Hiring Is Not an Algorithm: Costanza Gallina's Method (and Philosophy)

Novara, August 31, 2026 – There's one word that Costanza Gallina, HR consultant and career counselor, repeats more than any other when describing her work: awareness. It's not an abstract concept from a motivational course, but the heart of a method she's applied for years on two closely related fronts: on the one hand, individuals, often women, seeking a new direction in their career counseling ; on the other, companies, who entrust her with personnel search and selection and specialized services, such as work-related stress assessments.

A dual track that, if you look at it closely, tells the same story from two opposite perspectives: understanding who you are, even before deciding what to do or who to hire.

The risk of reducing people to keywords

In an era in which personnel selection increasingly relies on software that screens CVs by keywords and algorithms that assign "match" scores between candidates and positions, Gallina does not hide a certain concern, which he expresses bluntly:

We're also falling in love with artificial intelligence in personnel selection. But hiring someone isn't about finding the best combination of keywords. I use digital tools and AI, too—it would be absurd not to today—but the tools need to be in the hands of professionals who can read people.

It's a seemingly subtle distinction, but it's actually the key: the problem isn't technology, but the idea that it can replace the judgment, experience, and sensitivity of those who truly know how to conduct an interview, beyond the CV itself. This is an issue that concerns companies, who risk discarding suitable candidates due to an overly rigid algorithm, but also candidates, who are increasingly evaluated by a system before even speaking to a person.

From theory to practice: a method born from listening

This philosophy wasn't born on paper. Gallina applies it daily in his two fields of work, which at first glance seem distant but share the same underlying question.

On the B2C front, she works primarily with women who, at various stages in their lives—a move, pregnancy, a layoff, or simply the feeling of having been stuck for too long—are trying to find a professional direction that's truly their own, and with it, the financial independence that's often the premise, rather than the consequence, of any other change.

On the B2B front, the same attention to people translates into two very concrete services for companies: personnel search and selection, conducted with a method that goes beyond simply matching skills to job descriptions, and work-related stress assessment, a legal requirement that Gallina views as an opportunity, beyond fulfilling legal obligations, to truly understand how the people who work within that organization are doing.

“Realize who you are”: awareness as an achievement, not a gift

This dual journey, both professional and human, is at the heart of " Realize Who You Are. A Journey of Self-Empowerment" (2023), the book in which Costanza Gallina puts down on paper some reflections on the importance of "knowing yourself." The underlying thesis is as simple as it is, in practice, difficult to achieve: self-awareness is not a talent you are born with but a skill that is built through commitment, determination, and above all, the genuine desire to be able to look in the mirror and change for the better.

In the book, which gathers practical tools rather than theory, Costanza takes the reader on a journey that begins with an uncomfortable question: who am I really, regardless of the roles others have assigned me, leading to concrete tools for self-orientation. This isn't a productivity manual, but a journey of self-empowerment in the most literal sense of the word: taking back the power to decide your own professional life, rather than being dominated by it.

A thread that holds people and companies together

What makes Costanza Gallina's career interesting isn't so much the fact that she works with both people and companies, but rather her refusal to treat them as two worlds separated by different methods. If a company wants to hire well, it must be able to read people, not just their skills. And if a person wants to find their professional path, they must first get to know themselves; exactly as a recruiter asks candidates to do.

In a job market increasingly reliant on algorithms, ATS filters, and selection chatbots, Gallina chooses to bet on what, fortunately, no technology can yet truly do: reading people. Understanding their value, skills, contradictions, and potential. Because behind a resume, there's always a person. And the same is true when we have to look ourselves in the mirror and understand who we are, what we can do, and where we want to go.

Costanza Gallina is an HR consultant and career counselor. She provides career guidance and repositioning for individuals and personnel search and selection, as well as work-related stress assessments for companies. Throughout her professional career, she has also worked in the university setting and participated in national and international conferences dedicated to the value of work in people's lives, with a focus on the inclusion and employability of people with disabilities. She is the author of "Realize who you are. A path to self-empowerment" (2023).