Meet Soojin — People Operations PMO Team

Promotions – Why I am proud to work for Coupang

Hi Soojin, nice to meet you. Would you please introduce yourself?  

Hi, I am Soojin from the People Operations organization. I joined Coupang’s People Ops PMO (Project Management Office) team in March 2021 and have been carrying out various projects since. As a Project Manager, I carry out and manage people-related system adoption and process improvement projects.  

Congratulations on your latest promotion. Tell us about your latest achievements. 

Thank you! I am also proud and grateful for the recognition by Coupang. I also believe my promotion is a reward for several successful projects I’ve worked on. But I’d like to share the most recent project I’ve worked on for six months which was around working with our HR and recruiting systems data. In the past, when we hired new employees, we had to manually enter the data from the recruiting system to the HR system. But by developing a system to sync data automatically, we were able to save time and reduce human error. It was exciting to find solutions for all the issues that popped up sporadically with the ‘Aim High and Find a Way’ and ‘Think Systematically’ attitude — two of our my favorite Leadership Principles at Coupang. It was not easy, but it was fun to work and collaborate with my team members to solve problems with the same goal.  

Some other projects I’ve worked on is implementing the Topia system to help the onboarding of our expat employees, revising Coupang's work from home system, and creating the Employee Handbook.  

Sounds like you are proud of the work you do and the impact it leaves on our world. How has Coupang helped you discover your potential?  

First, it is the culture of ‘Empowerment.’ My manager and the team members always respect my work style and trust my decisions. It is true that this can bring some pressure, but this gave me the confidence to own the tasks with a sense of responsibility. At Coupang, it’s about the expertise and ownership, not just the years of experience. 

Second is ‘Flexibility.’ To me, autonomy in terms of time and space is important. Coupang offers “Flextime system” or flexible time, which is flexible hours schedule that allows employees to manage their workday and decide their start and finish times. Thanks to this, I am able to select the environment I can best invest my energy and generate better output. Of course, this all needs to be in line with the team’s work culture. 

The last thing I always boast about is “Great colleagues.” This is the greatest benefit Coupang provides. I have had opportunities to work with many teams across various projects and I always grow after learning from my colleagues. I am able to unlock my potential thanks to the colleagues that always listen to each other and respect different ideas. This type of environment truly brings out everyone’s strengths to create synergies and deliver results. 

What is the next goal in your career?  

I do not have any long-term goals at the moment. I tend to not plan far ahead because due to the nature my job and also our world these days changes so rapidly. But one thing I am always true to myself is to become a useful person in the group or community I am a part of. Since I have been working on system implementation projects, my latest interest is how to provide a more convenient and pleasant experience to customers through systems. I will continue to innovate to wow our Coupang colleagues and solve problems with systems in an effort to become more useful.