How I Overcame Imposter Syndrome to Become a Recruitment Manager
Since I started in recruitment almost seven years ago, I knew I found the right career for me. I enjoyed my role, but I never dared to hope I could be a manager one day.
If someone would have told me two years ago that I would be in a leadership role leading seven people I would laugh out loud.
How did it all begin?
I started in Wrike more than two years ago as one of the first employees in our Prague office. When they contacted me and said they wanted me to help grow the new Prague office, I knew I couldn’t say no.
I was in the recruitment industry for four years, with experience mainly in big international corporations and I always knew I wanted to work in tech and build something from scratch.
I joined Wrike as an individual contributor recruiter, focused on UX/UI, marketing, and G&A roles. The beginning was not easy — I had a lot of initial challenges. The hiring team was based abroad, in a country with a well-established employer brand and a different approach to hiring and interviewing candidates. But Wrike had a very unique company culture and friendly atmosphere, so I was sure from the very beginning that I was at the right place.
Baby steps
The beginning was not easy, but step by step, the hard work started paying off. I had success hiring some very talented people to our teams. These people then spread the good word about Wrike to their communities and attracted new talent which helped significantly. At Wrike, recruiters partner with talent sourcers, and this collaboration works very well. Wrike Prague office grew and grew from zero to 250 Wrikers today! This is the best reward for the recruitment team — to see the company grow.
With the support of my manager, I expanded the roles I was recruiting for and the breadth of my IC work. I started with product hiring, which turned out to be the hardest roles to recruit for. It’s often said that attracting software engineers is a big challenge in hiring but let me tell you, attracting product managers and product designers is even harder! As they are relatively fresh disciplines, the demand is high and there are not enough skilled people in the market. And we were hiring for senior roles — the most experienced and most hard-to-find people in the field!
I like a challenge in recruiting, so I enjoyed those IC days. I spent about a year and a half as an individual contributor before moving into a team lead role. Everything changed when Katerina Tichy became my boss. She asked me how I would like to grow in my career and really made me think about it. Until then, no manager had ever really asked me about it.
Who do I want to be?
I took some time to think. At the same time, I was starting my mentoring program at Femme Palette. Such good timing! I wanted to figure out what my strengths and weaknesses were and how I could develop myself further. At Femme Palette, I met Tereza Machackova. She recommended 360° feedback, and it was an eye-opening experience for me. It was very refreshing to read from others how they see me and how I could improve.
Six months to get there
It turned out that I might have the potential to become a manager. I was not so sure about it but seeing the feedback from others empowered me. Katerina was a great boss and she supported me with that decision. It took about six months for me to develop into the team lead role. I had to prove that I am capable, so I was dealing with ad hoc urgent issues more often, improving presentation skills by presenting during all-hands calls, and started mentoring a sourcer I closely collaborated with. Katerina kept challenging me and giving me the opportunity to work on more and more complex tasks and assignments. At the same time, she was providing valuable feedback. That was what was very important for me — she is the type of leader who leads by example.
I also continued my mentoring program in Femme Palette and worked closely with Martina Kopecká. I enjoyed our sessions and Martina’s friendly attitude.
When I was promoted to a team lead, I continued recruiting for Product teams and coaching and mentoring a junior recruiter. Marlene Termannová was promoted to a recruiter role at the same time as I was promoted to the team lead role. I took it very seriously and wanted to provide her with the best possible support. Due to lockdown, we had daily syncs together, and I was supporting her as best as I could.
And how are things now?
Today, I am a Recruitment Manager for both product and engineering. I am leading a team of five in-house recruiters — three are based in Prague, two are in St. Petersburg and two are RPO recruiters. At the moment, I oversee hiring for engineering teams, product and business services (customer-facing roles). It’s a lot of work, but I am very happy in my new role and very grateful for the opportunity.
In the near future, my focus will probably shift to engineering as our teams are growing and responsibilities and tasks are too.
Change… change everywhere
I have to say that my role is definitely not monotonous. I like stepping out of my comfort zone and gaining new experiences. Wrike offers this to the fullest.
Wrike was acquired by Citrix a few months ago, which brought a lot of learning opportunities and challenges to work on. Almost every day, there is something new. We changed the ATS system twice in one year and continued delivering high-quality work. I am very proud of my team that they are able to keep up with these changes, staying motivated and high-performing.
Our Wrike teams keep growing and we have challenging hiring goals also for the next year. I am very curious about the other challenges that are ahead of us!
Do you also want to boost your career?
One of the best things I could have done for myself and my career was investing in the mentoring program at Femme Palette. They are a community of professional women helping other women to advance their careers through mentoring, networking, and other educational activities.
I am proud that I am one of the mentors at Femme Palette, so if you think I could be helpful to you, get in touch with Femme Palette or with me directly. I’ll be happy to share my knowledge.
A book recommendation
There are plenty of leadership books on the market and although I definitely haven’t read them all, I am sure this one, in particular, is special — Radical Candor by Kim Scott. I like transparency and an open mindset and this book emphasizes how important and valuable that is. If you ask me, it’s a must-read for current or future team leaders.
