When I was asked to put this together, my first thought was that no two days are the same in the adventurous world of Credit. This is mostly true, but as I do enjoy an element of routine from time to time, I will do my best to take you through a typical working day as a Credit Manager at Hokodo.
Most of the time I work remotely, so a typical working day starts with me being woken up by my 3-year-old son at a time when most people are still enjoying a nice deep sleep. After helping him get ready for nursery and taking care of my first caffeine fix, there are two things I do without fail before getting stuck into the day. Firstly, I will check my calendar and make sure I am correctly prepared for any scheduled meetings that are booked in. I will then organise and distribute the daily workflow amongst the rest of the Credit team so that we are all set up for the day ahead. Oh, about the awesome Credit team…
We are currently a team of five, split between Paris (3) and London (2). Monday mornings and Friday afternoons are when we have our main team catch-ups. Given the location split of the team, these catch-ups are crucial for the morale and drive of the team. Not only do we discuss work topics and the challenges/successes we are seeing during the week, but the calls are usually kept light-hearted as it is also an opportunity for us to keep spirits high and have an off-topic chat about what is happening with everyone individually. The Friday afternoon call is a particular highlight for me, not only to poke fun at Ioana’s endless range of fluffy jumpers, but it's a period of reflection for everyone on what we have achieved during the week, and we can wrap up everything we need to before the weekend. During the week, we seamlessly carry out most of our day-to-day conversations through Slack and Zoom. We get together in person quite frequently, with trips to either London or Paris where we collaborate, brainstorm, and g̶e̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶r̶i̶n̶k̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ socialise as a team. This is on top of the company offsites which are arranged to get us all together with the wider team.
"At Hokodo, there are almost no limitations on what your role has to include and what you can effectively grow into."
I like to think of the Credit function as one of Hokodo’s main ‘engine rooms’. We are constantly making sure the gears are churning in the background so that our algorithms and underwriting rules are constantly updated and optimised, and we offer our merchants an acceptable offer rate with quick response times. We work very closely with the Data Science, Business Intelligence, Customer Success and Operations teams on a daily basis to best serve our customers and minimise our loss ratio.
The title ‘Credit Manager’ is often associated with number crunching, credit limit underwriting, and analysing a large amount of financial data, however at Hokodo, there are almost no limitations on what your role has to include and what you can effectively grow into.
About 40% of my working day is spent on reviewing credit limits which are requested by our merchants. This remains a crucial part of the job, as we are offering our merchants a credit limit service which often stretches beyond automation, and requires a manual assessment of the debtor. This includes a full top-to-bottom assessment of the buyer, mostly centred around financial statement analysis. These reviews can range from small SMEs or sole traders where information is limited, to large limit requests on international blue-chip companies. There will never be a one-size-fits-all approach to credit analysis, so this keeps us on our toes! I will check the daily workflow 2-3 times a day to make sure limit requests are assigned and responded to in a timely manner.
The other 60% of my time is usually spent on project work, underwriting rule analysis or ad-hoc queries (both internal and external). One of the benefits of working for a scaling fintech company is that there are a significant amount of project opportunities and the freedom to run them as your own. From when I joined the team at the beginning of 2022 to now, the Credit team has run 10 separate optimisation projects to streamline our workload, and make the overall credit function much more efficient. With help from our friends in the Business Intelligence and Data Science teams, the projects I continue to work on include an automated credit decisioning system, a credit model which identifies potential fraudulent/suspicious buyer activity, and a sophisticated productivity tracker.
"I can’t think of a better environment to grow individually, and to also help scale an amazing fintech, than at Hokodo."
At 6:00pm, my little one will wander into my office after his long day at nursery, and that is usually my daily reminder to log-off soon and try to switch off from all the Credit fun…
I just wanted to talk a bit about the people at Hokodo and the culture that comes with that. Ever since my onboarding, everyone has always been proactive in offering their assistance. Nothing is ever too much, and the knowledge and expertise we have here really is best in class. With the support of many other business functions, I have been able to develop my SQL skill set, data extraction techniques, project management/coordination, and involve myself in the Hokodo recruitment process.
I can’t think of a better environment to grow individually, and to also help scale an amazing fintech, than at Hokodo. I really enjoy my job and the growing industry which we work in, and I don’t have to compromise (too much…) what is sometimes a hectic work/life balance to get my work done.
Fancy joining the credit team or one of Hokodo's other crucial "engine rooms"? Check out our latest job openings.
