Anywhere
Part-time
Allows remote
As YNAB continues to grow, we are looking for friendly, technically-savvy Customer Support Specialists to join our team! It’s a part-time* (25-30 hours), remote position, and you might just be a perfect fit. You’ll know it if you’re somewhat of a YNAB wizard already, and you’re known for being helpful, patient, and awesome–particularly when it comes to problem solving and explaining complicated things in a way anyone can understand.
We love our YNAB customers, and we want to make sure they love their support experience. You’ll look forward to every chat message and email, because it’s an opportunity to help another person gain control of their money and become a better budgeter.
You’ll work 5-6 hour shifts, five days a week. We would establish a set weekly schedule that works well for both of us.
That’s a super-brief intro, and there’s a lot more to it. But first, you need to know if you’ll even like working with us. (We think you will.)
*We also have a full-time position available. Apply to the one position that works best for you.
A Bit About Us
We build YNAB (or “You Need A Budget” if you have a lot of extra time on your hands), the best budgeting software around. For more than a decade, people have been buying YNAB and then telling their friends what a difference it has made in their lives. (Google us, or read some of our reviews on the app store, and you’ll see what we mean.) We love building something that has a huge positive impact on people’s lives.
We’re profitable, bootstrapped, and growing. YNAB started in 2004, and we haven’t taken any outside funding—we’re in it for the long haul.
We have one overarching requirement when it comes to joining our team: our Cultural Manifestohas to really click with you. If you’re nodding emphatically while reading it, you’ll probably fit right in, in which case, we can’t wait to hear from you!
First, let’s talk about life at YNAB, and then we’ll go into detail about what we’re looking for.
Who you’d be working with:
Emma is our CS hiring and onboarding manager—which means she has the best job ever. She will walk you through your interviews and training, and help welcome you to the team.
Senior Support Specialist: Each support team has a Senior Support Specialist who is a total pro at YNAB support. They’ll be available to answer the many questions you’ll have as you get settled, and will help you become an expert in no time!
Your Team: During your first few months, you’ll be a part of a team of other new Support Specialists. You’ll have your own Slack channel, and work together as you navigate your new life at YNAB. After the onboarding period, you’ll transition to your new home team full of experienced specialists and a passionate manager who is eager to help you continue to learn and grow with the team!
How You’ll Work at YNAB
We work really hard to make working at YNAB an amazing experience. We have a team full of truly exceptional people—the kind you’ll be excited to work with. Here’s how we operate:
Live Where You Want
We’re a distributed team, so you can live and work wherever you want. Proximity doesn’t influence productivity. Taylor, our CTO, was traveling who-knows-where for a couple of years before he bought a farm. Up and move to France for a year? Sure, Todd did that. Don’t like France? How about London, where Janelle trotted off to. Tulsa Remote? Can do. Or if you just love LA or Baltimore or Buenos Aires, we’ve got people there, too. Not all of us move around, but the fact that these folks have is totally okay, because we’re all adults. Just make sure you have a reliable internet connection and are available for your scheduled shifts.
Take Vacation (Seriously)
Just because you can work from anywhere, it doesn’t mean you should—we want you to take vacation. It’s important to get out and do something. We recently rolled out a PTO program for our part-time folks, and we look forward to seeing pictures of your vacation in our internal chat room, creatively named #office_wall.
International is Absolutely Okay
If you are Stateside, we’ll set you up as a W2 employee. If you’re international, you’ll be set up as a contractor. Employee or contractor, it’s all the same to us. You’re part of the team. (We are spread all over the world: Switzerland, Scotland, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Canada, and all over the United States.)
If You’re Stateside…
We also have a Traditional and Roth 401k option—yes, even for part-timers! YNAB contributes three percent whether you choose to throw any money in there or not. It vests immediately. (Are you a personal finance junkie like our founder Jesse? He set up YNAB’s 401k to have the lowest fee structure possible, where all plan costs are paid by YNAB, not your retirement nest egg. The investment funds available are fantastic, passively-managed, ultra low-cost index funds. You’re not a PF junkie? Trust us, it’s awesome.)
Other Tidbits
- Once you start, we DEMAND (in a friendly, ALL CAPS IS YELLING way) that you fill out your Bucket List spreadsheet with 50 items. (That’s harder than it sounds!) Good things then follow.
- The bucket list also really helps in deciding what we should give you for your birthday and Christmas. No gift cards here. We tried that. Super boring.
- We have a bonus plan. You’ll be in on that from day one. YNAB wins, you win. That kind of thing.
- Did I mention we make a huge, positive difference in people’s lives? You may not think that matters much, but then a few months down the road you’ll realize it’s made your job really, really enjoyable. Don’t underestimate this one!
If this sounds like your ideal environment, read on because now I want to talk about you. You will play a big part in helping people succeed at budgeting with YNAB. You will change lives.
Now, back to you, our new Support Specialist…
What Success Looks Like:
At YNAB, our goal is for our users to achieve life-changing financial control. No small thing, right? You’ll join our ever-growing support team and work together to deliver quick, accurate, and friendly responses via email and chat.
You understand the importance of balancing directness, accuracy, personalization, and speed—and, with time and practice, are comfortable taking on the most difficult conversations.
You’re incredibly passionate about great customer support. While you may not have an official support background, you understand the role it plays in the success of a business and know the work you do makes a real difference to our users.
You love problem-solving. You’ll have the impossible task of seeing the forest and the trees. You’ll dive into the depths of a customer’s issue, infer from their (sometimes vague) descriptions of exactly what’s going on, anticipate where they may get confused next, and clearly explain what they need to do in order to have continued success with YNAB.
You don’t mind answering the same question multiple times in the same day, because it’s a different customer each time—another chance to make someone’s day. You manage to exceed expectations even when you deliver a different answer than the customer was hoping for.
You’re really good at switching gears. You’ll answer three emails in a row—one about how to get a reluctant spouse to budget, the next about a bank not pulling in transactions, and another from a college student who realized they really need a budget for all their pizza and ramen—and not miss a beat.
You know that speed of response is extremely important, but you can walk that fine line between speed and accuracy. You are a master of being direct and friendly within the same sentence, and consistently meet or exceed our team wide metrics. Though you might be a perfectionist, you know when it’s time to ship it.
You play really nicely with others. You’re flexible. You adapt and adjust. You look forward to getting your QA results because you know it is an opportunity to learn and see someone else’s point of view. And when we ask you to jump in on a project with our design team, or lend your skills to another team member, it’s your best week ever. We’re a team of kind, helpful people and you fit right in.
You love to learn. You love constructive feedback because it helps you improve. You pick up conversations mid-stream from a colleague who is off for the weekend, and offer a virtual high-five when the conversation is closed: customer satisfied.
You enjoy taking that one extra step beyond what’s expected. You’re creative in that way. You consistently force us to ask you questions like, “How did you know the customer meant ‘x’, when he was saying ‘y’ the whole time?”
You’re open-minded. Even if you do have prior support experience, you’re not afraid to learn about how we do things at YNAB, and seeing how our team goes above and beyond what’s expected to deliver exceptionally personalized responses.
A Day in the Life…
You always know your schedule, because it’s consistent week after week. Let’s say you work Tuesday through Saturday from 5pm – 10pm UTC (that’s 1pm-6pm Eastern Time). It’s Wednesday, and you’ve opened your laptop to start your shift. You clock in and spend a few minutes catching up on just the important updates since yesterday (there’s a Slack channel for that).
It’s the first day of the month, so the queue is busier than usual, but expected. To warm up, you take care of any follow-ups that may be lingering since your last shift. A few are from users letting you know your last responses solved their issues perfectly, so your day is off to a great start!
Then, you head to the back of the queue and pick up a couple of the oldest conversations. You’re often surprised by the complexity of questions you see, but you’re excited for the challenge each one brings. And you know you can skip the ones beyond your knowledge level, after tagging it with your name so you can learn what you didn’t know.
Once the email queue is in good shape, you check our chat inbox to see what questions you can answer there, all while keeping tabs on any new emails that may come in.
Today you have your weekly one-to-one with your manager, so you pop in your headphones and hop on a video call to talk about your metrics, goals, and bring up some ideas you have on how we can make the support experience more effortless for our users.
Before you know it, your shift is over and it’s time to clock out!
You’re the One We’re Looking For, If:
- You’ll be able to send at least 10 replies per hour.
- You could flawlessly juggle two—maybe three—live chat conversations at a time.
- You can commit to a set schedule of 25-30 hours per week, with one 5-6 hour shift on Saturday or Sunday.
- You value excellence and continuous improvement. At the same time.
- You understand how every support response is an expression of the YNAB culture and brand.
- Other people consider you a stellar communicator.
- You love making people happy.
- People thank you when you deliver difficult news. You’re that good.
- You enjoy trying things you haven’t ever done before.
- You aren’t afraid to ask questions.
- You are wildly productive and independent, but a team-player at heart.
- You have a laptop or computer for work (a tablet or Chromebook won’t quite cut it for some of the programs we use).
Bonus Points:
- You already use and love YNAB.
- You have experience working remotely.
- You have customer support experience.
Pay for this role is $16 an hour.
And, since our job descriptions are already so long, what’s another sentence or two…
YNAB is an equal opportunity employer. We believe diversity of backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences to be critical to our success and are passionate about creating a welcoming, supportive, and collaborative environment for all employees. All are encouraged to apply as we continue to grow a smart, hard-working, and diverse team who love working together to build something that matters.
How to Apply:
Attach a PDF of your cover letter. In your cover letter:
- Introduce yourself and explain why this position is of interest to you, and why you would be a great fit.
- Let us know what great customer support means to you, and give an example of a company that you think does support well.
- Give a brief overview of your availability. Include your timezone and if there are any days of the week you’d be unavailable to work.
- If you have a prepared resume, attach it in PDF form. If you don’t have a resume because you aren’t even sure you’re looking to change jobs, that’s fine! An informal list of your work and education history are all we’re looking for.
We currently have both part-time and full-time support specialist positions available. It is important to us to fill open seats with applicants who truly desire that specific role, so only apply to one of the openings. The full-time position application can be found here.
P.S. If you’re not interested in or available for this position, but know someone who might be, we would really appreciate it if you passed this along!