Last week I had my first call with a recruiter who I stumbled on by sheer fluke. A friend forwarded an interesting job advert and insisted I follow through.

I set up accounts with two employment agencies in Geneva last year when I started looking for jobs. I had a few calls with one of the firms and got job offers in French which were clearly out of my reach back then. Somewhere along the road, I forgot that path and went back to good old-fashioned networking and keeping eyes open for positions which I am realizing are not enough in searching for jobs now. We’ll get into that today as we hear from my pacer who has been instrumental in shaping my understanding of hiring firms.

This week while looking for interviewees for a piece I am working on (black women opening up about racism in international organizations in Geneva), I stumbled on another recruiter who even agreed to have a call and sounded very helpful. While I am aware the recruiters must be up in their necks with requests from candidates, I am still curious about what will come out of this experience.

Over to my pacer for this week’s marathon lap – Portia Mwangangye.

Portia is passionate about Human Resources Management (HR). She has a Bachelor’s degree in Law and a Master’s degree in Global Business. She oscillates between Geneva and London and hopes to make the jump from private to public sector. Portia lives in a council estate in England where the population is predominantly black, immigrant and low-income or made up of people who have grown up in low-income families.

I’ve had friends die due to gang violence or abused by the police and police are constantly doing unwarranted searches in my friends’ houses. My reality is filled with police sirens continuously going off and it’s annoying to say the least. This environment in many ways shaped my career aspirations. My education was my saving grace and I made sure to seek opportunities in places that allowed me to see beyond the neighborhood I lived in. I am driven to work in HR because whenever I see an open position, I am the first person to run to my community and push them to pursue it. Without knowing it, I am always watching out for my community. Draw + Liquor, a business I started in 2018 and ran for one and a half years, celebrated black art and black artists. I didn’t know when I started the business, I was going down the route of celebrating my people. When you live in that kind of community where oppression of the black community is so blatant, you subconsciously want to do something.

The view from the current job search

I was originally looking for positions in HR where there is usually a high turnover. People are usually moving up or onto different things. In my observation, there are roles out there but they are backdated because there is an influx of people in the job market now. There are a lot of redundancies and people furloughed particularly in England. Employees particularly those in retail where I used to work are out of work and are naturally applying for jobs.

I had a chat with a recruiter who is caught between a flood of job seekers and businesses who are still gauging whether to recruit more staff or whether to let go of some people. She described the situation as an absolute mess right now. When I found this out I started looking at my other skills such as business development and expanded my job search in these areas other than HR.

If I were to stick to HR, I would have to “perfect” my profile as a candidate for a role where before, I wouldn’t have needed to put in a lot of work to get it. It’s what distinguishes me from other candidates now that I have to work on.

Before the pandemic hit, the response rates from recruiters or companies were much faster. For example, the recruitment agency I was working with in England took about 2 weeks to respond when I tried to set up a meeting with them in May. Whereas in January before I left my last role, they gave me an appointment a day after I got into contact with them. Also, I came to Geneva ready to start an internship in the public sector and within a week I had a meeting with the head of department where I was to intern. After that, I was introduced to the team but then Covid showed up and the process came to a stop.

Why work with recruitment agencies

They do the work of looking for jobs for you. I have worked for an executive search firm before so being familiar with that industry, I feel comfortable working with them. Their connections to companies I would like to work for is also much better in terms of access. It’s also the norm in London for most people to work with hiring agencies to navigate the job search, structure CVs and cover letters. They are basically your advocates and it’s free to work with them.

Coping with competition

The job market right now is so competitive. It means you have to put in more legwork on top of previous work you did in the past to develop yourself in the industry you are in.

It’s easy to question whether your previous experience really means anything to your present search. It can be demoralizing but it builds another level of determination in you.

There are new things you can do to show new skills like setting up a website to display your CV and adding the link to every application you do. That way you have proof of website development skills, marketing and companies are more likely to have confidence in your skills because of how you present yourself. I’d rather focus on the fact there are things I can do to improve my profile than stay demotivated.

I plan to create a website to showcase my growing web design skills. I am doing this alongside my LinkedIn account where I make sure I post on a regular basis as part of showing industry knowledge as well. I have learnt that technology is very powerful at the moment and it’s the best tool we can use to navigate the job hunt now.

My faith is also so important in keeping me motivated. I read my Bible to keep a positive outlook on life. I also believe giving back to my community irrespective of colour is responding to the call God has given me. My passion is to elevate people; to develop potential and skills. Initially I thought I wanted to be a lawyer so I could defend people in criminal justice but I soon realized I love the law more in theory than in practice. That’s how I moved to HR because of the emphasis in developing people. I want people to see there is an array of skills, determination and potential in my community. To get this done, I choose to stay close to God so I can hear what He wants me to do for His people.

Portia is an HR professional with a multidisciplinary background in Law and Global Business with sound experience in both sectors. Do you have any tips, suggestions, useful contacts or a job for Portia? Reach out to her on her LinkedIn.