Meet the Recruitment Assistant - Jana Ambré

We have shared a lot with you about our company, our events, the Netherlands as a country and their traditions. We feel like it is high time you got acquainted with some of our colleagues. This blog will give you more insight into the life of a recruiter, the challenges they face, their most memorable moments and their guilty pleasures. This week we will introduce our recruitment assistant from Amsterdam, Jana Ambré. Enjoy!

1. How did you end up at Undutchables?

My background is in Anthropology. Thus, recruitment was not a direct path that I considered for myself. However, when I was approached by Undutchables for a position in recruitment I welcomed the idea and challenge, as I knew I could bring my skills and perspective from the humanities to this line of work. I am grateful to have ended up here and I have learned a lot along the way.

2. What are the most/least enjoyable aspects of your role?

The most enjoyable aspect of recruiting is making a positive impact in people’s lives. Finding work can be a stressful and time-consuming processing; therefore, placing a candidate or guiding them on their journey towards stability, growth, and fulfillment in their life is immensely rewarding.

On the flip side, rejecting candidates and/or admitting that we are not able to help them further can be difficult. As mentioned, work is often an important aspect of people’s lives, and people develop hope and expectations when applying for positions. Thus, rejecting people is neither fun nor easy with the knowledge of the consequences.

3. What is the biggest challenge of the job?

From my perspective, one of the biggest challenges of the job stems from difficulties in communication and coordination. In recruitment, especially international recruitment, one is often busy communicating with people, with a wide variety of values and backgrounds, that each have their own set of expectations and social rules. Thus, navigating a job that requires one to sustain large amounts of clear, confident, and patient communication and coordination to succeed can be a challenge. This is especially so when recognizing that recruiters, like anyone else, are humans too.

4. What has been your most memorable moment in the job?

It is hard to say that I have had just one grand, memorable moment. I would prefer to say that a bunch of smaller moments in which I have received gratitude and kindness from candidates, clients, and colleagues alike have stuck with me the most over time.

5. What do you think is key for a successful recruiting process?

I would say the key to a successful recruitment process is knowing how to exercise patience, empathy, persistence, and strong communication.

6. If you were to have a job outside an office environment, what would be your dream job?

I consider myself to be an artistic person. Thus, if I was to have a job outside an office environment, I would set up a business selling hand-crafted knit items, cards, and various commissioned art pieces.

7. What's your guilty pleasure?

My guilty pleasure is re-watching Pride and Prejudice (1995) on depressing days and taking hot baths in the evening.

Quickfire questions

Q: Coffee or tea

A: Tea

Q: Sun or snow?

A: Oof this is difficult. Since living in the Netherlands for a few years, I would say sun.

Q: Are you a morning or a night person?

A: Morning

Q: If you could go any where in the world where would you go and why?

A: For the foreseeable future, I would say Japan. I learned Japanese for three years and it would be amazing to experience the culture directly. I would love to combine this with a trip to other, surrounding Asian countries as well.