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What To Expect When You Interview With Betterment Interviewing can be a long, stressful, and sometimes confusing process. We strive to make the experience as meaningful and enjoyable as possible. Transparency and inclusivity are the heart of everything we do, especially our hiring process. We want every candidate to have access to the information they need and to feel welcomed by everyone they interact with throughout our interview process. If you are interested in working at Betterment, keep reading for an in-depth look at what to expect during the process. For engineering roles, take a look at our Engineering Interviewing with Betterment post for specific details on that process. Finding the best Betterment role for you. The very first step when interviewing with Betterment is finding an open role that fits what you’re looking for in your next career move. The best place to view current openings is the Betterment Careers page. We are constantly updating it as new roles become available. You can also find openings on LinkedIn and Built In NYC. Once you’ve found a role, read through the job description carefully. If it aligns with your skills, experiences, and goals, we encourage you to apply. Because we know the job post is only the beginning of the journey, we aim to include the most relevant information to help you decide if you should apply. For example, we do not include years of experience on our job posts, but instead work to define the exact responsibilities in detail. If you sense that you're capable of what we've outlined, and energized by our job post, you should apply! Don't let a confidence gap get in the way of submitting your application. Join our Talent Community If you do not see the right match for you at this time, don’t worry! We recommend joining our Talent Community. Our hiring needs are always changing and we would be happy to keep you in mind once a role that better aligns with your skills and interests opens in the future. Our hiring process in depth. Once you submit your application, you have officially kicked off the hiring process with us. A member of the Betterment Recruiting team will review it and be in touch. Although you will likely hear back from us sooner, we ask that you give us up to a few weeks to thoroughly review your application given the high volume of applications we receive. If we would like to spend more time with you, the following steps outline the full interview process. While the interview process may vary depending on which role you are applying for, most will look similar to this. Recruiter Interview - A recruiter will reach out to set up time for a phone call to discuss your experiences, skills, and motivations. We will also cover the interview process timeline and compensation expectation details. Hiring Manager Phone Interview - The hiring manager for the role will give you a call to further discuss your background and share in depth details about the role and the team. Round 1 Virtual Interview - This is an opportunity to meet virtually with members of the team you’ll be working closely with Technical Exercise - Across all roles, we may look to evaluate job specific skills in the form of a written exercise or pair programming. We seek to collect a robust set of data points, and find that these exercises can round out what we learn about you from behavioral interviews. If it’s a take home test, you will be given 2-3 days to complete. If not, you will complete this exercise during your scheduled interviews and be instructed on how to prep. Final Round Virtual Interview - This is an opportunity to meet virtually with members of the team, and may include leadership and cross functional stakeholders. Offer - If you make it to this step, that means you thoroughly impressed us and we would be thrilled to have you join us! Please Note: We are conducting all interviews virtually until further notice. The full interview process will take one to two weeks to complete depending on your availability to interview. If you need to expedite the process for any reason, please let your recruiter know so they can work with you to meet your timelines. While we would love to have every candidate reach the offer stage, we often only have one position available. At any stage, if we don’t plan to move forward with your candidacy, you’ll hear from a member of our Recruiting team letting you know. If you need to withdraw from the process, please inform your recruiter at your earliest convenience. We value a fair, inclusive and consistent process. No matter which role you’re interviewing for, you can expect to have the same experience as other candidates who are interviewing for the same role. We run a structured, competency based interview process at Betterment to ensure a fair and inclusive process. Consistency is key to ensure we have the insights we need to make evidence based hiring decisions for every candidate. Furthermore, we're committed to seeing a robust slate of candidates before we make a hiring decision. If you have any timeline constraints, we recommend discussing them with your recruiter. We’re committed to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. It’s important that our employees reflect the diversity of our customers as we’re building a service that’s for everyone. A diverse internal culture encourages innovation so much more than a homogeneous one. We want each candidate to have a pleasant and welcoming experience at every point of the interview process. It is our goal to have those values of inclusion shine during every candidate interaction. We hope all candidates feel welcomed, valued, and included no matter the outcome of their candidacy. On our applications, you will find a field asking you to share your preferred pronouns. While this section is optional, it is our goal to make sure we are being respectful to all candidates by knowing and addressing them by the pronouns of their choice. We are also dedicated to providing accommodations to candidates with disabilities. If you need accommodations at any point throughout the interview process, please reach out to interview.accommodations@betterment.com.

How Memestocks Affected Investors’ Actions And Emotions In April, Betterment surveyed 1,500 investors to examine “the rise of the day trader,” and how ‘memestocks’ affected their actions and emotions when it comes to making financial decisions. Money and emotions have long gone hand-in-hand, and this is no more apparent than during significant financial crises. From the 2008 market crash to COVID-19’s economic impact, we’ve seen first hand how money has the ability to impact our stress levels, mental health and personal relationships. And yet in times of particular financial strife—or likely because of it— many people take actions with their money that often undermine their emotional wellbeing, sacrificing long-term happiness for short-term pleasure without even realizing it at the time. This trend toward short-termism grew in 2020: people stuck inside, on screens all day and kept from their normal activities sought new ways to fill their time and energy. Many took up day trading, culminating in one of the wildest rides at the beginning of 2021 (and recent surges demonstrating people are still trying to head to the moon) with Gamestop, AMC, Blackberry and other retail stocks caught in the middle of a clash between amateur retail and institutional investors. Following this eventful start to the year, Betterment was curious to see both the immediate and long-term impact this had on investors, particularly those involved in the action. In this report -- a survey of 1,500 active investors conducted by a third party -- we took a look at the rise of day trading activity and the impact it did (or didn’t have) on people’s behavior. From their own forecasts, it looks like “the rise of the day trader” is here to stay -- but forecasting is hard. None of us would have bet on the pandemic and the changes it's causing. People actually aren't very good at forecasting their own preferences and behavior in the future, so it will be interesting to see if said forecasts actually come to fruition. Regardless, at Betterment we welcome the addition of consumers looking to learn more about the markets and, ultimately, how to balance their portfolios for the long-term too. Section One: The Rise Of Day Trading Activity With movie theaters, stadiums, bars and restaurants closed, many people took up day trading during the COVID-19 pandemic. Half of our total respondents said they actively day trade investments, and nearly half of those day-traders (49%) have been doing it for 2 years or less. While most day traders indicated their main reason for doing so was that they believed they could make more money in a shorter period of time (58%), many (43%) also indicated it was because it is fun and entertaining. Of those who look to day trading for fun/entertainment, half (52%) said it was to make up for the bulk of their other hobbies—like sports, live music, social gatherings, gambling—not being available due to COVID-19. And these day traders have fully acknowledge that COVID-19 played a big impact role in their market activity overall: 54% indicated they trade more often as a result of COVID-19; and interestingly, 58% said they expect to day trade more as normal activities return and COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, likely as a result of what they learned during this downtime. Only 12% said they expect to trade less. More than half (58%) are using less than 30% of their portfolio to actively trade individual securities or stocks. Nearly two thirds also allow an advisor (either online or in-person) to manage a separate part of their portfolio. Betterment's Point Of View: It is interesting to see more respondents expect to day trade more after the pandemic than are currently day trading: we imagine it is hard for people to forecast themselves into the future and imagine doing things differently than they are now. However, what is positive to see is these people aren’t using an excessive amount of their portfolio to day trade. The majority of investors day trade with a minority of their total investing balance, and delegate day-to-day management of the larger portion of their portfolio to an advisor. Passing hobby or not, how educated is the average day trader on what they’re buying and what they stand to gain—or lose? Sixty one percent rely on financial news websites to decide which stocks to buy, but nearly half (42%) are influenced by social media accounts, showing just how powerful “memestocks” can be. Betterment's Point Of View: More than half of the respondents suggested they buy stocks based on company names they’re familiar with, but we’ve seen this lead to issues in the past—with “ticker mis-matches,” where people trade the ticker of a stock that isn't the correct company. For example, after a tweet from Elon Musk about Signal (a non-profit messaging app), a different company’s stock was sent soaring 3,092%. We also asked day trader respondents if they consider capital gains taxes when deciding to sell their investments. While the majority (60%) indicated that it influences them to hold onto stocks longer to avoid short-term capital gains, 14% said they weren’t aware there was a difference in taxes based on how long they hold a stock. Another 17% said they simply don’t care about the short-term capital gains tax. Who invested their stimmys? Almost all (91%) respondents received some stimulus money, and nearly half (46%) invested some of that money; of those who did invest it, 70% invested half or less of their stimulus. Day trader and male respondents were more likely to invest then their counterparts, as represented in the graphic below. This is in contrast to our COVID-19 investor sentiment survey from 2020, where only 9% of respondents indicated they put some of their stimulus money towards investment. Last year’s response pool was primarily focused on building out their emergency funds, with 40% putting money into a safety net. This is a good indication that respondents are more comfortable with their financial situations this year, compared to the throes of the pandemic. Section Two: Memestocks Understanding And Involvement We asked all respondents how well they understood what occurred in the stock market in January & February surrounding “memestocks” like GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry and other retail investments. Most indicated having some level of understanding, but nearly a quarter (24%) of all respondents said they didn’t understand it well at all; and only half (51%) of day trader respondents said they understood what happened very well. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of all survey respondents said they did not actively purchase any popular retail investments (GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry, etc.) during the stock market rally in January or February. But those that DID were primarily day traders. Of all respondents that did buy in actively, 55% are still holding onto all their investments. Only 2% of those that sold these investments sold everything at a loss; 44% sold all for a profit and 54% sold some at a profit and some at a loss. Of those that bought into memestocks, there is a near universal consensus that they will continue investing in stocks like these that get a lot of attention in the future—97% said they’re at least somewhat likely to invest. Betterment's Point Of View: It is interesting to see the majority of respondents holding onto their investments - are they expecting another high or holding on because they don't want to admit they made a bad investment? Disposition Effect says people tend to hold on until they get back to zero loss; but seeing so few sell entirely for a loss is encouraging. However, 60% previously said thinking of short-term capital gains taxes encourages them to hold onto their investments longer, which is good to see. Section Three: Money And Stress Factors It’s no secret that money and stress are linked, so we wanted to take a look at respondents’ money habits and how that may be impacting stress levels. The consensus is that for better and for worse day traders and younger generations are more engaged with their finances. We asked respondents how much they stress about their finances on a daily basis—three quarters said they stress to some degree. Interestingly, when we looked a layer deeper, day traders are much more stressed than non-day trader—86% indicated they stress to some degree, vs 65% of their counterparts. Unsurprisingly, younger generations are more stressed about their finances than older ones. In looking at the causes of the stress: respondents are nearly equally concerned about money in the short term, near term future, and long term future with the top 3 financial stress factors being their daily expenses (43%), how much money they will have in retirement (43%), and how much money they have saved (42%). We asked respondents how often they are checking their bank account and investment portfolio balances -  39% are looking at their bank account balances every day, with 11% of those checking multiple times a day; 37% also check their investment portfolio balances every day, with 16% of those checking multiple times a day. When we look a layer deeper, we find that day traders are checking both their bank account and investment portfolio balances significantly more than non-day traders. Interesting Bank Account Habits 50% of day traders indicated they check at least once a day (18% multiple times) vs 29% of non-daytraders (5% multiple times). Men check their accounts more often—41% at least once a day (13% multiple times) vs 36% of women (8% multiple times). 46% of Gen Z/Millennials and Gen X both said they check their accounts at least once a day, whereas only 28% of Boomers said the same. Those making more money actually check their accounts more often—42% respondents making $100K or more check every day, compared to 39% of those making between $50-100K and 35% of those making less than $50K. Interesting Investment Account Habits Unsurprisingly, 56% of day traders said they check their investment portfolio balances every day (25% multiple times a day), whereas only 18% of non-day traders said the same. 41% of men check every day, compared to 30% of women. 47% of Gen Z/Millennials check every day, compared to 41% of Gen X and 22% of Boomers. 42% of those making 100K or more check every day, compared to 35% making between $50-100K and 30% of those making less than $50K. Betterment's Point Of View: The differences between men and women here are in line with research we’ve seen elsewhere. Women are less focused on market performance, and more focused on the end financial outcome. They also tend to invest at lower risk levels, so are less likely to see extreme ups and downs. Additionally, Women tend to be less competitive/score based in general, so are less interested in monitoring the game. Encouragingly, when we asked people how they felt checking these accounts, the positive responses outweighed negative options for both. Interestingly, day traders were significantly more excited for both (21% for bank accounts, 25% for investments) than non-day traders (4% and 12%, respectively) as well. Most respondents (89%) indicated they’re putting some money away every month, but it's equally split as to where that money is actually going. Conclusion At Betterment, we have often compared day trading to going to Vegas—have a great time, enjoy yourself, but be prepared to come back home with fewer dollars in your wallet and a hangover.  The trends outlined in this report seem to indicate that more people are dipping their toe into the investing pool and (so far) few have decided to walk away. Whether this trend will continue—and the long term impact it will have on people’s finances, health, stress, etc.—remains to be seen. And for those who want to avoid the FOMO of the next big memestock, but aren’t sure of the best way to get started—a simple alternative is investing in a well diversified portfolio. That way, whenever someone asks if you own the hottest thing, you can say “yes”, regardless of what it is. Methodology An online survey was conducted with a panel of potential respondents from April 26, 2021 to May 3, 2021. The survey was completed by a total of 1,500 respondents who are 18 years and older and have any kind of investment (excluded if only 401k). Of the 1,500 respondents, 750 of them actively day traded their investments while the other 750 did not. The sample was provided by Market Cube, a research panel company. All respondents were invited to take the survey via an email invitation. Panel respondents were incentivized to participate via the panel’s established points program, regardless of positive or negative feedback. Participants were not required to be Betterment clients to participate. Findings and analysis are presented for informational purposes only and are not intended to be investment advice, nor is this indicative of client sentiment or experience. Any links provided to other websites are offered as a matter of convenience and are not intended to imply that Betterment or its authors endorse, sponsor, promote, and/or are affiliated with the owners of or participants in those sites, unless stated otherwise.

The Pursuit Of Betterment’s New CEO (And Finding Happiness Along The Way) Betterment Founder Jon Stein announces the appointment of Sarah Kirshbaum Levy as his successor and new CEO of Betterment. It’s the fall of 2007 on the Lower East Side. My Betterment clock starts not when we launch in 2010 but as I hash out the concept in conversations with roommates and friends. I have a crazy idea: to pursue my happiness via helping Americans pursue their happiness. I write a mission statement: empower customers to do what’s best with their money so they can live better. Investing feels complicated to most people, but the best practices are known and straightforward. Why not take the smart services used by the wealthy and institutions and make them accessible to every American? People like this crazy idea, some join me, and with sweat and sacrifice, a tiny, hungry, customer-impact-obsessed company is born. I pursue Betterment’s mission doggedly. My wife (whom I met in 2006—not coincidentally—her encouragement begets a startup) calls Betterment my “first child.” I say often (usually sincerely): “I’m the luckiest person, I have the best job in the world.” At times, it feels like all of my being, every waking hour, every dream, is intertwined with my company. I am Betterment. There is nothing else. Teammates become best friends (and each other's family: I officiate weddings of Bettementers who later have Betterment babies). I star in TV ads—never imagined that career turn. Early customers email me personally for support (and some still do—love y’all, customers). We grow to $25B AUM, more than 500,000 customers, a team of more than 300, and we move the industry forward. And yet, I know we can achieve more; we have millions more Americans to reach. The Pursuit Of Our Potential For some time, I look to bring in an experienced, dynamic operating leader to help drive the company forward. The search is not initially focused on one specific role to fill; it is about finding amazing talent that could help lead Betterment to realize our full potential. The time at home this year affords more time to devote to the search process, to talk to senior operating leaders and to think about what might be needed for the next leg of the journey. I spend time with hundreds of diverse candidates. I realize that the best way to achieve our mission might be to invite a successor to lead Betterment in the next phase of growth. Due to good fortune and intense effort in a most challenging year, the company has never been in a stronger position. Each line of business is reaching new heights in 2020. We’re beating targets, well-capitalized, with wind at our backs. It’s a good time to hand over the reins. Over the summer, I connect with Sarah Kirshbaum Levy. There is something enthralling about her. I don’t want to jinx or overload it, but outside of meeting my wife, it’s hard, at present, to think of a more consequential introduction. And this is over video conference! The Pursuit Of The One Over the next few months, I spend more time with Sarah and she begins engaging with members of the team and our board. I bring her in full-time as a consultant in a trial run. What a privilege not only to recruit my successor, but to observe her building relationships, to work side by side with her as she iterates on her plan, and to see her making every meeting more open and efficient. I give her my authority to work with the team to architect plans for 2021 and beyond, and she excels. My admiration grows as she starts effectively running the company, with my proxy. My execs tell me they have so much to learn from her. The only thing that is missing is the title—and today, we give her the title. Sarah’s Pursuits Sarah started out at Disney and spent the last 20 years at Viacom, home to beloved brands including Nickelodeon, BET, MTV, and Comedy Central. Through a series of senior leadership roles, culminating in Chief Operating Officer, she’s shepherded global phenomena, from SpongeBob to The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, connecting with audiences in meaningful ways. With her experiences leading large public companies, Sarah is the right executive to lead Betterment now, as we contemplate a transition from private to public in the coming years. For someone with a “big company” pedigree, she’s remarkably down to earth and scrappy. She’s launched and grown businesses, bought and sold businesses, managed the bottom line, and driven consumer brands to win. I appreciate her “outsider” perspective. Betterment is a unique company—not just finance, not just tech, 100% customer-impact obsessed. Take it from one who’s looked: It’d be hard to find someone who’s both spent a career in financial services and can credibly lead the change we envision: to empower customers to do what’s best with their money, so they can live better. The Pursuit Of Happiness I’ve done the best work of my life at Betterment, and I have worked too hard to stop giving it my all to realize this company’s mission, whatever form those efforts may take. From my role on the board, I’ll be supporting Sarah and her team, whether it be via recruiting, investor relations, telling our story, or upholding company culture and values. A dream for me since that Lower East Side fall in 2007 has been to build a sustainable institution, to build something that will outlast me. I’ve never taken a larger step toward that accomplishment than I am today in passing the torch to Sarah. I asked Sarah what mattered most to her in her next role, and she said, without hesitation, “A brand and mission I believe in.” She’s evidenced this for me in every interaction since. I believe that she’ll more fully realize the vision I laid out years ago, and make Betterment the most beloved, most essential financial brand for this generation. And in so doing, she’ll power the pursuit of happiness for millions of Americans.

Betterment’s Employee Demographics And Our Commitments To Doing Better We share details on the makeup of Betterment’s employees, our initiatives for diversity and inclusion, and how we’re encouraging progress within the fintech community. TABLE OF CONTENTS Betterment’s Employee Demographic Data Scaling Our Diversity And Inclusion Efforts Conclusion In June, our CEO and Founder Jon Stein made a statement: “Betterment will not stand for the unequal treatment of people of color in our company, in our communities, or in our country. We will advocate for our Black colleagues, friends, and fellow citizens and work harder to build a nation that’s just for all, where we all can pursue happiness, without fear, oppression, or unequal treatment.” Over the last two months, we’ve been hard at work learning how to live up to that promise and take a stand against racial injustice. We’ve formed a coalition with the broader fintech community, we’re increasing our transparency with our employees and our customers, and we’re investing in resources for our employees of color. We acknowledge that these initiatives are a work in progress, but we want to share them with the Betterment community. Betterment’s Employee Demographic Data First, we’d like to share the demographic data of our full-time Betterment team (293 employees as of July 7, 2020). The demographic data below is collected using the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) questions and selections during an employee’s onboarding process. Because of this, the type of information we collected is limited. Starting in 2020, we will provide optional opportunities for additional demographic selections (including but not limited to gender, race, and ethnicity) that are more inclusive for both employees and candidates. Full-Time Employees Leadership Team* *(defined as Director-level or higher): Product, Design, Engineering, And Analytics Teams Engineering Teams We've made progress with gender representation over the past few years, but we still have a long way to go. And our progress in racial and ethnic representation—particularly within our leadership cohort—is not where it should be. We have work to do here, and are committed to ensuring that our team better reflects the communities and customers we serve across the U.S. Scaling Our Diversity And Inclusion Efforts The conversations we’ve had internally as a community, and with your input, are helping inform and drive the sustained change we’re looking to make. We’re working toward a new normal in several ways: Fintech Coalition We recognize that the fintech industry needs to improve access to jobs, career advancement, and financial services, not only for underrepresented groups, but especially for people in the Black and brown community. To hold us and other fintech companies accountable to making this change, we spearheaded the creation of the fintech coalition. Each company that joins the coalition will publish individual plans and provide regular updates on progress toward our commitments to enhancing access to financial services, as well as job and career advancement for people in the Black and brown community. As part of the coalition, we are committed to publicly sharing our representation data on an annual basis each July. Betterment’s Call-to-Action Initiative Immediately following the murder of George Floyd, our employees formed a Call-to-Action (CTA) group. These employees have been brainstorming and executing a number of efforts to unbias our product, increase community outreach, and begin internal educational forums such as book clubs and speaker series. This group is committed to creating change over time, beginning with the following: Betterment is supporting our Black employees in “Calling Out Black” every Friday throughout the summer. Calling Out Black acknowledges the exhaustion, pain, and emotional weight our Black employees might feel in the workplace, especially during times of civil unrest due to police violence. These days provide space for our Black employees to reclaim their mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. Beginning in 2021, Betterment will recognize Juneteenth as an annual paid holiday to commemorate the ending of slavery in the U.S. We are running a summer education series for our non-Black employees about racial inequality and anti-racist allyship, featuring guest speakers as well as small-group discussions. We’ll be working with Paradigm for a three-part Inclusive Leadership Training series beginning in late July. All managers will go through these sessions that are focused on objectivity, belonging and voice, and the growth mindset. In August, Netta Jenkins will provide company-wide training with her business Holistic Solutions, which will include a discussion forum for Black and brown employees, a session for people managers on how to manage during Black and brown trauma, and two town halls for the entire company. Improve Our Hiring Process Over the last few years, our Recruiting Team has taken steps to expand our new hire sourcing efforts and diversify our interview process. Some of these steps include: Partnering with Jopwell, the leading career advancement platform for Black, Latinx, and Native American professionals to support targeted sourcing of diverse candidates. Allocating funds on a monthly basis to post on underrepresented job boards (e.g., Women In Tech, Women In Product, Black Women in Tech, /dev/color, The Mom Project, etc.) Increasing our geographic diversity by building a remote workforce. We recognize that these efforts have failed to impact the percentage of employees of color at Betterment. Because of this, we have amplified our commitment to this area in four ways: With an employee population that is 70% white, we acknowledge that most folks refer others who look like them. We're pausing our cash referral bonus program to reallocate those funds to support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring initiatives. Implementing a more streamlined application process where all candidates only need a resume to apply. Continuing to reduce bias in our job descriptions by investing in technology that decodes gendered language; by excluding education requirements; and by including must-have qualities and experience only. Researching and partnering with companies that help us increase our sourcing reach. Increasing Internal Data Collection This summer, we will launch internal surveys to collect broader representation information for both employees and candidates. These surveys will include additional optional self-identification opportunities for racial and ethnic groups, as well as gender. We will share this information with leadership, ERSGs, and our Community Council on a quarterly basis, and will use this information to inform our progress and let us know where we need to focus our efforts. Amplifying Our Employee Resource Strategy Groups (ERSGs) We currently have seven active ESRGs: Black at Betterment, Latinx at Betterment, Asians of Betterment, Women of Betterment, Women in Tech, Betterparents, and Betterpride. Representatives from these groups act as facilitators between their communities and Betterment leadership, as well as participate in our Community Council, a group that meets on a regular basis to further diversity and inclusion initiatives. Through our partnership with Netta Jenkins, we’re investing time in evaluating and improving the structure and reach of our ERSGs. We want to create more open communication between these groups and company leaders, and ensure that these groups are represented as stakeholders in company initiatives. Conclusion Fintech—and Betterment—has been heralded for providing broad and equitable access to financial services, regardless of how much money someone has. While this access is a step forward, it doesn’t directly address the wealth and financial knowledge gaps felt by many people of color—particularly members of the Black and brown community—at the hands of a system that does not treat them equally. We know we haven’t done nearly enough for our community and our employees, and we must do more. Thank you for your feedback and support as we work to do just that.