Goal Planning Over The Holiday Season

Goal Planning Over The Holiday Season

It’s the Holiday Season and we all are really looking forward to our few days’ leave and rightly so.  It’s time to rejuvenate the batteries, put your feet up in front of the TV & enjoy a well-earned break with family and friends, a blessing that can sometimes be lost in the hustle and bustle of a busy year.  But when the dust settles and the 27th Dec passes, It can also be an amazing time to take some time out to do some goal planning for a successful 2016. If you have not started your 2016 goal planning by then, well you know the saying “Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail”.  Here is a five step process to help you plan your success.

Step 1. Identification

Find a quiet spot away from the TV, Radio, Kids and any other possible distractions to start your goal planning.  Get yourself a cup of tea, coffee or refreshment of your choosing & a pen and paper and start jotting down all of the career/job related goals you have for 2016.  It could be anything from leaving your current employer, working on your CV, getting that promotion, starting college, earning more money, setting up your business, moving premises etc.  Remember don’t think about this step too much, don’t over analyse, write down whatever goals come into your mind.

Step 2. Sequencing

When the first step is complete, this now becomes the raw material to work with, your job related wish list if you will.  You then need to start organising these goals in a sequence for planning.  The best way to do this is to rate each Goal with a 1, 2, or 3 status, based on its realistic achievability, time it will take to complete and of course the monetary cost of same which ultimately identifies which goals you are going to start with first.

Step 3. Planning

Start with the status 1’s and let’s begin creating the blueprint to achieve each goal. This is the part of the process that you need focus on in detail and Identify each step in sequence that needs to be completed in order to move onto the next step, assign a time frame to complete the step and a cost if applicable for that step.  I have always found MS project or Excel an excellent tool for this.  Also have a plan B, and C plan in place to combat (Murphy’s law), for sure you are going to need it but don’t be swayed from your ultimate goal and don’t procrastinate when times get tough.

Step 4. Execution

“We are all born with a purpose and when you know what this purpose is and you tell yourself that you will not settle for mediocrity, you will then begin to manifest your greatness,”

Les brown

You have now turned your goal planning into a success road map, you have identified each of the steps and you need to go at it with a vigour and assertiveness like never before.  You cannot be stopped, your goals are achievable and it’s important that no matter what, you achieve these goals. Review and update your plan every week and make sure you are on track, every time you encounter an issue a bump in the road, bring it back to the huddle, identify the issue, devise a solution and move on, its up to you.

Step 5. Reflection

As a result of your goal planning, your first goal has now been complete. How did it go? Use this period to reflect on what worked well and what can be improved on.  When you carry out this review, adopt your findings to your next project and you will quickly master the process and become extremely effective and efficient at your goal planning skills.

How do I progress my career

The answer to this question is actually quite complex as there are many factors at play here, some are obvious, some not so obvious and some of which may unfortunately be out of your control.

Qualifications

To start with, Qualifications are extremely important and a good place to begin to lay solid career foundations. What we have learned to date at Elk Recruitment is continued learning and gaining strong meaningful up to date qualifications are key to progressing your career especially the more senior you go. Rightly or wrongly most employers in today’s markets expect qualifications when taking on new employees. So if you’re going to embark on a career, identify the qualification that best suits your area of interest and set the wheels in motion to achieve it, but do get advice if you are unsure as to the best way forward.

Your main aim should be to acquire a good solid primary degree in your chosen field. If you are in a technical discipline and you have achieved your technical qualification, try also to gain a qualification in the soft studies to round of your offering such as supervisory management or HR. This will keep you on par with the pack leaders coupled with a certification in possibly Six Sigma or Lean.

Remember the higher you go in your career, generally people skills are just if not more important than your technical ones.

Practical Skills

Qualifications are only a foundation or entry point to allow you to begin to progress your career. As you enter employment you will quickly see that the skills you have learned in college on their own are certainly not enough to entitle you to progress ‘You may read volumes on swimming and jump into a pool and drown’.

The working environment is complex and there are a lot more factors to be considered and mastered before you take that next step. Study the environment you are working in and the method used by the organisation to get your assigned tasks done, master your part of the process and approve upon it, but measure, document & communicate the results. Along with other team members, try to learn how to master other areas of the process without of course affecting your current responsibilities and again try and improve upon them also.

What you are trying to do here is to become a practical individual that understands the whole process of the organisation. You want to become an ‘A player’ an asset to the organisation, who does their job effective continually but is always working away in the background to improve results and help out in other areas of the business when required. Do this and you will quickly get noticed, but remember all notice may not be positive.

People Skills

Probably one of the more complex and important areas of your development to master. But the rule is simple, work hard, help out when and where you can, be genuine and positive in your communication and listen to others. Stand up for what you believe in without causing offence and remember if you need to have choice words with someone do so in private & praise in public.

Is that it?

Unfortunately, not, as we said from the outset some things are out of your control and just when you think that you have mastered all of the above you get overlooked for a promotion. This is normal, get used to it but resilience, commitment, performance and constant focus on your goal in tandem with your practical, academic and people skills will ultimately progress your career. Keep at it, if you keep knocking eventually the door will open to you.

The Irish Elk & Elk Recruitment

This is probably one of the most frequent questions we get asked when meeting both clients and candidates for the first time, why Elk Recruitment?

From the outset we wanted an Irish association with our business/brand.  We started initially with the names of Irish flowers due to my keen interest in gardening but too be honest to have an Irish Flower  as our name in Irish although beautiful, most names would just be too complicated to pronounce (Clover – Seamair Lochlannach) particularly for our international brethren.

“Broadly speaking, a brand is a set of hooks the mind uses to organise its experience of a commercial offering” Eugene Yiga, knowledge manager, Synovate Laboratories”

We wanted a name and logo synonymous with Irish history & strength, a name that makes you visualise a powerful presence and within a very short period of time it was very obvious that the Irish Elk was a perfect fit for our Brand.  It is extremely important to us that every aspect of our organisation is thought through and each area of it complements and adds to our overall offering and vision of the business, we feel that the Irish Elk represents this vision perfectly.

“The Irish Elk or Giant Deer, was the largest deer that ever lived. It lived in Eurasia, from Ireland to east of Lake Baikal, during the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene. The latest known remains of the species have been carbon dated to about 5,700 BC, or about 7,700 years ago. The Giant Deer is famous for its formidable size (about 2.1 meters or 7 feet tall at the shoulders), and in particular for having the largest antlers of any known cervid (a maximum of 3.65 meters/12 feet from tip to tip and weighing up to 90 pounds)”

taken from http://www.oddee.com/item_88742.aspx

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Make The Change!

I am stuck in a professional rut and my job is just getting me down!  How many times have I heard this from family, friends and colleagues, it’s probably one of the most frustrating situations we find ourselves in and it can have a huge impact on our mental state taking into consideration the amount of time we actually spend in work every week, and if it’s not spent feeling good most of the time then there is something wrong. The good news is there is a way out, but it’s going to take time, dedication and perseverance but most importantly you need to take that first important step which is the decision that no matter what, you have had enough of this current state and you are going to make the change.

“It is in your moments of decision that your future is shaped”

Tony Robbins

In order to make the change especially when you are feeling down it is important that you find what it is that motivates you, discover what will get you up in the morning with that reinvigorated hunger for success and overdose on it. What worked for me was motivational videos, life coach podcasts and audio downloads from motivational speakers such as Les Brown, Eric Thomas, Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar to name but a few. I listened to these affirmations first thing in the morning and at every possible moment during the day until it was engrained on my very being and I no longer needed a reminder, I could automatically turn it on when required, it was liberating and I was now more motivated than ever and found change was much easier, oh by the way completely ignore all the negative people, they will bring you down and they have no place in your new plan.

Make the change today and be the best you can be at whatever it is you want to be, don’t put it of any longer, find your inner drive your motivation and go for it.  We are only on this planet for a short period of time and we owe it to ourselves to fulfil all of our dreams no matter how far away they seem to be.  Make the decision today, no excuses, find a way!

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Understanding You is a Major Key to Success!

Key to success? Having a goal and driving towards that goal is extremely important however it does not necessarily mean you will achieve it as most successful people will tell you. We all need tools to get there, we need to know how to use them and the most important tool you possess is YOU!

An important first step to your success is defining & understanding who you are internally and why (motivating factors) you want to achieve this particular goal. Undertaking this process and understanding its results makes the tough road to success more sustainable & achievable as you are paving the way with a solid foundation.

Look Inside

Take the time to understand yourself, this means conducting somewhat of an internal SWOT analysis to identify the areas of you that are strong, areas that are weak, areas of you that will create opportunities and areas that can cause you problems. The end result of this exercise is a list of positive and negative traits which can include poor communication, lack of apathy, education, poor attention to detail, excellent drive and positivity to focused, assertive and caring.

This internal dissection is hard initially but if you truly listen to your inner voice and take the time to audit yourself truthfully as a vehicle to achieving your goals, you will quickly become stronger and more equipped to achieve that goal along with becoming a better person in the process. This really is an important key to success.

Fill in the Blanks and improve

Having identified your internal weaknesses is an extremely important and positive step in your self development and identifying your key to success. Don’t let its findings put you of or shock you. We all have limitations and the quicker we understand and identify these limitations the better. Looking outside after conducting this internal analysis is imperative for two reasons,

1. Now that you have identified areas for improvement, you need to compensate for weaknesses found within by possibly retraining yourself, up-skilling, finding your motivating factors, being more positive or partnering with someone who has the skills you do not.
2. You need to also identify and address the negative external factors that are preventing you from achieving that goal, this can range from negative people, negative external relationships and the environment you operate in.

Understanding you at a deeper level internally and externally can only be beneficial and will most definitely bring about a stronger more resilient you, a tool that you can rely on when all else fails, after all its you that success will be come from, not your product or your market, You are your key to success.

“We can have more than we’ve got because we can become more than we are”

Jim Rohn

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Top 5 Interview Tips

1. Mental and Practical Preparation

Remember why you are there, you need this job but don’t forget they also need you, ultimately that’s why you are really there. The guys interviewing you don’t want to see a well-rehearsed performance it’s unnatural and fake, they want to see honesty, your skill set and a confident you that is capable of explaining and convincing why they should pick you over other candidates. It is also important during the course of the interview that you make them feel through your answers and actions that you are already doing the position and one of their team. How do you do this? Take time out days in advance of the interview, read as much about the company and the industry as possible, understand the role/job spec inside out and go through in your mind what your day would look like if you were working in this position already. I know it seems a bit crazy, but it works, by doing this preparation you are much better equipped to address questions effectively in a manner that will impress the panel.

2. Know your CV

Up until the moment you walk in the interview room the interviewees will only know you from what is written in your CV and the description of you given to them by your recruiter. Rest assured there is always one interviewer in the room whose main aim is to catch you out, so be prepared. While you are answering someone else’s question he or she is waiting in the darkness to pounce with a humdinger of a question to ask you why you left a certain employer or why there is a one month gap in your CV. To avoid any possible hick ups, know every nook and cranny of your CV and be prepared to elaborate on each and every bullet point when required and if possible making your answers relevant to the position you are applying for.

3. Relax its show time

Ok, so you are now walking into the interview room looking at the interview panel, now is a good time to take a deep breath, relax, smile and relish in the fact that all your preparation and hard work will now pay dividends. After all you are a fearless assertive smart and charming individual and they would be lucky to have you as part of their team, now go and shine.

4. Ask Questions

There is always a section at the end of an interview for you to ask questions. Usually this part of the interview is a relaxed stage for you in that you have made it to the end in one piece, but that’s not correct. Use this time to turn the table with some intelligent well taught out questions that are both engaging and thought provoking. For instance you could ask them a question about the future of the business regarding a recent change in the industry they operate in or you could ask them about the organisational structure and the management style they adopt. Remember not to be too intrusive and only ask a question that you know they have a good chance of answering, you don’t want to show boat!

5. Reflect

So how did it go? Take this time after the interview to reflect on your interview, although at this point you may not know the ultimate decision, it is the perfect time to identify areas you need to improve on for future interviews, reflect and improve, reflect and improve.

“If you do tomorrow what you did today, you will get tomorrow what you got today”

Benjamin Franklin

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Unitized Curtain Walling & Supply Chain Management!

Unitized Curtain Walling & Supply Chain Management

Along with an excellent design team with a design for manufacture mind set, one of the other main key ingredients to executing a successful unitised curtain walling project is making sure you have in place and BEFORE you start an excellently controlled well-oiled supply chain. A unitised curtain walling project needs to be visualised and mapped as an assembly line starting at estimation and running right through design, procurement, manufacturing, installation to hand over on site. In order for the project to be successful this assembly line must be managed meticulously with as much precision and planning as an automotive line. With unitised curtain walling you really are “only as good as its weakest link”

Its only Unitised, a statement you perish on!

A unitised curtain walling panel is a completed assembled section of the external envelope which may contain some or all of the following curtain walling parts, Aluminium Profiles, Steel Profiles, Steel inserts, Aluminium Panels, Galvanised Panels, Insulation, EPDM, Glass, Gaskets, Steel brackets, Aluminium Brackets, Fixings and Sealants. To complicate matters even more, all of these parts can come from different suppliers from different countries with different lead times and some components may have multiple steps to go through in order for it to be fit for purpose such as fabrication then powder coating, not to mention that you have a curing time when structurally bonding glass to the unitised frames and they must remain horizontal. The fun part is ensuring that despite all this, all of the required components must end up on the production line at the same time with the drawings, otherwise the unitised panel even without only one screw cannot be completed.

What happens when your supply chain is uncontrolled?

“Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail” it really is that simple. Unlike stick curtain walling, a poorly managed unitised curtain walling supply chain usually shows up first in the factory which can result in some or all of the following issues,

• Production line is running only in some cells, its running slowly or fully stopped
• Incomplete unitised Panels scattered throughout the factory with missing components taking up space
• Double handling unitised panels in the factory, stacking them until correct materials finally arrive
• Overtime goes through the roof trying to pull the project back in
• Panels arriving to site in the wrong sequence that cannot be installed in the right sequence
• Complete confusion, site ends up telling the factory which panels they need first, Quality suffers
• Cash flow on project goes out the window (excuse the pun) due to delays
• Client not happy, staff not happy
• You lose future business

Then why unitised curtain walling

The benefit of unitised to traditional Stick Curtain Wall when you get it right is twofold, the installation costs associated with Unitised are far less than traditional Stick as there is far less installation involved and it gets installed in a far shorter period of time 15 panels – 30 panels per day, the Quality of installation is also far better as most of the installation work is actually carried out in a controlled factory environment before it goes to site.

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Elk Recruitment are connecting success and on the Move!

Elk Recruitment are so excited to announce that we have opened up our UK address in City Road, London. The reason for this, as stated by Clive Dunne of Elk Recruitment is

“To be close to the action currently experienced in the growing fenestration industry there, it is also what our growing Curtain Walling client base require from us as a specialist in our field so that at the drop of a hat an Elk Recruitment representative can be onsite to discuss/resolve staffing issues”

Growth has been consistent in the fenestration industry to date and this has been seen in many geographical locations such as the United Kingdom , the Americas and also a welcomed recent upsurge in the Irish market both in the commercial and residential Façade sectors. This increase in activity across the board does not come without its Ying & Yang which currently present in the form of skilled staff shortages which is now an issue for most organisations especially in the curtain walling arena.

Of these skilled staff shortages Senior Façade Designers, Façade Designers, Draughtsmen and Façade Project Management disciplines seem to be most hit. The other point to note and as a direct result of demand is there has been a noticeable increase in salary scales for these disciplines in the façade industry and there doesn’t seem to be any signs of slowing as demand continues, counter offers also now seem to be unfortunately the norm.

Elk Recruitment are looking forward to growing our presence in Ireland, the UK and the Americas going forward, the response and welcoming of our business to the Façade market has been amazing thus far and long may it continue, However in order for our partnerships to develop effectively we are quickly seeing that it is extremely important that our clients take a serious look at their upcoming projects based on current demand and plan their staffing requirements way in advance to ensure the right resources are available at Kick off.

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Elk Recruitment - The Facade Specialist

Elk Recruitment is a privately owned niche recruitment firm founded in 2015 with offices currently in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Our core competency is the placement of permanent and contract mid to senior level professionals within the Fenestration, Façade, Curtain Walling & Medical Device industry throughout Europe – Asia – North & South America.

“At our core we are fully focused on the delivery of a value adding service, a service that we know is relevant to the façade and manufacturing industry”

Our in-depth knowledge particularly of the façade industry comes from having worked for aluminium/glass & steel façade, manufacturing companies for over 16 years domestically and internationally.  During this time gaining invaluable experience and insight into elements of the business such as Estimation, Design, Engineering, Procurement, Manufacturing and Project Management.  This practical in industry senior experience coupled with a very strong academic background, is what differentiates Elk Recruitment from its competitors in our chosen field.

We are an honest, reputable and knowledgeable company who prides itself on Quality and Service and will endeavour at all times to exceed the needs of our clients whilst also ensuring our candidates aspirations are met with the goal of forging lasting relationships.  We are also a proud member of the National Recruitment Federation and as such execute our recruitment process to the highest of standards and in conjunction with the N.R.F. code of conduct.

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Job Hunting

Job hunting can be a very stressful and difficult time for most of us especially when it’s the result of losing your job rather than choosing to leave.  As hard as it may be, try not to look at your current situation as world ending because it isn’t, instead look on this situation as the universes way of telling you loudly that what you were doing in the past needed changing, so take this time given to you to reflect and plan your next move strategically.

Most people at this point make a critical mistake, they don’t reflect or plan, they simply dust of the old CV and blitz the market place with it by loading it up on to every job site and issue it to every recruitment company known to man, this is a DISASTER and a fatal mistake.  Take the time to review your CV first and ask your self is this a document that represents me effectively? Am I proud of myself when I read this document? If not redo your CV and ensure it’s an excellent document, if you can’t achieve this on your own get help as it’s vitally important .  In addition get yourself an excellent LinkedIn profile and make sure it complements your CV and is up to date.

Identify the job that suits your skill set, if you don’t have the skill then upskill.  Seek out the companies you would like to work for and research them, check out their website, check out the latest vacancies on job boards and seek out recruitment companies that specialise in your industry or companies you would like to work for.

When the above is complete, connect & network in person, don’t expect the internet to do the work for you, you are one of thousands looking for a job so be different.  If you would like to send your CV directly to an employer or recruitment company, find out the contact name in that organisation and ring them in person, let them know you are on the lookout or interested in the job advertised and ask them if it is ok for you to send your CV to them directly, in doing this you are building a rapport and putting a voice and living person behind your CV.

Look at your job search as a project and remember don’t panic, reflect and plan.

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A Guide to CV Excellence Part 2

So welcome back and thank you again for joining me.

Saturday morning, the sun is shining and I have the fortunate task this morning of writing for you wonderful people.

Curriculum Vitaes like them or loth them, but never underestimate the importance of getting it right. During our last blog I gave you an introduction as to who am I, why I chose this blog and problems I see that people have with creating a Curriculum Vitae.  I also hopefully gave you an idea as to why I am qualified to write about this topic and I also asked you to review your existing CV, which I hope you did?

There are a number of key ingredients in creating an excellent CV, but most of them fall under two very important distinctive headings which are Layout & Content, layout we will cover today.  Layout is the visual impact & aesthetics of the CV, in simple terms when the soft copy of your CV is opened or a hard copy of you CV passes onto a reviewers desk it must automatically please the reader’s eye and subconsciously lure him/her to engage & read this fine specimen of a document, it can NOT be a chore or you will end up in the bin!

The Layout/Sequence I find most effective & logical, based on experience and feedback from both candidates and employers is as follows,

Soft Copy attached to an email

• I always advise job seekers to submit their CV as a pdf, as it comes across as a more professional document submittal when the email is opened.
• The CV should be saved as Name & Occupation CV (example: Clive Dunne Operations Manager CV)

Actual CV

• Sequence:
  • CV Title
  • Personal Details

• Summary Section paragraph (5-6 lines max written in the third person) followed by skillset bullet points
• Qualifications/Education

• Career History (in sequence starting with most recent)
• Prior Career History

• Additional Details

As you can see from the previous sections of CV shown, there are clean lines and indentations in the document as you scan through it and a logical sequence to the layout and most importantly it’s pleasing to the reader’s eye.

You might ask why I use yellow, well yellow is the one colour that gets noticed most.

http://www.moosepeterson.com/techtips/color.html

“Yellow – is the most visible color and is the first color the human eye notices! Yellow, the color nearest to “light” leaves a warm and satisfying impression, lively and stimulating and in many cultures symbolizes deity. Dark yellow can be oppressive while light yellow is breezy. Yellow’s stimulating nature and high visibility to the eye is the reason why many road signs are bold yellow (contrasted by black text). Yellow birds, flowers and skies are sure to be eye-catchers just because of the way the mind and eye works”

I hope you have enjoyed this session and found it informative and helpful, next session we will cover content

Have a great weekend.

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