From an HR Trainee to a Recruitment Consultant – practical training at StaffPoint by Saku Etelämäki

StaffPoint offers recruitment services all over Finland to different business areas, such as retail, HoReCa, industry and logistics, office jobs and executive roles.

I applied for the HR trainee position at StaffPoint during my exchange period in fall 2021. I had realized during my IB studies that HR is the area of business that interests me the most, so that is when I decided to do my practical training in a place where I could use my knowledge and deepen my understanding of the topic.

I started working at StaffPoint in Jyväskylä after my exchange in late January 2022 and worked there until the end of August 2022. My practical training lasted 4 months from the end of January to the end May. After that, I worked as a recruitment consultant for the entire summer. I could have continued working there during the fall, but due to the large workload of my final semester at Jamk, I decided to focus on my studies.

My duties consisted of recruitment of employees for different client organizations in the fields of industry and logistics. In practice, I was in charge of the entire recruitment process from start to finish. For the most part, the process started with writing the job advertisements and reviewing and analysing the candidates. I held several interviews (phone interviews, video interviews and live interviews) for the candidates I found most suitable, and then presented them to the client organizations. When the client decided who to hire, I informed the candidate about it and made them an employment contract. In addition, my duties consisted of managing the running affairs of my employees, since I was often the first point of contact for the employees in contract and salary related questions. I was also able to work with so many different organizations and recruit people for diverse roles.

My favourite thing about this job was finding an employee who is the perfect match for a certain client organization and hearing positive feedback about them later on. The job feels incredibly rewarding because everyone wins: the employee gets the job they wanted, the client gets the employee they needed, and the recruitment agency benefits financially.

I learned a ton of new things during my time at StaffPoint. I had no prior experience in recruitment and HR before my practical training. I got learn things on my own pace, and I got more complex and demanding tasks as time went on. It was a fantastic place for personal development, and I cannot recommend it enough to anyone interested in HR and recruitment.  

Author: Saku Etelämäki