UTILISE YOUR CV PROFILE TO NOT ONLY GET A “SWIPE RIGHT” AND MAKE A CAREER LOVE CONNECTION BUT A JOB MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN GETTING a “swipe right” on your CV in order to make a true career love connection, will fortunately for you, be based on more than just a great selfie with good lighting. One you managed to post on your dating profile to gain attention or to get that favourable “swipe right” like on popular dating app, Tinder. And, in the hunt for that “dream job”, your CV serves as the first visual glimpse into who you might be or present as. WHEN TRYING GET A “SWIPE RIGHT” ON YOUR CV PROFILE, YOUR JOB HISTORY MATTERS MORE – Unlike on your dating profile, it’s your job history compared to a picture of you, that gets your CV shortlisted. Even if an actual photograph of you is displayed on your CV, your work credentials matter more. More than whether you have the look of a possible unsuspecting “Tinder Swindler” or the appearance of having the personality of a pea. Similarly, as you would venture online to find a potential love interest, finding that job that is a good…
Tipping the work-life balance Tipping the work-life balance has become a tricky act for most workers. Even if you don’t have a standard 9 to 5. If your’e making your money as an Entrepreneur, Freelancer or Content Creator/Influencer, you still have to grind hard. Often juggling multiple hats with what often feels like not enough hours in the day. A constant struggle getting all your work done. Already the umpteenth cup of caffeine ingested, long after close-of-business. Your now squinty eyes still glued to your PC screen. This has resulted in a surge of employees feeling they are tipping the work-life balance into a state of unhealthy. The extreme consequence for some – suffering burnout. Since the Covid 19 pandemic, many companies are wanting workers in-office and onsite. Despite this, candidates are still exploring jobs offering flexible working hours. Or even an option to take a sabbatical, should the need arise. According to betterup.com, with more people working from home, the revolution of AI now “transforming workflows” and concerns around job security – “the line between work and life has never felt more blurred.”While people still favour “more money” as one of the top reasons for changing jobs, many now…
Hitting that ‘sweet spot’ with clients, drives Recruiters to excel! Like any relationship, business ties require a “sussing out” of one another to establish a mutually beneficial union. For Recruiters like us here at Datafin, hitting that ‘sweet spot’ with our clients is like liquid gold. When a client puts their trust in us, they’re responsive, we understand what they want and they get how we can help them – that’s the ‘sweet spot’ we work hard to achieve. It’s like fuel that ignites our passion for what we do. Datafin Co-owner Lindy Sollinger equates relationships with clients to human relationships that need to be nurtured, like any human relationship requiring input from both parties to make them work. “I would say that we like to connect with our clients by finding some type of common ground with them and listening to their needs in a really ‘conscious’ way! “Nurturing clients is like any human relationship, it’s about give and take and being able to pre-empt stuff that could potentially cause issues later,” explains Sollinger. And giving our clients as much as possible when trying to find suitable candidates is crucial to how we pocket recurring clients. Hitting that ‘sweet…
ACTION IT ANYWAY! No tertiary qualification. Bit jumpy, bit of a job hopper. But the jobseeker interviews well, is so articulate with a bubbly persona and seems technically clued-up. This is often the case when assessing if a candidate is right for a role. Rarely do we get someone who ticks all the boxes of requirements the client seeks. So, through experience, interviews and gut feel, Recruiters make calculated risks. We action it anyway and send the CV off in the hopes the client will similarly “see what we see”. Recruiters sometimes pose doubts about a specific candidate and in team meetings discuss whether to send the CV to a client. A phrase is sometimes coined “when in doubt, send it out”. The Google translation explains it as “when you’re uncertain or have doubts about a situation, you should take action and proceed rather than delaying or avoiding it.” Finding a job can be a tedious process. You often feel you could do the job, but the endless list of requirements makes you doubt yourself and you exit the ad. By not sending your CV, you reduce your chances of a new job opportunity. If you just action it anyway,…
Why AI will Never replace sales! A controversial statement, yes, but let me explain. As humans, a lot of our communication is nonverbal and as any good salesperson knows it’s the silences between the words, the subtle body language, people’s tone and cultural inferences in the conversations that tell us a lot more than the content. So can AI pick up that the nose touching was not a sign of lying but that the person has flu. Or the fact that if someone’s eye moves slightly to the left that it’s not some type of unconscious signal but that they are distracted by something in the environment. A human would know that, but AI has been trained to pick up these signals as an indication of lying. As Recruiters (and essentially Salespeople) we are constantly looking and identifying behaviours that would make you right or wrong for the role we are resourcing for. It’s our humanity that enables us to intuitively understand people and connect with them in an authentic way; to get a feel for a person so we can match them culturally to the right client. Our aim is not only to get people to start, but also…
Datafin hits the airwavesDatafin Co-owner Lindy Sollinger speaks about the business of “selling people”. She also reveals how to market yourself to get the job on CapeTalk radio. Ahead of Worker’s Day, Sollinger joined CapeTalk’s lunchtime “On the couch” show host Bianca Reznik. They chat about Tech Recruitment and Sollinger provides some expert advice to those job-hunting. From Pj’s to having an actual office space to now running an entirely Remote team. Sollinger explains how she started Datafin and how the Recruitment Agency has evolved with the times. “I left university and decided to go into Recruitment, almost by chance… worked in Temp Recruitment and after 6 months my Manager left so I was able to head up the whole division, got a lot of experience. I went to the UK, worked there, came back and worked in Financial Services Recruitment and decided I should open my own business. “And then in 1999, from my flat in Sea Point in my pajama’s, I opened up Datafin and the rest is history. And Bev, my sister and partner, joined a year later.” She explained how the entire Datafin team consists of all women – mostly working Moms and all working from…
Datafin diversifies its Recruitment offering With a track record of 25 years of recruiting Tech professionals, we are viewed as one of the country’s top IT Recruitment Specialists. Our Recruitment offering, has expanded into a whole lot of new sectors (Finance, HR, Logistics, Medical and Legal) and we have gone global, working with clients in the UK, US, Netherlands and Australia. So, whether you’re an Artisan or Accountant, have a passion for Data or AI – we may just have the unique job you’ve been searching for. Datafin has become synonymous with IT Recruitment, but the initial Recruitment offering did include both IT and Finance. “We were initially doing IT and Finance, hence the FIN in Datafin, “explains Lindy Sollinger, Datafin co-owner. But the IT Recruitment quickly took on a more prominent focus. Sollinger recalls that, “We found IT to be so much fun and fast-paced that we stuck to IT for the first 15 years.” Once the Recruitment Agency had honed its IT Recruitment expertise and established a strong clientele and reputation in the business of Tech Recruitment, it was time to grow and take on new challenges. Datafin’s diversified Recruitment offering has since branched out to industries including…
Promote your resilience to potential employers IF there’s one thing the Covid-19 pandemic proved – it’s that we as humans are a resilient bunch. We played what I like to call “real-life Survivor” confined to our four walls for days on end. Through that difficult period, we found creative ways to busy ourselves, make money and connect with loved ones. Most importantly, we managed to stay positive and soldier on with the belief we would make it through to the other side. Bosses are giving preference to employing more resilient staff. Now post-pandemic – interviews provide key opportunities to promote your resilience. Today more than ever post-pandemic, that innate resilient nature is what many bosses want to see in you. Resilience is a character trait that appears on many job specs. Applicants are required to have the ability not to cave under pressure. To continue to thrive in your career despite any challenges and setbacks you may face in both your work and personal life. Most interviews often include that question posed to describe how you navigated a difficult or challenging situation. This is an opportune moment to promote your resilience to potential employers. It proves hugely beneficial to companies,…
The art of job matchmaking There’s a certain finesse required in any artistic process and matching people with jobs is no different. Speaking to some of our Datafin Recruiters, I uncovered what goes into the art of job matchmaking. To get that almost “perfect match” – when connecting a candidate and client in a successful career union. We may not be playing cupid and matchmaking dating profiles for a “love connection” but there’s definitely similarities in the process of how we go about it. Getting to know both parties and their expectations – In the dating realm, singletons often have a mental checklist of traits their potential love interest should meet, in order to deem them eligible enough. So too, our clients and candidates have their criteria of what they desire in the workspace. Like they say, some people marry for money and others for love. Often a person would prefer a more favourable remuneration package or higher commission. Others want a company they can feel is their “work home” where their passion for what they do can ignite and grow. Datafin Consultant Wendy Campbell says it requires delving deeper when getting to know a potential job seeker to get…
Invest in YOU by pursuing that dream job There’s just something about the new year that revitalises our being. Probably as good a time as any to use that renewed vigour to invest in YOU. Re-purpose your efforts and let’s help you in your pursuit of that dream job. The trendy term in motivational circles is “New Year, New You”. But to get to a “New You”, it will first require a positive mental shift. If you’re feeling that drive to kickstart the job-hunt then use that positive momentum in each task you undertake. Use your mind-fuel and start thinking of what your dream job looks like. Hone the belief that you can achieve it, once you really put your mind to it. Reflect on your WHY. What it would mean to you if this dream job became a reality. You need to connect with your existing career. Ask yourself how you came to be in your current position. Some might say they felt pressured into following suit in the path of their parents or siblings. Perhaps you were desperate to pay off study loans or had debt weighing heavy on you so you thought the job would bring you…