Xindanwei | 新单位 A new way of working | 一种新的工作方式

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June Featured People: Susanna Wallqvist

Interview & Translation / Cozi GE

We have successfully presented three Xindanwei co-workers through past three sessions of PEOPLE section. This month, we have the pleasure to introduce Susanna Wallqvist from PAE and, as you probably have noticed, we did it in a Q&A way. We hope you like what we have done and let’s get into this great interview!

1. Welcome to Xindanwei.com, Please introduce yourself.
Thank you! My name is Susanna Wallqvist and work as a Recruitment Manager for PAE Design Talent. Originally from Sweden and recently moved down to Shanghai after 4 years in Beijing. I am not a designer but very passionate about design and love working closely with this industry. My experience in China has been amazing from the very start and I am very excited to keep exploring Shanghai. I grew up in a small town in Sweden, dedicating the first half of my life to gymnastics and learning languages. When I got too old for gymnastics I decided to start travelling and exploring foreign culture which eventually lead me here.

2. Could you tell us where you’re from and how you got started in the field?
I’m from PAE Design Talent, a company specializing on recruitment for the design industry in China. After studying in Australia I was curious about Asia, so when graduating I moved to Beijing in the hope of finding work and learning Mandarin. The Mandarin studies did not last for long, but I did find work! I was working as an in-house recruiter for an advertising agency, especially bringing them international designers and creatives. I very much enjoyed working with the creative industry, being the biggest fan of designers and wanting to work with people, creative recruitment turned out to be the perfect direction for me. Working inside an agency makes you a little limited, so when I met my current boss Philipp Michel who founded PAE Design Talent I saw a great opportunity for me, and it was definitely the right move!

3. Can you tell me about PAE, the company you work for and what you do for them?
PAE Design Talent is a company focusing on recruitment for the design industry in China. We help companies in the design field to find designers from China or internationally. The founder of the company is from Germany, who after several years of recruitment experience in Switzerland moved to Beijing to start PAE Design Talent. Our headquarters is in Beijing where we have 18 people working in different teams divided by industries such as architecture, transportation design, product/industrial design and creative design and communication.
I moved to Shanghai in the beginning of February working towards expanding our business. Leading the creative design and communication team I work mainly with advertising agencies, design consultancies, event companies and e-commerce.

4. What were the circumstances that lead you to coming to Shanghai?
There was a combination of several circumstances that brought me to Shanghai. Most of my key clients are based here and the industry that I am covering is larger and more active in Shanghai, so when my boyfriend was relocated we thought it would be a perfect opportunity for me to work closer to my clients and for PAE Design Talent to finally expand its business.

5. What prompted the idea for your project in Shanghai and what excited you to make you undertake it?
Like mentioned above, there were several things that made me come to Shanghai to start this project. China is such a big market and keeps growing so we feel that we need a presence in here to be able to cover a larger scale of the market. Eventually we will have the teams in Beijing only focusing on Beijing and additional teams in Shanghai for the same industries, but only focusing on Shanghai. What I find very interesting in Shanghai is that you can see all the cool studios and agencies from abroad starting to set up their offices here and there is more and more outstanding design work being produced from talents and agencies in Shanghai.

6. Please elaborate a bit on your approach to realize your project.
Well, the first step was for me to get settled here and also try out the communication and work flow between Beijing and Shanghai. Now I have moved into Xindanwei and this summer I will start recruiting more people to work with me. In the beginning we will focus on my industry, but hopefully we’ll be able to extend the other teams very soon and even start working in additional design field we are not yet covering, very exciting!

7. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in developing the project?
Starting a new business always takes time and you keep learning along the way. For us it was exactly like this, we had international recruitment experience and advisors from the creative industry but had to adjust the business and processes to the Chinese industry. I think my boss’s major challenge was to find the right people to work with him, people that to 100% shared the same values as he wanted to base the company on. When we had our core team together with a clear focus, that’s when it all started to go in the right direction and it has not stopped since!

8. What do you tell clients who are unsure of what they want?
We consult our clients on the areas where we have expertise, especially on HR related issues such as organization and team structures, recruitment processes and how to manage creative staff. When a client has recruitment needs but is not sure on the profiles they are looking for we do an assessment with them before starting a search. The assessment determines the most essential skills they need from the candidate and suddenly it is very clear what kind of role they are actually looking for. By doing this, investing time in the beginning of the project, we and our client save a lot of time – time that would be wasted on searching for candidates that are not correct for their needs and our client interviewing candidates that are not a fit for the role they actually need.

9. How did you come to Xindanwei and how do you find it?
PAE Design Talent and Xindanwei have been following each other for the last 2 years and when we decided to expand to Shanghai we thought it was a perfect opportunity to work closer together. Apart from me working from the office space we also collaborate on creating a platform for the creative industry in China and help bringing designers and companies together.
I love working form Xindanwei, I think it’s a great concept, amazing work environment and you keep coming across interesting people. I am also looking forward to take more part in your events and work shops!

10. Thanks again for providing Xindanwei.com this opportunity to interview you. Any final thoughts for our readers?
If you’re curious to know more about PAE Design Talent you can visit our website: www.pae-designtalent.com – or just come visit me on the 4th floor of Xindanwei!
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人物（六月）：Susanna Wallqvist

采访和翻译 / Cozi GE

我们已经成功地在之前三期的“人物”栏目里向大家推介了三位新单位的同事。这个月，我们有幸邀请到PAE的Susanna Wallqvist和大家分享她的故事。此外，您可能已经注意到了，我们有了新的人物稿形式──从这一期开始，我们将采用问答的形式展示受访人物。我们希望这一变化能够得到您的喜爱。现在，让我们来看看这一次精彩采访吧！

1. 欢迎来到新单位，请介绍一下您自己。
谢谢！我叫Susanna Wallqvist，我是PAE 设计人才猎头（PAE Design Talent）的猎头经理。 我是瑞典人，之前在北京住了四年，最近刚刚搬到上海。虽然我本人并不是设计师，但我对设计充满热情，对于可以从事与这个行业紧密相关的工作感到非常高兴。我在中国的经历从最初开始就充满了惊奇，现在又有机会可以了解一下上海我觉得很兴奋。我是在瑞典的一个小镇上长大的，我的前半生一直致力于体操和语言学习。当我觉得自己的年龄不再适合继续体操的时候，我决定开始去旅游并且探索世界各地的文化，最后我的旅程把我带到了这里。

2. 能跟我们说说你的来历，还有你是怎么开始现在的职业的吗？
我为PAE 设计人才猎头（PAE Design Talent）工作，这是一个专注于中国地区设计行业招聘的猎头公司。结束在澳大利亚的学业后我对亚洲感到好奇，所以我毕业之后就搬到了北京希望在这儿找到一份工作同时学习汉语。汉语学习并没有坚持多久，但我找到了工作！在一家广告公司负责招聘，尤其是帮他们引入国际化的设计师和创意人才团队。我很喜欢与创意行业有关的工作，作为一个狂热的设计师粉丝，又喜欢与人多多接触的工作，创意猎头对我来说是个完美的职业。在一个公司里面工作仍然有一些局限，所以当我遇到PAE 设计人才猎头（PAE Design Talent）的创始人，也就是我现在的老板Philipp Michel之后，我觉得大好机会来到我面前了，我毅然决然地跳槽了。

3. 能跟我们说一说PAE吗，你在PAE的工作都做一些什么？
PAE 设计人才猎头（PAE Design Talent）是一个专注于中国地区设计行业招聘的猎头公司。我们帮助设计领域的公司在中国或者国际上找到设计师。公司的创始人是个德国人，在瑞士从事了多年猎头工作后他来到北京并开始了PAE 设计人才猎头（PAE Design Talent）。我们的总部在北京，有18名员工依照行业分类工作在不同小组里工作，如建筑、交通设计、产品/工业设计以及创意设计和沟通等。
今年二月初我来到上海，打算在这儿扩展我们的业务。我带队创意设计和沟通部分，并且主要和广告公司、设计咨询公司、活动公司以及电子商务类的客户合作。

4. 是什么契机令你来到上海？
我来到上海是由多个契机促成的。我的主要客户大多落户在上海，而且我负责的行业在上海更大更有活力，因此当我的男友调动到上海后我们认为这对我来说是一个好机会──我可以离我的客户更近，而PAE可以在这里扩大业务。

5. 是什么促成了你们在上海的业务计划？你为何乐意接受这样的挑战？
就像我上面说的，有好几个因素让我来到上海。中国是一个巨大的、而且仍在成长的市场，我们觉得我们需要出现在这儿以获得更大的市场份额。我们最终会建立一个上海办公室，和北京办公司关注一样的行业领域，然后北京的团队专注于北京的业务，上海的团队专注于上海这边的。我觉得很有意思的是，很多外国的很酷的工作室和事务所都开始在上海设立办公室，也有越来越多的优秀设计作品由上海的事务所和设计人才创作出来。

6. 请跟我们再说说你们打算怎么实现你们的计划。
嗯，对我来说第一步是先在这儿安顿下来，另外尝试和制定出合适北京-上海两地沟通的工作流程。我现在已经搬进了新单位，今年夏天我会开始招聘更多的人和我一起工作。开始的时候我们会主要关注我带队的行业，顺利的话，很快我们就可以把队伍扩大到其他领域，甚至有可能把业务扩大到其他我们没有涉及过的设计行业里，这真是令人振奋！

7. 在PAE壮大的过程中你们遇到的最大的挑战是什么？
开始新业务总是非常费时，而且你将在这个过程中不断学习。对我们来说正是这样，我们有国际猎头经验和来自创意行业的专业咨询但我们必须为了中国的行业特性调整去噢们的业务和流程！我想，对我老板来说，最大的挑战是找到对的人和他一起工作，这些人必须和他拥有100%一样的价值观和理念。当我们的核心团队达到一个清晰的目标和共识的时候，一切就开始向着正确的方向开始了而且至今没有停过！

8. 当你们的客户不太确定自己想要什么的时候你们怎么和客户沟通？
我们就我们熟悉和擅长的领域对客户提供咨询，特别是在人力资源相关的问题，如组织和团队架构、招聘流程以及如果管理创意型员工。当一个客户有招聘需求，但不太确定他们到底想找什么样的人才，我们会在搜索人才前先做一个评估。评估结果会显示他们最希望候选人具备的技能，这时候他们想找什么样角色的员工就很清楚了。这么做的时候，我们在项目前期投入大量的时间，但将在后期搜索、需求修正、多余面试这些方面为我们也为客户节省很多时间。

9. 你是如何来到新单位的？你怎么找到它？
PAE和新单位从两年前开始就已经互相关注了，因此当我们打算扩大在上海的业务的时候，我们想到这是一个很好的机会让我们开始进一步的合作。除了我在新单位空间工作这一点外，我们在其他层次上也有合作，譬如为中国的创意产业建立一个平台，并把设计师和公司都召集其中等。
我很喜欢在新单位工作，我觉得这是一个很棒的概念，有意思的工作环境，而且你不断有机会和各种有意思的人群相遇。我希望以后能更多参与你们的活动和工作坊！

10. 谢谢你给新单位采访你的机会，Susanna。最后再对我们的读者说几句什么吧！
如果你对PAE 设计人才猎头（PAE Design Talent）有兴趣想知道更多的话，欢迎你访问我们的网站 www.pae-designtalent.com 你也可以直接来新单位四楼找我！
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