In this episode, Tina Persson interviews Grażyna Żywot-Ciecierska and Ola Samuelsson, who are co-founders of a global company called GE Hunter. They are experts in headhunting, recruitment and client advisory. 

They have 20 years of international experience in finding talents for the pharma, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), medical,  industrial and more sectors.

Ola Samuelsson specializes in roles within Finance, Supply Chain, IT and Manufacturing, while Grażyna Żywot-Ciecierska’s expertise are roles within General Management, Sales, and Human Resources.

In the interview, the guests talk about the headhunting process such as identifying the most suitable candidates to the right companies and positions. This involves a well-structured process where candidates are coached to identify their interests and motivations. Finally, they match what candidates are looking for with the client’s expectations and vice-versa. 

At the end of the episode, they share important tips for PhD candidates who are looking for jobs:

1. Be passionate about your interests.

2. Be motivated.

3. Be yourself.

4. Be social and communicate frequently.

Are you in the job searching phase of your career?

If so, you should definitely listen to this episode and take these tips with you.

Enjoy the interview!

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TRANSCRIPT

Tina: Hi and welcome, this is Tina Persson, founder of the podcast PhD Career Stories. Welcome to this episode, it is indeed a very exciting one because I have two guests here and you know what, they are headhunters, real headhunters from Europe. We have Ola Samuelsson sitting in Barcelona, Spain, and we have Grażyna Żywot-Ciecierska sitting in Poland. So very welcome to my podcast! 

Ola: Thank you very much.

Tina: So, do you know what, I have followers here and I know from them that they are very curious about headhunters. So my first question is how did you end up in the headhunting business?   

Ola: Well, I have been in the business now for about 10 years, which is much less than Grażyna and my colleagues. Still I always had some kind of interest for this business and that (unclear) experience as being a candidate. And being a candidate to recruiters, I actually had many times a bad experience. There were times when I was approached and nothing happened and sometimes I was approached. We had an interview and I was quite excited and this was a very interesting project and then - silence, nothing happened. So I have always been thinking before I joined GE Hunter “this is an interesting business”, but also “we can do much better”. I think there's a lot of room for improvement, and I still think there are many players that are very professional and do a good job, but still there are also many who don't do the job as it should be, and I think that also contributes a bit for some bad reputation or skepticism towards the industry.

Tina: I think that's a wonderful drive you had actually because I remember, from those who listen here, I wasn't recruited about 15 years ago and that was my drive into the business, I applied for a job and I've felt misunderstood and they didn't come back to me, they didn't give me feedback so that also drove me into the business a long time ago. You have been in the business Ola for how many years?

Ola: Yeah, a bit more than 10 years, we started GE Hunter in 2010.

Tina: And Grażyna how did you end up in the business?

Grażyna: Thanks for this question because it's always good to have some kind of reflection on how things started. Actually I had the dream to combine my education and I have graduated from oriental studies. So I wanted to combine my general interest in people with my education, which means how can I maybe help people, how can I support people, how can I share my knowledge on some cultures to

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Releasedatum: 10-6-2022 09:00:23