The Unforgettable First Time: A Summary of my First Month in Talent Acquisition

Celebrations of achievements have become a tradition in my life. For me, however, the best celebrations are the first times! As a matter of fact, this is not the first time I write a blog post about first times. Previously, I shared my experience after my first talk with Olim Chadashim, in June 2019 BC (before COVID-19 era).

In this post, I would like to share with you some of my experiences as a Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding Specialist at Nayax during my first month on the job, as well as some tips for job seekers in Israel.

Nayax’s HR department was looking for a new Talent Acquisition Specialist with prior hiring experience. My friend Julia introduced me to my current VP HR, Ella, because she saw my potential. However, I didn’t have the experience they were looking for. Luckily, Ella noticed my online presence while I was working at Checkmarx and spotted an opportunity.

My experience wasn’t exactly what they were looking for, but I was hungry to learn and to develop new skills. On top of that, my language skills, my ability to influence the Olim Chadashim (new immigrants in Israel) community, and my experiences with Digital Marketing / Employer Branding could potentially add value to the company.

Expectations were set before I started (at this moment I work full-time as a Talent Acquisition Specialist) and there I was: starting a new job with zero experience in recruitment and a whole amazing HR team to support me throughout this journey.

It was a very intensive first week of on-the-job training. I shadowed my teammate Dani in the following tasks:

• Calling potential candidates
• Scheduling interviews
• Creating new home assignments
• Participating in HR interviews and checking candidate’s characteristics
• Meeting with hiring managers to determine which candidate to move forward
• Calling candidates again, giving good news to the chosen ones and bad news to those we decided not to move forward with
• Making more phone calls to check candidate’s background
• Sending integrity tests to candidates
• Preparing the offer letter and sending it for signature
• Ensuring that every step of the process is registered in the system, and 
• BOOM! Happily onboarding newbies!

It was EXHAUSTING, I’ll admit it! There was a lot of information to absorb, and a lot of details to remember. Nevertheless, I accepted the challenge and was ready to start contacting my pipeline of candidates!

Believe you can and you’re halfway there – Theodore Roosevelt

As I started calling the candidates and giving my pitch, I had a stomach ache. Without a doubt, I was nervous and anxious. I felt like I had a big responsibility in deciding whether to continue or stop the process with someone I spoke to over the phone for 15-20 minutes. The reason I was so nervous was because I’ve experienced the same situation before, as a job seeker. But, as I mentioned previously, I was fully supported by my team when it came to deciding which candidates would move forward in the hiring process.

Slowly, candidates running for the positions I’m managing began moving forward in the process. After one month working at this new position, I had my first two offer letters sent out and signed!

GIF by GIPHY

I usually like to use my blog to share tips about finding a job in Israel, so here are my main tips:

1. Double-check your personal information in your CV – typos can happen. An incorrectly typed telephone number or email address may prevent you from being reached. Learn how to write a good CV and avoid common mistakes (Part 1 – Dos; Part 2 – Don’ts).
2. Whenever you’re looking for a job, keep an eye on your phone and/or your email. In just a month, I had several cases where I couldn’t contact candidates. Some of them I was able to reach via WhatsApp after several failed attempts, but this isn’t common among recruiters.
3. As I mentioned in a previous blog post (The Typical Hiring Process in Israel), when you receive a phone call from a recruiter, politely explain that it isn’t a good time to speak and schedule a more convenient time to do so. Take advantage of this time to get prepared and have better chances of acing the phone interview. Check out the article linked above for more details.
4. In the case that the recruiter or the hiring manager shared their telephone number with you, don’t contact them outside working hours (including weekends), and expect them to respond quickly. Yes, it’s important to follow-up to show that you’re interested in the opportunity! However, you should also be patient and respectful of others’ private lives.
5. Accept that certain things are just beyond the candidate’s control, such as finding the best fit for the company’s current team, having specific experience or knowledge required by the hiring manager, or if there’s a good candidate in more advanced stages. This doesn’t mean you’re not good, just not what the hiring team is looking for.

As time goes on, I’m sure there will be many more tips to share. 

In the meantime, have you checked out our current job openings? We have a lot of job opportunities for foreign language speakers, and we’re an olim-friendly company: https://bit.ly/CarolHauserNayax.

In case you see a position that matches your skills, please send your CV to carolh [at] nayax.com, including the link to the position, and I’ll be glad to pass it along.