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PREPARING FOR INTERVIEWS: GET RID OF YOUR MOUTH/BODY ODOUR (MO/BO)

I have mentioned this in passing in an earlier write up but recent events have necessitated the need for me to discuss this in detail. Do you know that Body/Mouth odour could hinder your career goals? Imagine turning up for an interview and the interviewer(s) cannot breathe properly because of the body odour /mouth odour coming from you? Isn’t that a big disadvantage already? I recently read a write up which talked about how persistent body odour affected an Executive from making CEO. And guess what? He did not know. Be it a fresh graduate or an experienced hire, know that your chances at getting your desired job or opportunity may be well hindered if your show up at an interview with MO or BO. As an interviewer, it puts me in an uncomfortable place. I most likely will find it hard telling you and I am also thinking, “When this candidate resumes will his/her colleagues have to deal with this type of smell on the regular?” Please make our jobs easy. Tips for dealin...
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WHAT ARE YOUR STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES?

Let’s break this question into two parts: 1. What are your strengths? During the course of different interviews I have conducted, I have come to realize that candidates always seem to have a number of things to tell you their strengths are. Though I have come across one or two people who could not say what their strengths were. All I can say to those people is, how are we supposed to hire you when you can’t even tell what advantages you have? This matter is for another day. Let’s come to candidates who know or claim to. For entry, fairly past entry level candidates, strengths like: I learn fast, I am a team player, hardworking, may be okay even though there is really nothing special about them as you get to hear these from so many candidates.  But for higher levels such as mid-level and particularly senior level candidates you can’t be saying things like I work well in a team, I learn fast etc. Hell No! Those are unacceptable strengths at your level. It is expec...

CV-ING THE RIGHT WAY! (I)

As the right CV (Curriculum Vitae) is the first step in the door of your dream job, when writing a CV, it is therefore important to keep in mind that your CV is the first representation of who you are, that the interviewer will see. So you’ll agree with me that the importance of having it the right way cannot be overemphasized. Tips for A Top Notch CV: Fonts should be eye-friendly and consistent: A recruiter would not keep reading through a CV that’s causing eye pain. Some CVs do. You keep wondering why the candidate had to use such font at such big size. Also, you find CVs with about 4 fonts on one CV. Not good, stop it. If you must use more than 1 font, ensure consistency. Use one for headings, another for the body etc... Don’t just write with any that pleases you in a section. Two fonts in all are enough. CV Alignment: How’s the alignment on your CV? Is it properly justified, aligned left/right etc. as it should? Spacing: Do not leave so much space in between ju...

ARE YOU “INTERVIEW READY?”

In the last couple of years, there has been so much talk about the high rate of unemployment. Graduates are not getting jobs again like it used to be in the good old days of our fathers and mothers. A big reason why a lot of people are not getting the few available jobs is that they show up for interviews in the most unprepared ways ever. The first step to getting a job is applying. Let’s assume you made it through application stage (correct CV and all: a story for another day), the next stage is the interview stage. The question is, “are you interview ready?”  Truth is, a lot of job seekers are not! So how do you secure the job? No you won’t. From Interview to interviews;  parents and friends can’t seem to understand why you have no job yet. A colleague recently interviewed a candidate over the phone and her comment was that the candidate seemed so indifferent and like she was disturbing him. I have interviewed candidates who have burst into tears during int...