Why do we hire? What inspires us?

We are a young company. Recently, we reached 14 months old. And we are a team of 43 individuals as of now. To get here within 1 year, we received 1500+ applications, and as a team, we have tested 1000+ applicants and interviewed 300+ individuals across functions: Data Sciences, Engineering, Customer Success, Design, Product, and Operations.

We hire when we are inspired, and we take hiring as our heartbeat. Our hiring decisions are critical to us. We will openly share what inspires us and what we look for. Some points may be a surprise.

Those hard skills first of all...

No surprise, some hard skills are very important. We consistently look for these in our hiring process, across roles:

Logical + clear thinking, that can be well explained. There are multiple logical paths to get to an answer - can you explain yours well?

Analytical skills - getting to the heart of a question with good interrogation.

Structured outputs - structure work or answers well, which show clarity of thought.

But what really makes the difference are these character skills:

Humble in attitude - We do NOT have an environment for people with arrogance, or a sense of superiority. We are a company of learners, who are always learning. We are a company where anyone’s ideas and contributions will matter. Those who feel the need to behave as if they are special do not fit well at Bright.

Persists through hardship - We look for individuals who have not had it easy. Individuals who have had to overcome challenges and proven they will persist. Individuals who know how to push themselves each and every day are the types of people who will grow tremendously over 10-20 years of their career. A journey of 1000 miles starts with 1 step - we want to work with people who will always take that next step.

Conscious in communication - We look for people who are conscious and thoughtful in communication. A basic level of English is important but being strong in English is NOT the same as good communication skills. Communication is the effort someone puts into how they say something, so it is well understood by their audience. We look for people who know the importance of this and are able to keep improving as communicators.

Ability to listen to learn - We have tough questions in our interview process. No one person is ever able to crack them on the spot in one go. What matters is can someone listen well to our hints and guidance to achieve a good answer. If someone cannot listen well, they cannot learn from others.

Desire to grow fast - Take 2 individuals, one starting at 8/10 and another starting at 6/10. Most companies will only hire the 8/10 person. We prefer the 6/10 if that person shows a real hunger to grow and learn. We have seen that in the right environment a 6/10 with determination becomes a 10/10. We build that type of environment at Bright. So we place a huge emphasis on people who want to learn fast and are determined.

Inspired to work with motivated teammates - We love small, fast, determined teams who seek to change the world. A group of determined and smart individuals can always do magical things for their cause. We look for people who want to work in fast-acting teams driving towards an ambitious purpose. This is not the same as saying they must be extroverts. Greats teams are a balance of introverts and extroverts - they both have their own energy to provide. We are looking for people who are inspired by working closely with other people as driven as them.

Energy for our vision - We look for people who can be as inspired by our vision as we are. They can be excellent at all of the above, but if what we are doing at Bright does not excite them, then it does not make sense for them. This is going to be quite a marvellous journey. We are going to work hard and do some amazing things that will change how consumers all over the world interact with their money. We want to work alongside team members who are pumped to be working on this problem every day.