Harriet, Principal Technology Consultant, shaping EX

Before starting my Employee Experience (EX) career in 2013, I got a PhD in neuro-cognitive psychology and originally wanted to stay in Academia. However, I soon realised that I wanted to see a more immediate "real-world" impact of my work. At the same time, during my first work experiences I started observing other people in their jobs and developed a strong belief that, overall, work should be a positive experience for everyone involved. We’re spending such a significant amount of our lives at work, therefore we should be able to enjoy what we’re doing on a day-to-day basis, create meaningful connections with the people we’re surrounding ourselves with while being able to learn, grow, and stay true to our values at the same time. Working at Qualtrics allows me to help other organisations shape and improve the employee experience and make it possible for more and more people to have a positive work environment.

During my free time, I am an enthusiast traveller, but this is obviously not possible during the restrictions of the COVID-19 crisis. I am taking advantage of staying at home however, as we adopted two little kittens in our home and this is such a great adventure that I am excited about because we will be able to stay at home with them.

What attracted you to Qualtrics in the first place?  

Having worked in the EX space for a couple of years already, I did obviously follow what Qualtrics has been doing in the market - both in terms of growth and innovations. So the general framework sounded great to me already. Joining Qualtrics at this stage in its journey and growth (both as a company in the XM space and as a team in the Munich office) seemed like a great opportunity to be able to help shape the future of employee experience. I’ve spent most of my career so far working in smaller organisations - so it also sounded like an obvious and tempting choice to go ahead and experience working as part of a larger organisation myself, not just through the lens of a consultant.

What was the turning point where you 'had to have the job'?   

What really got me were the conversations I had during my interview process. The process seemed a bit unusual at first, but I decided to roll with it and was soon amazed about how authentic all of the conversations I had seemed and how comfortable I immediately felt to be completely open and connect with everyone. I was also pleasantly surprised by how strongly everyone was emphasising the culture and the values, and how those are really important in the everyday life at Qualtrics. Overall, it just felt like a natural fit.

What surprised you most about working at Qualtrics?   

I joined Qualtrics in April 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. As you can imagine, this was a rather strange time for anyone to start a new job as parts of the world were in lockdown and there was a lot of uncertainty concerning the economy. I was part of the first EMEA cohort to undergo a completely virtual onboarding. I was immensely positively surprised and touched by not only how smoothly everything went (considering this was being done for the first time!), but also about how everyone made a huge effort for having us feel welcomed, included, and connected right from the very first day (actually even before the first day). One of the events organised for the new-joiners was a virtual pizza making class - a lot of fun and I got to learn how to make professional pizza dough. I’m actually quite surprised how nice and tasty that turned out to be.

I am a strong believer in practicing what you preach, so seeing how the onboarding experience was such a big priority to Qualtrics (even during those challenging times) and how the organisation did such a great job in reacting to the changing needs and the feedback of the employees during this phase of remote working really impressed me.

Qualtrics is growing, and if you're ready to find your "why" at a place like this, you can explore our open opportunities at any time by visiting our career page or by joining our talent community.

	Harriet is a PhD graduate from LMU Munich and started her career at Vocatus AG. Harriet adopted two kittens recently, taking advantage of staying at home during the COVID pandemic.

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