Life at Proprium: Bernarda Veselovac

Over a period of ten months working with the Proprium team in the position of assistant in administration and project management, I had the opportunity to acquire valuable knowledge and develop different skills that enriched my professional and academic experience. The flexible working environment, education, mentorship, and teamwork integrated seamlessly into my lifestyle as a full-time third-year undergraduate psychology student, a resident of a student dormitory, and someone who needs weekends off.

In Proprium, besides performing tasks independently, I was also an equal member of the team. Considering the characteristics of remote work and asynchronous communication, I primarily appreciated the environment developed for supporting work efficiency and cooperation. Furthermore, autonomy in determining availability for work and freedom when asking questions and expressing doubts that were not limited to written texts, but also through videos and meetings that were available, as well as high-quality targeted feedback, were essential for my development and successful overcoming of challenges in the work environment.

My tasks were diverse in content and, with time, they became aligned with my best skills. I tried project management and continued to build up through administrative processes. The one thing that eliminated boredom, provided motivation, maintained curiosity, and fostered my development at work was the combination of routine and challenging tasks, along with an approach where performing tasks is adapted to personal and team priorities. So, first of all, for a typical workday at Proprium, I could say that it is the replication of harmony and dedication.

One of the core segments of my work was student contracts. That task required me to lead the administrative process: from preparing data and their precise entry, through recording work hours, all the way to checking the correctness of information and email communication to effectively address potential ambiguities and issues. This task, in particular, is an example that gave me the feeling of independence and balance and developed skills of precision, timeliness, and accuracy. In addition, this gave me a deep understanding of the regulations governing student work, which was particularly interesting for me as a student.

As my favorite task, I would emphasize the standardization of business processes that included writing procedures and protocols. With a systematic approach, my goal was to turn complex steps into clear and concise written documents. This significantly improved my skills in critical thinking, documentation, and knowledge transfer. Also, here I noticed the importance of feedback I got the most; in Proprium, they are not used only as an evaluation of my current work but as a clear foundation for next steps. This has helped me to adopt better ways of seeking information, asking questions, and expressing ambiguity.

A particularly useful experience as a psychology student was the opportunity to participate in onboarding and offboarding processes. An insight into the organizational aspects of psychology, such as hiring new team members, the selection process, restructuring teams and tasks, gave me direct exposure to the principles of motivation, learning, and adaptation in a real business environment. I feel that these were examples of successful integration and positive adjustment within the team, and that experience is extremely valuable to me for my academic future and career goals.

Working at Proprium has given me the opportunity to apply various tools like SmartSuite, ClickUp, Notion, and Missive. At first, working with tools I’d never encountered before evoked a fear of the unknown, but with internal education and mentoring approaches, as well as the time allocated for adaptation and learning, they served to make my work more efficient and high-quality. I would argue that situations of switching work from one tool to another initially seemed to me to be an unnecessary step, but I have been shown the importance of continuous improvement of business systems and the value of adapting tools to the market and customer needs. So I stopped seeing tools as a hindrance but as an investment in excellence that, in the long run, justifies the initial effort.

By joining the Proprium team, I have developed and adopted new values that I am happy to carry forward. I would like to point out that investing in knowledge, respecting the availability of work, and building acquaintances is what enabled me as a student to devote myself to work with satisfaction and to study without interruption. Proprium is a place for those who are not afraid to learn and are eager for experiences that will enrich their future careers.