​Meet the VWA Team – Rosa

As Recruitment Consultants, the VWA team spend A LOT of time asking other people questions. We are naturally curious beings and this is why we love what we do!

We use our honed interview techniques to really get to know our clients’ companies, cultures and ethos and we listen carefully to our candidates so we can advise and match the right talent with the right companies.

Continuing our Meet the VWA Team series, it’s time for Principal Consultant Rosa to jump in the hot seat.

​What is your role at VWA and how long have you been part of this awesome team?

I’m a Consultant on the permanent desk now. I started on the temp desk in 2001.

Can you please briefly describe a day in the life of a VWA Consultant?

As a Consultant, there is a lot of reaching out to candidates and quickly building relationships with them, as well as being “on call” for clients when they need anything. There is a fair amount of talking to clients taking briefs, writing briefing emails for candidates and speaking to them, setting up interviews and sending confirmations.

Next, I set up video calls and take feedback from candidates and clients, wrapping it up nicely and passing it on to the other side. I spend time interviewing, writing up candidates, logging things on the database.

Then there’s negotiating salaries while keeping both sides’ interests in mind, and also not being walked over in terms of the fee I take.

I spend a lot of time on the phone and leaving messages, so it can mean that after work, I just want silence!

What is your favourite thing about your job?

Probably making the job offer to a candidate, and booking a placing in our systems.

What is your least favourite thing about your job? Careful ha ha!

Ad response!

What were you doing before you joined VWA?

I worked for Excite Europe, an internet search engine, in marketing.

That’s enough of the work questions. Let’s find out more about the non-working you!

Do you have a favourite restaurant in London?

Not really, but in Lisbon it’s probably O Velho Eurico. It’s hard to get in, they don’t have a telephone and they don’t take in-person bookings so you have to know the secret email address to make a booking, and it always takes a few weeks to get in. Once there, it’s delicious food and not even expensive.

Can you please describe your perfect Sunday?

I’d rather describe my perfect Saturday! They are more interesting tbh! I get up early (although that’s not my favourite thing at all), hitch a ride to the stables, get on Molinero “my” horse and go for a nice long ride with friends, for example around the Serra de Arrabida, followed by a glorious lunch in Azeitao. Then back to Lisbon late afternoon and have supper with girlfriends or relax at home.

Which is your favourite season and why?

The warm ones. Spring or summer? T Shirt weather, flowers, blue sky, sunshine…

Dog? Cat? Neither?

Both actually, but if I had to choose, dog. I wasn’t allowed cats at home as they eat the songbirds, but we always had labradors and terriers, and my last dog was Magic, a spaniel-type. It nearly broke my heart to leave her in Germany when I moved to Portugal, but I found a fantastic new home for her with a dedicated lovely family, and she is happy stealing sausages off the barbeque there.

If you could jump on a plane to anywhere in the world today, where would you go?

Actually I am jumping on a plane to Lisbon and it’s where I wanna go! Next up would be Argentina to discover Patagonia, ideally from the back of a Noricollo horse!

Do you have any special talents?

I can whistle pretty loudly when required. A vital skill when you’re growing up in the countryside. It’s useful when Tori needs silence to make a speech.

What is your favourite cocktail/mocktail?

I recently had a really good Moscow Mule, although living in Portugal, I usually default to wine.

Do you have a favourite movie?

I think it’s still Rabbit Proof Fence, even though it’s heart breaking, followed by Aristocats.

Do you have any hobbies?

You’ve probably realised that I like riding. I also like discovering places and connecting people.

What was the last TV box set you binged on?

I enjoyed La Legge de Lidia Poet – The Law According to Lidia Poet.

Do you have anything you’d like to learn? For example DJ’ing or a musical instrument? Karate? Line-dancing?!

I’d love to be an Osteopath maybe. Or a Chiropractor. I know it probably won’t happen, I also think it would be useful to be better at sewing, but I don’t have the patience.

Finally, do you have a fun fact that might surprise us about you?

Hmmm when I was little I had over 20 pets including chickens, love birds, a chinchilla and desert mice, a pony and dog and I wrote an illustrated encyclopedia about horses with my ink pen.