My colleagues have become my buddies
Half Frisian, half Italian. Born and raised in tiny Lemmer, worked as an intern in the metropolis of Beijing. Marco used to get anxiety from making phone calls whereas of right now he calls all day long as part of his job. Although Marco’s life is full of contradictions, there has been one constant in the past four years; Marco has enjoyed working at Robert Walters.
How did you end up at Robert Walters?
For my studies in International Business in Leeuwarden, I travelled a lot. I did two minors, one in Bangkok and one in Bali, and a final internship in Beijing. When I finished my internship and graduated, I moved back to Lemmer in Friesland, where I'm originally from. Lemmer is a relatively small town with a population of 10 thousand people. The contrast with the other places I had lived in was too big, I longed for a life in the city again. Therefore, I decided to change my location on LinkedIn to Rotterdam and soon after I was approached for a job as a recruiter at Robert Walters.
So you went from an internship in Beijing to working in Shanghai and later on settled in Rotterdam.
Exactly! Not only am I working at a nice organization, I also get to live in an amazing city. Robert Walters immediately caught my attention as the atmosphere and organizational culture are very pleasant. After the initial conversation with my current manager Ellora, I was sold. At Robert Walters you get to work with a group of like-minded colleagues who are willing to work hard, but also spent time having fun together.
Can you describe the company culture?
We often start the mornings together, some days even with an official kick-off. And at the beginning of each week, we focus on the question “what are you going to do this week and what is the goal you want to achieve?”. During the week we will regularly make time to see how far along we are with achieving the goal we set at the beginning of the week. This contributes to creating a team feeling and helps in encouraging one another to reach the goals.
Furthermore, the organization is very open, and colleagues want to help one another improve. Recently for example we held a feedback session where we assessed the team members strengths and weaknesses. This personal touch is very pleasant, since recruitment can often be a solo job. Therefore, it is nice that at Robert Walters such a strong team feeling and bond exists.
Do you also maintain that team feeling outside office hours?
Most definitely, my colleagues have become my buddies. After work we regularly go out for a bite to eat or a drink. And once a week we have dinner at a colleague's house. We also regularly play sports together for example tennis or padel.
At some point we even took a trip to Spain together. A year or two ago we reached a certain target, and everyone received x amount of money. But we collectively decided to spend that money to take a trip together. On Thursday we flew to Spain, and we went straight to the city centre in the evening. Friday, we spent the day working and the rest of the weekend we spent time together and eventually flew back on Sunday.
In addition to all that socializing, there is also quite some work to do. What do you like about working at Robert Walters?
Everyone is full of energy and colleagues really push one another. Which really aides you in becoming the best version of yourself.
For example, before I started working I preferred texting over calling. But since everyone in the office was always on the phone, I quickly adapted and even started to enjoy calling.
On another note, there are many training opportunities at Robert Walters. When you first join Robert Walters, you’ll attend a three-month learning track where two days per week are dedicated to training. The other three days of the week are dedicated to practising everything that you learn at the training sessions.
The learning process doesn’t stop there. After a while you’ll follow another training after which you’re allowed to complete a senior track and after that a management track. The steps you need to take in order to be able to achieve your goals are very clear. And you’re in a constant process of developing and improving yourself.
Have you ever thought about working in of our offices abroad?
From time to time i have indeed thought about working abroad. I really enjoy travelling as well and I’m glad that I’ve had the chance to do so. Therefore, as of right now i don’t feel the urge to move abroad and mainly want to focus on establishing myself here. However, working abroad will always stay in the back of my mind, and within this organization there are plenty of opportunities to do so. However, for now I’m enjoying my time in The Netherlands, but I am keeping an open mind for what the future holds.
More information
Would you like to learn more about recruitment? Read here what it is like to work as a recruitment consultant at Robert Walters or view our vacancies.
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