Shortlister spotlight

project manager

Shortlister spotlight: Meet Sarah Ndegwa, Project Manager – Executive Search

500 333 Brenda Akinyi

At Shortlist, we love building and growing our team as much as we love building yours. In this edition of our Shortlister Spotlight series, (a Q&A series to get to know more of our team members), meet Sarah Ndegwa, Project Manager in our global executive search team.

1. Tell us about what you do at Shortlist

I’m a Project Manager within the Executive Search practice at Shortlist, leading a team of great Research Associates to execute on C-level searches globally.

2. How has your transition from Recruitment Associate to Project Manager been like for you? What has been different across the different roles you have held?

When I joined Shortlist, I was quite green when it came to recruitment. I joined as a Recruitment Account Associate where I focussed on entry and mid-senior roles which were key to understanding recruitment. Over time I built my skills around niche roles which sharpened my muscle around targeted recruitment which has been really instrumental when I transitioned into a Senior Recruiter role and now a Project Manager role within the Executive Search function.

3. What is your professional background, and what were you looking for in your next career step when you found Shortlist?

I have a background in Psychology and Public Health however I started out my career within Marketing. I was keen on leveraging my Project Management skills hence an Operations role was a perfect fit at the time. With Shortlist I was offered a great opportunity to step into a fast-paced Project Management role.

4. What’s your professional superpower

I have a knack for hard to fill niche type roles. My University research background helped me hone my ability to dig up the best candidates.

5. What keeps you motivated and focused on most days both professionally and personally?

Professionally – I love the thrill of a successful hire and sharing great news with a candidate. I love a good challenge and as a project manager, working on difficult roles keeps me on my toes, because I want to prove myself to MYSELF.

Personally – I have a great support system around me and I appreciate having them check on me regularly. I’m motivated to continuously inspire them.

6. What’s your favourite Shortlist value and why?

Own it – It’s more than just doing your work. It’s seeing something that needs to be done and getting up to do it. Being prepared to step up to the opportunities that present themselves to take on more. And most importantly, drive for excellence at all times – don’t share work for the sake of it, take some time to make sure you are proud of the end product.

7. What are three words you would use to describe Team Shortlist?

Dynamic, Driven, Happy

8. Why is the Shortlist mission important to you and what makes Shortlist different from other organizations?

We want to make finding your next adventure less stressful. The process is simple and transparent and there’s a human touch to it. We also want to be an advisory partner to our clients by helping them move away from traditional methods of recruitment and embracing modern and more efficient systems.

9. Outside your role as a project manager, what do you like to do outside of work?

Surprise surprise…… I love cooking. I’m currently loving experimenting with new recipes and recently started a vegan diet. My guilty pleasure, however,  is binging on crime TV shows – Investigative and procedural shows are a fave!

10. If you had to eat one meal every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Rice and Beans

11. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Super traditional….I wanted to be a doctor – A paediatrician to be specific.

12. If you were to swap places with one person for a day, who would it be and why?

Megan Markle – She’s a great blend of being someone who’s had great opportunities, but at the same time has managed to remain so grounded.

13. Best career lesson you’ve received/ learnt so far?

Don’t find a job, find a boss. The reason why: A boss is one of the biggest influences on your career trajectory. You can have a great job but without a great boss, that‘s all it will be – a good job, but with a great boss, you can tap into your greatest potential and achieve so much more in an ordinary job.

14. Final words?

When you can’t control what’s happening, challenge yourself to control how you respond to what’s happening, that’s where your power is.

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Stay tuned for our next Shortlister spotlight feature to read more about the amazing team at Shortlist. Join the Shortlist community to stay up to date with opportunities available, within Shortlist as well as our partner organizations. 

OPEN JOBS

Have you had the opportunity to take on a role outside your field of study? Please share some of your key learnings with us in the comment section.

If you’re in the process of building your team, talk to us about your requirements for a tailored recruitment solution to suit your business needs.

HIRING? LET US HELP YOU

Shortlister Spotlight: Meet Reynold Owuor, Executive Search Research Associate

747 530 Brenda Akinyi

At Shortlist, we love building and growing our team as much as we love building yours. In this edition of our Shortlister Spotlight series, (a Q&A series to get to know more of our team members), meet Reynold Owuor, Executive Search Research Associate in our Nairobi Office.

He’s many things including a recruiter, career coach, and model. Get to know what he loves about his career in recruitment, what makes him stay on top of his game and some of the things you’d find him doing outside work.

01. Tell us about what you do at Shortlist. What does an Executive Search Associate role entail?

As an Executive Search Associate, my main role entails recruiting senior-level executives for our cross-industry clients across Africa. I have carved a niche in recruiting senior-level finance professionals and also handled a few technical roles among others.

02. What aspect of your role do you enjoy the most?

What I enjoy the most is the research aspect of my role, where I get to do a deep dive into new industries and also find and interact with senior-level professionals across Africa who I would not have otherwise had a chance to interact with.

03. What is your professional background, and what were you looking for in your next career step when you found Shortlist?

I was a recruiter and career coach in a fast-paced recruitment firm that was primarily specialized in hiring for impact-driven organizations. Funny thing is that I was headhunted by Shortlist and was on a sabbatical when the Executive Search team found me. I was well-rested and hungry for the next challenge and was particularly looking for a role that would stretch me and help me grow, to which I am happy to have found at Shortlist.

04. What’s your professional superpower?

My superpower I believe is tenacity, I always strive to push through until we get the job done.

05. What keeps you motivated and focused on most days both professionally and personally?

The money:) haha but on a serious note, I think I always look at my role in the grand scheme of things i.e getting the right people to the right jobs will have a significant impact on the client’s bottom line, so if I do my job well we will have happier people at work, working in their dream jobs and clients who are able to achieve their end goals and as a final result contribute towards the economy. So I always like to think about the amazing work our candidates will be able to achieve and that helps me stay motivated.

06. What’s your favourite Shortlist value and why?

One team – something that I have come to appreciate while working in the Executive Search team is the unity and strength that comes with being supportive of your teammates. And the same can be said across the entire organization, we get so much done when we buckle down and work together. It reminds me of the quote that says ‘If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far go together’

07. What are three words you would use to describe Team Shortlist?

Exceptional, witty and diligent

08. Why is the Shortlist mission important to you and what makes Shortlist different from other organizations?

Supporting our clients build high performing teams enables them to meet their objectives and also helps the people we place live happier lives in their dream jobs. Shortlist is different from other organizations because we only work with clients with a stellar company culture and Shortlist itself is more people-driven than cash-driven which most organizations prioritize.

09. What are you mostly doing when not working?

Looking for the next adventure which can take any form I want it to: be it travelling with friends, starting a new book that will throw me into a fictional world, or watching an anime or movies with a compelling storyline.

10. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

(insert cliche response) I wanted to be a doctor. Not because I wanted to save lives but primarily because one of my core drivers has always been to help people even from a young age and the earliest exposure I had to that was my mum who is in the medical field. However, after finishing a degree in Psychology I later realized that helping people could take many forms. So now I help connect people to their dream careers.

11. If you had to eat one meal every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Not a meal per se but a fruit hehe, an avocado (in guacamole, or in a sandwich or burger) to be precise.

12. What are you currently reading, watching, or listening to?

I am currently watching Black Clover(it’s an anime series), reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and listening to Doucement by Banembe Jeremie

13. If you were to swap places with one person for a day, who would it be and why?

It wouldn’t be a person but an animal and it would be a cat, cats usually have the biggest egos and audacity. I would want to know how that feels like because it’s the complete opposite of who I am. But if it was a person it would be Lewis Hamilton, just so that I get to race all day on some of the best tracks in the world. That thrill for a day would be worth it.

14. What’s the best career advice you have received/ learnt thus far?

Start small and grow from there, we always have this grand idea of where we want to be in life but always get lost in the details. If you focus on doing the best with what you have now doors that you didn’t even know existed will start opening for you.

15. Final words?

You don’t need to be great to start but you need to start to be great. – Zig Ziglar

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Stay tuned for our next Shortlister spotlight feature to read more about the amazing team at Shortlist. Join the Shortlist community to stay up to date with opportunities available, within Shortlist as well as our partner organizations. 

OPEN JOBS

Have you had the opportunity to take on a role outside your field of study? Please share some of your key learnings with us in the comment section.

If you’re in the process of building your team, talk to us about your requirements for a tailored recruitment solution to suit your business needs.

HIRING? LET US HELP YOU

 

customer care

Shortlister Spotlight: Meet Dipti Worlikar, Customer Care Manager

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In this instalment of Shortlister Spotlights (a Q&A series to get to know some of our team members) meet Dipti Worlikar, our Customer Care Manager from Mumbai office!

At Shortlist, we love building our team almost as much as we love building yours! 

We have some pretty amazing people across our three offices who have a real passion for what they do and for the Shortlist mission.

Read to know more about Dipti’s Shortlist journey. 

Tell us about your life at Shortlist.

I joined Shortlist on 3rd Jan 2019, so it was like a new year, a new company for me. I wanted to work with a start-up and was excited to join the team.

I work in an individual contributor capacity at Shortlist. As a Customer Care Manager, I assist candidates with their queries and make sure that the service levels are up to mark. At Shortlist, we listen to the applicant’s problems. It’s essential to follow up on feedback promptly and handle complaints gracefully and craft tailored messages for candidates issues. We actively seek to understand our candidates’ needs and take steps to resolve their problems.

We measure how much our candidates value what we do by measuring our NPS (Net Promoter Score), and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction). These help us understand how the candidates review our product, people and processes.

When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

When I was a kid, I was unsure of what I wanted to become. Thoughts and interests keep on changing as we learn new things around us. In college, I wanted to be a remote sensing expert; however, it did not work out. I ended up completing my management studies and working in corporate.

What is your professional background, and what were you looking for in your next career step when you found Shortlist?

My core expertise is operations and service management (basically into Service Desk, Incident Management / Change management). I am an ITIL V3 certified into service desk management and have experience working in IT, e-commerce, and financial services.

I decided to take this role as a Customer Care Manager with Shortlist due to the key responsibilities to manage the overall desk alone and in an altogether different industry. It was a very new and different experience for me.

How has your current role impacted you?

This role has impacted me so much. I have learned so many new things in customer care, as it is a different industry for me, from managing data and analytics for the candidates to developing a good knowledge and understanding of NPS which helps the team to understand the candidate experience in their journey on the Shortlist platform.

What’s your professional superpower?

Responsiveness – as a Customer Care manager, I can connect with any team and try and help them when they are stuck anywhere.

What are three words or phrases you would use to describe Team Shortlist?

Transparency, Dedication, Boundless energy.

customer care

What is your favourite Shortlist value and why? Learn more about our values here!

#Oneteam is my favourite Shortlist value. Most teams struggle with functioning well as one team or one unit, but we have done it so well at Shortlist, we are exceptional at identifying problems and fixing them together as a team.

Why is the Shortlist mission important to you?

I find Shortlist’s mission important as Shortlist helps candidates find their dream jobs with companies and take their career to the next level.

So Dipti, what do you like to do outside of work?

I like travelling, spending time with my daughter answering all her questions (a BIG task for me 😅) and watching movies. I have been interested in learning a new language and am trying to learn Spanish currently.

What are you currently reading, watching, or listening to?

I am currently reading Life Tweets by Dr Mihir Parikh.
Because of lockdown, I am catching up on thrillers I love watching on Prime and listening to Hindi music.

We like to give (virtual) high fives to recognize our team members when they do something awesome. Now is your chance to make a public high five to a fellow Shortlister:

I would like to thank:

Grace, Brenda from Kenya team thanks for all your support, you guys are always there when I need you and are a superb team to work with.

Lotika and Shriya, you guys are the best, thanks for your support.

Venkat, Adhip from tech team for always being there.

Aratrika from HR team for all the support she extends to the Shortlist family.

Thank you, Dipti! We’re so glad to hear your experiences on Team Shortlist.

Did reading about Dipti’s experiences make you want to check out the rest of our squad? Check out the rest of our crew here.

If you would like help building your team, let us help you. Shortlist offers a wide range of recruitment solutions that help companies build great teams.

If You Are Hiring, Let us Help You

Looking for Job? We can help

performance marketer

Shortlister Spotlight: Meet Abhishek Sharma, Performance Marketing Associate

1280 960 Shortlist

In this instalment of Shortlister Spotlights (a Q&A series to get to know some of our team members) meet Abhishek Sharma, our Performance Marketing Associate from Mumbai office!

At Shortlist, we love building our team almost as much as we love building yours! 

We have some pretty amazing people across our three offices who have a real passion for what they do and for the Shortlist mission.

Read to know more about Abhishek’s Shortlist journey. 

Tell us about your life at Shortlist.

Life at Shortlist is pretty amazing! I was the first employee to be onboarded 100% remotely in Shortlist’s history. I work as a Performance Marketer with the marketing team.

My work includes strategizing, running and optimizing paid online campaigns along with SEO to make sure that a lot of people hear about the amazing stuff that we do.

Coming from a Growth Hacking background, you can also find me excitedly proposing new marketing experiments or running one.

What I love about working at Shortlist the most is how everyone isn’t working in silos, and you’re free to take up any task outside of your area of expertise to grow. The growth opportunities at Shortlist are limitless.

When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Just like the seasons of a year, my career choices kept changing- until I was 20!
When I was 10, I wanted to become an astronaut 👨‍🚀. But then maths happened. I hated math, and you had to be great at it to become an astronaut.

So I set out to consider becoming a historian, scientist, psychologist until I finally found my calling as a marketer.

What is your professional background, and what were you looking for in your next career step when you found Shortlist?

I have been in marketing for more than two years now. I graduated in 2018 with an Engineering degree in Electronics but got my first job as a Marketer.

In my previous role, I was doing marketing alone based on whatever I have learnt via YouTube videos and books.

While searching for a new job I was looking for a place, where I would have exposure to working in marketing teams and have guidance from a senior figure (in marketing) to give my working style a process and a structure.

I was looking for a place where I would continuously be pushing my comfort zone, have creative freedom, and be surrounded by people who are driven.

Shortlist was just the company I was looking for.

How has your current role impacted you?

I have learned so much from my manager on handling people, creating systems and workflows, executing things rapidly and hacking productivity to perform 2x. This role has pushed me to be more data-driven, agile and process-oriented!

I absolutely love it!

What’s your professional superpower?

Generating (practical) ideas quickly! 💡

This helps a lot in creating new campaigns and finding unique angles to showcase our product’s particular feature.

What are three words or phrases you would use to describe Team Shortlist?

Collaborative. Fun. Supportive!

What is your favourite Shortlist value and why? Learn more about our values here!

Own it!

I love how one is given ownership of their ideas and suggestions at Shortlist.

It makes us (the employees) efficient and the mini CEOs of the particular task/campaign/idea.

Why is the Shortlist mission important to you?

Shortlist is changing the way companies are hiring and how candidates are assessed (based on their skills and not just pedigree).

Coming from an Indian engineering college, I have always realized how flawed the college placements were. Companies just hire people based on their marks, grades and stream of education.

I wouldn’t have been a marketer if I hadn’t found my calling and taken things in my own hands to get a job in marketing. But others might not be as fortunate in this attempt.

I think Shortlist is trying to change that, so the mission resonates deeply with me.

What do you like to do outside of work?

performance marketer

While I was trying to figure out my career choice, I was also figuring out what I love doing.
In this process, I have gathered a ton of hobbies which I don’t particularly excel at but enjoy doing it nonetheless.

I love to read books of various genres ranging from- historical fiction, sci-fi, psychological thrillers to business, self-help, psychology and science textbooks.

When I’m not reading, I try out new things. I play guitar, ukulele and have started learning how to play a cajon. I also love to go hiking and explore the culture of new places.

Every weekend I try learning at least one new thing like building no-code web apps run on google sheets, making no code websites on tools like Webflow and Wix.
If not this- you can find me having a lengthy discussion ( or debates) on online communities like Discord and Reddit.

What are you currently reading, watching, or listening to?

I am the kind of person who reads 3-4 books of different genres in parallel.

Here are some books that I am reading right now:

  1. An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield
  2. What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
  3. Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards by Yu-kai Chou and,
  4. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

We like to give (virtual) high fives to recognize our team members when they do something awesome. Now is your chance to make a public high five to a fellow Shortlister:

Firstly, I’d give a big high five to my manager, Clement Tesconi, who has always been there to support and help me when I am clueless about how to take a certain experiment from 0 to 1.

Next, I’d like to high-five the entire marketing team- Mita and Brenda who help me out whenever I’m stuck with content (which is my Achilles heel) and are always there to bounce ideas off.

And the leadership team who strives to make work at Shortlist a pleasurable experience and encourage talent to grow.

Thank you, Abhishek! We’re so glad to hear your experiences on Team Shortlist.

Did reading about Abhishek’s experiences make you want to check out the rest of our squad? Check out the rest of our crew here.

If you would like help building your team, let us help you. Shortlist offers a wide range of recruitment solutions that help companies build great teams.

If You Are Hiring, Let us Help You

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The Fantastic Four of Shortlist

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At Shortlist, we are proud of our people and love how engaged and passionate they are, about everything they do.

Shortlist was founded 5 years ago after one year of the founders, CTO and a handful of employees working on the initial concept, they brought on four amazing engineers, who are still with us today.

In an industry where job-hopping is so frequent, with average employee tenures between 1-2 years, we are excited to celebrate 4-year work anniversaries of these four, amazing Shortlisters- Talasri, Tilak, Venkat and Niranjan. We are so proud of everything that they have done.

This is their story below. Before we dive into their stories below, here’s a word from our CTO Sudheer Bandaru on these Fantastic Four.

Sudheer Bandaru, CTO Shortlist on Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four of Shortlist

From L-R: Sudheer Bandaru, Tilak Tirumalanagaram, Talasri Kotikalapudi, Niranjan Pujari and Venkat Vemuri

It is an extraordinary moment to celebrate the Fantastic Four, who have been the founding members of the tech team at Shortlist. It is relatively easy to attract talent after a brand is established, and culture is defined. But the challenge arises before any of those things are set. The only talent that can be attracted is the one that is highly visionary, genuinely passionate and has faith in the startup, and this talent is rare to come by.

The Fantastic Four are an exemplary example of such passionate people.

Venkat came to us as a manual QA engineer without any QA experience, but he had an evident passion towards work and attention to detail. As he already embodied the Shortlist values, we didn’t look at his past experience. We only considered his raw skills, his potential, and we hired him. Today, he is a DevOps engineer managing our complex multi-cloud infrastructure for microservices architecture.

Tilak worked in a couple of startups, who didn’t pay him or give him an experience letter. In true Shortlist style, we decided to look at capabilities over CV and asked him to submit a case exercise. He cleared the task with flying colours, and we welcomed him on board. He joined us as a smart Java engineer, contributed a lot to frontend code (Even though our frontend experts continued to mock his early day codes). He took ownership of the work and the team’s success. He is always keen for feedback, takes it seriously, works on it and improves. He is now a great leader running a feature squad and is admired by everyone at Shortlist.

I have known Niranjan since he was a fresher. Every time I assign him any work, he makes me proud. While he’s growing in his career by taking on all sorts of challenges, he has also been helping me shine in my role. Words don’t justify the incredible job Niranjan has been doing! He is the reason I am aggressive about tech innovation and confident that we can succeed at a higher adaption of new technological trends.

Talasri worked as a manual QA engineer in her previous company and ruffled the feathers with her manager as she couldn’t limit herself to the predefined role. She outsmarted her managers by continually adapting to the latest technologies. She was bold enough to share what happened, and I felt that’s exactly the kind of talent we need to nurture at Shortlist. Someone who is truly aggressive about taking on challenges and wants to become the best version of themselves. She continues to test our sophisticated suite of products with impeccable quality and sets high standards.

Attracting smart engineers feels like a big win after a long struggle, but the most challenging part is to retain them. If I had to summarise my learnings on how to retain smart engineers, they would fall into these three categories:

●Give them enough opportunities to exhibit their smartness – which includes getting into new terrains they have never explored.
●During the process, let them make mistakes and support them as and when needed to make it a safe space for innovation.
●Finally, enjoy and create a culture where they can hang out with their colleagues who would push their limits every single day while having fun!

You guys really are the “Fantastic FOUR of Shortlist”, wishing you many more years at Shortlist!

Talasri Kotikalapudi

Talasri’s journey:
“The journey hasn’t always been easy, but it has been fantastic and full of opportunities that I’ll forever be grateful for. Last four years have gone by in a blur, and I have been fortunate to have had such an all-around involvement in product and services.
I am thankful to work for an organisation that walks the talk and inculcates its core values in everyday work. This makes me believe in the importance of my work and encourages me to put forth my best performance.”

What she loves about Shortlist:
“The culture, team coordination & support, flexible work hours and a very approachable leadership team made me stay back. But above all this, the person who has been a pillar of strength and has supported me all this while is, our CTO Sudheer Bandaru.”

Venkat Vemuri

Venkat’s journey:
“This organisation shares my core values. Here I learned how to be patient, how to relax, and most importantly, I started believing that good things take time. I love the progressive, open, forward-thinking nature of people here.

This culture is something that I’m incredibly proud of, and I tell my friends about it all the time. A real breakthrough for me was getting to know Sudheer Bandaru, the CTO at Shortlist and how comfortable he is in his skin.”

What he loves about Shortlist:
“Four years ago, a friend recommended me to work here. I had just changed my profile and felt positive that the organisation had taken a chance on me since this would be my first time in a QA role. Everyone here was extremely welcoming and friendly.

Tilak Tirumalanagaram

Tilak’s journey:
“I started as a Support Engineer, and now I am leading a team of engineers. Here I have worked on the latest architecture and technologies and worked with my first big client (i.e. KPMG). This entire experience has been nothing short of spectacular. Of course, the Diwali celebrations and cross-office interactions are a bonus.”

What he loves about Shortlist:
“Personally, utilising growth opportunities and climbing the ladder is the best thing one could do for their career. Switching companies in a short period is not ideal. At Shortlist, I got the platform to grow professionally, the opportunity to interact with the business team and product team directly while building applications.

The team culture, the emphasis on being a whole person, all of it has been a motivating factor that helps me feel connected with the organisation. Our CTO Sudheer and our Sr. Lead engineer Niranjan, both have been a fantastic presence in my life, and they always push me out of my comfort zone to realise my true potential.”

Over four years, I have seen the organisation grow and change. There has been a real shift towards a team management approach, and we have started putting our core values at the forefront of what we do. I’ve been part of this entire creative process we’ve gone through to get to the heart of who we are as an organisation. It is something that’s constantly evolving and changing – as it should.”

Niranjan Pujari

Niranjan’s journey:
“The whole journey has been a highlight. I joined Shortlist as a software developer, and today when I look back at these four years, I see a lot of learning, changes and upgrades. From a routine of 7-8 hours of coding to the time when I got to design and architect the solutions, I feel I have come a long way.”

What he loves about Shortlist:
“There is a plethora of reasons why one would change their job, be it the quality of work or the office culture, the supervisor or the money. With Shortlist, these reasons never existed.

Right from the work satisfaction to amazing office culture to money that justifies your skills, everything was taken care of and of course who could leave out the amazing manager. No sensible person would think of moving away from such an organisation.”


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