I work in the People & Culture team for Lightspeed. My role is Talent Acquisition Coordinator for APAC (Asia-Pacific), and it’s my responsibility to support and improve how our company attracts new hires and selects them. Generally, I provide consistent, centralized support to our APAC Talent Acquisition team in order to help keep Lightspeed’s hiring processes flowing smoothly and ensure we’re recruiting and retaining the best employees. I also coordinate employer branding initiatives for Lightspeed, this involves marketing our company to job seekers and internal employees to attract top talent. It’s really important that Lightspeed hires people who are passionate and eager to grow, so the way we present our company plays a huge part in what kind of talent we’ll receive. Lightspeed is an awesome place to work, and my job is to make sure we’re constantly spreading the word!
I was born and raised as a proud Pacific Islander in Mangere, Auckland. I attended Holy Cross Catholic Primary (the best school in Auckland!) and moved on to St Mary’s College and then Marist College. At Marist College, I was given the opportunity of being an NZ Youth Ambassador for the Battle of Passchendaele Centenary held in Belgium. This opportunity allowed me to travel to various countries alongside the NZ Defence Force to hold ceremonies, speak on behalf of NZ Youth and meet some pretty cool people, including Prince William! After school, I enrolled at the University of Auckland to study Bachelor’s degree in Commerce majoring in Marketing and Management. Following my three years of uni, I completed an internship with Amazon Web Services, after that internship, I found that Lightspeed had an open role for a job that I hadn’t had too much professional experience with, however, I was very keen to learn and grow, this helped to secure my role at Lightspeed. I have now been working with Lightspeed for just over a month and I am absolutely enjoying it!
Absolutely! Having great management, organisational and communicative skills is helpful for this role but the main thing someone would need when wanting to work in this role is the willingness to learn. Some aspects in this role are constantly changing and every day is different, so being easily adaptable to changes and having an eagerness for growth is a huge bonus!
Everyone at Lightspeed supports each other and will help out wherever needed, even if it’s not necessarily in the scope of their own role. Apart from the endless benefits Lightspeed offers (flexible working hours, the choice to work from home/in the office, unlimited annual leave, yearly $500 health & wellness benefit and many more!), I would say the most exciting thing involving my role would be hiring someone overseas and giving them the opportunity to relocate. Lightspeed also searches for talent overseas, and for most, this opportunity is an extraordinary achievement and is truly life-changing. It’s very cool that my team can offer this to many people and change their lives.
My job is very flexible, there are no set times to clock in and out, there is not a huge amount of pressure being placed on workers and there is no need to worry about weekend work. As long as I make sure my work and tasks are completed for the week, I can enjoy leisure time with family and friends.
My interview process was quite different to what I’ve usually experienced in the past, however, it was very smooth and enjoyable. I had an initial interview with my manager, this was where I was asked about my general experience and skills. I then progressed forward to a second interview with two people from Lightspeed, this is where I dug deeper into past experiences and tried to show why I was a perfect fit for the role. After this interview, I was given a take-home assessment to complete which consisted of tasks I would undertake if given the role. This task allowed me to exhibit my skills and secure my role.
If you love working with people and would like to get into HR, this would be an awesome job to start with, it really gives you insights into different types of HR roles and isn’t too demanding. It’s great for an entry role into HR and will provide many opportunities along the way, both professionally and personally.
Lightspeed focuses heavily on DEI, and is always looking for more ways to incorporate it into our work. It’s also really awesome to see that they are keen to hire more people of Pacific Island/Maori descent to expand our diversity in the workplace. Lightspeed partners with Tuputoa to offer internship programmes for Pacific/Maori tertiary students, and Lightspeed will soon be taking part in Prosple & Tuputoa’s Maori/Pacific Island Careers Fair hoping to attract more of our talented beautiful brown people.