New Customer Experience Student Program Shines Spotlight on Life at Xero Americas

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In 2018, we made the move to 1615 Platte Street from our former home in the Denver Tech Center. This was a big step for Xero team in Denver — giving us a beautiful central location within the bustling community of emerging small businesses and the software companies serving these businesses. In the Customer Experience (CX) space, we saw the unveiling of our new Americas HQ as a great opportunity to start creating meaningful partnerships with local universities, and so we were delighted to launch our CX Student Program in late 2018.

The CX Student Program is an opportunity for accounting students to explore a non-traditional career path that’s informed by their academic area of focus. We bring the selected participants into our Customer Experience team in a part-time capacity during their studies, providing them with a fully immersive role supporting our customers — one in which they directly apply accounting techniques and knowledge from class to solve challenges faced by Xero customers each day.

The students selected for this program complete a rigorous onboarding modeled after the training schedule for full-time employees. As students are mentored by senior CX specialists, they’re provided with hands-on experience where they can perfect their knowledge of Xero’s features and functionality, gain feedback on their work, and tap into their accounting studies to develop prompt and valuable responses that will help small businesses and accountants. Not only are students continually challenged in this role, but they also learn how to improve our customers’ workflow and Xero experience — necessary skills for being a part of the Customer Experience team.

No two days at Xero are ever the same, so this program is ideal for anyone looking to apply their accounting background to a career at a global tech company that’s changing the game for small businesses. And unlike being an intern in programs with a set start and end date, our CX Student Program has been designed to provide flexibility so students can continue taking classes and gain real-world work experience where they can apply their accounting knowledge. (As an added bonus, there are even opportunities to transition from this role into a full-time position!)

I often think about how university programs like this would have helped me navigate through different career options, so it’s been rewarding being able to mentor students and show them what it’s like starting their career at a company like Xero. We’ve got state-of-the-art facilities and a brand new open office space, along with other amenities like an espresso machine, weekly catered lunch, a ping pong table, putting green, and a rotating assortment of snacks & beverages. While Xero is a fast-paced environment, the work we do in CX is heavily collaborative — so we cultivate a culture of openness and empathy, where people feel comfortable asking questions, speaking up, and partnering with others.

In fact, we have a set of values that enables our team to think innovatively to solve big challenges faced by small businesses and accountants. One of the values that embodies the work we do on the Customer Experience team is #beautiful. We hold ourselves to high standards, take pride in our work and go the extra mile so we can deliver #beautiful experiences to our customers. Additionally, the value #ownership shows how we foster excellence and take accountability for delivering on our commitments to customers. Visual reminders of these five values can be seen throughout the office. They drive our operations and ground our interactions with each other, and our customers, on a daily basis.

If Xero sounds like the place you want to start your career, learn about upcoming opportunities in the Denver CX Student program by visiting: www.xero.com/us/denver-careers.

Karl Kukta is a Customer Experience Team Leader.

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