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There are careers built on ambition. And there are careers built on something deeper. For Esther Echeverria, Founder and Director of Life and Career Recruitment (L&C Recruitment), the distinction has always been clear. From the moment she made the decision to transition from lighting sales engineering in France to recruitment in Dubai, the driving force was never simply professional. It was personal. It was purposeful. It was about people.
That philosophy is woven into the very name she chose for her company. Life and Career Recruitment. Not one or the other. Both, always, together. Because for Esther, the two can never truly be separated. Professional success means little without personal fulfilment. And balance in life, she believes, is what empowers people to genuinely thrive in their careers. That belief did not come from a business school. It came from lived experience and a deep, consistent commitment to the humans on both sides of every conversation she has.
Relationships built to last
Esther describes her approach to work with a clarity that reflects ten years of consistent practice. She is deeply committed to both client and candidate satisfaction, with a focus on service, care and genuine human connection. For her, lasting relationships are not built through transactions. They are built through consistency, trust and the willingness to show up with dedication and care, not just at the beginning of an engagement but all the way through it.
A decade in the same industry has produced something rare. Many of Esther’s clients have become far more than business relationships. They have become part of the story of a company that has always valued people over placements and connection over commission. That is the kind of reputation that cannot be manufactured. It can only be earned, one honest interaction at a time.
What building something teaches you
Ask Esther what leading her own company has taught her and the answer comes without hesitation: resilience.
The journey of building a business is never a straight line. There are moments, she reflects, where walking away feels like the only option. What has always pulled her through is returning to the reason she started. The why, held clearly and honestly, has a way of carrying you through even the hardest stretches.
L&C Recruitment has navigated two of the most significant global disruptions in recent memory: the Covid pandemic and, more recently, the impact of regional conflict on business confidence. In moments like those, it is natural to question everything. But what has consistently given Esther the strength to continue is the visible, tangible impact her work creates in people’s lives. The trust she receives from the market. The appreciation that comes from knowing that what she does genuinely changes outcomes for real people on both sides of the table.
That knowledge, she says, is what keeps her motivated. Even through the hardest times.
Clarity over complexity
The built environment and the industries surrounding it are in a period of careful recalibration. Companies are more considered in their hiring decisions. Cash flow is managed with greater caution. The market, while active and dynamic, asks more questions before it moves.
For Esther, the most important response to a shifting market is not a new strategy or a pivot in approach. It is communication. Clear, transparent, consistent communication with both clients and candidates from the very beginning. In her experience, the challenges and frustrations that arise in recruitment rarely come from the situation itself. They come from a lack of alignment and a lack of honesty at the outset.
Her response is to hold that standard of clarity regardless of market conditions. It is a simple principle and, in practice, one of the most powerful things a recruiter can offer.
A Christmas morning that changed everything
Esther’s definition of success has undergone a profound and honest transformation. For a long time, she measured it the way many founders do: growth, scale, more clients, more placements, the next milestone always on the horizon.
Then, about two years ago, something shifted. On Christmas morning, she found herself absorbed in a work issue on her phone while her son was asking for her attention. That moment of clarity, quiet and undramatic as it was, changed the way she thought about everything.
She already had a strong, sustainable business with a genuine reputation for quality and care. So she began asking herself an honest question: why the constant need to chase more? So often, she reflects, we become trapped in a cycle, endlessly focused on the next achievement without pausing to appreciate what we have already built.
Today, success for Esther looks entirely different. It is a healthy balance between the life she wants to live and the exceptional service she continues to deliver through her business. It is not about growth at all costs. It is about creating something that is both meaningful and sustainable. A business and a life that genuinely belong together.
What the industry gets right and where it can do better
Esther speaks with warmth and understanding about one of the more human challenges in business: the moment an employee chooses to move on, even from a workplace that has been built with genuine care.
Many business owners, she observes, hope that the people they hire will carry the same passion and emotional investment in the company that they do themselves. And it can be genuinely difficult to understand why someone leaves when real effort has gone into building a positive culture and a strong sense of belonging.
But the reality, as Esther sees it, is that even in the healthiest workplaces, people will still move on. Family priorities shift. Personal circumstances change. Ambitions evolve. Visions for the future take new directions. At the end of the day, we can never control people or their choices. What we can do is build environments worth choosing and relationships worth remembering. And then hold those experiences with gratitude, even when the chapter closes.
The woman behind the resilience
Esther closes with the credit that matters most to her. Her mother.
Raised as one of two children by a single mother navigating genuinely difficult circumstances, Esther learned her most foundational lessons not in a boardroom or a business school but at home. Her mother’s strength taught her to remain independent, to never give up regardless of the challenges ahead and to stay deeply human and caring toward others no matter what she achieved.
That is where Esther’s resilience truly comes from. And her drive for excellence. And her insistence, through every stage of building her company, on leading with both determination and empathy.
No matter what L&C Recruitment becomes, those values have remained constant. They were there at the beginning. They are there today. And in every placement, every conversation and every life quietly changed for the better, they continue to show up.
Esther Echeverria is the Founder and Director of L&C Recruitment. This piece is part of The Minds Behind the Build, PAGES’ ongoing series celebrating the founders and leaders shaping the built environment.
