Michael Germershausen: 20 years with Antal

Michael Germershausen, Managing Director Antal International for the Eurasian Region, celebrates 20 years with the company!

Michael Germershausen has been with Antal since 2003. He was responsible for the recruitment of middle and senior managers in different industries for the first 6 years of his career. In 2009, he was appointed General Manager of Antal in Russia.

Michael is an internationally recognized expert in recruiting top managers for leading global companies. Under his leadership, Antal has become one of the leading recruitment companies, taking a strong position in the CIS market.

Since the beginning of 2021, Michael has become Managing Director Antal International for the Eurasian Region and now leads Antal CIS from its Almaty office.

In honor of our 20th anniversary with the company, we asked Michael for a short interview.

1. How did you and your family decide to move to Kazakhstan?

It was more or less decided for me? About three years ago our then manager of the Almaty office decided to move to Moscow and “created” a vacancy. Moreover, after many years in the same office and position covering the region out of Moscow it was time for a change. It was always my dream to live and work in a place where the above could be combined. Luckily my wife and the children supported this choice.

• Why did you choose the profession of a recruiter?

Again this wasn’t really decided by myself. Back in 2003 I wanted to try and find a job in Moscow, but the Antal recruiter told me there were no jobs for somebody like me. I was a purchase manager working for Rolls Royce Aerospace who happened to know Russian language. The recruiter however was clever enough to offer me to become a recruiter. As a typical (slow thinking) German I thought it over for six months and eventually decided to give it a try. Actually my plan was to only work 3 months as recruiter and then through my new job find myself a job as purchase manager. I fell in love with the job of recruiter and 20 years later still enjoy every day.

• What specializations do you consider the most perspective in Kazakhstan and Central Asia?

Sales, Marketing, Finance and IT are the most growing, lots of large international companies are entering the market. Considering that there is a big interest in that region from Europe, the USA, China and the rest of the world there will be a lot of interesting things be happening in future.

• What do you like most about Kazakhstan?

I think they have the best lamb shashlik I have tried so far. Despite me doing a lot of sport now including cycling to work, I am not losing weight because of the great food.

• Share your opinion as a recruiter, is it right to work for 20 years in one company?

Tricky question. Probably not unless you always reinvent yourself. When I joined Antal Moscow we were less than 10 people in a small office. During those 20 years we were sold to private equity, bought back, opened many new offices. So far the biggest team I managed was more than 200 of our own staff and 1000+ contractors. I even changed from one country to another. The coming years due to all the changes in the world are set to become even more interesting so we will break many more records.