Author: Muila Swele, CEO and founder of Clearstone Recruiting GmbH
The world of work is undergoing unprecedented change.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming entire industries, automating routine tasks, and causing traditional job roles to disappear.
For many people, this development is a source of great uncertainty.
Yet this transformation offers a historic opportunity, particularly for women and especially for women with an immigrant background.
The days when we had to wait for others to promote us to leadership positions are over. Today, we can create our own leadership roles.
As a refugee child from the Congo, I have learned that one’s background and starting point do not define the end of a story, but merely its beginning.
In this article, I’d like to share my experiences and explain why becoming self-employed—especially in the recruitment industry—is the best way to meet the challenges of today’s job market.
It is time to be bold, to use new technologies as tools, and to take control of your own career.
From the Congo to the Executive Suite: Why Your Background Is Your Greatest Strength
We are often led to believe that having a foreign background is a disadvantage in the German job market. My experience has taught me the opposite: our intercultural competence, our resilience, and our multilingualism are our most valuable assets.
My path has been anything but straightforward.
As a young girl, I experienced what it means to be discriminated against at the supermarket checkout as a refugee, having to use vouchers instead of cash.
That experience instilled in me an unyielding determination to achieve financial independence. I commuted two and a half hours to school in Belgium to earn my high school diploma in French, and in 2001 I enrolled at RWTH Aachen University without hesitation, even though I didn’t have the documents required at the time.
My plan worked:
I had the opportunity to study political science, economics, and Romance languages.
The real breakthrough, however, came in 2008, when I uploaded my resume to a job portal. One of the top five recruiting agencies in the UK contacted me—not despite, but because of my many languages.
They were looking for someone to develop the German market.
I asked the HR manager skeptically whether I could live off the salary and buy my partner a motorcycle as a thank-you for his support.
Her reply: "You can buy three motorcycles if you want."
She was right. In my first year, I generated approximately 250,000 euros in revenue as an employee. At my next stop, the industry giant Adecco, I learned management from the ground up and was soon earning a six-figure salary.
My background and multilingual skills were always my greatest competitive advantage when dealing with international clients and candidates.
To all foreign women reading this:
Don’t hide your roots. Use them as your strongest selling point in a globalized economy.
The Changing World of Work: Why You Don't Need to Fear AI
Recent studies predict that up to 1.6 million jobs in Germany could be eliminated or significantly transformed by AI over the next 15 years . Administrative tasks, accounting, and traditional office jobs—areas where many women traditionally work—are particularly affected.
But this development is no cause for panic; rather, it is a call to action. As machines increasingly take over routine tasks, skills that are deeply human will become vastly more valuable.
Empathy, emotional intelligence, negotiation skills, and the ability to build genuine relationships cannot be replaced by algorithms.
This is precisely where the tremendous opportunity lies for us women.
We are often naturally strong communicators and networkers. Instead of fearing AI, we should view it for what it is: a powerful tool.
In recruitment, we now use AI to analyze resumes more quickly or pre-screen suitable candidates. This saves us valuable time—time we can invest in what really matters: face-to-face conversations, understanding motivations, and bringing people together.
AI takes care of the tedious work so we can focus on building relationships.
Recruitment: The Crisis-Proof Industry for Female Entrepreneurs
Despite my success as an employee, I too eventually hit the infamous glass ceiling. My salary plateaued at 130,000 euros. I saw colleagues who had been with the company for years longer than me and weren’t getting anywhere. I wanted to give my mother a better life and support projects in my home country, but as an employee, my potential was limited.
That’s why, in 2015, I took the plunge into self-employment and launched my first recruitment agency from my 45-square-meter apartment in Munich. Recruitment is the perfect industry for female entrepreneurs. It requires very little start-up capital, no expensive equipment, and no large warehouse.
All you need is a laptop, a phone, good people skills, and an unwavering determination to succeed.
The demand for skilled workers is enormous across all industries. Companies are desperately searching for talent, and top-tier recruitment consultants are being paid more than ever before. It’s an industry where performance is directly rewarded and where your background or gender doesn’t matter—only your results count.
The Clearstone Model: Maximum Freedom, Maximum Profit
Although my first agency was successful, I quickly realized that the traditional model with full-time employees was rigid and inflexible. I remembered a friend who worked as an independent insurance broker. She traveled the world, working sometimes from Athens, sometimes from Berlin, drove a nice car, and was her own boss.
I wanted to bring that sense of absolute freedom to the field of executive search. So in 2018, I became the first person in the German-speaking world to establish a network of freelance executive search consultants:
Clearstone Recruiting.
Our model is simple, yet revolutionary. We provide the infrastructure, the network, and the expertise, while our partners operate as independent entrepreneurs. No set working hours, no requirement to be in the office, and no salary cap.
The numbers speak for themselves:
In 2022, we generated 1.6 million euros in revenue.
Of that amount, we distributed just under one million euros directly to our freelance partners. Our most successful recruitment consultant earned an impressive 340,000 euros that year. These figures are simply unattainable as an employee in our industry.
This model is ideal for women who want to balance family and career, for immigrant women who want to determine their own worth, and for anyone who no longer wants to be told when, where, and how much they are allowed to work.
Bottom line: Take control of your career
The workplace of tomorrow won’t wait for those who hesitate.
Digitalization and the use of artificial intelligence will tear down many old structures. For women who are willing to be bold, this is the best time in history to successfully start a business.
Don’t let statistics about glass ceilings discourage you.
If you’re denied a promotion in your current job, start your own business. Your intercultural experiences, your language skills, and your resilience are the foundation on which you can build your success.
You don’t have to go down this path alone. If you feel the desire to be financially independent, work flexibly, and reap the direct rewards of your own efforts, then I invite you to take the leap into self-employment.
Visit us at clearstone-recruiting.com and learn more in our blog, how you can write write your own success story as a headhunter .
Times are changing—seize the opportunity and become the architect of your own career.