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From skier to scuba diver, chemist to Solutions Engineer in FinTech

Change and discovery define both Mandy’s passions and her career. Although she’s from the (famously flat) Netherlands, she used to love skiing each winter. But then she found that her real happy place is actually somewhere warm, with clear seas and great diving. Meeting a rare giant sunfish, rather than a blizzard. She made an equally dramatic swerve in her career. From a master’s degree in Chemistry to a Solutions Engineer. Talk about adaptable!

Mandy designs solutions to make sure our customers have the smoothest payment experiences, wherever they are. It’s an ever-evolving challenge, requiring quick thinking and agility. (Qualities she has in spades.)

 

Mandy has been working as a Solution Engineer at Booking.com since 2021. After spending several years as a consultant in transaction security, she made the transition to working in-house and took up a solution engineer position with Swedish FinTech company Klarna. With that experience under her belt, she then made the move to Booking.com in order to establish this new role within our growing FinTech department.

From scuba diving

Outside of work, Mandy is a keen scuba diver. “This hobby started off in a funky way,” she explains. “I used to go on an annual ski trip until a small accident on the slopes left me with a torn ligament, so I had to look for another holiday activity – and scuba diving it was!” Mandy says this worked out for the best, since now she can enjoy diving in warm climates rather than spending most of her holidays in colder locations in search of snow. “Being underwater, and hearing nothing but the sound of the bubbles you create as you breathe – it’s addictive!”

While for many people Fridays are usually about looking forward to some time off over the weekend, for Mandy the thrill also comes from looking back at what she’s achieved on her projects in the past five days – and making a plan of attack for the following week. “Fridays make me most excited about my work, because identifying what I need to focus on next week is what makes me tick,” Mandy says. “I’ve learned to really appreciate the progress I’ve made and to see the impact that my work is having on each project as a whole.”

To scalable solutions

The most exciting and challenging part of Mandy’s position is the sheer number and scale of big initiatives that she gets to work on for Booking.com. “Working towards our go-live dates, and making sure we’ve taken into account all of the different bits and pieces that contribute to the overall project, is what always keeps things exciting for me,” she adds.

And what about the people? After all, when we talk to people about what they like about working at Booking.com, they often tell us the people are extraordinary. We asked Mandy who she would advise to consider Booking.com as a place to work, and she enthused: “Anyone who likes working with a truly diverse crowd that respects one another, and who’s up for working as a team to make it easier for absolutely everyone to experience the world!”

At Booking.com, we love finding new paths, in work and in life. Want to discover where you could go next? Learn more at careers.booking.com

At Booking.com it’s more than a job, it’s a journey.

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