Carol's Story is brought to you by Kymberly Tupai
Kymberly is the Business Manager of Auckland Office
The person's name and likeness have been changed for privacy reasons
Tell us about this person and how you originally came across them?
"Carol contacted us saying that she was supposed to be returning to her permanent role post maternity leave and she was quite nervous about it. She was wondering whether or not we had any temporary opportunities we’d be comfortable with her doing before she went back to her real job. Her confidence was low, she wasn’t 100% certain, as she had been out of the workforce for a year and felt like she couldn’t do anything."
What was it that stood out about this candidate to you?
"I think that the two key things were, the vulnerability, that she was so honest, by calling us up and saying look I'm actually terrified.
To be able to say that to a stranger is something that is pretty strong. The other big thing was that she just wanted to be proactive; by looking at different ways that she could solve the problem she had which was those nerves pre-returning to work."
Were there any unique challenges with this candidate?
"There was the fact that she just wanted to work part time hours for a very specific period of time."
As a consultant, what did you take away most from this experience?
"I think that the biggest thing was the reward of placing her. I think in recruitment one of the things you do it for is the fact that you get to genuinely help people everyday and what might seem like a small difference is actually a huge difference in their world.
To have her genuinely say afterwards that she couldn’t have done it without us and that it was the perfect opportunity. It was the perfect fit for her and she was able to step back into a perm role knowing that she was a lot more comfortable than she initially was when she had that first conversation."
Do you feel you were able to impact them positively in the experience? Was there anything they did that left an impact on you?
"Yeah 100%, it was great to be able to provide a service that was a major stepping stone for her. I don’t have children, so I don’t have the experience to understand what its like to be a return to work mother, so it really opened my eyes as to what is really going on in someone’s head prior to returning back to work. Its opened my eyes to the fact that its actually a really terrifying time and if I recount the number of temps that I have placed that are mums wanting to work part time or are reintegrating into the workforce, to actually see that on a bigger scale and to get constant feedback from her around how it genuinely is something that did leave a big impact on me.
It was great to get an insight into that one recruitment situation. She hadn’t touched a computer she hadn’t had any commercial conversations with anyone, she was an executive assistant by trade so her roles generally before that it was largely stakeholder management dealing with top ‘C’ level executives writing board reports and things of that nature, and for her to say I haven’t done all these things for some time, am I going to be able to have a commercial conversation with someone? It was genuinely terrifying for her."
How did our work as a recruiter change the life of the candidate?
"She gained her confidence back and I am so glad that we were able to help her.
On the client side, where she was placed temporarily, they said that she was absolutely amazing and that she actually came in and changed a few of our processes which they absolutely loved. They said if she ever did find herself out in the job market again, they would absolutely love to have a conversation with her!"
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