An unexpected career choice

Kostas didn’t choose recruitment as a career. It chose him.

Kostas, short for Konstantinos, spent the first 23 years of his life in Greece, and he has been in Japan since 2013. He applied for a Japanese government scholarship program to continue his studies in urban design at Waseda University, which he did for two years, then joined an engineering laboratory to pursue his Master’s.

With a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering, Kostas tried using traditional job-hunting strategies but decided he wanted more than just “a job,” something meaningful, something that felt like a fit with who he is.

“I wouldn’t say recruitment came as a first choice because until then, I didn’t know what a recruiter does,” Kostas says. “I was mainly looking at domestic construction/architecture/urban development companies when a friend of mine told me that my communication skills and engineering mindset would make me a good candidate for recruitment jobs, and I would be a better fit in an international environment.”

“When my friend suggested recruitment, I asked him ‘what is that?’ but I decided to give it a try.”

He made his recruiter debut with Michael Page in 2017 and moved to Randstad in 2022. His current manager at Randstad is someone he worked with for five years at his previous company.

Getting comfortable in a new job takes time. In his first year as a technology recruiter — specifically for non-permanent positions within financial services — Kostas felt out of place and even considered making a career switch, but by the second year he was beginning to see the results of his efforts.

Starting from scratch

Kostas admits he did not think twice about agreeing to join Randstad when he was approached to help build an IT contracting team.

“Starting from scratch sounded very interesting and challenging to me because when I joined my previous company, it was an established team and the foundations were already there. I wanted to start something new. It was an entrepreneur kind of idea,” Kostas says.

“The fact that my current manager went to Randstad and Randstad is very well known gave me the security to know that I will be doing things from scratch, but I will be in a stable company that has a good system.”

As of May 2025, his title, principal consultant, changed to team manager. He works in a 16-person team and describes the team culture as “high performing” and “competitive.” They don’t have candidate ownership, meaning that candidates are matched to roles based on their strengths and suitability, regardless of who they know best within the Randstad team.

While the two most common recruitment models are 360 and 180, Kostas and his fellow team members are all 360-degree recruiters, which means they must excel in both sales and relationship-building, balancing the needs of clients and candidates throughout the hiring journey.

In addition to being the contact person for both clients and candidates, as a manager, Kostas focuses on the strategic development of his domain, client engagement and team member’s management, coaching, and support.

Moving from a smaller recruitment firm to Randstad felt like moving from a small town to a big city, Kostas explains.

“We have contracts with many clients that I wouldn’t imagine having in my previous company and that was already a clear advantage. Working in a massive company like Randstad feels safe because you know you’re in good hands,” he says.

“The culture doesn’t feel different because I’m working with my previous manager and people from my old company, and the team culture has been cultivated by us. We’re a new business so we’re progressing much faster and this kind of growth is expected.”

Taking advantage of flexible benefits

“The flexibility system helps a lot because when I joined Randstad I had a baby who was around 4 months old,” says Kostas, whose wife is Korean. “It allows me to work from home, flexible hours, and also from my home country for extended periods. I take my daughter to Greece once a year to spend time with my parents, and that time in Greece helps her learn Greek, and experience the culture. I didn’t have that flexibility with my previous company.”

Even though he is allowed to work remotely, Kostas tries to go to the office four days a week, including Tuesdays which is the team’s office day. Face-to-face interactions matter to him, especially when it comes to mentoring and guiding new recruiters toward success.

Kostas speaks four languages — English, Greek, Japanese and Korean.

He’s neither an introvert nor an extrovert, but feels that he’s good at reading the room and connecting with others. Good recruiters are good listeners, he says.

“I can adapt my communication style depending on who I’m speaking to. I’m good at mirroring people and their energy, and the feedback I get from each discussion helps me communicate with people with different personalities and speaking styles,” he says.

It helps to be proficient in more than one language when recruiting, but Kostas thinks there are other more essential skills for a successful recruitment career, such as people skills, problem solving, sales skills, networking, time management and business acumen.

“I like to solve problems,” Kostas says. “That’s why I joined Randstad. To me it’s rewarding when I tackle a challenge and manage to solve a problem. Some candidates want to find a job for a higher salary but others have bigger issues and I like helping them solve those individual problems. It’s the same with clients.”

Money is not his source of motivation. What fuels his personal fire is the ability to help people — whether it’s a family member, a colleague, a client or a candidate.

“Parenting requires a lot of patience and it has helped me become a better recruiter and manager. Asking questions, listening, and staying calm helps, both at home and at work,” he says.

As a working father

In his personal life, Kostas doesn’t go looking for problems, but he says he won’t shy away from difficult situations either.

He likes to read books to build a strong mindset and help him improve sales and management skills..

Before he became a father he had plenty of hobbies, but now, he says spending time with his 3-year-old daughter is a great "refresher" from work. Because resilience is a critical skill for recruiters navigating the challenges of rejection, Kostas says it’s important to have healthy coping mechanisms.

“At home we have a no-phone-in-front-of-the-child rule so I usually don’t look at my smartphone. I also don’t like to work outside of business hours and on weekends, that’s when I dedicate my time to my family.”

As a recruiter, you can easily end up working all the time. But Kostas is in charge of dropping off his daughter at hoikuen (daycare) every day, so that’s how his day starts. He thrives on structure.

“Every morning we spend family time in the house. After waking my daughter up, we eat breakfast together, then she takes time choosing her own clothes. I don’t rush her as this is important to her and it builds her personality. Eventually I drop her off at daycare, then I go to work,” Kostas says.

“I try to leave non-urgent tasks for the next day. Time management is always a challenge, especially when your job is going well because you get a lot of requests from clients. Sometimes you get a false sense of priority, and it’s easy to lose track of time.”

Kostas is not the same person he was eight years ago when he first started recruiting, and looks forward to growing with Randstad. He credits his mentors’ support for his success, but also remembers to give himself a pat on the back for taking chances and embracing risks.

“I don’t think of recruiting as my calling, but life brought me here and I am making the most out of it, while enjoying it,” Kostas says. “I couldn't imagine any of this when I was a teenager. I had no idea that I would be doing recruitment — and be good at it.”