What we do and What’s Different?

“So what do you do again?” is a question that I get asked a lot, in person and online. It’s quite normal to wonder considering I had the same question too when I was interviewing for the job.

But to be put simply; our job is somewhat similar to those of a telephone operator’s. But you may wonder, how is that so and where does the community part come in then? I’m hoping this blogpost entry will be able to answer some of the questions that people might have, consciously and subconsciously.         

So, let’s get into the questions:

1. What is a “Community Specialist” ? What do you do?

This function is specific to Wahl+Case, which is uncommon in the industry. Our focus is built into scouting; which would be reaching out to potentials (those looking for a new opportunity and those that might seem interested in market information) and building a ‘community’ from that in which we hope to provide long term value to. We also manage the job postings on multiple platforms to generate or redirect inbound traffic.

2. How are you different from a consultant?

We are more candidate centric. This means that most of our interactions are with those registered on platforms like LinkedIn and more, versus meeting enterprises and hiring managers. 

We do however, join our consultants for their client meetings but our purpose usually differs as it becomes a chance for us to understand what profiles the client is ideally looking for and to share our feedback and expertise with the market as we are constantly viewing profiles and reaching out to people. 

3. How can you help? What is the benefit then?

Unlike the usual recruiter experience of getting instant pitches over the phone for a specific field, the community team will introduce you internally to a larger number of recruiters thus widening the scope in which you can challenge yourself based on what you are interested in. This will also mean that there will be multiple points of contact but as our consultants also work in teams, information is shared across teams as well.

So what do I gain from speaking to someone from the community team?

Pros: Beneficial for people looking to do something outside of what they are currently doing, or for those unsure with what they’d like to do next. Consultants usually reach out to specific people based on their experience and if it matches the opportunities they’re working on, but we like to try those that are unsure as well.

Cons: However, we are also often disregarded by those used to the regular recruitment process. I’ve had many experiences where people would ask for job descriptions from me, in which I would ask if they would be open to speaking first so that we can send more relevant information but never hear back. 

This is of course, completely fine as we’d like to respect decisions made but I’d like to think of this as an opportunity to discuss what you would like to try and see if it would be feasible rather than have the same kind of opportunity come without a challenge or difference.

I personally enjoy this job as I’ve learned many things from speaking to the people I’ve reached out to and it brings me much joy when I end a call with someone with a good feeling and they end up finding a new challenge through us as well.

Please feel free to reach out to us at any point and we’d be happy to help out! :)

If you like our content, join our mailing list and receive our latest startup stories, market insights and job trends for Japan’s tech market.

More From Us

Sam Chen
Team Leader | Community Team

LinkedIn