Maarja, you have long-standing experience in HR management. How did your path to becoming an HR lead begin, and which experiences have shaped you the most?
My career has been about people from the very start — supporting, advising and developing them. I've worked in both private companies and government institutions, and it's that varied experience that has let me see just how different organisations and their challenges can be.
I've always been interested in the whole person. I like finding solutions even in the most complicated situations, and seeing how people grow and organisations grow along with them. What draws me most to HR is the chance to build something. I've often said it's like building with Lego bricks — piece by piece you create a working whole, where every person is an important part of the bigger picture.
I've never wanted to be the centre of attention. I'd rather be the quiet force in the background, helping create an environment where people can make the most of their potential, and where companies succeed as a result.
How did the idea for Sgilio come about?
Sgilio was born out of one inspiring conversation. My close thinking partner and fellow traveller Inge-Helene came across a video that got us wondering whether recruitment really has to look the way it has for decades. That was the moment we felt something had to be done differently.
Having both worked in HR and recruitment for years, we'd long felt that a traditional CV no longer describes a person's real worth. A CV mainly tells you where someone has worked and what job titles they've held, but it often leaves the most important question unanswered — what they can actually do.
As we started looking into the topic in more depth, we saw that a number of European companies have already been moving towards skills-based recruitment for years. Writing a CV with the help of AI doesn't say much about what a person can actually do.
That's how Sgilio came to be. Our goal is to help people show their skills, not just their work experience, and to give employers the ability to make better, more objective hiring decisions.
Why would you recommend job seekers and employers join Sgilio? What value does it offer both sides?
Sgilio is for people who want to see beyond the CV.
Employers can assess candidates' real skills and use smart profile matching to find people whose knowledge, strengths and potential best match the company's needs. We don't believe the best candidate is always the one with the most prestigious work experience or the best-written CV. Often, the biggest talent is the one who goes unnoticed, simply because they were never given the chance to prove themselves.
For job seekers, Sgilio offers the chance to compete on their real skills. If a person has the knowledge, ability and willingness to learn, they should have the chance to prove it. That creates a fairer opportunity for young people, career changers, and anyone whose potential hasn't come through on a CV so far.
When a person and a company are a genuine match in both skills and expectations, the collaboration is far more likely to last beyond the probation period, and both sides win.
The world is changing very fast. Skills that were highly valued in the job market ten years ago may no longer carry the same weight today. At the same time, new knowledge and competencies that organisations need keep emerging. That's why we believe people shouldn't be judged only on their past, but also on what they can do today and what they're capable of.
On Sgilio, both the candidate and the employer can better assess whether a particular role is a good fit for the person, whether they have what it takes to succeed in it, and what their growth potential looks like. That reduces bad hiring decisions and helps build stronger, more motivated teams.
How would you assess the current state of the Estonian job market? What changes have stood out the most in recent years?
The Estonian job market has changed very quickly in recent years. On one hand, companies find it harder to find the right people; on the other, candidates often feel the application process has become anonymous and unfair. In my view, the biggest shift is that competition is no longer just for customers, but increasingly for talent too. Companies need to be able to differentiate themselves as an employer just as deliberately as they do with their products or services. At the same time, candidates' expectations have grown. Alongside a competitive salary, people are looking for meaningful work, opportunities to grow, flexibility, and an organisation whose values they can identify with.
Artificial intelligence is also having a very strong effect on the job market. AI is changing both applying and recruiting, which means companies need to find new ways to assess candidates' real skills and potential.
What are employers' biggest challenges right now, and what are candidates' main concerns when job hunting?
For employers, the biggest challenge is making good hiring decisions in a situation where a CV no longer gives a complete picture of a candidate's ability. A bad hire is costly, both in time and money.
Candidates' biggest concern is that they often feel judged on the basis of a single document. So many good people get overlooked simply because their career path hasn't been conventional, or because they can't present themselves well enough on a CV.
I believe the future of recruitment lies in people being able to prove themselves through their knowledge, skills and potential.
What are Sgilio's future plans? Can we expect new features or expansion into new markets?
Sgilio's goal is to become a platform where hiring decisions are made primarily on the basis of data, skills and potential. We're continuing to develop data-driven profile matching, so companies can find people who fit their needs even more precisely. We also want to expand our gamified, science-based skills assessments, which help candidates genuinely demonstrate their abilities and help employers make more confident decisions.
In the longer term, we want to move in the same direction as Europe's leading skills-based recruitment companies. Our ambition isn't limited to Estonia — we want to build a robust solution that works just as well in international markets.
We believe the recruitment of the future will no longer ask only, "Where have you worked?" but rather, "What can you actually do, and what are you capable of?" That's exactly the question Sgilio wants to answer.