Sarah Callery, Director of Strategic Sales in EMEA
As Director of Strategic Sales, EMEA at SmartRecruiters, Sarah’s role is to identify and onboard global strategic customers with 50,000 employees or more. She is also responsible for building out the strategic GTM plan, working closely with other business functions to ensure alignment so that we can achieve our business goals.
I joined the business three years ago and have since received several internal and external awards, including Best Software Organisation Account Director at the 2021 Influential Businesswoman Awards & was a finalist in the WISA (Women in sales, EMEA). I’m passionate about helping our customers thrive and supporting them along their hiring success journey from sales to implementation and optimisation. I also lead our internal Centre of Influence for Women, which offers mentorship, coaching and a community for women in our organisation to support other women in their goals.
What were you doing before you joined SmartRecruiters?
I started my career as a recruiter before moving into recruitment technology. I have worked in both direct and indirect sales roles as an individual contributor and a leader. My time in recruitment gave me great insight into the industry and what recruiters and businesses need to get the right talent, but most importantly, it gave me an insight into people which has been invaluable throughout my career.
Getting involved in Tech is still a hot topic for women, what was the motivation for you?
Technology has always fascinated me. It’s fast-paced, it revolutionises people’s lives, and I wanted to be part of the transformation. I’m a big believer that we should never stop learning, which really applies in tech as the way it works, and the way people work as a result, is constantly developing.
Outside of that, a big motivation factor was being told I couldn’t. I don’t appreciate being told I can’t do something, so when I have been told I couldn’t in the past, I have been determined to show how I can.
How have you found your journey so far and what has been your greatest accomplishment?
It’s not been a straightforward journey, no doubt I have experienced a couple of bumps in the road. When I first started out in recruitment many years ago, I was actually told I couldn’t be a tech recruiter as it was male-dominated, and I wouldn’t ‘survive’ and that I should look to focus on something ‘softer’ like customer service recruitment.
Fortunately, times have moved on, however not fast enough and over the years I have been continuously subject to the boy’s club mentality. In tech sales, the gender disparity is extremely high with only 12% of leadership roles being held by women. This gets even smaller if you come from an ethnic minority. This leads to gender stereotypes everywhere, in the language people use and the way women are perceived in the workplace. I am fortunate that I have found a strong support network of both male and female allies, my tribe, who want to champion women in the workplace.
My greatest accomplishment in my career would have to be setting up the Women’s Centre of Influence at SmartRecruiters. If I can use my voice to give others the confidence to use theirs in the world of tech, I have achieved something worth more than any financial or personal reward.
What has been the most challenging thing so far?
Learning that it is ok to be authentic and that I don’t need to adapt to or mirror my male counterparts. And to not take biases personally. I’ve had to recognise these are unconscious biases rather than personal criticism. We have a responsibility to educate individuals to understand the impact their behaviours or words can have on minority backgrounds. As a woman in tech sales, I have to outperform my male peers for the same recognition. That was difficult to accept, but I’m hopeful we can level out the playing field through our work at the Women’s Centre of Influence.
Who is your target audience?
Any business can improve its approach to hiring. Hiring brilliant people is a success differentiator and will determine the future of a business. The ongoing shortage of talent makes recruitment even more competitive than ever before and attracting the right talent starts with offering an exceptional and positive candidate experience.
What plans do you have for the business over the next two years?
I want to build on our commitment to diversity and focus on issues that are important to women in the workplace. As well as being the leader of SmartRecruiters Women’s Employee Centre of Influence, I am setting up a network for women in technical sales roles to educate girls from a young age and showcase the fantastic opportunities the sector has to offer. SmartRecruiters is looking to expand further into the strategic segment and build on our market share globally by continues enhancements of our products and continuing to grow and develop our world-class teams.
Overview of how your business works:
SmartRecruiters makes hiring easy. We provide over 4,000 global businesses with reliable enterprise recruitment software to drive hiring success. Our cloud-based talent acquisition suite allows businesses to attract, select, hire and retain the best people. The modern and flexible platform creates a compelling and human candidate experience, enables meaningful hiring team engagement, and empowers talent acquisition teams to showcase their value, all from one centralised, integrated system.
