In just ten years, Bob went from globetrotter extraordinaire to having apartments named after him. Niko went from Airbnb Superhost to CEO and co-founder of the world’s first climate-neutral hospitality provider. And today, Bob W's exceptionally cool short-stay apartments are giving our guests the chance to stay like a local in an ever-expanding number of cities.

As Bob W grows, so does our team. Bobstars are a team of highly motivated self-starters — people who think outside of the box and make things happen. Your grandparents’ hotel chain may have had a strict hierarchy, with staff doing their jobs without asking questions and waiting for the boss to make decisions about promotions.

That’s not us.

Our people are proactive. That’s why we wanted to make roles, opportunities, and development simple. Creating a career development framework gets all current and future Bobstars on the same page when it comes to designing a Bob W career they love.

Bob W’s People Mission

Great ratings are kind of our thing. So a 5-star company culture where everyone feels professionally fulfilled, fairly compensated, and engaged with their team and work is a priority. 

Creating that culture starts with our values. We prioritise radical transparency and pure meritocracy. We work together to be our best selves and own up to our mistakes. Our growth comes from effort, learning, and achievement — not politics. You excel at your career because of the work you put in, not because of how long you’ve been with the company.

Bob didn’t get to where he is today by waiting around for things to happen –– he is proactively looking for challenges and opportunities. That’s the spirit we have when it comes to our careers.

Wanna get proactive with Bob? See our career opportunities.

Creating a new framework 

Just like creating memorable journeys for our guests, we want to offer a career ride of a lifetime to Bobstars. Joining a startup comes with some givens — like the expectation that there will be growth built in. But we wanted to do better. No nebulous “you’ll grow since we’re growing.”

What Bobstars needed was a clear path for growth and the expectations on how to move up — and around — as we scale. So we delivered a framework. We didn’t redesign the wheel with our approach, but it’s exactly what you’d expect from us: a clear, actionable career development framework and compensation philosophy. 

To help our Bobstars progress along their career paths, we've created a career development framework. We have built this process to act as a guiding tool to map out your possible career and the levels along various tracks. The goal is to show you what we expect at each level and how you can progress in your career. 

We have clear career tracks for individual contributors and people managers in each department. Each career track has development levels. Each level has defined skills and expectations. 

The other benefit of this structure — transparency in compensation. We use an industry-leading salary benchmarking dataset linked to each department and level. You can expect a competitive salary based on what you bring to the table — plus you’ll have insight into what your career aspirations mean for your income.

This sets up transparent and straightforward conversations about development and compensation at Bob W. A process that gives ownership to individuals for their development and helps managers support their team members in their career goals.

Ready for a career conversation? See our open roles.

Our thinking

Career development is not a straight track from individual contributor to people manager, at least not for everyone. People work differently; they’re driven by different aspirations. We’re providing career paths for Bobstars who are set to pave their way to management and those who’d rather hone in on their individual contributor specialties. You decide your path. That’s why we didn’t create strict ladders, because who even uses those anymore unless you’re on the partner track at a law firm? 

Our Career Development Framework shouldn't be treated as a GPS. No framework can provide an exact route for your career, but it can point you in the directions available to you based on company structure, your interests, and your professional development.

This framework is not a promotion checklist either. Box-ticking is not the approach to take to develop and advance your career. You’ll almost certainly be doing important things that aren’t in the framework — they count too!

Career development starts with you

Our framework is like a compass guiding you in your career map with you in charge of setting the destination.

Bob W is a rapidly expanding company, but career growth takes on many shapes, sizes, and directions. At the centre of it all is personal development. This starts with your skills. They will be your greatest asset and take you where you want to go. 

The framework will help you lead the process and map out the plan with your manager. The map for everyone to review where they are, to reflect on where they’d like to be, and to understand what skills to develop to get there.

Ready to use our career development framework? See our open positions.

Your career is not a to-do list

As easy as life would be if we were just told what to do, it wouldn’t be very fun or exciting. Remember that old saying, “it’s not the destination, it’s the journey”? Part of feeling professionally fulfilled and really enjoying your work is learning from it. Yes, our framework maps out skill and behaviour expectations at each level, but we don’t expect you to mark each one off to move forward. The way you work and your interests will evolve and it’s how you contribute that counts.

The same goes for your skills. Like your way of working, skills need time to develop. So you won’t demonstrate every skill for your level on day one, or even in month one. This is why the framework lists a core set of skills and behaviours so that they can be applied to all roles to work as a guide, not a checklist.

Making sure you’re on the right path

Twice a year Bobstars have growth check-ins to see where they stand on their journey. If your mission is progressing within a level, know that the skills and behaviours are ambitious. They’re our way to challenge ourselves — but don’t let them throw you off. Bobstars are constantly pushing themselves to be better. But we know we’re all a work in progress.

Bob W celebrates differences. We’re all on different paths with different career goals. We all work differently. Career development is not a straight path from individual contributor to manager (read: not everyone wants to be a manager). Maybe you’d like to switch departments entirely and start on a different path. That’s ok — let’s map it out together. We expect to see some Bobstars to blast through levels, some to develop into leaders, and others to reinvent their professional ambitions entirely. The number of paths we expect to see with our new framework is limited only by the number of Bobsters we have on the team.

We’re hiring! Take a look at our open positions.

What some Bob W career paths look like

Wikus Joubert, Associate Director of Development, London

Development path: Senior Project Manager > Associate Director of Development

“I am an entrepreneur at heart who knows that working hard but smart gets you results. Always pushing for the next best thing is key. What has helped me grow the most at Bob W is learning every day from a diverse team with so many nationalities. What you assume is business as usual does not mean the same for others. How you adapt to your environment makes or breaks you, your team, and the company.”

What’s your best career growth advice?

“Don’t give up — push the boundaries as nothing is impossible when it comes to startups. Forget what you know if you came from a corporation and learn to be fluid but structured.”

Camilo Torres, Associate Director of Design, London

Development path: Senior Interior Architect > Associate Director of Design

“My career journey at Bob W has been amazing — full of hard work, lots of learning, and getting to know beautiful people. I am very proud of where I am at the moment. Working hard and with passion, getting out of my comfort zone, and being heard and listening to others has helped me to be who I am and grow the most. I like our career framework because it is very clear where I am and what path I can go on. It is easy to know what direction I can take and how much I can grow within the company.”

What’s your best career growth advice?

“One of my biggest pieces of advice is to not be scared of sharing new ideas and developing them. Initiative is the key to growth that will take you out of your comfort zone and make you learn on the journey.”

Jae Jensen, Content Manager, Tallinn

Development path: Brand Copywriter > Content Manager

“I joined the company when Bob W was a very new startup. As Bob’s content needs grew, I took on new tasks and eventually that grew into my role as Content Manager. Trust and encouragement from my managers together with a lot of freedom and support empowered me to try new things and grow. I like our career progression framework because it lets me know exactly where I stand with my skills and where I’d need to develop to move to the next level. It’s not rigid and there’s room for adjustment depending on how my interests evolve.”

What’s your best career growth advice?

“Look for areas of the company that you’re interested in and see if you can help out. Talk to your manager about your interests. Also, make use of your learning budget each year to take courses, buy books, or attend conferences related to the direction you want to grow in.”

Master your career development at Bob W

That’s right, you! Our framework is here to give you a crisp picture of your current role at Bob W, areas you can focus on to get even better at what you do, and exciting future opportunities for when you’re ready.

Our framework is all about transparency. It is a map of roles, titles, and levels at Bob W, which provides the groundwork for two-way career conversations for managers and team leads. But even before you become a Bobstar, it helps assess seniority during the hiring process and how you should be paid according to your role and level. Beyond personal development, our framework is the blueprint that shows all of us how we contribute to Bob W now and in the future.

Building a career you love isn’t always easy, no journey worth taking is. If you’re curious to see what you’re capable of, motivated to learn, open to feedback, and driven to finish what you start Bob W is here with the tools and opportunities you need. 

We won’t hand you a career GPS, but we will guide you on a career path of your own making.

Ready to join us? Check out our open positions.