BICA People | The journey of the creative and freedom-loving Bilyana Oliver

A person of the visual and aesthetic, that is how the teammates of Bilyana would describe her vibrant personality. Coming from North Macedonia three years ago with the plan to simply try her luck in Bulgaria, she found an environment, in the face of BICA, that perfectly fitted her character and she decided to stay. For her time in the team, she has changed four positions, starting from Junior Consultant and going all the way to the Principal Recruitment Consultant title.

Often spotted sitting secluded in a quiet corner absorbed by work, she is far from shy and stands out with her energetic spirit and a big smile.

What brought you to BICA more than 3 years ago?

Three years ago I didn’t have the plan to stay in Bulgaria long-term. I arrived here for an Erasmus project and decided to explore the opportunities. I still remember my interview with one of our partners Kiril — we instantly clicked. There was a match between our common ways of reasoning and general perception of a working environment. What really convinced me to stay was the freedom that BICA offered me to experiment and test my ideas.

How have you and your career evolved since then?

I started from an entry position and during the years, I have become a Team Lead of two people, hopefully soon to become four. On a personal level, I grew a lot emotionally and developed better communication skills. This is because we often have to put ourselves in different shoes, think in perspective, and jiggle with various decisions at a time.

What does a day in the life of a Principal Recruitment Consultant look like?

I would describe it as a dynamic mixture of many meetings. Every day I go from meetings with current and onboarding new clients, through making feedback sessions, and leading internal team meetings and workshops. This includes a lot of team activities with the two people under my mentorship. Together, we follow their growth, set new KPIs, analyze progress and brainstorm solutions for current issues.

What is the best thing about being part of BICA and scaling Dev teams?

The things that bring me the most satisfaction have changed throughout time. Initially, it was interviewing and communicating with new candidates. Now, I am starting to enjoy the conversations I have with clients. It’s an ongoing learning experience trying to understand their vision and business needs. It’s fascinating talking to a product client that develops an unusual solution with health or environmental focus, for example.

For me, being able to contribute to the growth of a business is very valuable, probably because in the long-term it might help me to develop something of my own.

Of course, I can not miss mentioning the great moments with the team. We go to the mountains together every month, team buildings and often hang out after work. I know of other close-knit teams but BICA really functions as a homogeneous one. Our inner synergy is something that I would always highlight.

What’s a work-related story or memory you’d never forget?

There are three things that I will always cherish. First, I am thankful for my employee of the year selection twice in a row now. I have also managed to relocate a person from Jordan to Bulgaria, and yet he is still happily employed. Lastly, something that will always stick with me is the time when I had to interview a candidate with hearing loss. This was a learning experience, as I had to react fast and think of a way to structure the interview and make something out of the ordinary.

If you have to point out the biggest advantage of BICA as an organization, what would it be?

It’s hard to wrap my mind around the things that I appreciate — being able to experiment and the synergy that we have with the team. I enjoy having creative freedom of expression and in BICA, I am able to bring my ideas to life. Equally important is the team itself. We challenge ourselves to be proactive, offer understanding and support, as well as consolation when we have a hard time.

The whole team is very open-minded, the distinctive characters and interests of each team member are more than welcome. Having strong individualities with core values in mind is what makes us a team. We share the same need to grow every day, to be more assertive, to push ourselves to move forward. The ideas and the directions of our work are different and that is why there is also a lot of knowledge-sharing.