USEFULL HINTS FOR APPLYING FOR JOBS/INTERVIEWS

In the last six months two incidents happened that make me feel sad for our educational system and our jobs seekers.

One, in our various adverts for employments in companies and organizations including NGOs I discovered that so many of our graduates are not employable. Some are so empty that any organization that employs them has incurs liability.

Again some that are fair lacks the basic knowledge of interview and “how” and “how not” of applying for jobs and preparing for interview. It is this latter group that I am out to assist. Why? Because you don’t learn some of these techniques in School so they must be acquired. Failure to do this may cause one to spend years at home after graduation and at best be employed in one of these shylock companies around.

In one of our advert we received more than 5500 CVs within 2 months. In all less than 200 were short-listed, others failed, even at short-listing stage. Not because they are not qualify by virtue of academic/professional certificate, experience or others. But for simple disobedience at the very beginning, an attitude of it doesn’t matter.

Two, we conducted written interview. Initially, we want to use any of these foreign methods but we changed our mind and we made use of simple method of testing the candidates on some simple knowledge of the job applied for. Not only that, we asked them simple question and they all failed. Some can not write simple correct sentences, some can not write application letter, some cannot speak good English, and some lack vision and self esteem.

THE COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS IN EMPLOYMENT PROCESS

There are about five stages in the process of employing people for job. It all start from the organization declaring vacant position, candidates send their application letter, invitation for interview, the actual interview and finally the offer of employment.

In all these stages job seekers can only involve fully in two. The other three stages are purely the employer’s business. The job seekers have no control what so ever over these three stages. But unfortunately most times, job seekers handle the two stages of this progress shabbily, haphazardly and foolishly, only to cry foul later that they have sent thousand of applications and no invitation for interview. Some keep attending interview but no employment.

Some will call it spiritual attack, some will attribute it to lack of god-father. All these are mere lies.

I have read so many books on how to prepare for interview and so on. Some of these books are good guide but I am yet to see a practical one that meets job seekers needs especially in a country like our. It may work in the US, the Uk etc but in Nigeria, it is different.

My Experience

I decided to write an information package which I called Looking for Job- the Missing Link base on my experience. Though I have been experiencing this in the past but I was so troubled in this last few ones that I decided to put this package together at least to help job seekers who are serious. I am sure this will help as many as possible. I will share two experiences to tell you the mistakes most jobs seekers made and why they are very serious ones.

1. In one advert for employment for one of the newly universities. Various positions were advertised including lectureship positions and other positions in the services departments. In the advert having envisaged that people will be too much, we introduced two Mines as eliminating strategies. One, because we want candidates to send their applications online, we demanded for One page C.V. The idea is that, one page C.V will be economical for us to down load, print and sort to various departments. Thereafter, the short listed ones would be asked to bring their comprehensive C.V while coming from interview. We received more that 3500 C.Vs within two weeks. In all, not up to 500 candidates sent one page C.V. others were two pages, three pages, some even sent four pages C.V. I was sad most especially for some of them with good certificate, good experience but who could not make it.

Secondly, we asked applicants to indicate their religious denomination (the school is a Christian University and the owners want Christian of certain denomination). I never taught in my widest imagination that a serious job seeker will ignore this simple instruction but 95 percent of the applicants did. Unfortunately, those who send One Page C.V, most of them do not indicate their denominations and vice-versa.

My PACKAGE

In this package I have taken time to prepare a comprehensive package for you. It is not internet conjured package but a result-oriented and practical package. It covers two major aspects which I have described above. In the package you will find just two things.

1. How to submit your Application and C.V for employment and get invited. This alone cover all the nitty-gritty of preparing C.V and Application in most appealing way, how to detect traps/mines in job advert. How to avoid making costly mistakes that can turn your application down. What to do when you are submitting application late. Tips on how to fill online application form. Pitfalls to avoid in online application form, how to sell yourself, how to make-up your C.V without practical experience, how to apply for job without relevant experience.

2. How to pass an interview and get the job. Here you will learn the secret of successful interview. How to answer interview questions. How to display your qualitative skills in an interview (very important). How to master your C.V and application. How to motivate the interview panel, how to answer difficult question. How to handle difficult panel member(s). How to control interview process in your favour, how to shine in a group interview, how to fix your salary, how to defend your position is salary negotiation and a lot more.

THE COST OF THE PACKAGE

The cost of the package is N700 (Lagos), N900 (Outside Lagos).

If you want the soft copy in your mail, all it will cost you is N500

HOW TO ORDER

Pay into my account with the following detail:

Account Name: Michael Adebayo

Bank: First Bank Plc

Account no: 3262010028888

Upon payment send you details to 07037236160 and the package will be delivered with 24hrs.

Please note that tis is my personal effort and it does not have any thing to do with the organisation I work for. Also it is my experence that I am sharing it , the token I charge is for my effort.

One thing is sure, if you receive the package you will know that it worth more than the amount charged.

I wish you all the best.