Overview

As YNAB grows, we are always looking for friendly, technically-savvy Customer Support Reps to join us! 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 explaining complicated things in a way that 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 next email, because it’s an opportunity to help another person gain control of their money and become a better budgeter.

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.)

A Bit About Us

We build the best budgeting software around, YNAB or You Need a Budget if you have a lot of extra time on your hands. 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 Manifesto has 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.

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. As I write this, Taylor (our CTO) is in, London or Brazil, or maybe back in Austin? Not all of us travel so extensively, but the fact that he does is totally okay because we’re all adults. Just make sure you have a reliable internet connection.

Take Vacation (Seriously)

We want you to take vacation. It’s important to get out and do something. We’ll look forward to seeing pictures of your vacation in our internal chat room, creatively named #office_wall.

Support Team Meetups

We meet each other in person sometimes to work on big tasks or get started on large projects (we like each other, so this part is fun).

If You’re Stateside…

We have a Traditional and Roth 401k option. YNAB contributes three percent whether you choose to throw any money in there or not. Yes, even for part-timers. It vests immediately.

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 differencein 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. I’ll only say that six more times.

Now, back to you, our new Support Rep…

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’ll trip up next, and clearly explain what they need to do in order to continue having success with YNAB.

You will be the face of 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 also technically quite savvy. You know your way around the Mac and Windows operating systems, you’re very comfortable with smartphones, and you’re always looking for new ways to make your job more efficient and effective. Having to figure out why a customer’s budget isn’t syncing correctly doesn’t scare you. And maybe the thought of digging into software log files is a little exciting.

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 how to sync multiple budgets on the same android device, and another from a college student who has lost their key (twice now)–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 with the same sentence.

You play really nicely with others. You’re flexible. You adapt and adjust. When we decide to try a new support delivery model (live chat?), it’s your best week ever.

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 case is closed, customer satisfied.

You love taking that one little 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?”

A Day in the Life…

You’re scheduled for specific days, and specific windows of time. We’ve worked with you and the other reps to make sure the schedule is maintainable and fits with your life.

Let’s say your schedule is Tuesday through Satuday from 7PM-11PM Eastern. It’s Wednesday evening around 7PM and you jump into the queue. A teammate finished up around 4PM, so there’s a bit of a backlog in the queue. You knock through those 30 emails. It’s almost 9PM and you’re catching up.

As new questions arrive, you delight customers by responding within a few minutes of them writing in! You take some time to work on a few things that will improve your workflow or check in our #general Slack channel and see what the team is up to.

We’re shooting for a queue that is empty more than it’s full, and response times that average less than a few hours. If that’s happening, you and your teammates are hitting it out of the park!

You’re the one we’re looking for if:

  • You’ll be able to reply to 60 or more email conversations in a four hour shift.
  • You can flawlessly juggle three live chats at a time.
  • You can help us achieve an average response time of under four hours.
  • You can commit to a set schedule of 25-30 hours per week. Four to six of those hours will likely be 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
  • 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.

Bonus Points:

  • You already use and love YNAB.
  • You have Customer Support experience.
  • You have experience with live chat support.
  • You’re available (or even prefer) to work on our late shift – which is 6pm-12am EST.

Your first 8 weeks is a “working trial” period. If things work out after that, you’ll be brought on as a full-blown YNAB team member!

Pay during the trial period will be $13 per hour. For candidates hired after the trial period, compensation will be in the $13 to $17 per hour range.

How to Apply

  • Write a cover letter (attach a PDF) introducing yourself and explain why this position interests you and why you would be a great fit. Cover letters are meant to sell, so sell us!
  • At the end of your cover letter, tell us about:
    • Your favorite company to be a customer.
    • Your grandest computer-related technical achievement.
    • Your secret to good customer support.
    • Your availability.  What hours of the day work for you? What days of the week are off limits?
  • Attach a pdf resume. If you don’t have one prepared because you weren’t expecting to apply for a new job right now, then be sure to describe your work history in your cover letter.

*Please note: We are always accepting applications, and we review them in batches once a month. As such, you may not hear from us right away, but, we’ll be in touch when we review your application and we’ll let you know if we have an open space and would like you to move to the next step.