Celebrating the 5th birthday of Budapest Office
It has already been 5 years since the office in Budapest opened its doors and started taking part in the customer research business. About these 5 years Shaalan, one of the company’s earliest hires gave us some insights.
You are working for BARE International for 5 years now. What was your first impression of the company?
Before I joined the company I already worked for it as a Mystery Evaluator. If I remember well, I did a jewellery visit. So I knew more or less how the Evaluator side works, but was curious about the other side of the job. I applied and got hired. After joining I received a 2 weeks’ training and was very interested in it, because previously it was really foggy how the visits and Resource Managers are working from the inside.
What was the office like?
It was a small starting team with 5 members who spoke different languages, plus the Office Manager. The small office was located near the Hungarian Parliament. It had a great view.
How was your first year?
I remember I picked up the phone on my second day and got many countries to manage like the Middle East and after that lots of Easter European countries I had no knowledge of at all. First of all I had to learn the culture and the different behaviours that could cause confusion. During the first year I got used to the job itself and this was the time when we started to build up our Evaluator base, because that wasn’t very big in Europe at that time. But after 1 year you will know your Evaluators by heart and you build trust with them and the community you manage will become more stable.
What has happened during the 5 years that have passed? It’s a long time, what kind of milestones do you remember from all these years?
Yeah, I grew older, moved in a lot of positions, but I was all the time around people. It was either community management or recruitment. I became more experienced in the job, but challenges are still there. This industry can surprise you all the time with the increasingly newer problems that need to be solved. Then come the brainstorming, trials and errors until we find the solution. Really exciting.
What did you learn so far?
Language barrier can be a big obstacle to do the job right. Most of the people at this company speak around 2.5 languages, but in worst-case scenario you can always use Google Translate. And of course language knowledge is important, but techniques and knowing how to use the given tools matter more. However, all these achievements wouldn’t be possible without our Evaluators and co-workers. Working in a team carries the greatest value for me.
What were the greatest achievements?
We are always growing, just like the office in Antwerp does. From 5 members in Budapest we grew significantly, around 40 people are working in the office now. Also, the offices in Europe are unique. The amount of talent accompanying with the cultural diversity makes them very colourful. You cannot find a similar atmosphere in other BARE offices across the globe. Our colleagues are from different European and Middle-Eastern countries, we even have some co-workers from Latin-America. It comes in handy because of the historical background of Europe and the amount of countries we are handling during the projects.
What do you think, what will the future hold?
We are trying to get more clients on board to continue growing. I was always a fan of showing the clients how we do a customer research, it’s not like a simple questionnaire. That’s why they turn to us and don’t do it in-house. We are the experts and we are the ones who can provide fact-based research on how they perform and in which areas they can improve. We are not only highlighting the problems, but we can give a detailed plan of how to overcome these issues and improve their ranks. It is more like consulting than simply providing a customer research and I think BARE International can do this as well. So I see our future in turning towards consulting.
Author: Anita @AnitaKocsis910
Anita is an employee of Bare International. Besides her work
at the Social Media and Recruitment team, she loves doing yoga,
travelling and reading. Her love for the automotive industry came
from the passion for innovations and technology. She has a master’s
degree in International Economics and Business.
Interested in becoming an Evaluator with BARE International?
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Want to be a guest blogger for BARE’s Mystery Evaluator’s Community?
Apply to: akocsis@bareinternational.com
