Colm O’Cuinneain, who will lead Greenhouse’s new EMEA office, told us about the roles the recruitment software firm will be hiring for in Dublin.
Recruitment software company Greenhouse this morning (30 January) announced plans to open a new EMEA base in Dublin. The US-headquartered company’s Dublin office will be its first international office and will lead its European expansion.
Though Greenhouse hasn’t given any specific staff numbers yet, it’s currently hiring to drive its “rapid” expansion across the EMEA region. Open positions in Ireland at the moment include account executives, account managers and customer success managers.
Greenhouse has been in business since 2012 and now works with 4,000 companies. It offers clients – including Stripe, Intercom and BrewDog – a platform for hiring that combines software and services.
Leading the Dublin team will be Colm O’Cuinneain, Greenhouse’s new EMEA general manager. O’Cuinneain has more than 20 years of experience in SaaS, working for global technology companies such as Oracle, LinkedIn and HP, with expertise across the Irish, UK, German, Benelux and Nordic markets. Greenhouse CEO and co-founder Daniel Chait described O’Cuinneain as “ideally positioned to lead” the Dublin team.
Explaining why Dublin was chosen to kick-start Greenhouse’s European plans, O’Cuinneain said: “Dublin is a thriving tech hub at the heart of the EU, teeming with talent and a healthy ecosystem of SMB, mid-market and enterprise companies. There is a depth of experienced leadership in Ireland that understands the necessity to be best in class in attracting talent.”
To learn more about Greenhouse’s recruitment plans in Ireland, we spoke to O’Cuinneain ahead of the company’s announcement.
Why is Dublin the chosen location for Greenhouse’s EMEA entry to market?
We looked at London, Amsterdam and Berlin, and Ireland has a great talent pool. From a hiring perspective, it has far exceeded expectations so far!
Ireland as a progressive, young, business-friendly country provides the perfect base for this expansion across Europe as our first international outpost. It’s also now the only English-speaking country in the eurozone, so a perfect base to launch from.
There is a depth of experienced leadership in Ireland that understands the necessity to be best in class in attracting talent. The well-known companies we work with in the US want us to bring that edge to Europe.
Are there any skills or attributes that will stand out to you in the hiring process?
We’re looking for self-starters – someone who is gritty and entrepreneurial. Coachability is a real big thing as well. And then in the context of our culture, somebody who fosters belonging and embraces others’ viewpoints, is entrepreneurial, and acts with purpose.
Why should people consider working at Greenhouse?
So, progression first. Obviously, you know, when you look around people who join companies early after set-up in Dublin, those people typically have done very well for themselves in terms of as the business grows, they grow and take on extra responsibility. So, there’s a massive career opportunity in it.
We invest a lot in people – a lot of money and time in people’s development – both through training but also through coaching. Also, because we’re a start-up, people have the opportunity to play way outside of their day-to-day job as we scale up the business.
From a culture side of things, we do three things – we create belonging, we act with purpose and we work together as entrepreneurs. I mean really, the goal here is to create the space for people to bring their best selves to work every day, embracing differences and diversity. Our goal is that people do the best work of their career while working at Greenhouse.
Do you have any advice for anyone thinking of applying to work at the company?
Yes – I always advise anybody to read the job description. Everything that we will assess is in the job description. It’s very thoughtful, and that’s also something we encourage our customers to do with their job descriptions. That’s the first piece of advice.
The second thing is, given you know what’s going to be assessed, prepare so that you can bring your best, best, best representation of yourself to the interview process. We’re very structured in how we interview against those skills and competencies.
Lastly, think about why you want the role or why you like doing certain types of work, and be able to articulate that.
