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Wise (formerly Transferwise) had low brand awareness regionally and limited knowledge of the local job market, making expansion difficult. Find out how we increased inbound applications, onboarded staff, and saved over 720 hours in interview time.
The Challenge

Well-known FinTech, Wise, had considerable success in Europe but was new to Asia when we met with them. They were looking to scale across their currencies team but were unsure of the best way to attract talent and weren’t having much success.

Wise had no problem attracting direct applicants, but the challenge was their conversion rate – for every 300 candidates that applied direct, only one was hired. This low conversion rate was a drain on internal resources, with hundreds of hours spent on interviews to hire one engineer.

Wise wasn’t looking for your typical engineer either. They were looking for engineers who truly understood how their product worked and how to build the best products for their customers. Every new engineer needed to embody their values and believe in their mission. These employees are rare and don’t tend to be actively looking for new opportunities because there is substantial competition in the market to secure and keep these engineers.

The Ask
  • To help Wise hire mid to senior level  engineers.
  • To help them improve their conversion rates.
  • To help reduce the number of hours engineers spent interviewing.
  • To help screen and assess for product fit.
  • To help screen and assess for culture fit.
The Solution
Competing with organisations offering attractive compensation packages, we identified strategies to help Wise draw mid to senior-level engineers to their Asian team that were a good fit both culturally and for the product. We also improved their conversion rates and reduced the number of hours engineers spent interviewing.
Agreed KPIs
To hire mid to senior engineers for the currencies team.
Improve conversion rates by 35%
Reduce time spent on interviews from the engineering team
The Results

Throughout Breathe’s partnership with Wise, we operated as an extension of the recruitment team and achieved all agreed KPI’s. Our initial goal had been to improve Wise’s conversion rate by 35% but, by truly understanding their business, the local job market, and how the two could align, we surpassed this goal achieving a conversion rate of 91.3%.

By being fully integrated and embedded into the business, we had total transparency on internal plans and communication allowing us to continue to increase the value and support we could provide.

Vadym Vasyliev

VP Engineering, Wise

Here’s what the
VP of People had
to say about us

We were lucky to meet  Breathe shortly after Wise expanded into Singapore. We were looking for software engineers to form a core of our team: technically strong, product-oriented drivers that are keen to contribute to Wise’s mission. The requirements were truly unorthodox to the local market, and some of the recruiting firms that we engaged with simply gave up. Breathe approached the problem with great attention to detail, commitment, and creativity. It’s a great pleasure to be working with them: a very organised, friendly, and result-oriented team!

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