My first 4 months as a Talent Co-ordinator at Prolific

I first applied for a People & Talent role in a tech company a few months after graduating from uni. I wasn’t offered the role, but after experiencing this interview process, tech became an industry that I always wanted (and hoped) to break into.

Why tech, you’re probably asking? Well, it offered the freedom to experiment and grow in my career that other industries simply couldn’t offer.

Fast forward to the summer of 2023, when I stumbled across a LinkedIn advertisement for a Talent Coordinator role at a tech startup called Prolific.

I hadn’t heard of Prolific then - but I knew I was more than capable of doing the role. After reading the job description and having a look at the company’s LinkedIn profile, I rushed to apply.

I messaged Liz Jagun, the People & Talent Coordinator, to express my interest in the role and find out more about life at Prolific. A few days later I received an invite for a first-stage interview.

The interview process

Throughout the interview process, I noticed how this company was different from others. There was a level of care and prioritisation given to candidates that I had never experienced before.

It was clear to me that they not only cared about the candidate experience, but also deeply valued their time. Rather than being put in the hot seat and facing hundreds of questions, interviews flowed as a seamless conversation. The morning of every interview, they sent a ‘good luck’ message. As someone with a background in HR and recruitment, this was music to my ears. I often wondered how the Talent team made everything appear so effortless.

At the end of the final interview, I had been told to expect an update from the team on the Friday of that week. The day after, I flew to New York for a nine-day trip. I had a burning desire to find out whether I had been successful or not for the entire flight over.

I enjoyed my first few days, but I was slowly counting down the hours to Friday and checking my emails here and there for updates. Finally, I woke on Friday morning to an email from Chloe, Prolific’s Director of People and Talent, saying that she had just tried to call but the line had gone dead. I responded immediately, explaining that I was out of the country and asked if we could speak over WhatsApp.

A few hours passed. I headed to the local breakfast spot to get food. Just before I was about to eat, Chloe emailed to say that she was available to speak.

I quickly got up and went outside. Chloe then shared the good news - I had been successful and that Prolific would like to make me an offer for the role of Talent Coordinator.

The opportunity that I had hoped for in July had finally come.

Onboarding with Prolific

2 weeks later, following a flawless pre-boarding experience, my first day at Prolific had arrived. Working remotely wasn’t a foreign concept for me at this point but what differed this time around was how structured my first week in the company was.

A plan had been put together by the People Team. I would have intro calls (or ‘syncs’) with my manager and wider team, publish my own research, and review training material and useful links to learn more about Prolific as a company. This was all spaced out to ensure that my onboarding experience wasn’t overwhelming or stressful.

My first four months as a Prolifico

My first few months at Prolific have been nothing short of eventful. It’s very rare that you join a company and everyone that you meet is friendly and eager to speak with you. I think that’s a testament to the culture created where work doesn’t feel like work. It feels like an opportunity to join a community of like-minded people who are excited to come together and work towards growing and improving Prolific.

Now that’s not to say there haven’t been busy moments where my calendar has been filled with back-to-back meetings. But at Prolific, we are optimistic and find a way. There will be many challenges on the path, but there’s always a way forward.

In these last four months, I’ve been warmly welcomed into the People team. I’ve had the opportunity to revamp our referencing process and work on getting more out of our application tracking software. More recently, I’ve led a number of projects to improve the Talent team, such as our Reporting project, to make things like hiring metrics more transparent to our Senior Leadership Team.

I’ve also attended my first Prolificon, our annual company-wide conference. I’m excited to see how my career continues to progress at Prolific and experience many more Prolificons in the coming years!

If you’re interested in joining our Talent team or one of our many diverse teams at Prolific, head on over to our careers page and check out our open roles.