From Kyrgyzstan to Amsterdam, through five countries

Nuri's path to leading recruitment at one of the Netherlands' top startups started in a small town in southern Kyrgyzstan. An exchange year in the US set her up with a global mindset early on. After that, she moved through Russia, Turkey, and eventually the Netherlands, picking up experience at every stop: executive search, ATS tech companies, retail, commercial real estate, and multiple startups including Getir.

Moving to the Netherlands was always the goal, even when people told her it was a long shot for someone with an HR background outside Europe. "I was always told it's too ambitious. But I thought, okay, that will be possible and I will make it possible." She got relocated through Amco Solutions, spent a year and a half there, and then went looking for the most disruptive startup she could find. That turned out to be Insify.

Culture fit is not a vibe check

When asked what common practice she disagrees with, Nuri didn't hesitate: treating culture fit as intuition.

"I disagree with the practice of culture fit as a vibe check. You don't really measure it. You just hang up with a candidate and feel like they could be a culture fit. But you should define that culture first. Then you measure it."

At Insify, values-driven hiring was built into the process before Nuri even joined. Each value is defined, measured against real examples, and assessed early in the process. Not at the end, not as a gut feeling, but as the first filter. The logic is simple: if you're clear about what your culture actually is, you can measure whether someone fits it. And you save everyone time by doing it upfront.

Hire for values, teach the skills

Nuri's hiring philosophy is clear: values over credentials. She'd rather compromise on a couple of hard skills and give someone the chance to grow than hire a perfect-on-paper candidate who doesn't align with how the team works.

"What I believe is more teachable is the technical skills rather than the internal motivation and the values and the culture fit that the person can bring. That I would not compromise on."

This is especially true in startups, where you're hiring high-potential people who want to build something, not maintain something. The candidates Insify looks for are hungry, entrepreneurial, and gritty. That's a small pool in the Netherlands, and those people often have the option to build something of their own instead of joining your company. Which means you're competing for attention, not just offering a job.

The bar keeps going up

With around 65-70 people, Insify deliberately stays lean. Nuri noticed during a recent leadership workshop that the hiring bar has clearly risen since she joined a year ago. The company doesn't want to make compromises on maybe-hires. They want people who know how startups operate, who are tired of maintenance jobs, and who want to own things.

The lesson from her previous startup experiences reinforced this thinking. She's seen the pattern: VC money comes in, companies overhire, numbers disappoint, layoffs follow. Her research during her master's showed that companies doing massive layoffs are often back in the same spot a year later because productivity and morale have tanked.

Clarity beats everything

Getting the right people starts with being crystal clear with every stakeholder in the hiring process about who you're looking for. That clarity needs to flow through every stage: the job description, the recruiter screen, the hiring manager interview.

"There were times where we would go not as strict on some of the maybe-hires, and then they would end up at an interview with the CEO and he would be like, are we sure this is what good looks like?"

The fix is simple but requires discipline: define what good looks like, communicate it relentlessly, and say no a lot. Recruiters need to challenge stakeholders at the beginning of the process so they can hit the right accuracy later.

Recruitment belongs in the room

Nuri pushes back hard on the idea that recruitment is just an execution function. She's seen it treated as overhead in previous companies, and she thinks that's faulty thinking.

"Recruiters are people that make the company successful. They bring people that will bring you new customers, build new products, rework your growth strategy. There should be very close alignment between the recruitment team and the leadership team."

Recruiters need to know where the company is going to hire not just for right now, but for what's coming in two or three years. That only happens when TA is in the right rooms.

Bad hires teach you the most painful lessons

Nuri's biggest learning from bad hires: overindexing on skills, education, and pedigree while failing to check soft skills. She's seen candidates who were perfect on paper but couldn't get through to people, couldn't manage stakeholders, and couldn't handle conflict.

"From that you learn that not just what's on paper is important. It's how they talk, how they deal with conflict, how they make others successful, how they give critical feedback."

Her earlier career mistakes came from not pushing hard enough for a no when she should have. The lesson stuck: if your intuition says something is off, look for proof, but don't ignore the signal.

How to actually assess culture in practice

Nuri breaks it down practically. On the CV, look for track record in similar environments. Read the cover letter (she still does, even if others think they're outdated). In conversation, dig into real examples and look for proof. If you're a highly intuitive person, keep yourself accountable by backing up that intuition with evidence.

And the assessment doesn't stop with the recruiter. Every person with decision-making power in the process needs to be aligned on hiring for values, not just skills. That's the only way you make the right call consistently.

Budget cuts: protect the hiring bar and senior recruiters

When faced with the scenario of half the budget and double the hiring goals, Nuri would cut agencies first, then employer branding costs and other nice-to-haves. What she'd never compromise on: the hiring bar and a couple of really good senior recruiters who can make the right calls.

If budget forces the team smaller, focus on high-potential junior hires who are excited and give them space to grow. "It's okay if we're not hiring executives from big companies. What I believe is more teachable is the technical skills rather than the motivation and values."

Don't outsource your judgment to AI

Nuri is direct about the AI hype in recruitment. She's been to the events, heard the talks, and noticed the repetition. Her position: AI should help you make decisions, not make them for you.

"Don't outsource your decision-making to AI. The emotional intelligence is not there. Social skills, AI doesn't have it. Use it to help you make better decisions, quicker decisions perhaps."

She's not anti-AI. She just thinks the industry is getting carried away with the idea that AI can replace human judgment on things like values fit, soft skills, and cultural alignment.

TA as a cost center? Prove them wrong.

Nuri talks regularly with executives and CEOs. About 90% of the time, she hears the same thing: recruitment is a cost center. Her approach? Don't argue. Just deliver.

"Give me a chance and I'm going to prove you wrong. I've done that multiple times in my career."

She's fixed hiring bars, aligned stakeholders, brought in people who amplified the teams around them, and saved companies real money. The TA leaders she respects most are the ones who were brought in early, worked directly with founders, and contributed to company milestones like country launches and product launches. That only happens after you've created the value and proven it more than once.

The future: recruitment partners who own the full lifecycle

Nuri sees herself as an example of where TA is heading. At Insify, she stepped beyond the recruiter role to optimize onboarding, build a probation framework, and take ownership of hires beyond the moment they sign. She uses reference check insights during the employee lifecycle, not just during hiring.

"I think we're really going that direction where recruitment partners take ownership of their hires' lifecycle beyond the point they were hired."

She gets skeptical pushback from peers who say HR and TA are two different things. Her response: upskill a bit, and everything is possible. Recruiters are already great people-persons. That skill translates directly into helping people succeed after they join, not just getting them through the door.

The takeaway

Nuri's philosophy is built on clarity and accountability. Define your culture, then measure it. Hire for values, teach the skills. Say no more often. Don't treat culture fit as something you feel after a call. And don't let AI replace the human judgment that actually matters. The recruiters who create real value are the ones who fix hiring bars, sit in strategic rooms, and take ownership beyond the offer letter. That's how TA earns respect, not by arguing for it, but by proving it.