about me
Specialist Headhunter & Talent Acquisition Expert
I'm Joakim Kalliala — a headhunter and talent acquisition specialist with 15 years in the Finnish recruitment market. I started in executive search, co-founded Talent Design — a boutique talent consultancy — and through it scaled the entire product organisation at Swappie during their high-growth phase. I've also built and led TA for Finland at Tieto, and have placed everything from software developers, architects and AI engineers to C-suite leaders.
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Most recruiters post a job and wait. I hunt. That means deep research, direct outreach to passive candidates, and picking up the phone when everyone else sends a message. I understand technology well enough to have real conversations with the engineers I'm placing. I've built a tech product myself — I'm not just matching keywords to job descriptions.
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I'm also the founder of RecHunt — a marketplace platform connecting hiring companies with recruitment agencies across Finland and beyond. If you're looking for an agency partner rather than working with me directly, that's where I'll point you.
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I work with 1–2 clients at a time, by design. That's not a limitation — it's what makes the work good.
SERVICES
01
Interim TA Partner / Lead
I embed in your team and own recruiting end-to-end. Best for growth phases, TA gaps, or when you need someone who can both execute and structure. Typically 2–4 days a week.
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Specialist Headhunting
Direct search for hard-to-fill roles. Technical specialists, engineering leads, executives. I take on the roles where a job post won't work — and find people who aren't looking.
03
Research & Training
Deep-dive talent mapping and long-lists for executive search firms. Also available as training — upskilling internal TA teams and agencies in modern research methodology and tools.
also by joakim
RecHunt — stop searching for agencies. Let them come to you.
RecStrat is my personal practice — I work with a small number of Finnish companies directly. But I can only take so many clients at a time, and not every need requires me personally. That's why I built RecHunt.
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RecHunt is a marketplace where hiring companies post their recruitment need anonymously and receive competitive proposals from specialist agencies and recruiters. The entire process is free for hiring companies — agencies pay to submit proposals, so there's no cost or commitment on your side. You stay anonymous until you decide who to work with, so you only spend time on conversations that matter.
HOW IT WORKS
01
Post your need — any role, any location. Free, anonymous, no commitment.
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Receive proposals — at least 10 relevant recruitment partners are notified and submit competitive proposals directly to you.
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You choose — compare partners, reveal your company details only when you're ready, and select the right fit.
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MY WORK
Lead AI Developer for a data driven healthcare software company
Headhunting
Cloud Engineer for an industrial 3D simulation platform
Headhunting
Engineering Lead — Production Simulation for a 3D manufacturing simulation software company
Headhunting
Senior Platform Developer for a data driven healthcare software company
Headhunting
Head of IT for one of the fastest-growing boat brands in the world
Research
CEO for a healthcare company
Research
EHQS Director for a logistics company
Research
End2End Delivery Performance – Supply Chain management for a logistics company
Research
Head of Partner Sales for an IT company
Research
Sorting Production unit Director for a logistics company
Research
Research training for a new executive search company
Training
Scaling Swappie tech org — 1 dev team to 5 product teams
Interim TA
"Working together with Joakim was exceptionally smooth straight from the get-go. He knew what information he needed to succeed, he was working independently on all stages of the recruitment process, and I knew he would get results."
Jori Ahvonen, CTO — Swappie
Let's talk.
Tell me about the role. I'll tell you honestly whether I can help.
+358 50 560 8881 | joakim@recstrat.fi