An ambitious Commerce and International Business Graduate, Patrizio had been working in Customer Service at a Swimming School when he decided he needed a career change. One of his mentors recommended he join Weploy and his first position was within Slack - one of the World's fastest growing tech companies. Read more to learn how Patrizio gained confidence and accessed opportunities he never had before through the platform.  

My Background

At university I studied a Double Degree, so I did a Bachelor of Commerce, and then I did a Bachelor of Arts with an Honours year as well. My first job was working as a Swimming Instructor. There was definitely a lot of opportunities to grow within the company and work on things outside of the classes. So I moved into a customer-service role where I was sitting at reception, and then I got a job as the shift supervisor as well. I found it really rewarding but after six years in the industry, it was time to move on and find something else.

I was looking for full-time work and although I felt confident in my soft skills and Office Admin experience, I didn't really know where I was going, or even what job to start looking for too. I found it quite hard navigating jobsites like Seek where you need to know what actual role titles to be able to type in.

The Employment Landscape 

The traditional recruitment landscape is difficult. You apply for so many jobs and you never hear back from anyone. I found it to be really impersonal. I have a very Italian name, and after so many knock backs, I began to wonder if my name was creating some kind of barrier I wasn't aware of before the interview stage. I started to question if people were dismissing my CV or cover letter because they saw my name was foreign and assumed they would have to sponsor me. I am Australian with Italian parents, but nevertheless - I felt strongly that I should be being considered on my skills and abilities, over my perceived background. 

The Weploy Solution

So one of the biggest things that attracted me to Weploy was that it came out of this realisation that there are barriers in Australia for people who might come from different cultural backgrounds. The onboarding process was smooth and friendly, and when I had gotten through, I felt really welcomed into the community. The coolest thing is that jobs come to you, based on what your skills are, and then you're able to accept or reject and just go try them out to assess whether it's a good fit or not. The opportunities are fair for everyone on the platform and it enables people like me to just get there and demonstrate how good I am right away. It seems like a far better process than traditional hiring, where I may pass through 10 different people only for 1 to decide I might not be the right fit from one word on my cover letter, or the school I went to. 

The Weploy Experience 

I was placed in a Reception role at Slack that was initially a contract for 6 months, which was then extended for another 6 months. After working with the team for a year, I was then invited to apply for a full time role as Workplace Coordinator, and I got the job! So already in the last 12 months, I had grown from having basically no Corporate Office experience, to being placed into an Office Coordination role, at one of the fastest growing business software companies of all time. The experience really enabled me to understand that there is huge opportunities for growth as a Weployee, and you can develop skills and hands on experience that can take you to a lot of different places. 

The Future of Work

 For people who aren't sure of what their "calling is" like I was - platforms like Weploy are the Future. Candidates today need to find something they actually have the passion for, because that comes through when it comes to applying.  Working as part of a platform like Weploy means candidates can be placed in multiple different jobs and experience different industries, teams and roles or whatever it might be. I think that's really helpful because then you can sort of get a taste test or mini internship and start to figure out what it is you're looking for in you career. I probably wouldn't have had access to the role I have now if it wasn't for Weploy.