Practical training

My practical training took place in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. From the beginning of September until November I was working in the HR department, assisting with strategical planning, optimizing recruitment and selection processes and helping with employees’ adaptation programs.
My daily work included writing job descriptions, placing them to headhunter.ru and other websites, conducting CV hunting, making «cold calls» to potential candidates, inviting them to job interviews, leading interviews offline at the office or online by Skype, forming report after each interview, and uploading the information to company’s internal database.
Additionally, part of my work time was dedicated to participation in the development of internal motivation and engagement strategy for employees. It was the most interesting piece of practical training. My responsibilities were a contribution to adaptation training for new employees, offering ideas for team building events, active participation in the delivery of organizational goals and strategies to 2 employees via meetings and online communications, tracking project in Trello (online collaboration tool for efficient project management) and tracking time management.
That practical training allowed me to develop abilities of «cold calling», fluent utilization of methods of conducting efficient job interviews, proceeding with candidates’ data and successful following the selection techniques. My supervisor took into account my foreign education and introduced the Russian law system from the HR perspective (discrimination acts, terms, and conditions in employees’ contracts and other aspects) to me. Moreover, I have learned a set of components of motivation and engagement strategy for employees. All in all, at the end of my training I was able to analyze the company’s internal processes from an HR perspective, be involved in the creation of HR strategies, actively participate in all core recruitment stages or organize them independently, and independently work with Trello and internal company’s database.
Working at Polymax also influenced my soft skills. The organizational culture motivated me to become more open-minded, responsible, independent, stress-resistant and punctual. Working with candidates improved my communication skills and made me a more tolerant, patient and easy-going person. The nature of my work encouraged me to be an active team member who can present ideas without hesitation. To sum up, my greatest result in terms of soft skill development were abilities to participate in brainstorming sessions and deliver own ideas clearly and without stress.

Author: Zhanna Filintseva