Q: Tell us about yourself: What do you do?

Jeppe: I work as CMO for thehub.io where we help startups grow. A key issue for me working with startups, is that a lot of founders don’t understand how important it is to get a grip on culture from the very first employee you bring onboard. That they have to be aware of how diversity affects both the culture going forward and the product they’re building. It’s not enough to just focus on building a cool product and selling it. You need to have a mind to building an organization and a sustainable culture.

Q: What would you say are important priorities for you in terms of your work? How has this changed over the course of you career?

Jeppe: My personal journey has taken me from some pretty big companies to doing things on my own. In this job, I was looking to return to a setting where it wasn’t the money that was the key driver. Where it would be the culture, the projects, the people around me. It is crucial for me that the team around me is curious, driven and of course fun to be around.

When I was younger I was a lot more focused on the pay with a constant eye on what the next step should be. I was working in a highly competitive environment in a big corporate. The competition wasn't so much the issue but the organisation was characterized by low trust and a high internal focus with heavy processes.

I broke off from this career path and started chasing my own startup dream and when the time eventually came to return to a steady pay check, it was important to me to look for a culture-first organisation.

That’s why I really liked what Valuebeat added to the process, because it left me with such a clear image of the organization I was facing.

Q: What was it like, using Valuebeat? What did Valuebeat add to the recruitment process?

Jeppe: After I’d had the first interview I was invited to complete a case and also to do my Valuebeat Print. That way the organization would get an idea of both my soft and hard skills prior to the second round of interviews.

What I really liked about Valuebeat was that it was a quantified alternative to merely solving a case, where, at the end of the day, it’s just up to whoever is on the panel to decide whether they like what they’re seeing or don't.

Q: How did being asked to reflect on what is important to you make you feel about the recruitment process and the organization you were applying to?

Jeppe: It was a recruitment process unlike any I have been through before. And I have worked for some really large multinationals and have been part of the startup scene for a few years prior to being here. The recruitment process has always been focused on assessing hard skills and perhaps some slightly outdated personality segmentation.

This left me with an impression of the Hub as a culture-first organization and that definitely increased my interest. This was an organization that looked at me as a whole person and not just a set of skills. This element meant a lot to me.

In a typical recruitment process, it’s impossible to know anything about the organization I'm applying to. Yes, I can read about the values posted on their website. But I would have no hard data on what matter to the people who actually work at the Hub.

The fact that they used Valuebeat was a strong signal that this is an organization that takes culture seriously and is committed to knowing who you are - more than just knowing how well you’ll be able to solve a task.

Q: Did you learn anything about yourself or your priorities from using Valuebeat?

Jeppe: I had a pretty good idea about what mattered to me already, but ranking my values, that was new. I’ve never had to make the hard decision of figuring out what actually was my top priority.

All of the things I was presented with when creating my Valuebeat Print are important to me, but here I was forced into singling out what actually matters the most. It made a huge difference. I mean, these are not things you reflect on every day.

I’m really happy with the job and the organization, and I’m a really good match with the team. The things that were a priority to me when I was looking to change jobs, is actually what I’ve gotten here.