: writing for the customer experience. This task took literally a

month, and I completed a UX writing course funded by Peaks and on my request, to polish my UX (User research) skills in order to produce the best approach. There is no other proof of my work than downloading and trying out the Spanish app of Peaks. Everything that you read in there, I researched and wrote, aligned with our tone of voice and brand values.

➔ I also have been creating and conceptualizing articles and content relevant to the Spanish audience. I have done interviews with experts,

(13)

written compelling articles, tips and tricks on investing, worked with the other markets’ content creators and growth marketeers to see what message we want to put out there. For this task I have also closely

monitored the performance of our content marketing, checking analytics daily, creating audience reports to drive more

engagement, and establishing KPIs that I want to reach with my productions. Content can be accessed on the blog and overall website. ➔ Consequently, I became the leading Content strategist for

national brand, so anything that would be put in the Spanish market

would have to go through my supervision, aligned with the values we wanted to transmit and that I decided based on the previously mentioned research.

➔ I created together with the marketing manager a customer journey that would be sent to the customers along their time with Peaks. We target each stage of the customer and send them inspirational content, as well as attracting them to our brand. This has been incredibly fulfilling and challenging! Among others, I have had to create new perspectives aligned with what Spanish customers want by researching customer data and behavior in Spain. These insights have driven a strategy that I have developed for several weeks, in which content goes from newbie material to more experienced level investments. This comprises a series of emails, messages in app and notifications that have as a goal retaining the customer to the brand and making their investments go higher.

➔ Finally, I was given the responsibility to give a Workshop about Peaks tone of voice and approach in Spain, so our Customer Care services and external parties would align with the brand strategy (Attachment 6).

I initially expected these Engagement and Marketing strategy tasks would not be as challenging to me as the business part, as I already had a background in media. However, to my surprise, I have encountered a completely different and new approach to communication as I was used to. I worked in non-profit and press before, where there was no other goal than communicating our mission or information to the audience. Here at Peaks, however, communication and engagement is not as simple, because there is a product and business objectives involved. Therefore, the strategy has to be carefully designed drawing upon multiple factors: customer psychology and behaviour, advertising trends, organic and inorganic marketing strategies, budget, priorities, etc. It is no longer writing information, but trying to engage, to create a loyal customer base through branded content, and I can definitely say this has been quite challenging.

Most importantly, I have really been pushed to look at the bigger picture. In previous experiences, the process was fairly simple, and I was not given that much responsibility anyway. Now, I was responsible for launching the whole voice and outlook of a brand to a foreign country, which was overwhelming at first. However,

(14)

working with my supervisor, and carefully monitoring what was working and what was not, have allowed me to build confidence in my strengths and push my engagement strategies to the next level.

Theory to practice

I was afraid this part of the placement would not resonate with International Relations. Of course, I was wrong! I have found myself going back and forth to Hofstede’s dimensions to understand how some societies react better (or worse) to certain messages. For instance, I saw that the articles we published about personal finance were being widely accepted in Spain, while in Germany people were engaging better with tips on micro investing. Why is this, I asked myself? What is this telling

me, and how can I implement this into more effective engagement? I consulted

Hofstede’s dimensions: effectively, Spanish people are very prone to uncertainty avoidance according to his studies. Spanish society does not like risk, but has a very short term vision, so what they reach out for are quick fixes on personal finance, i.e how to budget better, spend less, save more. On the other hand, Germans have a very developed long-term vision, and their risk avoidance levels are lower than Spanish (though higher than the Dutch, still). Therefore, the content they were going back to constantly was tips on investing and how to start, because investing is a long-term goal and the German audience really liked these topics. Et voila!

This might seem far from IR, but, is it, really? I was presented with different analysis, and I studied them to find the best suiting strategy. I had in mind cultural differences, and how these penetrate business. I was aware of how societal differences might affect the outcomes of certain strategies, and how to approach a new country better tackling these possible problems. Plus, I have been learning loads about investing, which if I might say so, is a very good quality for future jobs, as I perfectly understand the markets, microfinances and political economy way better than I did before.

● Intercultural consultancy – Though there are two Spanish natives working in the

company already, Peaks’ awareness of Spain was very limited. I performed advisory tasks to resolve day-to- day challenges when overcoming cultural barriers, and work with Spanish subcontractors.

➔ I prepared the CEO for an interview with a top-tier media in Spain (interview to come next week!)

➔ I advised on a daily basis on content approaches. For instance, I remember a funny moment when a marketeer wanted to put some Peaks ads on Facebook, and the graphic showed 2 beers. He wanted to put the price of the beers and how much money you could save for later if you would invest the spare change after paying the beers. He put the price of those beers at almost 8 euros! I was alarmed. I told him beers in Spain were not this expensive, and people would freak out with the ad, therefore he changed it. Of course, this is a

(15)

very comical example, but allows you to see the scope of up until what point it was completely necessary in Peaks.

➔ I also assisted during the contracting of local Public Relations

agencies in Spain. Because I would have to work with them and I was the

advisor, I got to choose a couple agencies, send them a dossier on Peaks and ask for them to make a pitch. They pitched their approach to me, the Marketing manager and the Engagement manager, and together we decided which one would fit Peaks the best.

➔ I have been working with PR closely, thus I respond for Peaks in Spain. I have written press releases, produced a TV ad (!) and supervising the content they put out there. For instance, I drafted and supervised the coordination of a media survey that we were going to send to Spanish agencies to gather information that would be useful for us (Attachment 7) as well as supervising a Q&A for journalists (Attachment 8).

I found it particularly challenging to align the message the Dutch managers wanted to put out there and the message I thought (and researched) would be most appropriate. I think this is where I saw how important the job of a consultant or advisor is. If my figure had not existed in the company, Peaks would have expanded to the Spanish market with their own Dutch strategies, aiming for high salaries and people that are into investing their surplus money that they might not need immediately. It was obvious to me that the socioeconomic differences would determine the way we would approach the different market, but for my supervisors it was not that clear or obvious. So with a lot of effort, and having to argument my position over and over, I finally was able to develop a more appropriate approach, as I already explained.

Working with PR has been a very nurturing experience, as now I am aware of how agencies work and collaborate with companies. I had no idea what B2B, B2C, Account Manager or Brand development was before I embarked upon this placement. And it was challenging to take the voice of an investment company on my shoulders - sometimes it felt like too much on one person. I assume this too was part of my professional development: figuring out ways to cope with the responsibility and do my best, responding for my employer.

I once stumbled upon a girl who had studied journalism in my same university, did International Relations in Berlin and then after some work experience, ended up working as a Communications advisor for a Spanish member of the EU parliament. I was really fascinated by her job, and we quickly connected and shared stories and perspectives. She really motivated me to study International Relations, and I told her I wanted a similar career path for me as hers. However, while I was doing my Masters, I oftentimes felt as if this career path was not fitting for International Relations students. Everyone around me wanted such different things that I thought, well, hers

(16)

Now after completing these tasks I see why she loved her profession and how important it was to study IR. If I would have not studied this program, I would not have enough perspective, international understanding, or level of reflection to analyze little details as forms of communication, messages or approaches. I barely notice it anymore because I got used to it, but the program equipped me with outstanding skills to question, understand and develop attuned responses to any situation. Same happened with my tasks in terms of PR: I was overwhelmed at first, but quickly adapted, absorbed the practicalities and developed my own critical structure to navigate such challenges. I could not be more thankful for this new approach to work and intellect, in general.

● Compliance and legal research assistant. I worked together with the Head of

Compliance in law and policy research and performed auxiliary tasks, background research and report drafting to make sure Peaks complied with Spain’s legislation and fiscal norms. This assignment took the majority of my time at Peaks and required highly analytical and organizational skills to not miss out on any small legal detail.

Some examples of these tasks:

➔ I worked closely with a local law firm called Garrigues, that Rabobank had recommended to Peaks for their good reputation in Spain in terms of fintech legislation. With them I did a walkaround tour of the app, to check if all writing was compliant and clear enough. They gave us advice that I collected and transformed into action for the app to be aligned with legal requirements. This process went very fast, in two weeks we went from meeting to making changes, and it was extremely fast paced.

➔ I researched and wrote all legal documents that we use in Spain in

terms of customer documentation. Some I already had the Dutch and

German versions available, but had to extend research to Spanish law to double check they complied with national regulations. These include: terms and conditions, contract, terms and conditions of promotions, complaints procedures, privacy statement, cookies policy, order execution policy, conflict of interests, foundation Stitching Beheer Peaks information. All of these documents can be found in this page of the website. As an example, I attach here the Complaints Procedure document (Attachment 9).

➔ The Head of Compliance needed assistance on clearing out the reporting

duties to the SEPBLAC authorities in Spain (the authority that monitors

money laundering and fraud). There are different procedures payment and investing services have to comply with, which vary depending on the countries’ specific legislation. I was given the task to research open questions and come up with answers, backed by actual legislation, and giving a justification for my answers. Nothing could go unattended or any part missed, as we were talking about things that would really get Peaks in trouble if not complied with. I attach here the report I presented to the Head of Compliance about her open questions (Attachment 10) and for illustration purposes I have also attached one chunk of the notes I had to take in order to make all the legislation make coherent

(17)

sense (Attachment 11, let the mess of this document illustrate the intensity of the task.)

➔ A week before we launched, and while we were reviewing all the legal requirements for investing and payment apps on the BOE (the official state legislation bulletin), we realized there was something missing. A pre-contractual agreement had to be sent to the customers before signing any contract, and in case that could not be possible (applies to Peaks, as it is not possible through an app), there was the legal obligation to hand in with the other legal documents pre-Contractual agreement brochure. This had to be sent, and we did not have this document, and the launch was planned within a week from that day. My managers decided to clear my agenda for the week so I could dedicate my time to drafting a pre-contractual agreement from

scratch, following the legislation requirements. It was a Spain-specific

requisite that Compliance had overlooked, and there was no time for her to focus on this. The head drafted some instructions (Attachment 12) and so I went on to research, complete and write the final report (Attachment 13).

This part was very, very challenging. At some point I asked my supervisor if this should not be done by a lawyer, or at least, if a lawyer was going to overview my stuff, in case I missed anything important. He said that he trusted me, and that my research skills were unlike anyone’s in the office. It was very challenging to make sense of all the rules, dispositions, articles, edits, and more. However, with patience and asking whenever I was not fully 100% sure of an answer or a statement, I succeeded at this task. I fairly enjoyed it, as it required maximum focus and linking one disposition with the other, one requirement with the other, and then matching all of these with Peaks. You would be surprised of how many footnotes dispositions can have...

I had some law courses before so I knew the thoroughly research and careful attention to detail would fascinate me, and it certainly did. I also felt very proud that I had been able to produce all of these legal documents on my own, and that I acquired so much knowledge about fintech in general, and what rules applies to them in terms of data protection, money laundering, reporting, suspicious transactions, etc. I gained a lot of technical and legal knowledge doing this, and now I am overly analytical of any little piece of legal information I stumble upon. Overall, it was a satisfactory experience.

It was very tough to do legal research, but I had already practiced during my studies, as in one course I was required to write a Policy Report for which I had to complete legal research beforehand. I think this, along with the more business tasks, the assignments that really brought about the hard skills I had learnt during my studies. Researching, reporting, writing briefings, making sense of data, content, texts, law… This was all I had been trained for indirectly, and I did not even realize while I was doing my MA!

(18)

It was very satisfactory for me (and for my employer) that I had all these analytical and critical capacities built-in. The intensiveness of the program fostered in me a hard-working attitude, attentive to detail and highly structured that definitely came in handy when writing all the legal documents and figuring out how to properly read a piece of Spanish legislation.

Additional tasks

More tasks came way, as well as responsibilities, which challenged me while expanding my skill set tremendously. For instance,

● I was given training on SEO/SEM/CRM and data analysis to understand the behaviour of our customers and position our brand better in terms of search engines and organic traffic.

● I was given the responsibility as already mentioned of setting up an Engagement

and content strategy aligned with marketing goals and in order to grow our brand

awareness in Spain, through country-specific actions.

● I additionally helped set up and running the Customer Care services for Spain. I assisted in the selection of candidates, and took care of the initial customer handling when our team was still not fully formed. So I also did some customer care!

● Because the community manager went on leave two weeks after I started, I was given the responsibility to be the social media and community manager for our socials in Spain. It was still growing, but I brought it from 0 to a decent customer base (for having been active just for a month) through compelling content and social media strategy.

● Finally and most excitingly, I was given the responsibility of setting up a Public

Relations plan for Peaks for the four markets we operate in and be appointed Head

of Press for all four countries, as Peaks being a scale-up still did not have enough media presence, but with the expansion we have been given more and more attention. We decided to set up a press materials page on the website and monitor the presence of Peaks in different media.

Independence, autonomy and supervision

When I started the placement, I was surprised at the high degree of independence and trust that Peaks and especially my supervisor gave me. They did let me work autonomously, never stepping over me, never putting my skills or capabilities under question. They trusted everything I was doing, and if I made mistakes, they helped me reflect on them. This was really shocking for me, as in all the previous jobs or internships I had completed, there was always someone above me controlling all my movements and setting up my tasks and obligations for me.

I talked about this with my supervisor and he told me two things: one, in the Netherlands, and specially start-ups and scaleups, the concept of hierarchy does not really exist, or at least it is not visible on the day to day. Second, why would they not give me trust? Did I not think I had the capacities to complete my tasks with no major inconveniences? He

(19)

pointed this out to me and I realized that perhaps I had to work a little on my professional self-esteem. Overall, I enjoyed the independence, autonomy, and always helpful supervision that I received. No questions were unanswered, and all my professional and personal needs were attended within a second. I really cannot complain, I am lucky I had this supervision (thanks, Coen!).

Professional learning outcomes

A. International relations and inter-state affairs

● I now understand how interstate relations are orchestrated through the private sector, and how international affairs guide the decisions and outlook of each actor.

● I really grasped what is the role of state powers when it comes to fiscal law and finance companies, and how the political frameworks of different countries shape diverse strategies and approaches in the private sector.

● I have successfully delved into the private sector’s own international relations and innerworkings, which are usually less studied in university due to its high opacity and complexity.

● I have improved my knowledge on international political economy, finance and banking, and overall learn more on macro and microeconomics thus I believe it is an important pillar of International Relations and state behaviour.

B. Skills into practice and technical knowledge

● Either through resolving research questions or organizing a theory from scratch, the IRIO MA has equipped me with outstanding critical thinking abilities and skills to creatively solve any type of challenge. Therefore, during my time at Peaks I have successfully put my analytical skills at work through helping the company develop to Spain and penetrate a foreign market and with the many obstacles and challenges that they might face.

● I definitely put into practice my research skills and methodologies, and diverted from highly academic writing while learning to conduct practical business cases and develop accessible reports for company decision-makers.

● I have successfully learnt to conduct research on policy and fiscal norms, be able to identify key stakeholders, and produce valuable insights and reports for business decisions.

C. Technical skills

● I have learn how to use the following softwares: Jira, Zeplin, Slack, SocialStudio, Sendgrid, SalesForce, Graffana, Dato, Wordpress, SEMRush, Sketch, Google Analytics, Google Dashboard, Tableau, Usabilla, Surveymonkey.

● I have finally mastered a medium level usage of Google Spreadsheets (very important!) ● I have learnt how to do a practical stakeholder analysis, develop strategic business

decisions plans and an engagement strategy. My intentions to learn how to do business-oriented research and present the results in a clear and concise way have been

(20)

more than successfully completed. I can say now that I am able to produce valuable insights and reports for business decisions.

● I have learnt to conduct research on policy and fiscal norms, understand how legal research is done, and learn to craft such reports for future employment opportunities as well.

● And now I can read the stock market, check on stocks and bonds performance, calculate returns, read historical data, explain finance to dummies, understand investing terms, and many more fun stock market things that I had literally no clue about before. This is quite exciting, cannot lie. Most people do not have this knowledge, and now I can explain what investing or sustainable funds or spreading risks is in a second.

D. Soft professional skills

● I have gained effective time management and organization skills, as well as prioritizing work. Peaks works in 2 week sprints to deliver projects, hence I have had to improve my prioritization skills. This is something I am still struggling on, and working at Peaks has made it more difficult, because so many people ask for things and depend on me that it is hard to delay tasks. Together with my supervisor I learnt to prioritize effectively and not feel bad to say no.

● I have gained assertiveness, positive and constructive attitude and not give up easily on difficult tasks. Now I see each difficulty or bump in the road as an opportunity to grow, and not as a threat as I used to before working at Peaks.

● I have developed a responsible attitude, taken ownership of my own tasks and not relying on others for approval all the time, gaining independence. I am still working on the balance of ownership and approval.

● I have learnt to negotiate my working conditions and retributions as well as my value in the company. A more senior female peer has helped me with this.

● I now can communicate in the Dutch style when in business: bold and direct, straight to the point. Funny fact: the PR company was extremely redundant in their emails, which kind of annoyed me. I remembered I used to communicate also like that in professional settings. First step, recognizing your mistakes!

E. Private sector and corporate business

● I have understood how Peaks works as a company and how the internal organization of a scale-up functions. I now see how the hierarchies of a company are organized, and all the different types of roles that exist inside of a fintech company, which I was not really aware of. Product owner, Lead developer, Data Scientist, Customer Success, compliance, CFO, Content marketeer, Growth Marketer… I did not know these job descriptions before.

● I have learnt how decisions are taken, what factors shape them, and how strategies come alive into real results.

● I have gained insights on Peaks’ organization and third parties, understand how agreements are made and who the key players are. I have learnt what investors want, and how Peaks relations with investors are forged. I have been talking and chatting with the CEO Tom many times and he has explained a lot of valuable insights on how

(21)

companies get funding, what obligations they are subjected to, and overall a lot of valuable information that I would have never accessed otherwise.

IR and placement

At first I was sceptical of the placement - I was not sure it would be deemed as IRIO-enough by my supervisors, which already shows what I narrow vision of IRIO I had mistakenly cultivated. I quickly realized that the main takeaways I gained from my Masters were not necessarily (but also) hard skills like research, writing, academic language, how to present findings, give presentations, craft compelling reports, etc. I saw that what really resurfaced during my internship was creativity and critical thinking. What do I mean by this?

Well, as I already wrote on my midterm report, I had a conversation once with a colleague here at Peaks, who is now a close friend, and she said: creativity is how you approach and solve problems. I resonated with this new definition of creativity, where it had nothing to do with making things pretty or unconventional, but instead seeing what things could be. I learnt to think this way during my Masters: take a problem, approach it critically, uncover new understandings and potential answers. And here, at Peaks, I learnt to put this creativity to work: take bumps on the road, see them from multiple perspectives thanks to my multidisciplinary education and previous experience, and then come up with actionables to meet goals.

Was I doing IR when setting up a strategy for content engagement or when I was analyzing data to understand customer behaviour? Strictly speaking, most people would say

no. But during my time at Peaks I have realized that the answer is yes. Yes, I was thinking

critically. Yes, I was producing new ways of understanding. Yes, I was going the extra mile being extremely analytical and questioning everything, never taking a first answer for granted or for true. Yes, I would have made my teachers proud with my meticulousness, professional and curious approach, thriving to learn more and more every day. Was this what I expected I would be doing as a placement when I enrolled at the program? Absolutely not. But now I see this was the natural way of things, and had to happen this way. Because now I finally know what I want to do, and where my education will be put to work.

Professional reflection

Besides all the hard-professional skills I have gained, I have been able to expand my network and meet a lot of like-minded professionals along the way. I have learnt a lot about people’s different career paths, how they got where they are now and what they did before that. I have gotten to know my professional skills way better, and even though I experienced severe impostor syndrome in the beginning, I have learnt to value my skills. Because I have seen how good the results of my work were! I do not want to get repetitive at the end of this section, so let’s say I started at Peaks being the donkey and now I am more like a unicorn:

(22)

Personal development

Strengths and weaknesses

Organization. One of my most salient strengths is that from the beginning I have

been able to stay on top of things, never miss an important detail, name, or deadline. I have always put emphasis on being organized, coherent, and laying all my tasks on paper and setting up time blocks for each. I am very realistic with my capacities and abilities and it helps me a lot to dedicate the right amount of time to each task, know what I can and cannot achieve, and optimize my time to meet all the requirements. These organizational skills are also present in my day to day life: I am very structured, ordered, and dissect everything to make it manageable. And I am always on time! Which is also a big advantage.

Analytical and empathic thinking. Through my education years, I have learnt to

never take things as they are, and instead dissect every bit of reality, critically, too understand origins and developments. This also spreads through my personal life, thus (most of the time) I am able to read people, understand their angles and perspectives, and emphasize with almost everyone. I think this is a great quality to have both in personal and professional life: to understand other people, to be able to communicate with others from a place of respect, understanding and care. This is an ability that does not develop overnight, but through personal experiences and nurturing empathy and kindness with others. I have been told this is a quality of mine at work and outside of the office, which makes me very happy, as being a kind person is apparently not as valued as being able to lead or give orders. But in reality, it is.

Social, open minded, curious. Asking a million questions is my way to live. I am

fascinated by fellow humans, what they do, what they think, how their brain works. I am always asking questions at work, not necessarily professional, but more through a personal approach. How did you get here? What are the biggest challenges on your day to day job? What is the biggest learning you would share? What makes you happy outside of work? Because I am a very sociable person and luckily, I have been raised to always have an open mind and not

(23)

judge anyone by their circumstances, I am now close friends with several people in the company and they have taught me many life lessons that almost outweigh the professional learnings. It is a blessing to be able to connect with older more experienced people who share my values and teach me how to navigate all the change.

Prioritizing and delegating. My biggest challenge, with no doubt, has been

prioritizing and adapting to a scale-up company pace. There is so much to do every day, so many little details, jobs, assignments to complete. No single day looks the same as the next one. At Peaks I have sometimes pushed myself to the limit of not being able to close my eyes anymore because the screen light has tired them up to soreness. I put all the weight on my shoulders and work on it quietly, even when I struggle. I am slowly learning thanks to both my supervisor and an older coworker that it is also wise to set boundaries, to say no, to accept that there is only so much we can do, and not beat ourselves up for it. I have been receiving very wise advice, like aligning priorities with goals, not doing everything just for the sake of it but asking Where does my energy need to go to get to X place? I am now prioritizing my tasks better, and being mindful of where I put my efforts in.

Being patient. I want to learn everything, and do so much, and run that extra mile,

and take that extra assignment, and always say yes… Too fast. I want things done for tomorrow. If someone asks for help, I will do it in the moment, even if it disrupts my priorities (heh!). My supervisor has pointed this out to me several times: you have to wait; you have to

be patient. Indeed, he is right, and patience is something I have always lacked. Also in my

personal life: I wanted friends immediately, I wanted a cozy gezellig house the same day I moved in, I wanted to feel at home in Amsterdam within 2 days of arrival, I wanted to talk Dutch in a month. And this is not how life works! Cultivating patience, trust and feeling complete is very important, I have gotten to learn, to feel fulfilled and happy with your life. This I have learnt through other people at Peaks.

Calming down and being conscious. Most of these weaknesses stem from the fact

that I am a very anxious person with no patience and wants to control everything. This makes me lose focus easily, as there is so much to do and control, and to sometimes not put my focus on the right things. I have learnt at Peaks to calm down, take a walk, take a coffee break, and being conscious of my choices. Working on a task or another one, or taking a longer break, or meditating for 5 minutes if I need to to keep working. It has been tough to adapt to such a fast-paced environment where there is overstimulation and work flowing right and left, this is why I have developed throughout the last 2 months techniques to be present, calm, conscious and not let the fastness distract me. I think this is also a very valuable life lesson that often goes under looked: to be still, calm and trust the process and your intuition.

Learning objectives and outcomes

A. Intercultural awareness

● I have understood how culture and cultural norms influence the behaviour of a company and a team, and have developed adaptability and an open mind to not judge

(24)

from my own limited cultural background. Now I understand how ugly it looks for a Dutch person that you stay to work longer than 5pm - this means that you have not completed your tasks in time. In Spain, the one who leaves earliest is the lazy one, here it is the opposite.

● I have gained multicultural skills to understand my colleagues and their different perspectives and approaches to the job and to general life, and have developed more and more trust in my abilities to work in a different country than my own. I am doing it! That is what counts.

● I have gained positive skills that might help me become a more flexible, internationally-oriented professional. No judgements or hard hierarchies anymore.

B. Interpersonal engagement and teamwork

● I am learning to cooperatively work with others without feeling inferior or out of place due to intercultural or age differences. Though I am aware that everyone has their own abilities, the fact that I am very competitive and insecure at the same time has been really pushing me down during the placement, as everyone has more abilities than I do. So I have been reflecting on this with the help of my colleagues and supervisor, and have learnt the importance of being open and transparent with these kinds of personal concerns. There is no other way out than through!

● I have definitely improved my oral and written English skills and gained the ability to communicate ideas and pitches in a more effective and to the point way. Though the mix of accents in the office has also made my English to sound weird at times!

● I normally used to love working on my own and was a bad team player but now that I have seen how much better results are when working with other people, I can say I have finally developed better teamwork attitude At the same time, I have been put in a leadership position, which has also been hard because I am not a natural leader. Thus I have had to learn how to stay close and kind while also drawing boundaries and having to give orders to other people. This has especially been tough, but I think with the help of my supervisor I have found the sweet spot between leadership and team attitude.

● I have developed the capacity to deal with criticism and to incorporate feedback, without diminishing my own abilities. And I am still learning to accept mistakes and challenges without bringing myself down, and being patient with myself. It is a process. ● I no longer hesitate to ask for help, and now enjoy working together in cooperation

with the different profiles that are working with me. In fact, I have learnt a lot about other people through their jobs, aspirations and career paths. I find everyone at Peaks to be very inspiring in their own way, professional and personally.

C. Personal development

● I am slowly developing security in myself and my own abilities and taking ownership of my actions, feeling fulfilled as a working professional. I accepted that this takes time, and cannot feel completely secure of myself in two months. I will keep learning on this by affirming my worth and learning how to develop professional confidence by talking and working with others.

● I have half/half reached a good balance between work and leisure time. I get too obsessed and absorbed by work and want to complete everything, up to the point where

(25)

I work until exhaustion. I have to stop doing this and prioritizing better, as my supervisor has advised me. He checks on my work life balance and my wellbeing weekly, and he says I should not have any doubts that rest is mandatory.

● I am slowly learning to not put all the weight on my shoulders and take off time when needed and to switch off my mind when I am not working (never could do it while studying). I am keeping up with my meditation practices to relax at work and because I write my thesis in the evenings, now I paint after work for an hour to decompress my mind.

● I am managing my personal finance like a boss and keep being economically independent. I am really proud of myself for this, I feel so full of gratitude that I am not living on the edge and scared I will not be able to make it to the end of the month, I cannot even express it.

● I have experienced how it is to move cities for work, and how to adapt to the working life. Believe it or not, it is such an eye-opening experience to make the leap from student to worker. Life seems different! Leisure, goals, and day to day life is also different. I liked studying but I enjoy working more.

● I have met new people that are not students anymore and have gotten to know a lot about life and my own perspectives so much. I have forced myself to interact with everyone in the company and I am very glad I did, because I have gained many friends and have grown as a person immensely since I started.

(26)

PART III: POST-PLACEMENT

A new me, personally and professionally

During my placement at Peaks I have developed invaluable professional skills as well as personal ones. The jump from student to working person has been intense, and I would lie if I said almost every day for the past 2 months has been easy. I have faced many challenges: moving cities, arranging my finances, getting to know places and people, finding my space at work, finding purpose, keeping my life organized, healthy relationships, in contact with my family, well and healthy, while adapting to all of the new intellectual and personal stimulation… It is not easy, and sometimes I flaked. But the growth has, of course, outgrown the difficulties.

Last time I met my supervisor, we chatted about my desire to grow, ambition to know more and become better, both in the office and in my personal life. He reminded me once again of the importance of being patient and trusting the journey, because the path to those goals is what make them enjoyable. He shared something with me, he said: You overestimate what

you can do in one year but underestimate what you can achieve in 10 years.

Career path from here

I stated on my proposal that with this placement I wanted to explore the private sector for future career paths. Two months ago, I envisioned that I wanted to work as a communications and public outreach consultant for private or public entities, and thus this placement would allow me to see if there was a fit for me in the business arena. I wanted to network and get to know more people in the Dutch fintech and start-up field, thus emerging technology and finances is an area I am very interested in. Finally, I wanted to discover potential career paths and learn from experienced people as much as I can. This all, of course, happened! I think now I am way more certain about what I want to do in the future, because I have seen what kind of tasks I gravitate towards to and which others I struggle to feel enthusiasm for.

As an example: I dread community management and am not a fan of commercial content and copywriting, like for instance writing push notifications for customers to open their Peaks app with a catchy headline does not enthusiasm me. Educational content, on the other hand, I love creating. I could collaborate with newspapers or magazines on financial news, articles and columns; thus, I really like the part of helping others understand this complicated world and optimize their finances. Another example: I found myself very drawn upon analytics and data insights translation to actionable plans. I can spend hours and hours checking the data dashboards, understanding customers behaviour, finding possible strategies. And I also like setting up plans that put all this knowledge into valuable actions and results. I am very thrilled by the whole process of gathering insights, finding trends, possible

PLACEMENT REPORT