From Biologist to Recruitment Consultant

Cindy graduated with a degree in biology from Wageningen University in 2006 and had a nicely defined career path stretching out in front of her. "After a number of years of studying thousands of cells I ended up, via a few detours, at Modis where I worked in the pharmaceutical industry and was introduced to its many processes." Because she did not see herself working in a laboratory for the rest of her career, she started looking for an alternative. Here she explains how she reached that decision, what it means to her and how she wants to expand her team.

Biologist and recruiter
"Don't you miss your specialist field?"  is a question I often get asked when I tell people where I work and what my work entails. "No, actually my work constantly revolves around my specialist field!" is then my answer. In my role of Recruitment Consultant the meetings I have with candidates and the visits to clients mean I’m the first to hear about developments in technologies and techniques. These days I see and hear more than I did when I worked in the lab.

I've been working as a Recruiter within the Life Sciences business line for four years now. It's the contact with the candidates, in particular, that makes this work fun, as well as being able to identify their ambition and talents. The fact that I'm allowed to link with clients is a combination that makes every day interesting.

By nature I like to get under the surface and find out all I can, in the case of both clients and candidates. I am inquisitive. "Please tell me how the technology works and how you get your result?" is the question I put to the organisations I visit. I'm noticing that both clients and candidates are sometimes surprised to discover that we speak the same language and that's something they like. Candidates sometimes apologise for perhaps explaining things in (too) much detail, but that's the way I like it because it helps me convince a client of the excellent match with the candidate!"