At the beginning of May, we were delighted to welcome our new Office Manager, Piers, to the team. Since then, he has been providing valuable support to the Hamburg office. In this interview, he talks about his rather unusual career path and what he finds so fascinating about finance.
redRobin: Piers, what brought you from Chatham in Kent to the Hanseatic city of Hamburg?
Piers: I completed my apprenticeship in hotel management here in Hamburg. I then spent some time in Miami, but afterwards I came back here and worked for an IT services company. I was ready to settle down here with my family. And so far, we really like it here.
redRobin: What has been your funniest or most unexpected moment in your professional life so far?
Piers: That was during my time at a Hamburg hotel right on the Alster. One evening, when I was at the hotel bar, I got talking to a well-known pop-art artist – unfortunately, I’m not allowed to mention his name (laughs). He immediately asked me whether I would like to work for him as a personal assistant in Miami. And three weeks later, I was on a plane. It was a really exciting time. You don’t get an opportunity like that every day.
redRobin: Exciting indeed! So that was how you more or less slipped into your current role in office management? What appealed to you about it?
Piers: Yes, exactly. It all happened somehow through chance and circumstance. What I particularly like about this job is the variety. It’s a good mix of many different tasks. In a way, it’s almost like my work in hotels – just less hectic. Which I really appreciate. There’s always plenty going on at home with the children, so I’m quite happy for things at work in the office to be a bit more orderly. You don’t get that quite so much in hospitality.
redRobin: We can imagine! What have you especially liked about redRobin so far?
Piers: First of all, I find the focus on finance really interesting. It’s always great to work at companies or agencies whose fields you haven’t had much contact with before. Privately, I’ve also developed an interest in finance and I invest in shares and ETFs. So a bit of extra input through work certainly won’t do any harm. The atmosphere and the way people interact here is really great, too. Everyone treats each other as equals, and there are even unexpected little gestures. You might come into the Altona office in the morning and find a pastel de nata on your desk! There really isn’t a better way to start the day.
redRobin: Since you’ve now had decades of experience: what would you say are the differences between English people and Germans?
Piers: Phew, that’s a difficult one. I honestly don’t think there are any really big differences. I’d say Brits are perhaps a bit more relaxed than Germans, especially when it comes to humour. Brits are more into dark humour, whereas Germans tend to tell jokes you’ve already heard a thousand times. When it comes to drinking beer, though, they’re all the same. Especially abroad. You can see that very clearly here in Hamburg, too. The Reeperbahn is the English person’s Bierkönig.
Thank you for talking to us, Piers! We’re delighted to have you on the team.
