Recruitment is a Calling
Gita Winter’s career is a story of resilience, learning, and service. From early foundations in insurance to becoming a respected voice in recruitment professionalism, she has built a legacy that centres development, dignity, and creating pathways for youth and underserved communities.
I am born and bred African, and I grew up in a home where diversity was celebrated. I explored many religions, was encouraged to have friends from all walks of life, and was taught to be curious about the world.
I attended a multi-racial school before 1994 and spent many hours in townships with friends of other races. Those experiences shaped how I see people not as categories, but as human beings with stories.
My curiosity extends into music, food, and culture. I love travelling, meeting locals, trying new food, and listening to a wide variety of music. I also love working with my hands. I’ve tried painting, pottery, bread-making, gardening and in the last few months, woodworking.
I built two chairs from scratch that you can actually sit on. That matters to me, because it reflects how I approach life: learn, try, improve, build.
I was raised by a single mother after my father passed away when I was two. I witnessed dedication, perseverance, and adaptability every day. We didn’t have a lot, but we had everything. I learned early that true love is not about things.
It is about showing up, doing your bit, working hard, and remembering that you can help others even when you think you have nothing to give.
I’m proud of the values I inherited from an independent, smart, and caring woman I got to call Mom. And I’m proud to see my children living those values too of working hard, giving back without being asked, and striving to be better. Who could ask for more?
As a young person, I wanted to be a neurosurgeon. But I needed to rewrite Maths, so I took a gap year. During that time, I was offered a job at Liberty Life back in the days of Donald Gordon. I started working when computers were still relatively new, and accuracy and speed were far more manual.
I quickly realised those were strengths of mine, and I excelled in the early administrative roles I held.
Liberty encouraged innovation. We entered the Chairman’s Challenge and presented new ideas. At 19, this sparked my lifelong philosophy of continuous improvement and development. Quality customer service was not optional, it was part of our DNA. I still see those principles running through the way I work today.
“A lot can be fixed with a good attitude and duct tape.”
I moved through many areas of insurance across different companies, always challenging myself, always learning. Liberty took me back twice, and I’d like to believe my track record earned that trust.
Looking back, I realise I was more competitive than I admitted. Over those years I was nominated for and won a few awards. That drive has served me well, especially in recruitment, where consistency and excellence matter.
Another gift from those early years was mentorship. Liberty encouraged the development of people, and from my early twenties I mentored matric and early university students. That experience grounded my “leave no one behind” belief and laid the foundation for the work I still do with youth today.
Recruitment happened because of life. My path changed after the father of my children died by suicide when they were still very young. Suddenly I had to adapt fast, earn money quickly, and build stability.
Recruitment was an unexpected route, but it became possible because of the lessons I carried from my upbringing and my earlier career.
Over time, I came to understand recruitment as more than a job. It is a calling. It is a constant giving of yourself. It became the space where I could turn experience, core strengths, and hard-earned resilience into impact and meaning.
I am a firm believer in lifelong learning.
I have completed more short courses than I can recall. In recent years I completed CAPES Wits BMP and MDP, around nine HR certifications, project management, and facilitation qualifications. I’m awaiting results for Assess Learning, and I plan to complete Moderate Learning in 2026.
I hold and maintain an Individual Staffing Master designation from APSO, the highest professional designation in my industry and I was awarded the Career Development Practitioner designation from SACDA. This learning has given me a stronger industry voice, and I use it to advocate for the professionalism of recruitment.
It has also enabled me to contribute to the development of vocational qualifications alongside ServicesSETA, and to deliver employability workshops at tertiary institutions that trust me with their students.
Leadership arrived early for me. I was promoted early in my career, and later trusted to manage a team and a brand in recruitment. I built and managed an agency from the ground up and then did it again.
Since 2012, I have been involved in every vocational qualification in our industry in one way or another. I have mentored and taught many recruiters who have thriving careers today. That is deeply meaningful to me.
My work has also been recognised through awards and roles, including professional designations, service acknowledgements, nominations, and industry awards. But what I value most is impact that reaches beyond me. That is why I founded RecruitersCare in 2024.
RecruitersCare supports youth and underserved communities with employability skills and creates a platform for other recruitment professionals to give back. We also drive work clothing collections to support students and survivors of gender-based violence as they enter the workplace. For me, this is what legacy looks like: creating pathways, not just placements.
If I had to define my career legacy, it would be that, I want to be remembered for driving professionalism in recruitment and for building a platform that enables giving back to youth and underserved communities. I want people to believe they can make a difference, and to know that all of us have a role to play in building a better South Africa.
I have survived difficult seasons both personal and professional. I survived the early years of loss and instability. I survived the 2008 recession in recruitment only months after starting in the field. I rebuilt after leaving a partner in 2019 and built a sustainable business through Covid. I am still navigating a tough 2025 in recruitment, as many in the industry are.
Those experiences taught me that resilience is not something you plan for. It is something life demands, and you discover you have it by continuing anyway.
If I had to summarise my story in one sentence, it would be this: Recruitment lives in me, I breathe it, I build it, and I share it.
My mentors have come in many forms; early managers who shaped how I work, a team that keeps me grounded while giving my big ideas space, and an entire recruitment community filled with quiet heroes whose contributions are immense.
Above all, my family, my children, husband, and mother who support me, carry things when I’m studying, and give me the time to feed my soul through giving back. Without them, none of this would be possible.
Looking ahead, my vision is to see professionalism and compliance elevated in recruitment. I want recruitment to be respected like other professions, where the skills and advice of recruitment partners are valued.
I imagine an industry that moves beyond contingency recruitment into stronger models, with minimum requirements to operate, and a united effort to educate candidates and corporates. A profession that stands proud because remarkable people are invested in success.
