People @ Personio – Recruiting stories with “The Julians”

Julian S.: I started my career in Headhunting and afterwards worked for a digital consultancy/agency for many years. My last role was Strategy Consultant for Product & Experience.

Julia B.: Started my career in a top management consultancy with a focus on Campus Recruiting & Talent Retention, so meeting young talents early on and cultivating them for a career as a consultant.

Julian S.: Personio is a great combination of both worlds. A company with great culture on the inside and a great impact on the outside.

We enable better organizations by providing an amazing tool that makes every employee’s life better. As someone coming from the HR world, trust me when I say I know the downsides of having to use bad tools.

Regarding our roles in Talent Acquisition, our day-to-day business involves navigating the waters of hypergrowth. That means we are in an ever-challenging environment that allows us to constantly foster new ideas, and this creates a very open-minded atmosphere where I enjoy working.

The hypergrowth represents a big challenge for every team. However, by helping Personio to bring more top talents on board, we have a direct impact on enabling the growth of the whole company. That’s the kind of impact I’m most excited about with this role.

Julia B.: What I love about being in Talent Acquisition is that you meet so many extraordinary talents, listen to exciting life stories, and ultimately have a huge impact on personal career stories – e.g., the story of our colleagues Max & Alex who moved from Canada to Munich (check our their relocation story here), which I find just beautiful and I love the fact that I was able to play a role in it 😇

For me, it’s also super important which company I am working for; I can only inspire people to join a company that I truly believe in. At Personio, I love our product, our mission, and the exciting times ahead.

Julian S.: I was expecting to combine the knowledge I gained while working in Product Teams and my past experience in Talent Acquisition for a TAM role focusing on Product & Engineering recruiting. The strategic approach of a consultant role can be perfectly adapted to hiring. Also, I liked the opportunity to be our own biggest customer and therefore be able to have an impact in the way the overall Personio product shapes itself by being in the team that first tests features to improve the user experience.

Julia B.: I was expecting the possibility and the open-mindedness to share knowledge, bring in ideas, roll my sleeves up, and tackle challenges. Also, more chaos and less structure (comparing my previous nearly 100 year-old company to Personio, a 5 year-old company), but the same drive, energy and smart people. My expectations were definitely met, and it’s not chaotic at all.

Julia B.: I signed my contract three weeks before the first lockdown. When the pandemic hit my first thought was “Oh no! Now I am moving from a safe job to probation time, 600km away from home”. You can imagine how touched I was when our Director Talent personally called me to transparently talk about Personio’s situation and assured me that I do not need to worry. I wasn’t even an employee yet, but I was already treated with the same consideration. So there you go -my first “wow” moment! After that, the onboarding process was super smooth and very well organised.

Julian S.: I of course also felt some uncertainty when planning to switch jobs in the middle of a pandemic. But Personio made it clear from the very beginning that they were keen to onboard us soon and that there would be work waiting for us. After my start, I quickly realized that Personio could be the safe harbor for many people affected by the pandemic, and it was great to be able to offer people a safe workplace that allows them to thrive. The onboarding itself was of course tougher than it would be onsite with Zoom calls all day. But I felt so welcomed from the very first call on that it didn’t matter at the end. We had many breaks in between the onboarding sessions with remote coffee chats where I had the opportunity from day one to connect with amazing people and start building up my network with some colleagues that I now call friends.

Julia B.: That “Personio moment” happened during my interview process: I was invited to the Munich office and was offered a stay the night in a nearby hotel. In this hotel room Personio branded socks were waiting for me, and at first I thought someone forgot some socks in my room (haha), but when I took a closer look I realized that they were Personio socks.That made me think “Wow, they thought of everything!”

Julian S.: I have “Personio moments” every week. My last one was just a few days ago: I was at the traffic light with my (branded) Personio UNU Scooter. A scooter driver next to me looked at it and asked if I worked there. When I said yes, he simply replied: “Super cool! It’s supposed to be a great company” and drove off.

Julia B.: For most jobs, I honestly don’t see the benefit of a cover letter and what difference it makes for an application. I usually tell my friends and candidates that they should spend their time on their CV, since this is the first thing a Recruiter looks at. That is when you make your first impression there. If the experience and hard skills fit, it is so much easier and personal to talk about motivation during the first interview.

Julian S.: I’m not a big fan of cover letters, as they can do more harm than anything. Only recruiters read those. But if you have a special connection or story to share it’s a medium you can use for this. However, I think you can invest the same amount of time that you need for a cover letter in other channels and outreach to someone from the company you want to work for, ideally a Recruiter 😉 (on LinkedIn for example).

Julia B.: Communication Designer – they do an amazing job bringing our brand to life 👏🏽

Julian S.: Product Manager – They do a great job defining and building the product we all love to use.

Julia B.: Curious, inspiring, and passionate – we are looking for teamies who love Talent Acquisition as much as we do, are open to new challenges, bring in new ideas, and inspire others to join us in building this great success story!

Julian S.: My ideal teammate is passionate about what we do, and about the company they work for. Also it’s important that teammates always challenge themselves and are not satisfied with doing things the way they have always been done (#SeekToImprove). And last but not least, they should look for the opportunity to shape the culture of their company and team, and be a clear advocate for it to the outside world.

If you think you have what it takes to be a Talent Acquisition Manager in our team, then what are you waiting for? Check out our open positions and apply!