The Search Wizard: Finding Excellence Within
“Having to process a large number of candidates is not easy, I always have a dilemma that I may have missed out on a good candidate or the other. However, to ensure quality recruitment, I am very careful in reviewing each candidate and the actions and decisions being made.”
The person behind these words is none other than— Ma. Cecilia Encinares, Ripple VAs’ Chief Recruiting Officer.
Cecil is a graduate of Bachelor of Science in Psychology at the University of San Carlos and is now a VA of Ripple for more than ten months. Before she started her career in Ripple, she already had experience in recruitment for three years and an admin for a year in another corporate company.
“I applied for the position last year when the previous recruitment officer stepped down. I applied for this role because I believe that I can deliver what the management was expecting for this position. I have the experience, the character, the hunger to serve and the drive to continuously learn from experience and improve from my lapses. And I was glad when the role was indeed handed to me because I’ve always been in the recruitment field and it is something that I know I can do. I felt blessed and thankful the management trusted me and my ability to provide good service,” she noted.
As CRO, Cecil is responsible for the overall recruitment process of VAs. She receives the application emails consisting of the candidates resume and cover letter. She paper screens the applicants and has them fill out the google form. After complying, she reviews their information from the form and those that passed will be provided with test tasks corresponding to their skillsets. The test task will be carefully evaluated, those that showed a lot of potential will move to the next process which is the initial interview and final interview. Endorsement and providing email updates/results is the last part of her tasks. . Right now, the recruitment process is designed to have a lot of avenues for candidates to show their dedication to be part of Ripple and skills to provide to their future clients.
Despite the experience Cecil has, she still encounters hurdles and challenges as CRO. However, she makes sure to cope with those struggles and emerge victorious. According to her, the struggle she’s always facing is acquiring experienced/skilled VAs. “There are services that require specific experience and skills. In order to aid this struggle, we do job posting and job advertisement in LinkedIn and specific Facebook groups to tab targeted individuals”, she noted.
In her career, she sees Ripple as a symbol of a new chapter in her life. It represents her big leap of faith out of her comfort zone. Announced as the new CRO last year, it came as a surprise to her because she deems Ripple as a company with a lot of talented virtual assistants.
To give herself little breaks from her work, she likes to play Sims, draw, watch movies/series, and fangirls over the Korean boyband, BTS. But when she is back in her game as a CRO, she has specific hours to follow since she has three different schedules a day. She makes sure to create a to-do list for her clients. She also keeps an active communication with the applicants. “Once I commit to a goal, project, a simple agreement of a get-together or a situation, I always find myself following through or making sure I do my end of the agreement,” Cecil said. She sees herself as a committed and reliable person and this keeps her drive to live in the moment more — the moment for herself, for her family, and Ripple.
