From customer to team member: How I landed my role at MailerLite

From the outside it looked like everything was working brilliantly—we were working with great clients, our small-but-mighty team was producing great work, and we were very active on social media and our newsletter. 

But I had hit a ceiling in my career. I felt like I was doing the same project over and over again. I also felt burnt out from having to invest so much time and energy into getting to grips with a new company, their marketing strategy, their team, and their brand each time we had a new client. I wanted to work on more diverse projects and really go all-in with one company so it was time to move in-house. 

But I knew I wasn’t going to be mass-emailing and applying to every copywriting role that I saw, I wanted to be really intentional about the companies I was applying for. So my search started close to home: My own tech stack.

Why I chose MailerLite

When I started my journey looking for an in-house role it was really important to me to work with a company whose product I already enjoyed using; how could I market our product if I didn’t even like it myself?

I had been a customer of MailerLite for a year and half prior to working there. I was co-founding a SaaS product at the time and my co-founder introduced me to it. Once I saw how simple it was to connect MailerLite with our application and transfer data from it to set up multiple automations I was sold. I even moved my personal newsletter over from Kit.

So the next step in deciding if MailerLite would be a good fit for me was exploring the company’s culture and they checked all of my boxes:

• A culture that was really supportive of working parents 

• Remote-first (rather than remote-tolerant…) 

• Multicultural 

So I decided that I would pounce on any upcoming roles that fit my skillset. When a role for a content writer came up I nearly fell off my chair. 

The application process

I’ve never been a fan of CVs, especially as a lot of my experience has been freelance working across multiple verticals and companies on a diverse range of projects, so it’s hard to fit all that into the format of a traditional CV.

That’s why I was relieved to see that MailerLite didn’t ask for a CV and a cover letter. Instead there was an application form with specific questions about my experience as they related to the role and a space to upload a newsletter I created on MailerLite.

As I was already a user of MailerLite I was glad to have the opportunity to show how I could use the product and that I had more freedom to express myself. I really value creativity in my work so I also loved the “Box of joy” section of the application. This is where I had total freedom to upload or write anything to help the People Experience team get to know me better.

MailerLite is such a multicultural company, so I thought it would be fun to record a video explaining how to understand my Irish accent—as it definitely deviates from what most non-native English speakers are used to! After reviewing and checking everything at least 150 times I sent it off and crossed my fingers (literally).

The hiring process

I may or may not have done an embarrassing dance around my office when I got the email from Izabella saying she’d like to move forward with my application. The next steps in the process were crystal clear:

• A small task to showcase my skillset in action 

• An HR interview 

• A team lead interview 

So the next stage in my journey was completing the task. In other hiring processes I’d found that the task(s) I was given either didn't match the job description or were so in-depth that I felt like I should have sent an invoice with it.

Thankfully at MailerLite the task was reasonable enough to do while juggling other responsibilities and not so much that I felt like I was being exploited. Once that was complete it was time to get some face time with the People Experience team.

Interviews can be pretty nerve wracking, but my top tip is to dance around your office to 90s trance music before the interview—there’s nothing like it to beat those pre-interview nerves!

My interview with Izabella felt less like being interrogated and much more like a friendly chat over coffee. What’s more, she respected the time we’d set aside for the interview and we didn’t run over.

Following that it was time to meet my future team lead. This interview was probably the most nerve wracking one, but I soon realized that my nerves were unfounded.

From the very start of our conversation, I was struck by how Jonas, our CMO, treated the interview as much as an opportunity for me to ask him questions as it was for him to ask me. Now that I work for MailerLite I’m not surprised because the company is very democratic in nature and everyone is able to voice their opinions, share ideas, and collaborate no matter what their role.

Then it came—the offer! And with that the final stage of my hiring journey began.

The onboarding process

The onboarding process actually began long before my official start date. Fifi, our onboarding and training manager, had put together a wonderful onboarding pack that outlined what my first week at MailerLite would look like.

This eased my anxiety of leaping into the unknown with a new company and even before my first day I knew exactly what steps I had to take. It also helped that everything was mapped out for me as a handy checklist in BambooHR, the software we use for onboarding, training, taking time off etc.

I also got a very warm welcome to the company via Slack and Fifi was always on hand to check in on me and make sure I wasn’t overwhelmed with anything.

A very unique part of the onboarding process was creating a Pecha Kucha. This is a presentation where you share information about yourself in 20 slides for 20 seconds per slide. It’s a fun challenge and a nice way for your new colleagues to get to know you.

It wasn’t long before I felt settled into my new role at MailerLite, especially as my colleagues were so proactive in reaching out to me and helping me learn our processes and introducing me to other key team members.

Thinking of applying to MailerLite? Here are my top tips 

If you want to go through a hiring process that respects your time and expertise and sets clear expectations then I think you’ll love the experience at MailerLite. Here’s how to make the most of your application and stand out among other candidates. 

Let your enthusiasm shine through 

Don’t just focus on your professional background, at MailerLite we really care about culture fit and knowing that our colleagues care deeply about what we’re building. Dive into our People and Culture blog and get clear on what exactly about MailerLite makes you want to want here. 

Read the book on MailerLite 

When I saw that MailerLite’s co-founder, Ilma Tiki had written a book about taking MailerLite from a bootstrapped small business to a €90M acquisition I knew I had to read it. Leaving the Basecamp will give you an in-depth understanding of our culture and how the company operates. 

Start using MailerLite

We really want to attract candidates who enjoy using our product so take MailerLite for a spin yourself! It’s free to use and you can take advantage of our 30 day free trial to test out all our features and see what you like about it. Try creating a newsletter as a first step. 

Find your dream role at MailerLite! 

You can find all of our open roles on our Jobs page, if you don’t see an open role that matches your skillset then make sure to follow us on LinkedIn so you can stay updated about all the latest opportunities.