Decisions That Made Me: Sophie O’Brien (Pollen Careers, CEO)

The Bottom Line

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Business

4.6 • 606 Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After 14 years of having a successful career in media, Sophie found herself unemployed. She thought with her skills and experience finding a new role would be easy, but it was the opposite. After struggling with applications and repeated denials, Sophie decided she wanted to change the process of applying for a job. The employment specialist talks to Evan Davis about how she’s trying to change the way recruitment works with her business Pollen Careers.

Production team: Producers: Nick Holland Editor: Matt Willis Sound: John Scott Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:05.2	It must be particularly exhilarating, starting a new business with the potential to disrupt
0:09.8	a whole industry. There are loads of cases. Take the example of Challenger banks taking on
0:16.0	the traditional High Street banks or TV streaming services taking on terrestrial satellite and cable providers.
0:24.1	Well, another industry ripe for disruption, according to my guest on this episode of the
0:29.1	decisions that made me, is recruitment. I'm Evan Davis and this week I'm joined by Sophie O'Brien,
0:35.5	the chief executive and founder of Pollan careers.
0:39.0	After many years of career success, Sophie felt she wanted to take a new path.
0:43.6	She thought it would be a breeze, but it didn't work out that way.
0:47.4	Before we talk about the big decision that you took, Sophie, what were you doing?
0:52.3	What was your job before pollen?
0:54.3	So I was working in media, in performance marketing, data analytics, paid advertising,
1:03.4	space for about 14 years. I have worked in multiple different media agencies,
1:10.2	worked in big companies, small companies.
1:12.6	My passion has always been in small companies, helping them to grow, wearing many hats,
1:18.6	getting involved in lots of different things.
1:20.3	So in my last role, I was doing a lot of internal recruitment.
1:23.6	We were a growing small media company.
1:27.4	What skill? What skill were you using in? We're a growing small media company. And we were always hiring at junior level.
1:29.8	What skill were you using in the media jobs?
1:32.8	I mean, what was it?
1:33.6	You know what?
	...

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