Yoosuf

Hi, my name is Yoosuf.

I’ve been working at Bungy for a total of 5 years (and I don’t plan on leaving!) I started off as a naive intern from Queenstown Resort College (QRC) who was absolutely terrified of heights at the time, but since then AJ Hackett Bungy has helped me grow as an individual and a professional tenfold.

QRC gave me the tools to excel in the industry, which is how I initially started off working on frontline in the sales and services department as I had to complete a 6-month paid internship for my course. I did this specific role for about 1.5 years in total whilst still working towards completing the remainder of my course. Throughout my time I’ve had a lot of insight into sales aspects and tactics and can now proudly say I’ve got an answer for every excuse thrown at me in the hopes of getting out of a Bungy. So in other words if you speak to me you will probably be jumping – and if not the seed will be successfully planted for the future, haha!

Upon completion of my course at QRC, I came back to work full time and moved on to supervise frontline at our sites in Queenstown. This experience taught me how to navigate all the various aspects of running an operation like this all whilst ensuring a safe and enjoyable environment for both crew and customers. This role taught me the importance of crew morale, ensuring seamless operations and customer service as our experiences are very personal to our customers.

Then came the pandemic, which is where my role diversified as I was working on frontline as a supervisor and then working in our photo and video department taking content and other days serving our customers coffees and food in the café. Photo and video was a whole new realm as I had never done anything like it professionally and I really enjoyed learning how to operate our video systems and listening into all the banter on the jump deck.

Now I find myself in a managerial role supervising and looking after our reservations department and its team which is the first point of contact for our customers for bookings and inquiries for all our experiences nationwide. Reservations holds high importance from a business point of view due to this being where our customers’ Bungy experience begins. Working in this role has helped me navigate all the aspects of people management, financial reporting, and responsibility and I’m still learning with each day.

It has been quite a ride, looking back at it now, if I never worked for the company, I don’t think I would have ever brought myself around to do Bungy. But now I am one of many go to test dummies for test, operational and training jumps (157 jumps and counting!) So yes, the company doesn’t only help our customers but Crew as well to do things that they never thought they could. My only advice: keep learning and keep saying yes to all work and opportunity that’s thrown at you even if you aren’t successful at first.