“Is recruitment something for me?” – that’s the question many people are asking themselves when considering a career in HR. Magdalena Mijal, a recruiter at Talent Place, talked about her beginnings in the Community, looking for her own path and her flexible approach at work.
What was your career path like before you came to Talent Place?
I joined Talent Place in college, so I didn’t have much work experience. I supplemented my student life with various odd jobs. For example, I was a Zumba® Fitness instructor. At some point, I joined Talent Place and it is here that I continue my career path all the time. So you could say that recruitment is kind of my first serious job.
Why did you decide to join the Talent Place Community?
I studied in Gdansk while living in Rzeszow, so I travelled a lot – actually all over Poland. That’s why I was looking for a flexible work that I could do remotely. I was a psychology major, so I figured I’d look for something related. Yes, you could say that the recruiting profession was part of my educational path, as I studied, among other things. the specialisation of organizational management and recruitment and HR are related to this. That and the remote work is what really drove me and made me decide to join Talent Place. At first, I treated it as a side job. It was supposed to be temporary, like other casual jobs, but over time I found that I settled in here and stayed for the long term.
What concerns did you have about joining the Recruiter Community?
To be honest, I had very high concerns. That’s because I was afraid of being… a recruiter at all. For me, it was such a “backup” and “for a while” path. I wasn’t sure if I would find myself in it. All my friends in college told me that recruiting was a super job, but I wasn’t 100% convinced. Many colleagues worked in HR and were happy with this choice, so I thought that since so many people praise this profession, I would give it a try. But I totally didn’t feel it, I admit. I asked myself: is this really something for me? And later I was strongly surprised because I really liked the job in recruitment. I came across cool people in the company, I also liked the contact with the candidates, the fact that you can talk to them, learn about their motivations and help them get their dream job. There is something happening all the time, something new. I always thought I had a detective mind. And it is very helpful in finding candidates! So working as a recruiter turned out to be an ideal choice for me. This is an example of flexible working in recruitment.
How long have you been at Talent Place and what was your path in the Community like? What has changed since you’ve been working here? What tasks did you do first and what do you do now?
I have been at Talent Place for almost four years now. At the very beginning I did typical sourcing, that is, I searched for candidates – on LinkedIn, Facebook and other portals, and based on that I got recommendations. Later, I joined the internal recruitment team for a while and was in charge of recruiting people to join our internal structures at Talent Place. I then returned to sourcing, except that this time I also handled the telephone contact with candidates. Now, I have been contacting both candidates and clients directly for some time. I mainly deal with SSC / BPO projects, but also carry out engineering projects, for the photovoltaic industry, and sales.
What does your workday look like?
In fact, there is no such typical workday at my place. I tried, in the beginning, to learn to operate in a regular, consistent way – get up, eat breakfast, drink coffee and do one pre-planned task at a time, but it totally failed. I work flexibly (I am committed to flexibility in my work), and adjust to different meetings – internal within the team, with clients or at least for interviews with candidates. In fact, the availability of candidates has always been the biggest problem on such a “regular” work day. It’s not surprising, after all, that candidates work, study, and have different jobs, so they couldn’t always talk during the hours I initially set up. I had to switch to a flexible approach to work, switch from such a “typical” 8 am-4 pm day and work out the whole system all over again. It turned out that I fit perfectly in such a model, and today I can’t imagine going back to the typical “full-time” approach to working time. Sure, there are fixed points in the day where, for example, I have time scheduled for sourcing or meetings with the team, but meetings with candidates, for example, take place differently – very often I intersperse such “fixed” duties with dynamic ones. I don’t like boredom either, and when I think about it like this, if I had to do the same thing all the time, at the same time and with the same people, I would quickly become bored and discouraged.
What does working at Talent Place give you? What kinds of things do you particularly appreciate?
First of all, the aforementioned flexibility at work and the fact that I can go to different places – whether for work or vacation. With work-life fit, I travel often and can combine this with work. I also have as much time for loved ones as I need. This is very convenient and something I appreciate about working with Talent Place. And also that I can join a variety of projects. I have specific goals and actually focus on achieving them. However, if at some point I feel that I would like to do something different, from a different industry, for a different client… I know I can do it. The moment I think it would be worthwhile to carry out another project, I have the opportunity to do so. I appreciate this approach at Talent Place, because sometimes getting away from the projects you do every day for a while and going “into a different industry” for a moment helps to clear your mind and later you come back with a new vigour for action, with fresh ideas. Also, thanks to the fact that I can switch between projects, and change and adapt them to my needs, there is always something going on and I can’t complain about boredom at Talent Place.
What value do you see in a community like Talent Place?
First of all, the fact that it can be both a side job and a permanent source of income. With flexible working in recruitment, you can actually join the in-house HR team, or just do sourcing, or deal with candidates or clients. There is a lot of diversity, and this is the greatest value in Talent Place. There is no single path and one beaten pattern, but you can do multiple tasks at different times. I can juggle my tasks and adjust their number and degree of involvement to what I need at the moment.
To whom would you recommend working at Talent Place?
In fact, I would recommend working at Talent Place to anyone who wants to try to enter the HR industry and like flexible work. Because it’s a job for both busy people who only have a little free time and would like to add to the household budget, as well as for those who want to work full time. There are projects that require less commitment and those few hours a week are quiet enough to complete them and earn extra money. But Talent Place is also a good place for someone who would like to do full-time recruiting. Even if there is not much experience at the moment, there are many things to learn with the support of the Community.
To a large extent, this work teaches motivation, a certain doggedness, and the fact that a self-developed path is a chance to grow on your own terms. I, too, think that due to the fact that I had to develop my working style, I stayed in the Community. If I had a top-down path imposed on me, with specific patterns to which I had to conform, I would probably burn out quickly. And yes, I have tried it myself, tested different solutions, and I know that recruitment is something for me. That’s why I highly recommend working at Talent Place to people who value such flexibility at work.
Also find out what crowdstaffing and work life fit are.
