People @ Personio – A Day in the Life of Annika, Junior Talent Sourcer

As a Talent Sourcer I am responsible for finding great people around the world to hire into our Product and Engineering teams. To do this I need to understand our hiring needs and priorities, create sourcing strategies, and build and manage talent networks. I also help document our findings and train new members of the team.

My Bachelor’s degree is in European Business and Psychology. I studied in Stuttgart, Germany and had the opportunity to gain some practical experience with Red Bull as a working student. There I planned communication and sales activities in a customer-facing role, which helped me realize that I wanted to focus my career around people.

I then went on to earn my Masters in International Business with a focus on HR and Brand Management. While studying I also held a variety of People and HR-related jobs with large corporations like Bosch and Daimler – very different environments than Personio!

Nearly every job I’ve had has helped me build the skills and knowledge that I use as a Talent Sourcer today. Even my experiences as a student at Red Bull overlap with my current role! There I was often somebody’s first touchpoint with the company, and it was my job to create that spark of curiosity so they’d want to continue learning about us. It’s the same here at Personio, but now that spark is about all the possibilities that a new job represents.

Funnily enough, I was sourced on LinkedIn by my now-manager, Steph! Before joining Personio I always struggled to find one specific path for my career, as I was interested in a lot of different things. My career up until this point has been a bit of trial and error. But what I did know is that I love working with people, helping them find their best fit and to shine in their role.

So once I found Personio (or Personio found me!), it all fell into place. I was immediately inspired by Personio’s culture, and the experience felt so natural from day one. Everyone I met gave such a good impression of the company. In German we have a saying that matches perfectly: "Gesucht und gefunden." It means, “Searched and found.”

My days usually start with a quick check-in with our international tech talent sourcing team over coffee and breakfast. The rest of the morning is catching up on my inbox and attending weekly meetings and 1:1s. After lunch is usually some project work, followed by more coffee (obviously), collaborating with my team to source more candidates, and setting myself up for success for the next day!

I often compare my jobs to a Sales role, but instead of selling Personio as an HR software solution, I’m selling it as a great place to work. My very favorite part is when a candidate gets truly excited about Personio during our initial screening call. I’m always tracking them in Personio as they go through the hiring process and cheering them on! It’s so rewarding to see my candidates find roles that are fulfilling and a good fit.

Other than that, I like that I really believe in what I’m selling – I don’t have to fake it. I believe in our business model and the quality of our teams, so it’s easy to be confident and honest when telling people about Personio.

My focus is on Product and Engineering, which is a very competitive space! Developers are often inundated with multiple emails and LinkedIn InMails every day, so it can be hard to stand out and provide convincing content. But you just have to keep at it and ultimately you find the right fit!

Without recruiting platforms like LinkedIn, StackOverflow, and AmazingHiring, I would be lost! Building talent networks is crucial for my success, and those platforms allow me to win over people immediately and connect with those who aren’t currently looking for a change but might be in the future.

And, of course, I use the Personio software to track our applicants along the hiring process. This is super important for maintaining transparency and collaborating with hiring managers. Slack and GSuite also help keep the communication channels open and tasks organised.

But the holy grail of tools is our master Hiring Plan spreadsheet that shows me all vacancies we need to fill. This holistic view helps me to fill the pipeline for all roles, and not just have tunnel vision on my focus roles. Of course I prioritize the roles I specifically need to fill, but it’s good to know all the open roles in case I stumble upon a perfect fit by accident.

And last but not least, our Talent Acquisition team and the hiring managers make my job possible. I rely on them to give me a solid understanding of what is required for each role, which is a key element.

Our value of #Teamspirit is lived out every day, as my team and Personio overall have a very supportive environment. I know I can rely on my teammates one hundred percent, and we have a lot of trust between us.

Beyond that, our principle of “Seek to improve” is shown in how we constantly learn from each other and provide feedback. This is very special – I have never experienced feedback sessions that can be so empowering and helpful before.

It always sounds so cheesy, but I feel like my daily motivation comes from my fellow Personios. It really is like working with good friends! The foundation of that is the support we give each other every day to achieve big goals, but without taking ourselves too seriously.

Sound like a role you could be interested in? Then you’re in luck! We’re growing our Talent Acquisition team – head on over to our Career page to apply!