8-year-old loved being in the bank: Now she has a "job"

2. Apr 2024

4 min

Chris Stenskrog, Market Director, is pleased with his new 8-year-old employee. Photo: Personal

The market director at Jyske Bank in Viborg, Chris Stenskrog, does not often receive a handwritten application highlighting the applicant’s baking skills, for instance. And it's certainly not every day that 8-year-olds come to us for a job.

Yet that's exactly what he experienced recently.

“I would like to apply for a job at Jyske Bank because I like visiting the bank. Everyone at Jyske Bank comes and talk to me,” is just one of the things you can read in her handwritten application.

The applicant is an 8-year-old girl who is used to being at the bank. She is the daughter of one of the employees and sometimes stops by to wait for her mother on her way home from school.

“I'm actually quite proud of this. Because when an 8-year-old is attracted to her mother's workplace and thinks it's a nice place to be, we must have done something well culturally," says Chris Stenskrog.

Handwritten application with calculations

When she's been to the bank, the 8-year-old has been sitting with a cup of cocoa in the room where customers are also waiting. Occasionally, she has also helped close the vault.

“At one point, I think I said to her, you have to come and work for the bank one day. Afterwards, I received a note from her mother saying that I had no idea what I had started, because now she was writing down what she was good at,” explains Chris Stenskrog.

(Artiklen fortsætter efter boksen)

The 8-year-old listed her skills in her application

The 8-year-old girl cycled to the bank with the handwritten application and delivered it herself to Chris Stenskrog. She had also added a few calculations, showing him her math skills.

The market director decided to invite her for an interview – even though a real job is not an option given her young age.

“She arrived well ahead of schedule and brought a couple of tubs full of cake. We then had a talk, and her mother was present too. I asked her what she thought she could help us with, and of course I had prepared a list myself,” he says.

“She writes in her application that everyone is really nice. In my opinion, that's a tribute to the culture we have at the bank.”

- Chris Stenskrog, Market Director at Jyske Bank

Paid in sweets and cocoa

They ended up agreeing that she can come in on Fridays when it suits her. She can help close the vault, carry glasses up to the canteen at the second floor and do some of the other routines that take place when the bank closes for the day.

In addition, she can also help cut open the collection boxes in connection with the Danish Cancer Society's fundraiser on Sunday.
As long as she's 8 years old, payment is made in sweets, cocoa and occasionally a gift card to a cinema.

And everyone is happy about that.

“Of course, it's not a real job, but she has gained a sense of belonging,” says Chris Stenskrog.

And as soon as the interview finished and they had agreed that she was ‘hired’, her colleagues were also invited to taste her cookies as she said hello to them while handing out her homemade cookies.

Sleeping in her uniform

The HR department has made sure she has been given a lanyard with her name on it and a name tag that reads ‘external consultant’. It has been arranged so that the things are ready for her at the bank, along with a T-shirt with the bank's logo, so she doesn't have to bring it to school and can put them on when she arrives.

But Chris Stenskrog could tell how excited she was about the things when she was about to go home after her first day at work.

“I therefore told her that she could take it home and show it to her dad, and later on, her mother texted me saying that she was sleeping in her uniform,” explains Chris Stenskrog, laughing:
“We’ve found ourselves a very special and dedicated employee. No doubt about it.”

To him, however, the most important part of this story is that others feel the good atmosphere his colleagues are creating.

“She writes in her application that everyone is really nice. I think this is a tribute to the culture we have at the bank,” explains Chris Stenskrog.