Interview: Claire D'Amelio, Winner of Recruiter of the Year at the 2015 IRP Awards

Claire D’Amelio is the principal SAP consultant at Energize Solutions and winner of Recruiter of the Year at the 2015 IRP Awards.

Recruitment Matters recently caught up with Claire:

What’s it like recruiting for companies in Germany while based in Manchester? The UK and German markets couldn’t be more different. A lot of the time German clients and candidates take a cautious approach to recruiters. Job boards don’t exist there and a good candidate would never put their CV on one. With me being English, it’s an extra mark against me. But I like being able to prove them wrong and show you don’t have to be a native German to understand their market.

The line a lot of recruiters use is that they “fell into recruitment” – was that the case with you?

Going into recruitment wasn’t on the horizon at all. I was at uni in Liverpool and studying business, and was one of the unfortunate ones among my friends who had no idea what they wanted to do when they grew up. After graduating, a lot of my friends were moving to London, and yes, that’s where I fell into recruitment.

What about recruitment excites you?

One of the big things people think about recruitment is the money, but honestly, that’s not the thing that drives me. One of the things that gets me buzzing is that candidates in Germany are never active – it’s about headhunting and trying to improve candidates’ lives. When I get through to the end of the process with a candidate and they say “Thank you so much, this is the dream job that I didn’t realise I needed before”, it’s very satisfying.

Do your clients appreciate that approach too?

One of my key clients is an automotive engineering company where I’ve placed nine people. A few weeks ago their head of department called me up to ask for updates on recruitment that they can take to their board. It’s the biggest compliment to have that kind of trust held in me.

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