Mar 9, 2016
Before I was a Recruiter, I worked in Business Development for the Credit Union back in the UK. I fell into the job more or less straight from university, and if I’m honest, it wasn’t the right role, industry or company for me. In reality, I didn’t know what I was walking into, and I didn’t know enough about me as a person to make an informed decision. I took the role blindly and learned about myself on the job. The only thing I felt sure about was a desire to start a business working with horses as that was my passion above all else.
That was the extent of my planning, though. I called it my pipe-dream because that’s all I felt it was. I never thought I would ever have enough knowledge, money or confidence to set such a business up and that seemed like a pretty compelling argument not to pay it too much more attention.
Fast forward six years and I had worked my way up the Credit Union career ladder. I was excellent at pretending I was happy in my job – even to myself. In reality, I had been hungry for success but had no clue what success meant or looked like to me, so I blindly followed the internal promotional structure and never stopped to self-analyse. I never thought about my long or short term goals, and I realised that I had quite recklessly lost six years of my twenties to a job that wasn’t getting me anywhere nearer to my dream. That revelation in itself was so frightening to me that I went on a bit of a goal-making frenzy.
What to do when you realise you’re completely lost.
Travel
In every situation, it seems to work. The longer, the better, in my opinion, but even if it’s only been a weekend get-away, travelling has always helped me gain perspective in every way. I stop caring about possessions, live day-to-day and take time out to think about my life goals and how I’ll get there.
Before I made the more permanent move, I travelled the East Coast of Australia, and the big trip gave me a goal; something to look forward to and save for. This gave me a purpose and drive I revelled in. It made me financially organised and motivated for every extra incentive at work. In turn, I found I enjoyed going to work in the morning with this new found motivation. When I returned, I loved the sense of achievement I felt, so set my sights on my next goal; the property ladder. I saved, got a mortgage, bought an apartment and then realised that now I’d figured it out, I was pretty good at this life-goal thing. I needed to dream bigger for the next challenge.
What’s your end goal?
Achieving the above milestones made me realise that with proper planning, my pipe-dream could be a reality. I’d been thinking about it all wrong before; only seeing the finished product and never considering what I could be doing now – like, right now – to help me get there.
I decided to travel again (what better excuse to reflect) and headed back out to Australia to find my pot of gold. Being new to planning in general, I didn’t think it through too much and arrived with no job, nowhere to live and not a lot of direction. I spent the first three months waitressing (definitely not my calling), realised that finding myself might take a while and then started to enquire over regional farm work so I could extend my visa and buy more time.
Now I’m not a big believer in destiny. I believe you make your own and maybe that’s what answering the ‘Groom needed to look after 100 horses’ advert was. I spent the most incredible three months on a farm in Goulburn, mustering cattle, drenching sheep, fixing fences and training sets of polo ponies for the upcoming season. It gave me the confidence I needed and kick-started my knowledge in managing a large equine establishment plus, it helped me visualise what I wanted to do in the long term. Aside from all of that, it was just bloody good fun. That quote “Find what you’re passionate about and then find a way to do it every day” had never made more sense to me. To make this business idea happen, I would need the following things:
· A sizeable deposit to buy land/an established business
· More horse knowledge
· Contacts in the industry
The importance of having a goal
I started working at Precision 3 weeks after returning from completing my farm work. I had a new energy and drive which undoubtedly got me through the interview process, but it wasn’t until I’d gone through Precision’s training that I harnessed it enough to start making an actual plan.
Precision’s training taught me that having a goal is great, but it’s entirely useless unless you know how you’ll get there. You need to work backwards and build yourself stepping stones of achievements to set yourself a timeline.
Once I’d been taught this, things started falling into place. I paid off some debt, started spending my weekends working with horses so I could soak up more knowledge and build a network of contacts and I put together a solid financial plan for the next 2 to 5 years.
This formula sounds easy, mostly because it is. But not many companies will not only take the time to listen to your dreams – but help you plan them as well. I also don’t know many businesses that would also accept that you don’t want to stay in their industry forever and actively help you use them as a means to get you somewhere else. In that way, I’ve found Precision to be refreshingly honest, and that filters down into our consultants’ recruitment style.
Why is money so important?
Generally speaking, people hate talking about money. They hate owing or borrowing it, worrying about it and mostly, negotiating it. The topic is given far more power than really necessary and because of this, being money motivated is deemed as a grabby and horrible trait to have.
The way I see it, being motivated by money is not about greed if cultivated properly. Credit Unions are Not-For-Profits, so in my last role, money was considered to be a more of a commodity rather than an ingredient. My motivation by money was seen purely as a financial gain to me which I felt was short-sighted; I worked harder when I had something to save for, therefore smashed my membership targets and in turn promoted the business and boosted dividends for our members at the end of the year. To me, being driven by dollar signs profits the company and my colleagues as much as it does me.
Recruitment is an industry that shares my views on this. We’re targeted with figures just like any other consultancy and the company relies on you billing these numbers and beyond to function as a profitable business. But it’s not all about the money at Precision. Just like you, the company has their goals and being motivated to earn them achieve this. This year it was to hire a Digital Marketing Manager who would shape our online presence and develop a marketing strategy that would propel our business to the next level. Marketing Managers need a salary, so the business had to stay focussed on earning to make this happen (welcome aboard, Irene!)
For me, I found the transition into Recruitment pretty easy emotionally as I was so driven that failure wasn’t an option. Plus, I had finally found a platform that nurtured my desire for success and offered me a formula to achieve it:
Desire + belief + hard work = success.
I executed all of these things. Long hours, activity and networking was the reality of my first year. Because I did that, I currently hold the title of ‘Most Improved Recruiter’ at 156% over my annual target. I am also on track to win a place on our annual company holiday, the 110% club and I was promoted twice in my first 18 months at Precision.
I’m proud of all those achievements, but most importantly, I’m proud that 86 candidates have started in their dream jobs because of the dedication I showed to my job. I feel rewarded, valued and challenged every day – and being money motivated got me here.
Why Recruitment?
As industries go, we have a bad rep. We’re known for selling our Grandmother to chase a dollar, placing square pegs in round holes to make our targets and replicating scenes from Wolf of Wall Street.
But recruitment is a billion dollar industry that when executed correctly and with ethos, can make somebody’s year by giving them the confidence to try something new. To help someone else build the highest performing team that their company has ever seen. To partner with HR so that their internal targets are met, and they’re not working 45 different niche roles that they don’t understand or to turn a company’s reputation a full 180 degrees.
Precision is in an exciting phase right now. We’re proud of the fact that we’re different and happy to be changing the reputation of Recruitment by leading by example. My immediate goal is to reach the lofty heights of Leadership, making our Analytics team the most experienced in Australia and in doing so, reach the next couple of stepping stones to that business I want. The only difference now is that I believe I’ll get there within the next three years and I have an army of people to help me achieve it.
