Sandra Bichl
Sandra brings over 20 years of international expertise in career consulting, leadership development, and strategic HR management. She has worked with C-level executives, HR leaders, and high-potential professionals across all continents – in both corporate and consulting environments. Sandra works in English, Polish, German and Spanish, and also speaks Portuguese and French.
How it started:
Sandra began her international recruitment career in 2002 at TMP Worldwide (later Hudson and now Legalis), being based in both Budapest and Warsaw, focusing on executive placements across CEE. Following a two-year break working as a Sales & Marketing Manager in Latin America, she decided to change, though not moving in-house, but to what she likes to call “the third side” of the recruitment process: supporting executives directly in their job hunting & career advancement journeys.
How it’s going:
In 2010, Sandra founded Career Angels, a boutique career advisory firm dedicated to supporting executives and professionals across Europe and beyond. Under her guidance, Career Angels has supported over 12,000 individuals and collaborated with some of Europe’s most forward-thinking employers on outplacement, recruitment audits, and talent initiatives. In 2023, Sandra transitioned into the corporate world, taking on the role of CHRO at Allegro, a leading European e-commerce company, after serving as Interim HR Director. She continues to shape Career Angels’ strategic direction as a Supervisory Board Member.
Sandra regularly shares her insights through keynote speaking, guest lectures at top European business schools (G/E/MBA programs), publications, and podcasts. Her core beliefs include a strong advocacy for authentic leadership, a data-driven approach to strategic HR, and the philosophy #HireCompetenciesNotCVs.
Why are you a Career Angel? What’s your favourite part of your work?
When I was a recruiter, I always felt that the candidates should have somebody on their side. At the end of the day, a recruiter – even with their best intentions at hand – works for the paying client, usually a corporation; never for the candidate. There’s an innate conflict of interest.
There are actually a couple of things that I enjoy:
– being part of somebody’s success story
– improving somebody’s financial situation (& stability)
– challenging C-level executives, as, admittedly, most have become complacent over the years.
And it doesn’t matter how many CVs I work on or format, I still love it! Even after 15 years!
What’s your life motto?
“Fortune favours the prepared.”
I do believe we are the masters of our own destiny and we can influence how we progress, or how we react to events and decisions that are out of our hands – like a pandemic or somebody deciding to let us go.
What’s the best & worst career advice that you have ever received?
The worst career advice – although with good intentions – was from a business owner who told me early in my career, “Sandra, you gotta stop laughing so loudly if you ever wanna be taken seriously.” I didn’t listen and kept on having my infectious laughter. It shows that I’m authentic and actually attracts people to “my table” at the networking events.
The best career advice I have ever received was actually something I read in a book written by Tim Ferriss, “If you are thinking of doing something and you are afraid of taking the plunge, make a list of all the things that can go wrong. In other words, verbalize all possible worst-case scenarios. More often than not, you’ll realize that nothing really happens if we give it a try. And that we can minimize negative consequences upfront by being prepared.” Thanks to that, I had the courage to try being a freelancer before founding Career Angels.