How did I get an offer for a Senior Business Development Manager role in London with a £100k salary?

Hi! My name is Ekaterina Li, I’m the co-founder of the Networkio platform, and today I want to share my experience. In this article, I’ll tell you how, while traveling in Asia, I received a job offer in just 10 days from one of the leading fintech companies — Payoneer. I’m sharing all the details: how I applied, what questions were asked during the interview, which documents I submitted, and how I managed to negotiate the best terms.

If you dream of achieving the same kind of success, sign up for my course “Breaking into IT through Sales and Client-Facing Roles.” But let’s start from the beginning!

Where It All Started

At the time of applying, I was working as a Principal Account Manager at Remerge (an AdTech company), helping major clients build their retargeting strategies. My clients included mobile game developers with multi-million-dollar budgets.

At Remerge, I was promoted to a level equivalent to a Director, but soon I felt like I had hit a ceiling — the company was small, and growth opportunities were limited.

I began applying for jobs casually, but after a while, I decided to change my approach. My goal was to move beyond Account Management and focus on more dynamic roles in Sales and Business Development — ones that involved active client outreach, business travel, and attending conferences.

Applying for the Role at Payoneer

While on vacation in Asia, I came across a job posting for Senior Business Development Manager – Russian Speaking at Payoneer. This is a leading player in international payments (a competitor to PayPal and Wise), and their reputation spoke for itself.

What really caught my eye was that they were looking for Russian language skills — this is my first pro tip for those looking to stand out in the job market.

I applied with my CV and a cover letter. On December 4, I received an invitation for a phone interview with a recruiter.

Interview Stages

1. First Interview with the Recruiter
This was a standard screening call. Questions included:

• Tell me about yourself and your experience
• Why Payoneer?
• Why are you leaving your current company?
• Why FinTech?
• Why Business Development?

We also discussed salary expectations. I said I was targeting a range of £100,000–£105,000 per year.