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He worked as a recruiter for five years, finding employees on behalf of his clients, but now Jan is experiencing first-hand what it means to be one of the most sought-after experts on the labour market. The critical shortage of programmers on the market forces recruiters to try various tactics. "I'm having fun with the offers I'm getting," the former elite recruiter says with a smile.
He actually ended up in the ranks of recruiters by chance. "When I returned to the Czech Republic five years ago after a year spent in the USA I was looking for a job in a field I studied at University," recalls the graduate from the school of economics and owner of a bachelor's degree in National Economy and goes on to say: “I went for an interview at a recruitment agency, and they liked me so much that they offered me a job working for them."
Words were spoken and this talkative young man, who knows how to deal with people, joined one of the country’s leading recruitment agencies. "When I had been there for about four years, I started to feel that something wasn’t quite right and that I wanted to change something," admits Jan.
“Recruitment is not easy and it is definitely not an enviable job. Not today, and not four years ago,” says this native of Ústí nad Labem, adding: "It's simply sales. Recruitment has nothing in common with HR. You are looking for companies that want employees and you are looking for people who need work. In fact, you just spend all your time persuading and sweet-talking people.
In my opinion, recruiters from personnel agencies make the best salespeople,” Jan is convinced of this and explains in more detail: “You sell people to companies, and you sell jobs to people, and you also want them to offer opportunities to other colleagues. You want them to give you tips on specific employees who might be suitable. To do this, you need to sell the agency as such. It's just sales all the way."
And it was selling that did not appeal much to Jan, so he gradually began to look for something else. “I've always enjoyed computers, and I'm fairly good at logical thinking so I started thinking about IT. I was looking for some free courses and such things,” describes the young man. At the time, he was approached by one of his clients at the agency. “It was an offer that could not be refused. They offered me the position of head of recruitment for Europe. I agreed and joined this Indian company. It was a career shift into senior management and I was supposed to come up with a strategy for recruiting new people,” says Jan.
However, it soon became clear that the reality would be quite different from what he had imagined. “There were huge demands on the considerable number of people that needed to be taken on. Although in the nine months I worked there we were able to raise the level of recruitment from four people a month to twelve, it still wasn’t enough,” the former manager remembers the time fondly and adds: “But we didn't have the resources or the team and no one was willing to give them to us. It was a vicious circle. The long-term stress I suffered began to manifest itself in health problems. I worked 14 hours a day. In the end, I thought it wasn't worth it and so I left. "
The idea of retraining and a return to the computers that Jan dabbled with as a teenager turned up again. "I tried coding when I was about 16 years old. It was in secondary school where we tried pascal and similar archaic Programming Languages,” the programmer recalls his beginnings and adds: "Then I did basic html for a while. I had my own website about the dragon's lair."
Jan enjoyed programming at the time and had a dream about his future career that was not at all related to what he did later. "After secondary school, I wanted to go to the Czech Technical University to continue working on computers and programming, but everyone in my family studied at the University of Economics, both of my parents and my sister, so my route was already mapped out for me,” Jan explains, laughing as he thinks back to the cries of his mother and father: “They said computers had no future."
After a few years of "good" advice, Jan went for his dream and enrolled in the Junior programmer course organised by Green Fox Academy. "My parents did not respond very well to my decision. My mother always wanted me to be a manager. When I was, she was satisfied. The moment I informed her that I was leaving my position and going to study in a completely new field at the bootcamp, she told me that I was crazy,” Jan describes the reaction of those closest to him and remarks: "My dad didn't talk to me for three weeks. However, my girlfriend supported me and stood by me. She saw what my last job had done to me.”
At that moment, however, the programmer had no idea that much more was waiting for him in his life. "14 days after I quit my job, we found out that my partner was pregnant," Jan reveals, and admits: "I don't know what would have happened if I had known about the baby a few weeks earlier. But I think in the end everything turned out as it should have done. "
Jan was one of the few course students to update their LinkedIn profiles right after the start of the bootcamp. He was soon besieged by recruiters and their offers. “It was fun when I received a message from a recruiter who was trying to lure me to a position," he says with a smile, admitting that he watched with interest what his former "colleagues" were trying to do: "It is true that the search for IT workers is on a completely different level compared to finding people for positions in other fields. It is noticeable that the headhunters try to approach them a little differently, because they know that IT people are quite easily annoyed and the usual tactics do not work on them. The approach is better developed and it is clear that someone is really thinking about it. "
“It is true that the search for IT workers is on a completely different level to finding people for positions in other fields. It is noticeable that the headhunters try to approach them a little differently, because they know that IT people are quite easily annoyed and the usual tactics do not work on them. The approach is better developed and it is clear that someone is really thinking about it."
Thanks to previous work experience, Jan knew the questions of HR managers very well and was looking forward to changing roles during interviews. "It was important for me to be able to work on various projects within a year or two and to learn as much as possible, because as a junior programmer I need to catch up and improve," Jan recalls his demands shortly after completing his retraining and adds his priorities at the time: "Money was not the most important thing, but it was certainly a factor. I was also happy for the opportunity to work from home considering that I have quite a long commute."
During the Junior programmer course Jan spent a lot of time on the road, commuting daily to the capital from Ústí nad Labem. "Prague was amazing but also very big for me. I enjoyed my beautiful ten years there. My student years and first job were great times,” the programmer reflects on the past and sighs: “But as I gradually got older, I realized that the life Prague offered me was not exactly what I was looking for. I prefer a slightly calmer environment. In addition, my girlfriend is from Ústí nad Labem, so there was nothing left to solve and I moved to be with her. "
The young man, whom you will definitely not miss or fail to hear, surprisingly traded the liveliness of the big city for the tranquillity of Ústí nad Labem. “When I have time off, I like to go to the countryside. I love nature,” says Jan, adding with a laugh: “I had a lot of interests, but that changed after our baby was born. Life has been a little different since then. "
Right after Jan completed his retraining Junior programmer course in February 2019 at the Green Fox Academy, he took the position of Junior Java Backend Developer in the IT department of the online supermarket Rohlik.cz. He found a great working environment there and fantastic colleagues. He is very happy there and is still thinking about how to improve his employer's services.
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