I have worked at Starion for 4 years as an International Recruiter. I am based in our office in Darmstadt, Germany but I recruit people for positions across Europe.
What’s your role?
I’m an International Recruiter for Starion Group. I’ve been working from our office in Darmstadt in Germany for 4 years, but I’m involved in recruiting staff for positions across Europe.
What’s a typical day in your working life like?
I spend a lot of time on the phone talking to job applicants and to people who I have reached out to directly as part of our ‘active sourcing’ approach. These calls include screening calls to see how candidates’ experience aligns with our vacancies.
I typically work on anything from five to eight vacancies at any one time, which can be in any division of the company. I tend to focus on roles in Germany because I’m based here, so this involves filling many vacancies for the European Space Agency’s European Space Operations Centre (ESA ESOC) and EUMETSAT (the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, whose headquarters is in Darmstadt). However, I also often work on filling vacancies for our teams in the UK, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium etc, which are a mix of internal roles and roles based within our customers’ offices.
I’m responsible for the whole recruitment process, from the initial “kick-off meeting” with the hiring manager (to allow me to gather relevant information about the role) through to screening and speaking to applicants, negotiations on T&Cs and submission of CVs to the business or the client. I also meet regularly with the Recruitment team – this is online as they are mostly based in our Wavre office in Belgium – and we collaborate very well together.
My days are a mix of tasks as I will always have recruitment campaigns at different stages. It’s never boring!
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I love the variety of different roles I get to work on – we are responsible for recruiting staff to work on some really interesting projects and bids.
What has been your most memorable career achievement?
Switching to recruiting in the space industry when my husband and I moved to Germany was a big challenge for me. On a personal level it has been very satisfying to be the top performing recruiter on my team for the past 2 years!
Do you have any tips for people trying to get jobs in your area of expertise?
Recruiters can come from many different educational backgrounds – it’s flexible. My qualifications are in HR management, for example, but some of my teammates come from a psychology or business background.
A key point is that to be a good recruiter you have to be able to communicate extremely well. You also need to be able to ‘read’ people and read between the lines because making sure someone’s personality will fit is just as important as their technical qualifications.
How do you wind down?
I like to read my book with a glass of wine at my favourite wine bar in Darmstadt – conveniently located very close to the office!