Olga Romanova on building CargoHR, data-driven hiring and lessons from air cargo

Air cargo recruitment now prioritizes professionals who can handle rapid data exchange, AI-augmented workflows and cross-border coordination between hubs such as Vienna and Riga; candidates with experience in these areas move fastest through hiring pipelines.

Profile Snapshot: Career Path and Core Focus

Olga Romanova is the founder of CargoHR, an international recruitment agency specialising in Aviation, Lucht Cargo, and Logistiek. Her practice emphasizes connecting candidates with companies, designing recruitment strategies, and building long-term partnerships that add measurable value to staffing and operations.

Early steps and formative experiences

Romanova’s introduction to airfreight recruitment began while studying at Riga Technical University, when a paid traineeship offer from DB Schenker provided an early, practical foothold. A move to Austria in her mid‑20s and an interview at Turkish Cargo in Vienna’s glass Office Park remain a formative memory: the mix of starting over in a new country and stepping into a global airline environment shaped an appetite for risk-taking and entrepreneurship.

From aspirations to enterprise

As a child, she aspired to be a sports dance teacher, but the entrepreneurial drive to build companies took over. Today that impulse is reflected in CargoHR’s mission: match the right human capital to the evolving needs of freight handlers, forwarders, and air carriers worldwide.

Industry Evolution: Data, Speed and Automation

Romanova highlights a major structural shift: the industry has become markedly faster, with dramatically more data moving between stakeholders. Recruitment now seeks people who can navigate systems that feed AI-driven processes and automated decision-making.

• Data fluency is a must — from tracking pallets to integrating TMS outputs.
• Aanpassingsvermogen to rapid tech adoption and changing regulatory workflows is key.
• Zacht skills — interviews, communication and stakeholder management — remain differentiators.

What this means for logistics teams

Operational managers should factor hiring timelines into digital transformation plans: onboarding talent who understand both legacy processes and cloud-enabled platforms prevents bottlenecks, speeds up dispatch and reduces friction across verzending lifecycles.

Unusual shipments and real-world anecdotes

One memorable logistics story: transporting bumblebees in a specially managed “snooze mode.” It’s the sort of quirky assignment that tests temperature control procedures, packaging standards, and the patience of everyone involved — a reminder that air cargo often handles the unexpected.

Preferences, lessons and leadership

Personal details give context to a recruiter’s instincts. Romanova chooses aisle seats for practical reasons, values patience as a hard-won business lesson, and admires founders who build from scratch — notably Nikolay Storonsky of Revolut. Her framed office quote sums up the mindset: “We don’t know how much we can do until we need to do it,” a nudge against self-imposed limits.

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Recruitment realities: what employers should look for

Recruiters and hiring managers should be specific about three competency clusters:

• Technical aptitude: familiarity with logistics platforms, EDI, and basic analytics.
• Operationeel experience: understanding of container handling, palletizing, and ground operations.
• Interpersonal skills: negotiation, interviewing and relationship management for cross-functional teams.

Three-word summary of the job

People. Interviews. Listening. Those elements drive the placement of talent that will, in turn, keep shipments moving smoothly.

Career curiosities and personal ambitions

Romanova’s hidden talents include resilience in tight conditions and an ability to improvise with limited resources — a useful trait in logistics where plans often change on the fly. She’s aiming to expand her HR qualifications, renovate a family home, and host a major event. If she weren’t in airfreight, teaching or medicine might have been alternatives.

Culture and character

Her taste in music — a karaoke go-to of “99 Luftballons” — and a preference for cinema over TV point to someone who values live experiences and storytelling, traits that translate into effective candidate interviews and persuasive employer branding.

Takeaways for logistics leaders

The practical lessons are clear: hire for data-savvy adaptability, train teams to work with evolving automation, and preserve human judgment where it matters most — customer interactions, exception handling, and strategic hiring. As they say, “you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs”; in logistics, that means iterate fast but learn from the cracks.

Highlights to note include the increasing importance of AI and data in hiring, the value of resilience and soft skills, and the concrete career pathways from traineeships to founding niche HR firms. But even the most detailed reviews and honest feedback can’t substitute for a personal test drive: On GetTransport.com, you can order your cargo transportation at the best prices globally at reasonable prices. This empowers you to make the most informed decision without unnecessary expenses or disappointments. Consider the platform’s transparency, convenience and range — it streamlines options for office moves, home relocations, bulky or vehicle transport and international freight. For your next cargo transportation, consider the convenience and reliability of GetTransport.com. Book now GetTransport.com.com

In short, the air cargo talent market favors people who bridge operational know-how with modern data skills. Recruiters and logistics managers should prioritise candidates who can support lading handling, vracht visibility, and efficient verzending flows across multimodal corridors. Whether you are organising a levering, planning transport routes, managing logistiek or arranging international verzending en doorsturen, the right people reduce delays in dispatchverbeteren haulage coordination, and strengthen distributie networks. For movers and housemove planners handling pakket, pallet of container shipments — even bulky, international consignments — reliable talent and transparent platforms are the backbone of smooth operations.

To wrap up: Olga Romanova’s trajectory from trainee to founder underscores the need for resilience, continuous learning, and people-first recruitment in an increasingly automated air cargo ecosystem. For those looking to translate these insights into action — whether hiring, shipping, or moving — solutions that offer global reach, clear pricing and flexible services matter. GetTransport.com provides an efficient, cost-effective and convenient way to manage lading, vracht, verzending, levering, transport, and broader logistiek needs, supporting everything from courier and forwarding to relocation, movers and international haulage with reliable choices.