A quarter passed: reflections on my first 90 days at Mews

Having come to the end of my first three months as a Mewser, it occurred to me to look back on this whirlwind experience. It’s been an odd combination of unexpected surprises and confirmed suspicions. Overall, I’m delighted to find it’s exactly what I had hoped for. But I certainly couldn’t have predicted just how much I was taking on. How did I end up in this position?

In need of a change

Earlier this year, I decided to make a change in my career. I had a great role, in a business I loved, with colleagues I enjoyed working with. But I needed more: I lacked empowerment, there was no chance for progression, and no opportunity for mentoring or shared learning. I was frustrated by a lack of structure in how we operated. In short, I found myself in a familiar place – in need of a new role. However, since I was already working, I had the benefit of being able to take my time to find just the right fit.

And time it did take! I scanned hundreds of job posts, applied for around fifty, and ended up interviewing for over a dozen during a period of several months. I saw the good (well-crafted job listings), the bad (poorly articulated job descriptions) and the ugly (clearly communicated role ambiguity).

In a sea of underwhelming opportunities, finding the listing posted by Mews was like spotting a life preserver. Well written job description? Check. Engaging, friendly tone of voice? Check. Compelling depiction of an ambitious, open, growth-oriented culture? Check and check: I’d later go on to find that ‘open’ and ‘ambitious’ are two of Mews’ values – well done to whoever crafted that job post! Needless to say, I clung to that bad buoy (pun intended, sorry not sorry), applying right away.

Interview process

Next up: first stage interview. While I’ve spoken with many recruiters, it’s not often that my first conversation has been with a member of an internal hiring team. This was a refreshing change – with no agenda, the friendliness was genuine, and as a Mews employee I found Megan was able to answer my wide array of questions, ranging from the specific job description to the product team and the history of the business. It was an informative and cheery conversation that left me hungry for more.

The next interview was with Josef, who is now my line manager. Here we got to dig much deeper into product culture and capability. We discussed people and process, tooling and methodology, structure and strategy. We bonded over a shared appreciation for the Marty Cagan school of product thought. Most importantly, I left the call knowing two things: I could do this job. And I wanted to do this job.

The final interview was the icing on the cake – a conversation with Josef and Bethany, who has a special interest in analytics. Here I got to demonstrate what I had learned, presenting a proposed approach to a problem I’d been given to prepare. This gave us a rich, shared experience to unpack afterwards, trading views and questions about various aspects. I also had an opportunity to ask questions about the challenges and opportunities I saw, which were treated insightfully and with respect. It was a fantastically engaging conversation that was a taste of things to come.

Onboarding

My notice period seemed to last an age, despite being shorter than expected. I was super excited when my onboarding finally commenced! I wasn’t sure what to expect. On the one hand, I was intimidated by the size of the business and the pace it was moving at, but every experience I’d had so far had been so smooth. In the end, I needn’t have worried.

Attending the in-person onboarding at the company’s main office in Prague was a delight from start to finish. The hotel I stayed at was a Mews customer, so the onboarding technically began the moment I started the check-in process. Over the next three days I got to learn all about the company that made this process so smooth and simple for me as a guest.

This turned out to be a masterclass in living by one’s company values. Resilient, open, ambitious, curious and human – these were amply demonstrated as each member of the C-suite came in turn, to present their area of the business at high level and then take in-depth questions. It was humbling to have such unparalleled access to company leadership on the first day of employment. And having onboarded with such a broad cross-section of incoming colleagues, I learned even more from the questions asked by people doing very different roles from mine. In between sessions, I got hearty doses of Mews culture, from the collegiate atmosphere to throwing a great party!

Settling in

Over the months since joining, I have repeatedly found myself grateful that I found and took this opportunity, and that it has turned out to be exactly what I hoped it would be. On paper, it sounded too good to be true – and my experience in job seeking prior to this had made me rightly suspicious of this. But I had been careful throughout the process to minimise this risk. I researched the company website. I asked questions every opportunity I got, from the first interview to the onboarding and ever since. Life hasn’t been plain sailing – we have our challenges, like any other business – but I’m continually optimistic based on how we approach them.

I’ve spent a career working for much smaller businesses, but as a scale-up, the problems I face at Mews feel very familiar to me (I like to think of it as a company with start-up energy but enterprise problems). Rapid growth has led to very specialised individuals and teams, at the cost of introducing organisational complexity. It also means that some of my colleagues haven’t been here much longer than I have! It’s common practice to assume everyone who was already working at a business the day you walked in has much more tenure, but here it can be quite surprising. However, it’s encouraging to see such a healthy sign of growth, and commitment to investing in our teams. It also makes groupthink much less of a threat, especially important for a tech innovator.

The culture here was a major draw for me, and hasn’t disappointed. I’m enthused to find that each conversation I have is constructive and open. Colleagues – even those I haven’t met yet (which is most of the company) are friendly and engaging, happy to help where they can. We all know how demanding it can be to get through the onboarding process, and I depended on my team and co-workers heavily for support in the early days. Now, I’m in a position to be able to help new starters find information or stakeholders, and it feels like a privilege. Culture is one of the hardest things for an organisation to affect deliberately (it’s often described as ‘how you act when the boss is away’). It’s an incredibly positive sign that despite huge growth in team size, the collegiate and professional culture we have has been unaffected.

Looking forward to the next three months, I’m confident that I will be even better equipped to be effective in my job. And I can’t wait to see what fresh challenges I’ll find! One thing is for sure: while every day will bring something new, I know I will be able to handle it with the help of my team.

Learn more about working at Mews or browse our jobs here if you're interested in a similar journey!