Prodigy Finance: Graduate / Internship Programme 2016

Prodigy Finance is the pioneer in community-based student finance. Alumni and institutional investors fund international students at the top business schools

Why this is an amazing opportunity
This role is perfect for a fun, energetic and passionate graduate who is looking for an opportunity to kick start their career in a non-corporate, startup environment.

We are looking for the exceptional graduates who thrive in a complex environment and who want to supercharge their career by experiencing first-hand what it is like to be part of an energetic, extremely fast growing start-up.

We are a non-hierarchical, non-corporate team; this means that you are going to get exposure to all aspects of our business immediately and be able to take on as much accountability as you can handle. You will have the opportunity to work beside the smartest minds and leaders in our industry.

This is not the graduate programme where you will be sitting behind a desk all day. You will be encouraged to interact with people from all around the business (and the world) whilst working on exciting and challenging projects for various functions in the business. The majority of your experience will be based in the originations team where you will get to grips with our very complex model, interacting with students, whilst experiencing the other functions.

The sense of impact and reward will be huge.  You will help to build a company that helps students from more than 100 countries to obtain the finance to fulfil their dream of studying at the world’s top universities and schools.

Our team is very international and very sociable; you will interact with everyone in the business around the world on a regular basis.  Being an organisation that’s passionate about education; we place a high value on learning and personal growth, so you’ll have time to learn new skills in work time and at the company’s expense.

 

Why join Prodigy Finance

• Work at a successful global startup.
• Experience the excitement and learn from being part of an incredibly fast growing young company. No kidding – 4x growth. Happening right now!
• Help to build a platform that helps to make a very real difference in the world.
• Enjoy the agility and flexibility offered by a startup culture. A sociable, relaxed and friendly work environment (with a serious coffee culture where you can wear shorts to work).
• Receive a competitive salary, and share options in the company. Since you will be playing a key role in making us successful, it is only right that you have a stake in the rewards of our success.
• Enjoy healthy snacks and team lunches once a week, drinks together as a company most Fridays, legendary team events and weekly yoga sessions.
• Live and work in one of the world’s ten best cities – http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/07/travel/world-best-cities/

 

What will you do in the role

 

During the 8 months graduate programme, you will be learning about the full business and our process whilst working in the originations team. 80% of your time will be spent in the originations team (getting stuck into the hull of the moving ship) and the remaining 20% will be spent working on special projects and working with various departments across the business.

What does our Origination’s team do?

Our origination team focuses on the progress of student applications moving through our loan application process, via the Prodigy Finance platform.  They are responsible for ensuring that each applicant moves through the process smoothly and all the necessary details are accurate and on time. You will be assisting the originations team for the majority of your time.

At certain points in the year, the volume of applications is massive, but our targets on quality and customer service remain uncompromisingly high.  We partner with some of best schools in the world, so our customer protocols have to work across all geographies and for all student bodies.

What other work will you be doing?

Whilst working with the originations team, we want to ensure you get exposed to all areas of our business; namely finance and risk, business development, technology, marketing and investors. For approximately 20% of your time, we will ensure you are job shadowing or working on a project for a different team in the company. This will allow you to meet different people from different teams and learn about the various functions within Prodigy Finance. You will also be able to look for opportunities to improve the business processes whilst learning about how things are done.

Once your 8 months are complete and you have learned everything there is to know about Prodigy Finance, you will apply to become a permanent member of our team in the department of your choice.

 

Specific responsibilities are:

• You will be working with our operations administrators where you will be responsible for a specific section of our applications funnel, owning the turn around times, customer service levels, handovers and escalations (your SLAs) of each customer through your area of expertise. With our rotation policy in place, you will also have an opportunity to work on each major area of the funnel, from new applications through to final loans disbursed, developing depth of experience while working towards an end-to-end understanding of how we originate student loans.
• Help resolve issues first time, promptly escalate unresolved issues as appropriate.
• Ensure high quality delivery of customer experience across multiple channels (email, calls, skype).
• Learn – and ultimately become a technical expert for – our Prodigy Finance loan product and originations process.  Use this technical knowledge to guide students through the process, to respond to customer service requests and to enable resolution. Transfer your knowledge to team mates both formally and informally.
• Be responsible for hitting your day-to-day service level targets. Ensure service levels are maintained and improved where possible. Be a valuable contributor to the operations function.  Inject a sense of fun and fulfilment into your team environment.
• At times, you may be required to work closely with other functions, notably Student Marketing or our Technical Team to improve the service offering.