aTalent has been one of the greatest partners of Ebster for some time now. We seized the opportunity and interviewed the CEO to learn more and give you some insight about the exciting things they are doing with their team.
So, aTalent Recruiting is a recruiting agency which main goal is to connect ambitious young talents with the right companies.
Thanks to aTalent, a monthly list of job offers is also being added to Ebster to find new and interesting job and practice offers.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL! Of course, the director of aTalent is our own Ebsikas, Kristjan Oro! We asked him how he found his way to EBS, why did he become an entrepreneur and what are his plans for the future.
He will also give us thorough overview of aTalent and share great advice for young entrepreneurs.
Tell us, who you are and what is that you do?
I am Kristjan, graduated from EBS Business and Business Management at the beginning of 2017. During my lifetime I have been dealing with quite different areas, actually from cooking to entrepreneurship and sales! At the moment, however, I run one small but fast-growing recruitment company for young professionals.
Who did you want to become when you were little?
When I was little, I was pretty sure that I wanted to be a vet or a chef, of which the last one I was for a few years, but then realised that as a real profession, it doesn’t suit me and I would like to keep it just as a hobby. Although, I remember that I mentioned in an essay in the eighth grade that I will be a businessman someday – now I can say that this was pretty close to what actually happened.
How and why did you come to EBS?
I found EBS after working in London as a chef for a year when I came back to Estonia for the summer. In that summer I thought, that I should somehow continue my studies, and entrepreneurship seemed to be the only logical option for me.
So I decided to stay in Estonia for a little longer and because I got to choose to study in English, I headed to EBS.
What are your plans for the future?
Hard to say. Everything is possible. For now, I want to focus on aTalent for a few years. When I have expanded aTalent to be the biggest and the most well-known recruiting agency in Estonia, then I will think about other plans. Because aTalent isn’t my own business, I believe that the next step would be to focus on building my personal enterprise again.
To really dumb it down, what is aTalent and how are you connected to it?
aTalent is a recruiting agency which is targeted primarily on connecting young talents and exciting employers, in particular business and technology fields. We focus on fresh graduates as well as the ones with a few years of work experience, we help young professionals to find their next exciting step in their careers.
Businesses turn to us because we know our target group so well and we know how to make recruiting campaigns to reach them.
aTalent was created in Finland in 2014 and all of its owners are actually student- and alumni organisations from Aalto University. aTalent has been active in Estonia since 2016. Now we have a team that consists of 6 members, but because we are a rapidly growing enterprise, we are constantly looking for an addition to our team.
What makes aTalent special is that almost everyone that work here, are students or recent graduates, so we can say that we belong to the same target group as the ones that aTalent itself is targeting.
I have been connected to aTalent since they started their activity in Estonia. I was the first employee of the company and I was initially involved in selling the service and growing the sales team. Since the summer of this year, I am the CEO of aTalent Estonia and I will focus on both the sales side and the company’s overall growth and development planning.
How can students find job or apprenticeship that suit them? How do employees find themselves a necessary team member?
For the ones that look for a job, aTalent has done finding a job very easy. I recommend keeping an eye on our website, where we post all of our job offers. Some exciting offers that are suitable for Ebsters are mostly up on the site, but the best way to know about every offer is to register yourself to our talent bank. We only send out offers that are suitable to you and match with your background.
When you have applied for some of the offers, then be ready to get in contact with one of our recruiters, who conducts you the first round of job interviews. Our promise to our candidates is to always give feedback as fast as we can. Whether the answer is positive or negative, you can be sure that you will get a quick answer and personal feedback. If you have registered yourself to our talent bank, then keep an eye on the searches and the process of your recruitment.
It’s simple as that to the company’s side as well. At first we need an input on the position that they are looking for. Then we will arrange a meeting with the company and talk through everything related to the company, the profile of who they are looking for etc. And then we will plan a search, make a job advertisement and share the information on our websites and social media channels. The primary selection and the first rounds of interviews are also conducted by us. That means that in the end, we will send only 3-5 strong candidates to our customer. Our goal is to be fast and effective. One recruitment usually takes a month to complete.
You can learn more details about aTalent on www.atalent.ee. There you can find active job offers and the chance to become a member of the talent bank. We are actually currently looking for an active recruiter to our team. If you have an experience at HR and you are interested in aTalent, then contact us and we can discuss this in more detail!
What kind of a role plays the cooperation with Ebster?
Many of our current and former employees have been Ebsters, so we have always had a connection. We have a great chance to introduce ourselves through Ebster and at the same time hear their thoughts and challenges. In addition, the Ebster helps us to share important information with students. For example, through blog posts or job offers.
What kind of advice would you give to young entrepreneurs?
The most important thing is to just start. If you have an idea, then just start to work on it from somewhere. If you don’t have an idea, then look for someone who has an idea and work on it together. It’s pointless to just think and wait for the perfect moment because it won’t get you anywhere. You also should not worry about the perfect execution at first. Mistakes happen and that is actually really good because making mistakes is the fastest way to learn.
The second thing I recommend is to talk about your idea with others. Especially with your target group. That is the best way to get honest and useful feedback to your idea. Don’t be afraid of anyone stealing your idea, because many people get ideas but there are only a few of them that actually execute these ideas.
Translator: Marlen Kuusk
Editor: Liisa-Maria Lillepea