My joining Hays in 2012 was a confluence of circumstances - lunch with a classmate from university, her excitement about working for a company I didn't even know at the time, mention that Hays was looking for new colleagues, and last but not least, the surprise that this job does not require any special education or experience. At the time, I was working as a methodologist and recruiter for the largest Czech language school, and I only thought passively about possible changes. I definitely wanted to continue to use English when working with people and of course earn money for my hobbies and a nice life.

After the assessment center came the second major choice, namely the choice of the division I was to join. I chose between Sales & Marketing and Construction & Property. I chose CP and did not regret it for a minute.

What did I know before I started about recruiting project managers for developers, expanders, construction managers or leasing and asset managers? Absolutely nothing. Everything I know and can do today, I learned from my colleagues, clients and candidates. After all, there is always an opportunity to learn - development as such changes, the market changes, recruitment techniques and tools change, and this is precisely the beauty that keeps you on your toes and doesn't let you rest on your laurels.

I started at Hays as a Junior Consultant and in the very first year I won participation in Hays Elite – a several-day meeting of top consultants across all countries of the region on an amazing vacation. A year later I was already a Consultant, a year later a Senior Consultant and in another six months I was already leading the CP team. Later, the Engineering & Manufacturing team joined and my team grew as well. My family also grew in the same way - with the addition of my son Eda and the associated career break. And here too, Hays proved to be a wonderful company that allowed me not only to return to my original position in the CP segment, but also gave me the opportunity to learn a new segment - IT. Big thanks to Hays for that.

I often remember how I once said to myself that I would like to have a job where people would approach me because I can do something special. And it's happening. I am happy when I can be an equal partner to my clients, that they value my opinion and that candidates welcome advice on the labor market. As my friend Tim says: "Petra, it is like a real estate agent job – everybody can do it, but no everybody is good at it."