Alicia: there’s a place for everyone
Born in Nigeria, Alicia Ifechi moved to the UK to study HR. She started her recruitment career back in her home country, where she realized that she had a knack for connecting great people together. “My superpower is my ability to bring the best people that perfectly fit into a team,” she says, “I understand both what the client needs and what the candidate wants. I love to engage with people and I know how to make them shine.’’
When Alicia came to Canada, she experienced firsthand the frustration of having to prove herself, despite her strong HR experience, simply because she did not have Canadian experience.
Alicia is sure that there's room for more women in tech. However, when it comes to hiring, this is not recruiters’ biggest obstacle. She explains: “Employers are definitely warming up to hiring more women in tech. But the real challenge is to get them to hire talent who have the skills, but who also acquired them outside Canada.’’
That’s precisely why, instead of immediately finding a job in her field of expertise, she accepted a job in technical support, which allowed her to explore her long-standing interest in IT. The position was a blessing in disguise, as she eventually made her way into the recruitment world, finding a role, as a tech recruiter, that married both her passions: HR and IT.
“I love waking up in the morning and knowing that I will change someone’s life, knowing that I will give someone hope,” Alicia explains. “I won’t necessarily have a job for the people I meet with on that day, but I still want to have a meaningful conversation with that person, to know them better, so that when I learn about a job, I’ll know that they are the one for it.”
Alicia is fiercely optimistic about the future as opportunities flourish in Western Canada: “Developers are always sought-after, of course, but iOS and Android developers, in particular, are in demand like crazy. I can see how Calgary is going to become a tech hub when COVID is over. It’s the place to be if you want a future in tech. I want to be an integral part of my community and support people and organizations to be the best they can be.”
Candice: the future is communication
Coming from a hospitality and hotel management background, Candice Wright has a strong customer service skill set that she found especially relevant when transitioning into tech recruitment. As an IT recruiter, she matches developers and other high tech professionals with organizations.
Early on, Candice contemplated a career in engineering, so she’s well aware how intimidating STEM fields can be. She explains: “At the time I thought: ‘do I really want to be the only girl out of 10 people?’” In an interesting turn of events, she still ended up being the ‘odd woman out’. In recruitment and HR, there’s a higher proportion of women, except, of course, in tech recruitment. Candice spends a lot of time on LinkedIn, mentoring young women, encouraging them to enter STEM fields.
She notices that, especially in leadership positions, there are still some biases at play. “I still hear comments hinting at certain expectations,” she says. “Like the best person for the job should be the exact replica of the guy who did it before. It feels a bit engrained in managers’ thought processes. I then frame the conversation back to the skills of the person that match the job description.”
Looking at opportunities to develop as a team lead, Candice values communication as a top skill to navigate the ever-changing world of work. The pandemic definitely emphasized the importance of honing on communication skills, especially if you’re a new employee. “I started just a week before the offices closed,” she explains, ”so it took me longer to really understand the organizational culture. I did not have access to these informal discussions and personal interactions where you can learn so much.”
For Candice, beyond AI, cloud computing and cybersecurity, there’s one skill that’s consistently required from her clients: communication. “Communication and collaboration are very important for clients,” she asserts, “even when they hire a data scientist. Employers want their technical experts to be able to convince, explain, illustrate and ‘sell’ their programs in a compelling way to stakeholders.”
So it’s a given that Candice thinks it’s crucial for organizations to provide tools to foster communication. “This is what I like about Randstad: our human approach. Not just with talent and clients, but also internally. The organization is empathetic and supports their employees a lot.’’