I’ve never heard of Pilotfish but I know it is common to have a trial period, but what isn’t normal is to only have about 30% of those people stay on. That tells me that either 1, the person responsible for finding the staff is not doing a good job of matching the right staff to the position at hand or 2, they are doing a good job, which is to get lots of very cheap labour. (This is common practice but appalling and very disrespectful behavior and the only ones to blame are the young talent who don’t know their worth (I’ve been a victim as well in my time). It doesn’t do neither the company nor the designer any good in the long run.
I’ve seen worse. A major water company offering the world the chance to design their next design for their water bottles with the prize being… Kudos! Anyone worth his salt should not even work for a company that shows little appreciation from the word go.
Good luck!