Check out Life @ 45 Degrees

Who are you? And what do you do at 45 Degrees?

Well, my name is Monika Marinkovska, I’m currently based in Skopje, Macedonia. Here I work as a recruitment consultant for FrontWise Group. FrontWise Group specializes in recruiting and has a staff of fifty professionals, each of whom is a subject-matter expert in their field. In May of this year, 45 Degrees joined my customer list.

My responsibilities as a recruitment consultant for 45 Degrees involve screening, choosing, and interviewing candidates for open positions, assisting people in finding and obtaining suitable employment, while developing a robust candidate pipeline. I multitask all day long, reading through piles of resumes, conducting interviews, and investigating candidates’ backgrounds. To succeed as a recruitment consultant, you must have excellent time management and organizational skills, strong intuition, and persuading abilities. At the end of the day, it’s about building a relationship – my goal is to build mutually beneficial relationships with clients and candidates.

How would you describe yourself in one word?

Amiable.

What led you to working with 45 Degrees?

Although I have a background in Italian language and literature, last year I made it my new year’s resolution to try new things and step outside of my comfort zone.  A friend of mine also worked in the recruitment scene and encouraged me that I would be a great fit as a recruiter. Especially considering my work experience in the customer service industry. Here I worked as a tour operator for several years. I love learning new things every day and meeting new individuals. This is how I ended up at FrontWise Group. 

The first month at FrontWise Group, they gave me an insight of what kind of client profiles there are. This is when 45 Degrees entered the scene, and I knew right once that it was right up my alley. So, after learning the ropes from FrontWise Group, I now focus mostly on finding Cloud Architects and Engineers to join 45 Degrees.

What’s your biggest challenge while searching for someone and contacting them? 

To keep them interested.  I was first a little hesitant to message individuals on LinkedIn, but now I send messages to about 80 to 90 people every week. It does take a lot of time, because I send them each a personal message based on their profile and interests. When they respond, I invite them to have a digital cup of coffee with me, and that is when the selection process starts.

I begin by giving the candidate a presentation of the company in an effort to get them excited about all there is to gain from this opportunity. After I have a chat with them, I determine whether they would be a good fit for the position. Then I try to take as much out of their hands as possible and plan an interview with Diederik (Wyffels) and the candidate. Of course, 45 Degrees still has the last call, but up till now I’ve been responsible for two hires. 

Are you ambitious?

To be honest, I never saw myself working in this industry. Since there is a lot to learn while looking for technical profiles, at first I was being cautious. You must be able to communicate with them in their language in order to understand whether or not they are a suitable match for the organization. I’m glad I took a leap and got into the recruiting industry. In the future I would like to work internally for a company in human resources and recruitment. This role would really suit me, considering I like to get more involved in the internal workings, would like to get to know more about the team, etc. 

Which profile is the perfect fit for 45 Degrees?

When I see a sparkle! (laughs) The most important part of the ‘perfect fit’ for 45 Degrees is whether they would fit into the 45 Degrees culture.  Of course, the fundamental educational prerequisites and professional experience are also necessary, but for Diederik (Wyffels), there needs to be a certain ‘click’.  And it’s my job to seek out these perfect ‘clicks’!