This article was written by Ayu, Talent Acquisition Specialist at 24Slides Indonesia, as part of 24Slides’ #StorytellerProgram.
If you’ve ever scrolled through our social media and paused at a job vacancy for our Malang office, I’ve been honored to be one of the hands behind those posts—yes, the one you see on this blog cover! While I manage the process, it’s always a collaborative heartbeat with the rest of the team; literally collaborating around the world across Indonesia, Peru, Ukraine, and Denmark.
By the way, Hi! I’m Ayu. While my title says Talent Acquisition Specialist, my heart and head are deeply rooted in Psychology. Having spent almost five years in this field, I’ve learned that recruitment is so much more than just ‘filling a gap’ or ticking boxes.
With my background in psychology, I see every application as a unique story. To me, it’s about ‘decoding’ human behavior and spotting that hidden potential that a CV alone might not show. It’s about ensuring that we’re not just hiring for a role; it’s about finding a heartbeat that matches our team.
And today I want to share more about my journey at 24Slides with you!
Finding My Footing: Trust, Bravery, and Growth
Speaking of heartbeats, managing recruitment for our global teams has taught me how to listen to different rhythms. To be honest, I was incredibly nervous at first. I initially thought I would only handle local recruitment as an ‘executor’—simply following a set template.
However, 24Slides gave me a much deeper level of Trust. They empowered me to step into a specialist role, where I moved from just executing to actually designing the process and using critical thinking to find what is best. I began adjusting our workflows and creating recruitment guidelines for all of our global hiring managers.
There is a profound sense of responsibility when teams from the other side of the world trust you to find the right people for their key roles. Of course, I’m still nervous sometimes, but if they’re trusting me, then I have to trust myself too. By the way, none of this would be possible without the amazing support from my manager and local colleagues!
But carrying that trust required me to be Brave. In the beginning, the thought of collaborating with overseas colleagues and navigating different time zones was daunting. I remember my manager, our Chief of People in Denmark, once told me: “Being scared or nervous is part of being brave.” That sentence became my anchor. It reminded me that bravery isn’t the absence of fear, but the willingness to push through it.
This journey essentially ‘forced’ me into a state of constant Growth. I have had to sharpen my English, my interpersonal skills, and my ability to navigate teamwork across vastly different communication styles. I found myself bridging the gap between our global hiring managers and the local heartbeat. Whether it’s explaining why a certain behavior is common in the Indonesian talent market to our hiring managers abroad or ensuring our global strategy remains aligned with local cultural nuances, I have realized that we can’t just use a ‘templated’ hiring process.
At 24Slides, I have been given a golden opportunity to grow far beyond my degree, evolving from a Psychology graduate into a global professional who understands that we don’t just fill empty seats—we understand the human story behind them.
Bringing the Psychology Lens to Life
This mission of understanding the human side eventually opened a new door for me to share my knowledge. It was a proud moment when I could finally use my psychology lens to empower our leaders and global teams, especially when our design management team from Peru visited us here in Malang. Their visit was the perfect opportunity to tackle a massive challenge we were facing at the time: handling mass recruitments that often brought in over 50 candidates to be interviewed in a single batch. To manage this high-volume rhythm, I built a structured Mass Interview framework—a process I am still continuously evaluating and improving—which now allows us to effectively interview 50 candidates in just 5 working days.
During a combined workshop with both our Indonesian and Peruvian management teams, I guided them through this framework, focusing heavily on how to prepare for these sessions, maintain objective note-taking, and make unbiased decisions.
To be completely honest, my heart was racing because the entire session had to be conducted in English. Even though my Peruvian and Indonesian colleagues were much more fluent, they listened to me with incredible patience, gently guiding me whenever I struggled to find the right words. To break the ice and make the concept easier to digest, I asked everyone to step into a mass interview roleplay, turning a nerve-wracking presentation into a fun, collaborative learning experience.
The energy from that physical room in Malang naturally rippled into our virtual spaces. Shortly after, our People Success team in Peru reached out online, curious about how we assess the deeper layers of a candidate—like personality, work ethic, and specific behavioral traits—when technical tests or standard interviews just aren’t enough to capture the full picture. This was another beautiful opportunity to pull out my psychology toolbox.
Through our virtual screens, I introduced them to specialized personality tools and shifted their perspective on psychological testing. I emphasized that these tests shouldn’t be used as a rigid, clinical filter to pass or fail someone; instead, they are a long-term investment into understanding an individual’s deep-rooted thinking patterns and tendencies. I shared a core psychological philosophy that I hold close to my heart: there is no right or wrong answer in a personality test. Every human possesses a unique set of characteristics, and our role as a Talent Acquisition is simply to understand those traits and see how beautifully they align with the needs of the role.
By weaving these face-to-face workshops and virtual training sessions together, I was able to realize my goal of decreasing recruitment bias and delivering a tangible impact using my psychology background. Merging university theories with fast-paced corporate needs allowed us to replace ‘templated’ workflows with scientific objectivity.
Whether through the structured mass interview framework or by demystifying psychological tests for our global hiring team, these actions ensured that our recruitment process remains deeply human, scientifically sound, and fair for every single candidate, no matter which side of the world they are applying from.
The Rhythm of One Team
Looking back on these global collaborations, it’s clear to me that what we do every day extends far beyond conventional HR workflows. It is a living, breathing reflection of SDG 10: Reducing Inequalities. In our daily interactions, the rigid lines on the organizational chart completely melt away. When we come together to solve a problem or build a strategy, we do so as equal partners driven by the exact same purpose.
To be entirely honest, I’ve never felt any corporate barriers or strict hierarchy here; everyone is genuinely treated with the same level of respect. Whether I am presenting an idea to high-level stakeholders at our headquarters in Denmark or brainstorming solutions with my wonderful colleagues in Peru, Ukraine, and Indonesia, my voice has always been heard, respected, and valued on the exact same level.
Instead of letting our cultural gaps and geographical distances divide us, we have learned to see our diverse backgrounds as our greatest collective strength. We don’t just tolerate our differences; we combine them to make our team stronger.
This beautifully inclusive environment is where our core values truly thrive. It takes a massive amount of Trust to build a global space where everyone feels safe to speak up, challenge the status quo, and be themselves. And it is precisely through this psychological safety that we experience genuine Growth—not just as individuals, but as an organization that spans across continents.
My journey in Talent Acquisition has shown me that when you look at recruitment through a psychology lens, you stop seeing just resumes, checkboxes, or geographical boundaries: You start seeing raw human potential.
By breaking down biases and giving that potential an equal, fair stage to shine, we aren’t just filling roles or building a global team—we are nurturing a global family where every single heartbeat matters.
Me and my lovely People Success Indonesia Team 💖