From Customer Service to Investments

By the time Joep joined the Investments team, he already knew Brand New Day inside out. In fact, he grew up within the company. Before becoming an Investment Specialist, he spent almost his entire student life working part-time in our Customer Service team.

What was it like moving from Customer Service to Investments?

Joep: "It was a bit of a change. In Customer Service, you're interacting with people all day long. Don't get me wrong, my new colleagues are great too, but I went from working with around forty colleagues to a team of just four. And instead of speaking to customers, I'm now mainly making sure their money is actually invested.

I'd already developed a real interest in investing while I was in Customer Service. I even wrote investment updates for our internal newsletter. So when a position opened up in the Investments team, I knew I wanted it, even though I hadn't finished my Master's in Banking & Finance yet. Combining the job with my studies was pretty intense. Until I graduated, I hardly had a free weekend."

Did you enjoy working at Brand New Day so much that you wanted to start your career here too?

Joep: "Definitely. The atmosphere here is incredibly relaxed. Of course, deadlines still need to be met, but I'm given the time to do things properly instead of rushing to get them done. Quality is valued over simply getting as much work out the door as possible."

What does your job involve?

Joep: "It's a real mix of different responsibilities. Officially, I'm part of the Investments team, but we're also heavily involved in product development. On the investment side, I process orders to make sure the money our customers invest is actually transferred to Northern Trust and Vanguard to buy or sell investments. We also handle all the administration that comes with that.

Besides that, I have plenty of other responsibilities. For example, I take the minutes during Product Approval Committee meetings, and I'm responsible for reviewing and keeping all product documentation up to date."

Can you give an example of how you apply your knowledge in practice?

Joep: "During my studies, I took a course on writing trading algorithms in Python. I now use that knowledge to build scripts and automate small processes. It's really satisfying to make repetitive tasks more efficient with Python. It saves us a lot of manual work, giving the team more time to focus on other things."

How have you developed since joining the Investments team?

Joep: "I've definitely become more confident. At first, I was thrown in at the deep end. It was often, 'Joep, we've got a new project, can you take care of it?' In the beginning, I wanted to check whether everything I did was correct. Now I simply take ownership and get it done."

What makes it such a great team?

Joep: "Everyone is approachable. If you have a question or run into a problem, people are happy to help you find a solution together. No one tells you to figure it out on your own. I never feel like I'm asking too many questions, and that makes learning much easier. And of course, there's always room for a joke or a casual chat during the day."

Do you have a memorable story from work?

Joep: "I sent my very first fax! It happened during the global CrowdStrike outage in 2024. We couldn't access our online trading system anymore, and our backup procedure was to fill out order forms by hand and fax them to Northern Trust and Vanguard. I'd never seen anything like it before. It was definitely an interesting day."

What would you say to someone considering a job at Brand New Day?

Joep: "I recently referred one of my friends to join our Customer Service team, so I guess that says enough. As for the Investments team: it's a great place if you enjoy working with numbers and want to dive much deeper into investing than what's written on our website. If you're curious, like digging into the details and enjoy looking at things with a critical eye, you'll fit right in."

If you had to describe the Brand New Day culture in a few words?

Joep: "Informal and approachable. That doesn't mean we don't work hard, we absolutely do. We just do it together."

Curious to experience what Joep is talking about?Take a look at our current vacancies, or get in touch with our HR team for a cup of coffee or tea. We'd love to meet you.