Vol.17 – Opening New Doors to the French Market Through Language and Connection
For our Meet the Team article this week, we’d like to introduce Centre People’s first French Speaking Consultant, and a key member of our LinkedIn team, Laura Soriano. After three years working experience in Japan, Laura joined us in July 2024, quickly becoming a driving force for business development in France.
Firstly, how did you get started in recruitment?
“So my first job was as a translator, but part of that role was also recruiting freelance translators to work with us, this was my first experience in recruitment. I actually have a background in teaching English, but I wanted to move away from that and thought I should use my recruitment experience to properly join the industry. When I met our team and colleagues, I felt they were amazing, so I wanted to join Centre People!”
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
“I’m the biggest coffee lover, every weekend I go to a different coffee shop and I am a huge fan of latte art. The better, the more beautiful the latte art is, the more I like the coffee shop. So yeah, huge, huge coffee lover. My favourite coffee is the Red Box in South Ealing, but there’s a coffee shop called Django, and it’s got the best latte art, it’s the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.”
What have you learned about international business and recruitment in the last year?
“I discovered that recruitment can be so different depending on the country. Although, the process is kind of the same everywhere, but cultural differences can be huge depending on who you’re communicating with. What came as a surprise was, as a French person in the UK, when you email someone, you do small talk first, such as “Hope you had a lovely weekend.”, or maybe a comment on the weather. But with French clients or candidates, it’s very straightforward and there’s no fluff. It would be strange and confusing to a French client if I did this! So it’s fun to see, but it’s important to understand these differences too, to build better relationships.”
Is there a moment from your recruitment career that you’re particularly proud of?
“It’s only been 1 and a half years, but I would say that this year I brought in two French clients to the company on my own, so that was maybe what I’m most proud of, because I’ve never done business development ever before, so this was my biggest achievement so far.”
How does it feel to be the first French speaking consultant at Centre People?
“It’s very fun, but not without its challenges. Remembering that it’s my first time using French in a business setting, like emailing, or in client meetings, I had to learn how to do this on my own, which sometimes felt a bit lonely! But it’s been really fun because I like having big responsibilities and it’s given me a lot of personal growth. Obviously, it’s my first language, but at first it was quite scary to take this on by myself.”
What do you think is the most important quality in a recruiter?
“So I thought about this because everyone says resilience and I completely agree… But I would say empathy would be my number one quality. I’m very much a feelings person, I say “I don’t over-think, I over-feel” a lot. But I think understanding your candidates’ and your clients’ feelings is so important because, for example, if a candidate is not too keen or you can feel they have worries or concerns or anything like that, you can address it with them, to prevent a problem later on in the process. This is good for the candidates, the clients, and for us too.”
And finally, what do you enjoy most about working at Centre People?
“The people. I feel like everyone from management to new members joining in, they’re all literally the best human beings on earth. Everyone is so patient and so kind and so amazing. You can learn from everyone, and everyone is so easy to talk to. That’s why I joined first place, too!”
We’re lucky to have Laura on our team, and very pleased to hear that she thinks so highly of her colleagues! Feel free to connect with Laura here on LinkedIn, and follow us to meet more of our fantastic consultants!
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