More Info Than My Résumé Can Provide

(To watch the rest of the video series I created, visit this page.)

If you'd like some really in-depth information about the kinds of People Ops responsibilities I've managed, including some great practical (situational) examples that will really give you a sense of what I'm capable of, you can browse through the tabs in my 'Google Sheet of People Ops Experience'.

And, if you'd like to just take a look at my résumé, you can do that here.

Finally, If you'd like to review a collection of written references that individuals with whom I've interacted throughout the course of my studies and career have kindly provided me with, then you can do so here.

This page is divided into the following sections: Qualifications; Career; My Approach to Work; and Volunteering.

Qualifications 🎓

Below, in reverse chronological order (from most to least recent), are the qualifications I have attained thus far.

In mid-2019, after 18 months of research, I proudly graduated with a Master of Business Science at the University of Cape Town (UCT). My research was qualitative, interview-based, and investigated the degree of generational transfer of brand loyalty in the Western Cape's FMCG sector. You can view my degree certificates here, and my ResearchGate profile here.

In 2016, I completed a Bachelor of Commerce Honors degree from the Independent Institute of Education (IIE) in 2016. The research I conducted during the course of my degree was quantitative in nature, survey-based, and related to the required characteristics of marketing graduates entering the South African retail industry.

I started off my full-time studies in 2013, and in 2015, I obtained a Bachelor of Commerce from the IIE in Cape Town, South Africa. During my time there, I was the Head of Student Representation, and was responsible for facilitating fluid communication between the student body and the university's management team. I chaired Council meetings, appointed Group Representatives, acted as the spokesperson for student concerns, and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the experience.

Career 🖥️

With around 10 years of experience (2 as an intern and 8 in a full-time capacity), in People & Culture, Operations, and Administration, I have a demonstrated ability to work independently and with others, work according to strict deadlines in fast-paced environments, and provide a wide spectrum of support to various team members and departments.

To get some great practical (situational) examples from my career thus far, please visit the comprehensive 'Google Sheet of People Operations Experience' that I created. Browsing through the tabs in that Sheet will give you a really detailed sense of what I'm capable of career-wise, in the People Operations / People & Culture space.

Below, in reverse chronological order (from most to least recent), are the roles I have held in my career thus far. The italicized, bold sections with upwards arrows (⬆️) indicate a major shift in my career.

Since mid-2024, after very happily moving permanently back to my home city of Cape Town, South Africa, I have worked as a People & Culture Specialist in an independent contractor capacity, while being in the market for a full-time role - ideally one in which I could use the People Operations skills, knowledge, and experience, as well as my natural "People person" personality, to support a local tech company in achieving their mission.

For my first client, RGX, a digital marketing company based in the United States, I worked fully remotely as part of a team of around 50 people from all over the world. For this client, I did the following:

• Built an entirely new hiring process to be implemented company-wide,
• Managed a month-long, very complex conflict resolution process, while at the same time building them a conflict resolution policy (which they never had before),
• Migrated them from their existing HRIS/ATS (Workable) to a new one I recommended (BambooHR), and
• Provided managers and leadership with advice regarding improving their overall culture - across all teams and regions - something that was very important to them.

I received excellent feedback for the projects I worked on, and gained some really valuable People Operations experience in that role.

During the first part of 2024, I happily and excitedly resettled back in my home city of Cape Town. I decided to move back to my birthplace for multiple reasons, including in order to regain my culture, my climate, and be able to once again have extremely valuable in-person quality time, spent with my loved ones, including my parents and best friend. After moving back, I began to develop a local People Operations and tech network I never had before. I also discovered how strong and awesome of a tech scene Cape Town has, and how many innovative, dedicated startups and established tech companies there are, with great cultures, based in my gorgeous home city.

Moved Permanently Back to My Home City of Cape Town, South Africa, and My People, and Continued Working in People Operations ⬆️

From 2022 to 2024, after moving to Edmonton, Canada (which has a great local tech scene), I served as Samdesk's People & Culture Coordinator. Samdesk is a global (Canadian-based), remote-first, diverse, innovative tech startup. The business works in the security space, and is incorporated in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, but operates and employs people in many more countries.

• I fulfilled the People & Culture function at Samdesk (and was the only one in a People-focused role amongst a team of 65 total individuals).
• In this role, I did, among other things, the following, with a high degree of trust and autonomy: 
• Managed and updated the entire hiring process, including working with Team Leads to discuss and plan their needs, recruitment, drafting and posting job ads, reviewing applications in our ATS (BambooHR), ranking candidates according to their suitability for the role and our culture (team- and company-related), communicating with candidates throughout the hiring funnel, screening applicants on calls, managing and hosting interviews for both role- and culture-fit, and making recommendations to Hiring Managers as to who should be hired and why,
• Onboarded all new team members, for all teams, from all around the world, including pre- and post-start date tasks, such as organizing equipment and checking for any necessary special accommodations, checking in on calls with new team mates during probation and reporting any necessary notes to senior leadership, and working with Team Leads to ensure the Success Plan and First Week documents that I updated significantly were sent on time, and that the company provided an overall excellent candidate experience to everyone who applied, regardless of whether or not they joined and/or remained with us,
• Coached and mentored Team Leads when they reached out to me for advice regarding matters such as issues relating to their reports' performance or cultural fit,
• Offboarded all team members, including conducting exit interviews for the purpose of learning how to improve future hiring processes iteratively, and reporting as well as to report any salient notes to senior leadership for discussion, and managing and hosting samster debrief meetings, which is a process I created where I checked in with managers after a team member left, to document learnings which would benefit us in future,
• Tracked compensation and benefits and worked closely with, and updated, the Finance Lead as required, in order to ensure that payroll went smoothly each month,
• Managed the annual Performance Review Process for the entire global, 65-person team (across all levels of seniority), ensuring everyone involved was informed, the process took place smoothly and timeously, conducted any relevant market research for compensation and benefits, and participated in negotiations with employees, as applicable,
• Coordinated employee benefit programs globally (such as for healthcare and stock options),
• Interpreted and explained relevant policies, and kept them up-to-date,
• Researched, interpreted, and made recommendations to leadership regarding local employment legislation in the regions in which we employed people and/or operated,
• Coordinated employee engagement initiatives, in order to maintain and improve upon our great culture (for in-person, hybrid, and fully-remote team members from many different regions and cultures),
• Administered key People systems, such as our HRIS (BambooHR), keeping sensitive employee data safely stored and up-to-date,
• Built structure, policies, procedures, and a great culture for all our samsters, and
• Provided support to my team for a variety of Operations-related responsibilities, as required, happily wearing many hats, as is the case at many startups. No task, even packing the office dishwasher if no one else had done it and I was the last one to leave the office, was "not my responsibility" or "outside the scope of my role" in my opinion, because we all worked as a team to achieve the same mission, and all wins along the way were mutual wins.

Emigrated to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to Work Overseas and Gain a Global Perspective in the People & Culture Space ⬆️

During 2021, while waiting to emigrate to Canada, I worked as Sunset Candles' Human Resources and Admin Coordinator. The business manufactures designer, home décor candles for global export markets. They had existed for around 30 years at the time I joined, and said they required an overall refresh and modernization. They had also never had anyone dedicated to the People Ops (HR) function at the company before.

• I provided recruitment and hiring support,
• Supported the employee lifecycle, including during onboarding, shift changes and promotions, and offboarding,
• Researched and stayed up-to-date on local employment legislation, advising the Co-Founders as necessary,
• Maintained, collated, and secured sensitive digital employee data,
• Organized cultural and wellness initiatives to build and maintain the incredibly caring company culture the Co-Founders had implemented from the founding of the company,
• Coordinated a project to create a new product classification system,
• Managed an online rebranding and photography project, and
• Provided ad-hoc executive assistance and administrative support to two extremely busy Co-Founders.
• This experience includes some more recent consulting.

Shifted to working in the People & Culture / People Operations (HR) space ⬆️

Having done a bit of work in People Operations in my prior role, and getting some advice from my trusted HR Manager (which was that she believed I would do well in the People/HR space), I realized that working full-time in the People field would be a fantastic blend of my people and administrative skills. Thus, I decided to use my transferrable skills from my prior work experience, and transition into the People Operations space. I was pleasantly surprised when I ended up finding it even more fulfilling than I expected. It's truly fantastic when you find a role and field that really suits you, personally and professionally. A role that makes you jump excitedly out of bed to tackle the next task or challenge. A role that utilizes your skills and personality and really allows you to show people what you're capable of and how you can add value to their mission. This is so important for every one of us to have, and my wish is that we all do.

From 2017 to 2021, I was Relocation Africa's full-time Marketing Specialist and Executive Assistant to the Managing Director. The company provides corporate relocations into and out of countries all around the African continent, and has immigration, research, remuneration, and expatriate tax divisions as well.

• I reported directly to the Managing Director, and was responsible for, among other things, the following:
• Managing all day-to-day marketing operations,
• Vendor relationship management,
• Tracking the marketing division's finances for budgeting purposes,
• Conducting brand audits,
• Doing valuable market research and competitor research,
• Developing strategies to support the business' growth in the international mobility market 
• Providing Executive Assistance to the Managing Director and Founder, including global travel management, call and email screening, minute-taking, and representing them in meetings they didn't attend, and
• Providing hiring and cultural event assistance for the Human Resources Manager. This is where my interest in shifting into the People Operations / People & Culture (HR) space piqued, and when I decided to make that move (which really paid off in terms of my being able to use my skills and personality, and be happier and more fulfilled in my roles).

Continued Working in a Full-Time Capacity, and Began Doing My Master's Degree ⬆️

Thereafter, during 2016 and 2017, I worked full-time as a Junior Campaign Manager for Hitch Digital, a digital advertising agency in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town.

Finished my Undergraduate Honors Degree and Began Working in a Full-Time Capacity ⬆️

During the entire 2016 year, I was also the head of the Communications Hub for the Marketing Association of South Africa.

I worked as a Strategy and Research Intern for W5 Partners, a business development consultancy, for the first half of 2016.

I actually began my career while I was still studying, during my 2014 to 2015 summer holiday. I noticed that there were no mandatory practicum components as part of any of the major commerce degrees on offer, and took it upon myself to gain practical work experience before entering the industry full-time. I worked as an Intern in the Loyalty Team for Woolworths Holdings Limited, one of South Africa's largest retail companies.

And that's it! My entire career history thus far, in reverse order. If you've read this far, you've already learned a fair bit about what I've done, but remember, there's my 'Google Sheet of People Operations Experience' that will provide you with much more detailed practical (situational) examples from some of the roles I've mentioned here. I highly recommend you browse through the tabs in that Sheet if you really want to learn more about what I'm capable of.

I've been fortunate enough to have worked with many fantastic people, and also to have worked as part of company cultures that align directly with my personal values. That's a really big bonus, and has allowed me to really have buy-in, and become an advocate for the company cultures I've been a part of thus far.

I have learned so much already, and I'm even more passionate now than I was when I moved into the People Operations/People & Culture space. Onwards and upwards!

If you'd like to keep up-to-date with my career developments, feel free to follow me on LinkedIn by clicking here or using the button below. I'd love to connect with you there!

Follow Me on LinkedIn

My Approach to Work ⬆️

I strongly believe in being tactful when getting to know my fellow team members, suppliers, and business partners. I also think it's important to immerse myself in my company's culture, and employ an attention to detail that ensures my work aligns with the business' goals and values. I carry both of these approaches with me wherever I go.

I'm well acquainted with managing a diverse range of responsibilities in a busy work environment, and having to prioritize and manage my own tasks, with strict deadlines, and without supervision. While I work well in teams and enjoy collaborating on projects, I have had to spend a significant amount of time working independently as well. I've done both fully remotely, as part of a global team. I take pride in my communication (both written and verbal) and interpersonal skills, and enjoy relationship building, both inside and outside the workplace. I have been told I have a calming nature during times of chaos/stress, consider my words carefully, take confidentiality seriously, and have a professional yet open demeanor.

If you'd like some examples of how my particular approach to work has impacted the projects I've worked on, or just generally influenced the effectiveness of the roles I've been in during my career thus far, I recommend you browse through the tabs in my 'Google Sheet of People Operations Experience'.

I list the tech platforms I've worked with and my soft and hard skills on this page, and have shared information about a number of work-related projects I've led or been a part of in the past few years, and their impact on my workplace, on this page. You can view a PDF of my résumé by visiting this page.

Volunteering 🐶

I believe that life involves not only receiving, and working towards your own goals, but also giving, and helping others achieve their goals. We all have causes that are special to us, for various reasons. And that's fantastic! I believe we should put effort into supporting those causes, not just financially (if possible), but also by giving our time.

Through active participation, we can really make a difference with the societies and institutions we support achieving their respective missions. And so, over the past 17 years, I've thoroughly enjoyed doing just that.

Below, in reverse chronological order (from most to least recent), are the various volunteer positions I have held thus far.

For a number of years now... to my recollection, since around 2019, I have volunteered with the Oscars Arc WOOF Project, which is a dog adoption organization. The Project not only has an adoption center in Cape Town's Foreshore, but it innovatively stations mobile dog adoption centers around the city, so that members of the public who happen to be passing by can come along and interact with the dogs who are up for adoption, getting to meet them, and discover their very different, but all special and unique, personalities.

• I have spent quality time with the dogs (adults and puppies) at the WOOF Project pop-up adoption sites around Cape Town.
• I've walked the adult dogs in various areas, including Constantia and Sea Point.
• I've put time and effort into managing the organization's LinkedIn page, to increase their exposure in the broader public.

From 2019 to 2022, I was a volunteer for the International Social Marketing Association (iSMA). As part of the Communication Team, I started off as iSMA's Website Coordinator, and, along with another volunteer, was responsible for designing and developing the iSMA website through WordPress, reporting to the Board of Directors. From March 2021, I became iSMA's Web Manager, taking over all web responsibilities. Among the contributions I made are:

• I was responsible for the management of all of iSMA's web-related matters.
• I frequently participated in content strategy and member acquisition meetings with iSMA management. 
• I also managed and edited the volunteer blog submissions for the website.
• You can view my iSMA Volunteer Spotlight here.

From mid-2017 to early 2019, I volunteered with Vumatel, a local fiber network operator (FNO), as part of their fiber roll-out across my city.

• My role involved educating local communities about the technology - online and at town hall meetings, in order to facilitate positive interactions between stakeholders - residents, Vumatel, and the municipality (the City of Cape Town).
• Before and during this time, I also advocated heavily for Vumatel to roll out fiber across my neighborhood.

Throughout 2016, I was the Lead of the Marketing and Communications Hub for the Marketing Association of South Africa (MASA). As part of this volunteer role:

• I was a Team Lead and Head of Project Strategy, and reported directly to MASA's Strategic Partnerships, Events, and Communications Manager.
• My responsibilities included developing strategies with the goal of growing MASA's student membership base,
• Organizing workshops, campus visits, and Student Engage sessions,
• Providing Marketing Communication, Project Management, and Operations support,
• Contributing towards MASA's social media presence, and
• Contributing towards the organization's corporate partnership planning.

For over 11 years now, early 2013 since I have been a volunteer editor for the Wikimedia Foundation, and have been contributing towards articles and uploading content to the Commons for over 11 years now, since early 2013.

• During this time, I have made over 1,600 accepted contributions to the exceptionally valuable, globally-available body of Wikipedia knowledge/
• I've also created 10 brand new pages from scratch, significantly updated 20 pages, and uploaded around 50 freely licensed images to Wikimedia Commons, many of which I took myself while traveling around Cape Town and other cities.
• As a result of my efforts, I was selected as a Wikipedian in Residence for OpenAfrica15, which supports Open Advocates in Wikipedia outreach activities.

During 2007, I volunteered in a general capacity at the Cape of Good Hope Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). As part of this role:

• I spent valuable quality time with the puppies,
• Fed the dogs,
• Assisted with showing prospective adopters around the grounds, and
• Performed various administrative tasks.