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Propeller

'Unless you can pick yourself back up quickly, recruitment can be a brutal industry'

Tools of the Trade: John Farrelly, managing director of Propeller, talks dogs and resilience.

EVERY WEEK, FORA gets inside the heads of some of Ireland’s top entrepreneurs to gain insights into what got them to the top of their trade. This week we meet John Farrelly, managing director at aviation recruitment firm Propeller. 

John Farrelly wishes he’d started his business a year earlier – even if it’s only a year old. 

Though the team is just six people strong, the founder and managing director of Propeller – an aviation recruitment firm – already has outposts with on-the-ground consultants in the UAE, Australia, US and Europe. 

The company specialises in low-cost recruitment on one end and C-suit at the other – but sticks to engineering roles. Farrelly previously worked in Sigmar Recruitment and won recruitment consultant of the year from the National Recruitment Federation in 2017.  

As part of our weekly Tools of the Trade series, we spoke to Farrelly about the brutal side of the recruitment industry – and time spent with his dog. 

Here’s what he had to say: 

Are you a specialist or a generalist?

A specialist. There’s a huge amount of roles you can work in in aviation so we don’t do anything with pilots or cabin crew. We’ve always been focused on the engineering side. 

How do you judge new staff?

Aviation and recruitment are people businesses. We expect an open and empathetic approach as an absolute minimum. 

Technical skills, honesty and transparency are really important. Motivation is absolutely critical.

(We look for) somebody who has the ability to learn quickly and is open to stepping a little outside their comfort zone, some of the roles can be very technical and difficult to get to grips with. 

What quality has helped you stand out?

Resilience. We have salvaged seemingly lost-causes on numerous occasions by identifying simple solutions to complex challenges. We work on a success based model – if we don’t find a solution we don’t get paid. 

What past business decision would you change?

I wish I’d started my own business earlier. I loved working for my previous company but nothing compares to working for yourself. It’s rewarding in ways that I could never have imagined. In an ideal world I would have started 12 months earlier. 

What has shook your confidence and how did you get past it?

Recruitment is full of disappointments and near misses. The rewards are amazing but it’s not an exact science; peaks and troughs are inevitable. 

There have been times when people have signed the contract, we’ve planned for that revenue to come in on the back of that and then you may get a phone call in a week or two – or an email sometimes – saying that they’re not going to start.

That can really shake you. Unless you can pick yourself back up quickly it can be a brutal industry. You just have to get on with it. 

What tool could you not do without?

LinkedIn. It’s made great strides over the last couple of years. 

How do you deal with stress?

I take my dog for a walk and get a bit of perspective. Stella is a registered Irish therapy dog. We both volunteer in the nursing home each week.

Stella’s incredible at lifting any mood and reducing stress. To be honest if I didn’t work in recruitment I’d work with dogs for a living. 

What’s the most important part of your daily routine?

The first hour of the day which I spend playing with my 11-month-old son Jack. His wonder at things we take for granted has taught me to have a much more straightforward outlook to business and life in general. I generally start work at 7.30am with a renewed focus for the day ahead. 

How do you keep your staff onside?

Setting realistic targets and communicating openly and honestly. If people have a strong understanding of what’s expected of them and it’s pragmatic, it’s a very strong start to a business relationship. 

How do you respond to failure?

I analyse what went wrong, the reasons behind it, what measures if any I can take to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Then I implement it.

The last part sounds obvious but over the years I’ve been amazed at people doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Learning from failure is absolutely essential in terms of personal and professional development. 

John1 Propeller. Propeller.

What book would you recommended the most?

Never Split the Difference (by Chris Voss). Understanding, mastering and applying the basic rules of negotiation is critical in business and it’s taught me some valuable tools that I’ve put into practice on a daily basis. 

Get our Daily Briefing with the morning’s most important headlines for innovative Irish businesses. 

Written by Zuzia Whelan and posted on Fora.ie

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    Mute Cosmological
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    Apr 3rd 2020, 6:41 AM

    Intelligent piece, more reason to respect and appreciate what these fine people are doing for us.

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    Mute Bobby wilson
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    Apr 3rd 2020, 7:15 AM

    When the world eventually gets this dangerous virus under control ! it will never be same again particular Europe /American/all other western nations will need to look very carefully at manufacturing our own medical /engineering /all other important products for nation security at times of crisis and greatly reduced our dependency on China and other like minded states!

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    Mute Mary Walshe
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    Apr 3rd 2020, 8:44 AM

    @Bobby wilson:
    Maybe all those nations at war, who spend significant amounts of money on weaponry, could instead put it towards the health and welfare of their citizens.
    I’m thinking particularly of African nations, the Taliban in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.
    Maybe, just maybe this is a wake up call for humanity across the entire world!

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    Mute Aaron O'Leary
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    Apr 3rd 2020, 10:56 AM

    @Mary Walshe: Or America…?

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    Mute Will
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    Apr 3rd 2020, 2:01 PM

    @Mary Walshe: “a wake up call for humanity across the entire world!”

    I’d like to think so but we’ve had two world wars in the last 100 years that killed over 100 million people and we carried on as before both times (more or less).
    We have short memories.

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    Mute Damon16
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    Apr 3rd 2020, 5:39 PM

    @Mary Walshe: There are multiple potential threats that we face – pandemics is just one of them. Bio-terrorism, cyber terrorism or outright military conflicts, natural disasters (massive volcanic eruption is one big one) and climate change are other threats. Europe has become complacent since WWII, thinking that we are immune from external and internal threats and that material progress is an inevitability. This virus has shown this isn’t true. We should take this as a lesson and make proper contingencies for future threats – and yes includes potential future military threats. We’re lucky that this virus isn’t much more deadly, a contagious virus with a mortality rate of 30-40% or more is certainly possible.

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    Mute Nuala Mc Namara
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    Apr 3rd 2020, 8:25 AM

    Bearing this article in mind ,I am very concerned with the article in IT’s 2 days ago:’Some protection equipment from China ” not ideal”,HSE says’.This shipment cost over €208m but more concerned about the safety of frontline staff!

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    Mute Bobby wilson
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    Apr 3rd 2020, 8:36 AM

    @Nuala Mc Namara: all the more reason why western nations must come together after this nightmare end. Start manufacturing our own medical /engineering /all other important nation security equipment. even it cost more to produce a least it will be of higher quality. Let’s Greatly reduced our dependency on China and other fellow totalitarian states in the world!

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    Mute Alan Watts
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    Apr 3rd 2020, 10:21 AM

    @Nuala Mc Namara: heard on RTE news that most of the equipment isn’t faulty it’s just not what our hospitals are use too using, most will have to be retrained

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    Mute Alan Watts
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    Apr 3rd 2020, 10:47 AM

    @Bobby wilson: yeah the 17% now unemployed can work in our new factories I’m sure we can pay them a few more euro than the slave labour our chinese counterparts get.

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    Mute Bobby wilson
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    Apr 3rd 2020, 11:24 AM

    @Alan Watts: yes! And At least it will be of higher quality than some of equipment made in those states in the far east!..this will be different world when this virus is put under control particular western nations that includes [brixit Britain ] Europe/EU/USA/must all come back together and work closely as one in developing better food/medical /engineering security equipment in coming years and not depending on totalitarian states across the world!

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    Mute MickN
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    Apr 3rd 2020, 1:30 PM

    @Nuala Mc Namara: I heard that not ideal but good enough although they have now changed the order…
    So if RTE says good enough then they must be good enough…Odd way of explaining it though was being very carefull with his words and looked stressed trying to explain without explaining properly.. Weird..

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    Mute Nuala Mc Namara
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    Apr 3rd 2020, 5:22 PM

    @Alan Watts:@MickN RTE news:’Some new PPE’not fit for purpose’-medical staff’ !!!!

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    Mute Agenda21
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    Apr 4th 2020, 2:18 AM

    @Alan Watts: really, on rte wow wee

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    Mute Barney Corleone
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    Apr 3rd 2020, 9:37 AM

    The jury is very much out on initial dose and severity of symptoms. In influenza SARS and MERS there is a correlation and it is highly likely that COVID19 is the same. Even in the discussion that you linked from the science media centre more of the opinions seemed to fall on the side that initial dose is a factor in outcome. More balance please author!

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    Mute Agenda21
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    Apr 3rd 2020, 6:20 AM

    NO

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