Sophie Power

After graduating in 2012 with a BA in Comparative Literature, Sophie started her career in Recruitment, working for corporate companies and later VC-funded start-ups.

She’s known for her expertise in scaling businesses and her advocacy for neurodiversity in the workplace. Sophie currently works remotely as a Talent Acquisition Partner at Join Talent. 

 
Tell us about your career path since graduation.

It's been a 'squiggly' path, in my 20s I went into Recruitment as it seemed like a role that would be transferrable everywhere and easy to pick up, which I've found to be true. I travelled a lot in my 20s as well, and have lived in Australia and Thailand.

Working initially in corporate organisations like Vodafone, ADP, Reed, and Aramark I then moved into working for VC-funded start-ups in Central London. I've worked for start-ups growing their headcount from early stage funding through to scale-up phase (roughly seed-stage to Series C) and built a name as someone who understands that stage of growth well. Alongside the day job I am also known in my industry for community management: something I started whilst at Kent, when I ran the @UKCStudent social media pages for the Corporate Comms department!

I had a successful podcast for a while, Talent Hacks for Scale-Ups which had about 2,500 monthly listeners across all platforms. I'm also publicly open and outspoken about Neurodiversity in the Workplace: being neurodiverse myself it's really important to me that the world of work better understands how we show up at work and what benefits we bring (and what support we need to do that).

I've worked both as an employee, and working self-employed: I'd say both have merits, nothing quite beats being your own boss! You have more flexibility to take on different types of work too, which is great fun. It's not easy though, and now I'm a bit older I've gone back into employment for security. At the moment I'm working fully remotely from my home in Scotland, for a Scottish recruitment company and I really enjoy it.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

I'm not a morning person! So I start the day with a coffee, or two. Sometimes three.

My current role is an international recruitment role, so I typically split my day by the time zones I'm hiring into: APAC in the morning, EMEA in the middle of the day, and the Americas in the afternoon. In any one day, via video calls, I can have a chat with someone in Sydney in the morning and "travel" across the world, finishing my day in Chile (for example). I recruit for our internal team, so these people I speak to end up being my colleagues and it's great to follow their journey.

Can you share a professional highlight from your career so far?

I had a book dedicated to me! "Reboot Hiring" by Katrina Collier, was dedicated to me last year and I wasn't expecting it until my copy of the book arrived. That was a real moment for me, and quite emotional, as someone so passionate about books as I am.

How did your time at Kent help you achieve your current career?

I grew up working class, so understanding how the white collar world interacts is something I'd have found even harder without a university education. Especially when I moved into working in start-ups: most start-up founders are privately educated, and the investment firms that fund them are likewise.

My degree was broad, and being well-read having studied the earliest classical literature through to the present day gave me a new level of 'common knowledge' that I didn't have access to before. I also got the opportunity to learn French and German, which has been incredibly useful in adult life. That's not something I fully appreciated at the time.

What advice would you give to our current/prospective students who are looking to get into the same line of work?

You need to be either a people person, who can pick-up a broad range of things easily and quickly (a lot of Recruiters have ADHD, myself included!), OR be very passionate and knowledgeable about an area you can become a subject matter expert in.

You have to be willing to pick up the phone and make calls too, if you hate speaking on the phone that's okay but Recruitment is not the career for you. If you're comfortable with the above, it's a solid career for those looking to create their own path, and make their own connections.

Did you get involved in any extracurricular activities as a student?

I was the first secretary of the UKC Tea Society, later becoming Vice President. At one point, we had over 200 paid members, and queues out the door for our meetings. At the time there were very few societies that catered to non-drinkers (that weren't sports related), and we attracted a lot of folks who wanted to socialise in an alcohol-free environment. It was never intentionally that way, but the society had a diverse range of local and international students which I loved. We did lots of fun socials, tea-themed games, and had a treasure trove of tea for tasting at our meetings.

I also practiced with the Trampoline team in my first year, and got involved with writing (probably terrible!) articles for Inquire occasionally as well.

Do you have a favourite memory from your time at Kent?

Keynestock was always a great day; any sunny day spent either at Whitstable or on the hill overlooking Canterbury; my housemates and I rented one of the notorious party houses on Downs Road and brewed our own beer and cider... Thankfully walls can't talk.

Is there anything you would do differently if you could repeat your time at Kent?

Haha, I'd have put more effort into presentations! That was an important adult life skill I really slept on.

I'd have played to my strengths a bit more module-choice wise, in my final year I picked modules I was excited and passionate about and got higher grades as a result. I didn't know I had ADHD at the time though, so I didn't understand how that would've benefitted me.

Are you still in touch with other Kent alumni or academics?

Via LinkedIn I'm connected with my former dissertation supervisor. Alumni-wise, I've travelled the world with my friends from Kent, we've been on group holidays to India, Norway, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand... everywhere!

I speak to my Kent friends weekly, and very occasionally we get together for reunion weekends in Canterbury. I co-wrote a self-published book with a Kent-Alum in 2023, too.

What are your future ambitions?

Write a business book about my career learnings: I'm about 1/3 the way through. I want to write something people can learn from, as so much of the world of work is about success, very few people talk about what they got wrong. But mistakes and missteps are how you learn, especially in the early years.

I'd like to own my first home: an ambition I'm hoping to achieve at the end of 2025. On one side of my family, that would make me the first woman to own a home on her own.