René Knecht – Direct Search – Recruitment in ICT and SALES

"How do you recruit Generation X/Y/Z candidates if they no longer answer the phone?"

As a Manager/Team Lead:

• Mentored, supervised, and managed a team of 6 recruitment consultants, growing them from juniors to well-respected consultants in Belgium, achieving 2-3 placements/consultant/month.

• Coached sales teams and individual account managers to achieve 4-5 sales visits/day.

• Restructured the sales team (BASIN).

• Led offshore recruiting teams twice, achieving excellent results through preparation and interactions via Teams/mail. Final interviews conducted by René.

As a Talent Acquisition Consultant:

• Direct Search via LinkedIn: Achieved a 31% response rate through personalized interactions and conversations.

• Headhunting: Direct approach via phone, mail, networking, and database outreach.

✅ Clients in ICT:

• General IT: Universiteit Antwerpen, Volvo, Barco, Essensium, Force, General Electric, Cronos, BIM Soft.

• ERP: SOA People, OASIS, Delaware, Ontex, Distriplus, Itineris (AX, D365), RMC (Oracle e-business).

• Enterprise Architects & Software Integration: Cronos, Colruyt, 4C, Inno.com, Codit, I8C.

• Document Management: Panoptic, Boulevart, Ventigrate, Docbyte.

• Developers & Testers: Ontoforce, Qframe, Cronos, Fifthplay, Vision VDS Computing, M2Q.

• Embedded Software: Sioux, Essensium, Scioteq.

• Business Intelligence: Business & Decision (SAS), Cronos (SBI), Iperform.

• Infrastructure: Wortell (Synergics), Cheops, Uptime Group.

• CXO/CEO/General Management: II-VI, Artwork Systems, RSB, VWV (Metal Engineering).
   

✅ Clients in Engineering & R&D

• Positions such as Piping, HVAC, AutoCAD, E-Plan, Shutdown Facilitators, Plant Managers, Sales Engineers.

• Companies include: Cegelec, Grontmij, Air Liquide, Hercules, DNS, ELIA, Deprez Construct, and more.
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Platforms and Groups Created:

• Durvendenken.be – For sales managers.

• ICT-Connecting.com – IT recruitment.

• LinkedIn Groups: ICT Jobs Belgium.

• Newsletter: Het Veranderbrein – The Change Brain.

 

Recent Professional Experience:

Orbid (Merelbeke)

Talent Acquisition Contractor – Sept 2022 – Today (2 days/week)

• Recruitment of software developers, Azure & M365 engineers, System Engineers, Infrastructure Support Engineers project managers, and sales engineers.

• Results: permanent inflow of candidates, Follow ups (recruitment meetings with HR business partners 1x/week, contact with hiring managers)

FOD Buitenlandse Zaken / Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs (Brussels)

IT Recruiter Contractor – March 2024 – October 2024

• Supported the "Cloud First" program by recruiting Azure/DevOps Engineers, IAM/IGA Engineers, Enterprise Architects, and cybersecurity experts.

• Results: Created a pipeline of candidates for positions that were open for over 2 years, with 2-3 qualified candidates per role within 6 weeks - 3 months

Ontoforce NV (HQ – Gent) via Orbid

Talent Acquisition Contractor – Sept 2022 – Feb 2023

• Recruited backend/frontend developers, QA specialists, and bioinformatics profiles for Ontoforce's semantic web technology (DISQOVER).

• Results: Achieved a 26% response rate and successfully filled highly technical roles in a competitive labor market.

ScioTeq (HQ – Kortrijk)

HR Consultant Contractor – May 2021 – Aug 2021 + May 2022 – Sept 2022

• Recruited embedded software engineers, FPGA engineers, project managers, and sales managers for high-tech aviation and defense projects.

• Key result: Filled 8 out of 80 qualified pipeline candidates within 3 months.
   

Ontex (HQ – Aalst)

Recruitment Consultant (Temporary) – August 2019 – March 2020

• Recruited IT, procurement, and digital factory positions for this international hygiene group.

• Developed employer branding campaigns for IT candidates, achieving a 23% optimal response rate on LinkedIn outreach.
   

Education:

• Master’s Degree in Commercial Engineering
  Solvay Business School, VUB (University of Brussels)
   

Languages and Digital Skills:

• Languages: Dutch (native), French (fluent), English (fluent), German (reading/understanding).

• Digital Skills: Wordpress, Mailchimp, Google Analytics, Hubspot, LinkedIn Talent Hub, SAP SuccessFactors, MS Office 365, and more.