WOMEN'S MONTH 2014 PORTRAIT # 1: Faith Solomon Helps People Have Better Stories

BY ERIKA

It is never easy going for a job interview, not the first time and not any time thereafter, even if you have done it a dozen times before.

And with the current job scarcity and large numbers of people applying for the same positions, how do you stand out from the crowd? How do you prevent your nervousness from destroying your chance to make the right impression?

Faith Solomon of Intelligent Placement in Gordons Bay’s can help.

PREPARE AND GAIN KNOWLEDGE

Faith’s mission is to make it easier, particularly for first-time job seekers, to be better prepared and to know what to expect from that dreaded job interview.

While her objective is to contribute to the success of the business that is hiring new people by matching  the right person to the right position, she is sees it as her mission to also assist work seekers, both experienced and those new to the world of work,  to achieve their career goals.

The Intelligent Placement team pays a lot of attention to fine tuning job seekers’ CVs, cover letters and honing their interviewing and networking skills to start building their career path.

Instead of only assisting people answering her ads, Faith actively invests in the Helderberg community by regularly presenting interview skills workshops free of charge to underprivileged young people.

She also hosts a 15 minute programme called Your Brilliant Career on Paarl’s local radio station, Radio KC during which she shares her knowledge about building a career rather than just finding a job and offers advice on how to search for work and how to market oneself during an interview

FAITH'S STORY

Faith was born in Boksburg, Gauteng but grew up and completed her schooling at La Rochelle Girls High in Paarl. 

“My parents sacrificed many things to afford me an education, she explains, “In many respects this has shaped my personality.

“I am tenacious in achieving success in all aspects of my life. I live by a philosophy of integrity and honesty and I get excited about empowering people and particularly, the youth to achieve their dreams.

“I want to give people a chance to have better stories.“

INTELLIGENT PLACEMENT'S STORY

Faith, who is married and has two young children, completed her International Travel and Tourism course in 1999 with a fully sponsored bursary.  

She started her own career working in the hospitality industry including in niche market hotels in Franschoek, then as a tour operator until she joined  the reservations department of Relais & Chateaux, Grande Roche.

 “Throughout my career I have been involved with training and development and later I branched out into recruitment and project management, still in the hospitality industry, for about five years before I was retrenched and I was forced to become a business owner.  

“After a day of crying and feeling that the world has come to an end, I did the normal thing of updating my CV and starting the work seeking process. But I just could not get myself to apply for any of the positions,” she recalls.

“I came to the conclusion that the time has finally arrived for me to do what I had wanted to do on so many occasions before - become an entrepreneur! “

This was June 2013 and by August of that year, Intelligent Placement was up and running and Faith needed a professional portrait and images for her website. 

That is when we met this dynamic woman with the big heart for her community!

So when we decided to tell the stories of some of the remarkable women in the Helderberg area for Women’s Month 2014, Faith was first on our list.

Thank you Faith for bringing knowledge and with it hope, to young people in our community. 




WOMEN'S MONTH 2014 PORTRAIT # 2: Merissa Slingerland's Art From The Heart