Amanda Geukes is lead recruitment at Sweco, Europe's largest architecture and engineering consultancy with 23,000 colleagues, 2,400 of them in the Netherlands. She started her career as a case manager at the Dutch youth care service, then moved into a secondment agency in construction before ending up at Sweco on the corporate side of recruitment. She now has ten years of experience in technical recruitment.
Q: Why is the candidate pool for Amanda Geukes from Sweco so small compared to other engineering firms?
A: Because Sweco Netherlands operates decentralised and regionally, which means it can only work with Dutch-speaking technical specialists. Other large competitors operate internationally and can therefore also hire English-speaking candidates, which immediately makes their pool larger. Amanda combines that with the requirement of at least a bachelor's level and the fact that technically trained people are scarce anyway due to an ageing workforce. The result is a funnel that produces relatively few suitable candidates, even though Sweco still manages to hire enough people.
Q: How does Sweco under Amanda Geukes grow despite the tight technical labour market?
A: By using regional work as an attraction rather than a limitation. Sweco wants to grow from 2,400 to 3,000 employees in the Netherlands within two years, which works out to 350 to 400 new hires per year. Amanda sees candidates coming from competitors to Sweco because they prefer working regionally and making a difference in their own area, rather than working on international projects.
Q: How does Sweco under Amanda Geukes use AI without missing modest candidates?
A: By adding a human check on top of automatic rejections. Sweco is running a pilot where candidates who indicate they do not speak fluent Dutch are automatically rejected for vacancies where language is essential. Amanda noticed that some candidates with a B2 level still answer no out of modesty. By personally calling borderline cases she prevents good candidates from being rejected unfairly. Her reasoning: in a tight labour market you cannot afford to miss people who would actually be a good fit.
Q: How does Amanda Geukes from Sweco encourage AI adoption within her team?
A: By having everyone share weekly what they did with AI, whether for work or personally. Early in their AI adoption journey, Amanda introduced this as a fixed part of the team meeting. It produced hilarious stories about personal use, but it also made AI a natural part of daily work much faster. Her observation: once people know they have to report back every week, they think about it more consciously and apply it sooner.
Q: Why does Amanda Geukes from Sweco believe AI should never make a selection decision on its own?
A: Because it cuts corners and can unfairly exclude good candidates. Sweco assessed 7,000 applicants entirely manually last year, without AI. Amanda supports the EU AI Act on the point that AI must not make decisions in selection processes. She also sees recruiters letting AI assign a colour code to candidates and then only looking at the green ones. Her criticism: you might be able to afford that with an abundance of candidates, but it comes at the cost of human judgement and ultimately your reputation as an employer.
Q: How long can Sweco under Amanda Geukes retain candidate data under GDPR and what is the problem with that?
A: Six months, which Amanda personally finds too short. Sweco asks candidates for permission to retain data longer, but a large proportion does not respond to that request because they have already found another job or it simply is not a priority. The result: good candidates Sweco might want to approach again a year later have already disappeared from the system. Sweco investigated whether the period could legally be extended, but that is not possible without explicit consent from the candidate.
Q: What is the most important advice from Amanda Geukes from Sweco to people who want to become a recruiter in a technical sector without a technical background?
A: Be curious, even without technical knowledge. After ten years in the sector Amanda still does not have deep technical expertise and does not think it is necessary. Technical people enjoy talking about their field and a good question often produces an hour of valuable information. Her tip: focus your curiosity on the person and the profession broadly, not on the technical detail. Knowing what someone did at a previous employer and whether that fits the team matters more for a recruiter than being technically trained themselves.