For Whom Is This Book?
This book is for those who have been dismissed or made redundant, for those who have moved to another country or switched to a new working format, for those who have decided to change their profession, industry, or embark on the path of self-realisation. It is for anyone who has chosen – or has been forced – to change something in their professional life.
Here Begin the Dreams
I have two professional dreams.
The first is to teach those who are changing jobs what exactly needs to be done for an effective search. This is the very purpose of this guide.
The second dream concerns the culture of interviewing. I would like to help both beginner and even experienced recruiters raise the quality of selection – to turn an interview into a real conversation rather than a rigid evaluation exercise.
I am convinced that everyone is capable of mastering the approaches to job searching. Of course, there are complex cases – a radical career shift, age-related challenges, or a complete absence of relevant experience. In such instances, individual help may well be required.
But in most cases, you can manage everything yourself. This guide, together with a set of checklists, will help you take a fresh look at yourself as a candidate.
Who Am I?
I have been in recruitment since 2002. I began back in the days when CVs were sent by fax and stored in enormous folders on office shelves. Now it is 2025, and chatbots for screening applications are commonplace, while in high-volume recruitment, artificial intelligence not only sorts CVs but even calls candidates.
Over these years I have worked both on the agency side (large international networks and smaller firms) and in HR departments of major companies in a range of industries – consultancy, audit, retail, investment funds, oil production, and the automotive business.
I myself have been made redundant, I have had to dismiss my own employees as well as staff from other departments, I have raced both upwards and downwards on the career ladder, and even tried running my own business with a partner.
This experience allows me to view the process of job searching from all possible angles.
The end goal of every participant in recruitment is the same – to fill a vacancy quickly and effectively – but the interim tasks differ. An agency recruiter works at the crossroads: to help a company find the right candidate, and to help a good candidate “sell themselves” on the job market. The role of an in-house HR professional is narrower: their aim is not to “save the world” or assist candidates in finding their calling, but to close a vacancy in the business they serve.
