“Don’t limit yourself, network and find your opportunities!”

  • Career for Life

By Sofia Hjort Lönegård Serena Scalzo

At Mercuri Urval, you can have a career for life

In the series ‘Career for Life’, you will be able to meet some of our successful colleagues and learn more about their career path, and how they help our clients to outperform.

Serena Scalzo, Delivery Lead & Head of Global Delivery Community at MU shares her career path so far.

"My studies were in Ancient History and Archaeology, because I was indecisive on what I wanted to do as a career, and it was an appealing subject at the time. I am yet to use it in practice, but you never know!"

During her studies, Serena started to work at a local recruiting agency whose parent company was a global player in the field. The role on that level is usually quite broad, so she quickly gained experience in both consulting, sales, and candidate relationships including interviews and delivery.

"It was a steep learning curve, but I gained a strong foundation. I have a continuous focus on finding new opportunities to develop myself, so I jumped when the opportunity presented itself to move to Denmark from the UK with my partner." 

Being in a new country and not speaking the language, Serena started at MU as an intern to gain experience in the Danish market.

"It was challenging at first and, due to the language barrier, I couldn’t assist on local assignments. So, I decided to start networking with international colleagues and find my opportunities there instead. My first assignment was for a British company hiring in Germany and, after a visit to our Düsseldorf office, met with some colleagues doing business in the US. Being a native English speaker, it made sense for us to collaborate, and I began supporting on many more cross-Atlantic assignments. After only a few months, I was employed full-time to continue my focus on international search."

Today, Serena is part of a task force inside MU whose primary purpose is to identify and select successful colleagues to MU. She is also heading up the “Global Delivery Community” together with colleague Katleen Degreef and is working closely with the MU Associate Network.

The “Global Delivery Community” at MU consists of over 80 delivery colleagues that have a strong focus on the delivery process. With a global presence spanning 17 countries and 3 continents, there is a strong diversity of talent with different professional and cultural backgrounds holding a wealth of valuable knowledge ready to be shared.

"The Community has three aims: to connect Consultants with the best delivery support for their assignments, to continuously increase the quality of our delivery offering and to bring colleagues together from around the world. We facilitate the sharing of knowledge and support individual development by providing relevant training and networking opportunities."

When asked to give some final advice on how to shape one’s career, and how she has seen her career so far and at MU, Serena has some clear advice:

"Don’t limit yourself! In all honesty, colleagues are always open to hearing new ideas and there are plenty of projects to get involved in. The important thing is to make sure you are visible in the context you want to be seen, network and find your opportunities!"

If you want to learn more about Serena, you can view her profile and contact her here.

If you would like to learn more about the work we are doing in the community, please reach out to Katleen and Serena at gdc@mercuriurval.com. We look forward to hearing from you.