An interview with:
Kiki Karamanli
Job title: Senior Consultant Athens
Location: Athens

Let’s start from the beginning. At the age of 18 years old, just like many teenagers in Greece I left my beautiful island, Chios, to come to Athens to study literature! My dream at that time which coincidentally was the same as my mothers was to become a teacher.  I still remember her words: "You are going to have vacations at Christmas, Easter and all summer!" But life had different surprises for me. During my first semester in College, I was amazed by my marketing lessons and soon I realised that what I really wanted to do was Business. The next step was easy: a change of direction, and after 4 years I graduated with a Bachelors in Business Administration.  During the search for my first job, I got lucky and after a long assessment period, I was offered  a job at Procter & Gamble in the market research department. There, I had the opportunity to see what marketers were doing, how they were working, how they dug into the consumers heart and how they finally launch products to fulfil consumers’ needs.  The whole cycle was fascinating.  I wanted to become one of them, I wanted to reach as high in the hierarchy as I could.  Thus I left everything behind – job, house, friends and family and I flew to the magnificent but chilly Edinburgh to take my MBA degree. My mother was really disappointed – it took me ages to explain to her what marketing was all about and what exactly the job I would like to do was!

After one of the best years of my life, lots of snow, and an MBA degree I returned to Athens to see my dream come true. Shortly after my return, after multiple interviews, tests and case studies I got accepted in to the marketing department of Kraft Foods. Over 11 years I moved progressively up to the position of Marketing Manager having worked in Athens as well as in London global offices for a short term assignment being responsible for Coffee and Food categories. In Kraft, I had the chance to see all facets of marketing strategy, from idea generation to the in-depth consumer research to the final product bundle development, to 360 degree marketing activities and campaign execution. I had the chance to participate in a many seminars for marketing tools, strategy development, team working, leading teams, assessing people etc.  I saw and took part in many reorganisations and I experienced some departments’ shrinkages and some evolutions and progress of other departments.

Driven mainly from my open and communicative personality, I participated in a lot of cross-functional projects and in many training and assessing programs. This made me start thinking of doing something different in my career.
Here comes the moment where a change of direction to consulting and especially HR and executive search came to my mind. I have to confess that it was a big surprise to everybody I tried to discuss it with.  But my ideal was to have the chance to come face to face with a large number of executives, to help candidates with their careers and to discuss reorganisations of companies with HR and line managers.

The proposition of joining SpenglerFox was perfect in terms of timing. I had really thought about it a lot, so when it came, the decision was really easy.  I had already worked with SpenglerFox while I was responsible for Marketing at a major Greek bakery company and I had an excellent impression of them due to both their professionalism and personalities and this made the decision a lot easier. All of the above with the addition of being part of an international team were the main reasons which made me say yes at once.

After one year with the company, I am more sure than ever that I made the best decision for my career.  I really enjoy all aspects of work from presenting the a new company in the Greek market to prospect clients to announcing to a candidate that he /she got the job, from discussing specific needs with an HR and line manager to listening to how happy our clients are with a placement we just made. But believe me nothing compares to the moment where a candidate, being out of a job, tells us that we are a "treasure" and we have given them the best gift of their life.

My big challenge however, is still to explain to my mother what executive search is and what exactly I do!