Interview with Head of HR, Esmira Alieva


The HR department is the heart of the company, its motor, soul, feelings and emotions. Today we introduce you to Esmira Alieva — Head of HR of CELUS who perfectly matches people to the team and knows exactly how to maintain the team spirit.

Hi, Esmira! Tell us about yourself. How did you become a part of the CELUS Team?

I have been living in Munich for about some years already. I originally come from Moscow, Russia where I was working for a Russian IT company, CROC Inc. For the first half year after moving to Germany I continued to work for CROC remotely, but I missed a feeling of being part of a team and wanted to integrate into the local community, so I started to look for a job here. I came across a job opening in CELUS, after some research, got interested in the company and the product and decided to apply for the position. And here I am.

What do you like most about Munich?

The location and the climate. There are so many picturesque places in Bayern, which I love visiting at the weekend. I believe these are two main reasons why I began to spend so much time outside and re-discovered such things as hiking, grilling, using a bicycle as a means of transport and balcony gardening for myself. I hope next year I will try mountain skiing.

How do you keep your days structured and organized?

Often, employees have some small requests, which I write them down in a notebook or on a post-it to not forget about anything. But to move with the times, I recently switched from my lovely paper post-its to digital ones. This is an even more convenient method to keep everything in one place and not to lose part of the information I need, especially when you work from different places like from home or on "workation".

I also have established some meeting rules for me. Some issues can easily be solved by message or email. This way, I avoid having hundreds of small meetings per day that block my time for ad-hoc requests. Apart from that, I have started to create blockers in my calendar to have longer time slots to focus on a bigger or more complex project. Lastly, I try hard to stick to the timing of meetings and come prepared in order to avoid the domino effect in the calendar affecting all subsequent meetings.

What do you like most about hiring people?

It is important to see that a person is passionate about what he or she is doing and not just works to earn a living. I am always looking for a light in the eyes and pay attention how candidates tell me about their projects, achievements and interests. I appreciate honesty, decisiveness, natural curiosity and open-mindedness.

Do you have a quote that inspires you?

One of my favorite children’s books is “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Caroll and I quite often keep saying to myself “We must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere, you must run twice as fast as that”.


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