Liza van Gijtenbeek-Volkert

Best friend

‘The mother of my best friend in high school worked at TNO - and still does. So I knew the name of the organisation from 15 years ago. She did super cool research. Moreover, she had a lot of responsibilities and freedom to arrange her work herself. So when a position became available here, my first reaction was "sounds good!". And that impression from back then - about the freedom and responsibilities - I have now experienced that is actually true.

As a corporate recruiter, I recruit new colleagues. For the Energy and Materials Transition (EMT) unit, for instance, I look for researchers. The profiles are very different: from experts in geo-data to chemistry. I also look for candidates for the service organisation, which includes everything from communications to strategy or legal affairs.’

Ask

‘In a job interview, people sometimes ask what I like most about working at TNO. For me, it is the social aspect. What we research here matters. Although as a recruiter I do not do any research myself, I am part of the bigger picture.’

Perfect match

‘Finding that one perfect match between a candidate and vacancy makes me so happy. The strategy I choose differs per vacancy. For one position, you just have to put it online for a short time and can get 120 reactions. Other times I have to look for a unique and hard-to-find profile. Then I do a lot of preliminary research via LinkedIn, for example. Where is the candidate considering a new step? And how do we get them to the table?’

Happy

‘In this job, you see many enthusiastic and passionate candidates. That gives me energy. And when you can call someone with good news, that is the cherry on top. Sometimes you also have to disappoint a good candidate. If we have had a good interview, I try to go the extra mile and see if there is another option. That's what I like about this job: as a corporate recruiter at TNO I can really focus on quality.’