Hannah Nguyen

[hannahnguyen93]

#BCASBiomed Prestige Stand at Emergency Services Show

Elaine Hearn and Ian Roberts visited our showroom and were very satisfied with the end result.

"We were very pleased with the stand and received many positive comments from our customers and colleagues.

Thank you for your professional service and attention to detail. It was a pleasure working with you and everyone at Quadrant 2 Design!” - Elaine Hearn.

[hannahnguyen93]

Electro Box – My first official project!

My very first project is to manage and deliver exhibition stand for Electro Box at the Autumn Fair Event.

“Electro Box Ltd is a global consumer electronics company that has sold products across 35 different countries. Electro Box specialises in the design, development, marketing, retail and distribution of advanced consumer electronics that have been acclaimed by celebrities and industry professionals for their clever blend of innovative technology and stylish design.”

Electro Box exhibited with their Prestige exhibition stand at the Autumn Fair, which ran from 7th up until the 10th September. The Autumn Fair is one of the largest gift trade show of the season bringing together over 1,400 exhibitors and 30,000 buyers for four action-packed days of buying across 11 unique show sectors.

Based on project management triangle, this project like any other human undertaking, which needs to be performed and delivered in 3 constraints, including: cost, scope and schedule.

Cost constraint: As a project manager, I need to ensure that the project is to be delivered under the budget. For each project, there is a particular amount for the budget, which compromises of: labor, materials, facilities, services which are all developed according to work breakdown structure. In other words, my job is to negotiate with the suppliers to get the best deal for carpet, curtain, photography and etc. In the meantime, I need to manage the resources such as the internal labour and vehicle for multiple projects adequately.

Schedule constraint: The Electro Box project had been agreed for the go ahead just 15 days before the opening date. Therefore, being able to manage a big exhibition stand (4.5m wide, 6.5m length and 2.5m height) within 15 days is a lot of pressure for myself in order to get it finished on time. Although it may sound like a long time, 15 days to build a stand from scratch just simply isn't enough. Apart from Electro Box, I have had many other projects that need to be managed and ensuring that I disparate deadlines successfully.

Scope constraint: Within 15 days of project life-cycle, I am required to perform and deliver an exhibition stand featuring with high-level branding, illuminated display showcases, iPad holders and high-quality seamless graphics. Also, I need to be aware of any changes regarding to the stand structure and graphics as well as understanding the influence of these changes on a particular budget and schedule. Throughout the project, Electro Box wanted to use transparent display box within their stand which was something that we had never produced and experienced before. Therefore, being able to manage uncertainty, rapid change or ambiguity is an essential skill that I need to learn.

In the end, the exhibition stand for Electro Box proved to be a real success, with a high number of exhibition attendees visiting their stand during the show. Meanwhile, as Project Manager, I feel that I have performed and delivered successfully on planning my first project around a tight schedule. Overall, my management skills have included; project planning, initiation and organisation, managing resources, effective project negotiation, cost control, managing risk and making decisions and managing changes that have been developed throughout the Electro Box project.

“We had a really good show and where really pleased with how the stand turned out.

I would like to thank you for your help and support during the ordering and build up.”

Jasmine Lancaster – Marketing Executive of Electro Box.

[hannahnguyen93]

How to make your CV outstanding?

More often than not, securing a placement is not always easy for any undergraduates who have no hands-on experience and never been in the real business world before. Especially, international undergraduates who are facing many difficulties of living in a foreign country including language barrier. The reason of failing to get a placement can be either international students do not understand what they are supposed to do step by step due to the language or they make very basic mistakes although they have understood what they were doing.

Notably, most of international students can’t even go through to phone interview stage. Below are tips from myself after experiencing the recruitment process that could help you to understand more and able to increase your CV Sent/ Phone Interview Received Ratio in order to win a placement.

There are thousands of tip available online, however there are few main ones that I want to point out from my own experience.

Draft, draft and draft: Planning and writing your CV until you feel that your CV is interesting enough to catch attention and able to stand out in the application pool. Give it to your friends and ask for their thoughts. You do not want a CV with poor information, however do not provide very details as it might end up with nothing to find out more about you.

Grammar: Bear in mind that it is extremely important to have your CV perfect with no grammar mistakes. If you are not confident on your English, just kindly ask a teacher at your language college or a friend who might be able and willing to help with proofreading.

Creative CV: I consider this is the key element which helps me to win my placement. Because employer and HR people receive hundred or even thousand applications a day, they would be bored and tired of looking at all black and white CV. Thus, making your CV colourful but not unprofessional can really make you an outstanding candidate. I am lucky enough to have my boyfriend who is a graphic designer to help me with designing. It does not matter if you do not have any friends who can sort out the design, the point is just to make your CV different to others, so attempt to make it colourful, distinctive and attention catcher.

 Send out as much as you can: Never stop sending out your CV until you get a placement. I have sent my CV out to over 30 companies before officially winning my current placement. Thus don’t be disheartened if your CVs you send out does not get you far as persistence is very crucial and a key required skill of getting a job.

These tips have been applied to myself and I have successfully secured a placement. I hope this article can help you to understand a little bit more regarding to recruitment process. Keep fingers crossed and good luck!

[hannahnguyen93]

The article welcoming to Quadrant2design on PRweb

Welcoming me to the company, the marketing department has had a quick interview with me about my placement at Quadrant2design and release an article on PRweb. 

So, here is our conversation....

Since starting a month ago, what have you learnt so far from your Project Management training? By shadowing Agata Swietek (Project Manager), I have learnt how to manage and proceed a project from start to finish, how to communicate effectively with clients to ensure the project run smoothly. Also, issues within a project do sometimes arise and I have learnt how to resolve these situations and to make sure that the project will meet the deadline.  What do you hope to achieve as a Project Manager for Quadrant2Design? As a Project Manager, in terms of company, I hope to achieve satisfaction of all clients who deal with me. Also, I really hope that I can be a value member of the team as well as the company.  In regards to myself, I expect to achieve organisation skill, able to manage multi-tasks, communication skill, negotiation skill, detail orientation skill and solving problems skill. Have you had any big challenges so far? Because I do not have any knowledge about exhibition industry before working. So it is challenge for me at the beginning to understand about organizer, venue, material and how we work to build the Prestige stand as well. What is it like to work for Quadrant2Design? Working at Quadrant2Design is very exciting but challenging also. As a project manager, I work with many different clients and take part of stand. Exciting part is when a stand is built successfully and a client is happy. However, it is also challenging as I have to manage many different projects at the same time.

For further the full article, please kindly click here :)