Sándor Márk Bodnár, Managing Director of Hays Romania since October 2018. Hays Group is the global market leader professional search firm, which offers specialized recruitment and selection services in 33 countries with a global team of 11,500 employees.
Why did you choose this business sector? What were top 3 reasons for choosing HAYS?
As I am unzipping this topic in the video interview, I have got into recruitment back then accidentally. However I do think our destiny is driven by ourselves so I should probably be here because of my decisions. I am aware of plenty of my colleagues who have entered the world of recruitment similarly by accident, which were then followed by some unbelievable stories and many of them decided to stay and build a career at Hays.
Recruitment consultancy is not a mainstream job and the branding of our sector is not as strong as for example IT or Marketing. I rarely meet people who were preparing to be a recruiter when they start working. But as many holiday destinations in the world, which are not well known by big crowds of people can be amazing, same goes for recruitment jobs. Once you try and it matches both your interest and skills, you will definitely enjoy.
Why to choose Hays? Let me give you some hints:
- Acquiring useful skills. At Hays, people get the chance to master their interpersonal skills which are essential to be a successful Recruitment Consultant. Creating and maintaining connections, understanding people, creative thinking and solution focused approach, project management – these are the skills that helps you succeed in the 2020s.
- Positive impact. I can clearly see people being eager to make their contribution to the society, to help the world being a better place. Can you imagine how does it feel for a 22 year old Junior Recruitment Consultant when he manages to staff up the entire Engineering and Project Management team that will transfer production activity from one part of the world to another for one of the largest carmaker company on the globe? Or to help a single mother accountant by placing her in a new job which enables her to commute 1 hour less each day and therefore spend more time with her kids? These kind of stuff turn people on!
- International exposure. Belonging to the strongest brand in the specialist recruitment business gives you the opportunity to learn from the best. The know-how we circulate within our global organization often goes over the country boarders or even continents. Hays is truly interested to encourage everyone in the company to grab those best practices and utilize them locally. A DNA that has been developed over the last 50 years and being actualized and updated continuously is what each Hays expert moves around internationally, which is comes with all the exciting interactions, learns and human connections among our 33 countries.
Besides our “standard” specialisms, due to the extensive role of SSC & BPO markets in the Central Eastern European region we have established specialized recruitment teams for clients and positions in this very (specific sector) sector. In this area hiring volumes are typically higher and recruitment processes are shorter than our traditional specialisms (e.g. IT, Engineering & Manufacturing, Sales & Marketing, Accountancy & Finance), therefore the market requires faster reaction from our side while maintaining the same level of quality our client and candidates get used to by working with Hays.
We have been on the Romanian market since 2015 initially purely focusing on some of our global clients’ needs however by now our specialized recruitment teams are based both onsite in our client premises and offsite in our office in Bucharest Central Business District, speaking to hundreds of candidates on daily basis. We are proud to change peoples’ lives and transforming businesses via our activity – last year helping 1,400+ skilled professionals in finding their next career stage, which is basically changing 5 individuals’ life on a daily basis!
On the video below, I am answering the following questions:
- How did you start your career? Which were your first steps? How did you envision your career?
- What were your key career moments (those that had an impact on your professional journey)?
- What is the best three most valuable career lessons you have learned?
- If you were starting now your career, knowing the present and near future opportunities, what would you do? What career would you pursue?
- What are the top 3 skills that you would develop?
- What would you do and what would you avoid doing? – practical advice to young professionals.
What are your/your company’s plans for 2020?
Our company is pretty proud to be the global market leader in the specialist recruitment segment and has always aimed to be the local market leader in each of our countries. Romania is our newest country in the Group and we are already on a very clear roadmap on how to reach and stabilize that position locally.
More specifically speaking, a lot of exciting actions to happen in this year, let me just mention a few:
- publishing one of our most popular content, our first Salary Guide in Romania
- diversifying our services by adding new flexible ways of staffing to our current only permanent recruitment offering
- delivering some complex greenfield projects entering Romania by staffing up their operations from scratch
- further strengthening our teams on our core specialisms, e.g. IT & Telco, SSC & BPO, Engineering & Manufacturing
All in all, in 2020 we will keep on doing what we do best: boosting peoples careers by helping them getting their new jobs and growing businesses by finding them the best talent fit.
Tell us a little bit about your private life. Tell us about your passions, family. What do you do to relax?
Born and raised in Budapest but my family is originally from the Eastern part of Hungary, I am the only one to be born in the capital. After finishing my studies, started my career in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and then went back to Hungary to join Hays. Moved to Bucharest in 2018 autumn, where I live with my girlfriend. She is also Hungarian and actually works in HR too.
I find it really important to invest in the quality of our lives. Relaxing and energizing myself is something that I would never make compromise on. There is nothing more demotivating than seeing burnt out and bitter managers, who consider their work being priority number one and struggle to find joy any longer in their lives. I have great examples in front of me who prove to be able to build fantastic careers while remaining a sensible, loving, happy, positive human being.
Quality time and food are my best waves. When I say quality time, travelling and sports may be the easiest way to reach that. Sports have been part of my life since I was a kid and will always be. No matter how busy my schedule is, sport shall be the last thing to give up. I am a big football fan, currently playing in a local football team founded by expats living in Bucharest and also watching games, actually being a huge support of Inter Milan and see my team in the stadium a few times each year. Swimming, kick box, squash are also part of my regular weekly activity, so these four sports keep me fit on a regular basis. Skiing and hiking a few times a year, with mountaineering/hiking our group has actually more and more adventurous plans – in 5 years climbing the Month Blanc, the top of Europe. During hiking I feel completely free, relaxed and I am literally feeling those heavy kilometres do really great to my mind and body. Spending time in the nature with friends, purely on foot passing through spectacular landscapes that you would never see if you stayed home, overcoming yourself multiple times during a heavy trek – this is when you really live!
When it comes to food, I enjoy both cooking and eating. Actually sometimes cooking even better, I must admit. Creating food is probably one of the most creative and satisfying activities for me in life, which totally puts me in flow.
The other love within quality time is travelling, exploring new places and understanding new cultures. I do not think this one is surprising as probably 95% of your readers, enjoy this hobby a lot.