Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the wordpress-seo domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/bcm/src/dev/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121 job seeker | Zikoko!
Whether you feel prepared or not, job interviews can be unpredictable. There are many opinions about interview dos and don’ts, but who really ever prepares for questions like, “If you were an animal, which would you be?” Yes, recruiters have been known to ask such unusual questions during interviews.
So, what do you do when you’re unsure of the right answer or don’t even know what to say? You finesse it, and here’s how you do that, according to Wande*, a recruiter in Lagos.
Project confidence, even if you don’t feel it
Look the recruiter in the eye, and don’t let any anxiety show. They can’t beat you. Build confidence — and let it show in your voice — even before the interview starts. It will save you from feeling like you’ve hit a block the moment you’re asked an unexpected question. From personal experience, I always conclude that confident people know what they’re saying until they say something that proves otherwise.
Reword and repeat the question
You’ve been asked something, you don’t know the answer, so you need to buy time. Imagine you’re asked, “How many apples fall from the tree yearly?” You can respond with something like, “That’s an interesting question. So that I understand exactly what you’re asking, do you mean both red and green apples?” More often than not, the recruiter will explain the question again with more detail which means more time for you to find an answer.
Remember the question’s purpose
Whether they’re asking you what animal you’d like to be or what superpower you’d like, the general purpose of any interview question is to confirm you fit the role requirements. You can’t be interviewing for a job that involves handling money, and you say the animal you’d like to be is a snake — an animal known to be sneaky and dishonest. As how?
Admit you don’t know, but don’t leave it at that
It’s alright to admit you don’t know the answer to a question because the worst thing you can do is lie. But instead of saying, “I don’t know”, try something like, “I’m so glad you asked this. I’ve always wanted to know more about XYZ, which is why I’ve tried looking up [insert any vaguely similar concept]”. This presents you as someone who isn’t scared of not knowing but is also in tune with their professional growth.
You can also redirect the topic to a similar professional situation where you weren’t sure of the right approach to take, but you were able to identify the best resources needed to get the job done. The idea is to show you’re a collaborator who knows how to work through challenges. No one knows everything, and unless the recruiter is a bad belle, they know it too.
For the love of God, don’t ramble
Keep your answers brief and to the point. Rambling will show your nerves, and remember you’re acting like you know what you’re doing. Recruiters don’t want to hear long stories. Not with about 3,000 more interviews in one workday. No one is paid enough for that.
Redirect attention to your qualifications
In cases where you have absolutely no idea, admit it but don’t just go, “I have no idea.” Instead, go, “I’m not very familiar with this concept, but I’m up to date with XYZ, and I think it also ties into ABC”.
Remember, the recruiter is often under pressure too
Don’t think you’re the only one on the hot seat. The recruiter is also under pressure to deliver. Unless they’re your village people personified, they want to hire the best for the role and get it over with.
*Names have been changed for the sake of anonymity.
For this “A Day in the Life”, we’re chronicling what it means to hustle in Nigeria as someone who’s still trying to find a hustle. Daniel rants about his experiences and tells us why “unemployed” isn’t the right adjective for him.
6:00 a.m.
I woke up early today, as usual. No, I’m not a “go-getter” who wakes up on Monday mornings to watch motivational videos and start grinding. I’ve just realised it’s easier if my mum doesn’t wake up before me. Who wants to start their day with lectures of, “How are you going to find a job if you’re always sleeping?” In this house, we avoid wahala.
The first thing I do is check my emails. I must have applied to at least 15 jobs in the past week, and it’s still radio silence. I’ve been actively job-seeking since I got laid off seven months ago, and a lot has changed. Before, I wouldn’t apply to jobs that didn’t state the salary in the job description, but now, let’s just say I’ve learned. But what’s with recruiters and not stating the salary? What does “competitive salary” even mean?
They need to know that the salary is no longer competing with anything. Do they know how much data and transportation alone cost these days? Ask Twitter people, and they’ll tell you that ₦400k doesn’t do anything in the streets anymore. Is it until I apply for a job and go through one million interviews that I’ll know the budget for the role is ₦80k? You people should pity somebody.
12:00 p.m.
I think there should be a level between employed and unemployed. I fall under the unemployed, but it feels like I’ve never worked so hard in my life. Job-searching is a full-time job. I just finished updating my CV and cover letter for the umpteenth time, and I’m wondering who had the bright idea to invent cover letters in the first place.
It’s always, “Update your CV” or “Don’t use the same CV and cover letter to apply to every job so it’s tailored to the role”. Do I want to use my whole life to write CVs? Don’t I have other things I’m thinking about?
If it’s not about updating it, it’s about how different people have what they think a good CV should look like. One said I should add a link to my LinkedIn profile. Another one said adding links in CVs isn’t good. One will say I should add my gender, and another one will say it’s not necessary. I think we all need to come together and just create a Nigerian CV constitution because it’s not me you people will confuse.
4:00 p.m.
I just found an interview invite in my email, and I don’t know whether to be happy or not because I don’t even remember applying there. First, it’s in Ikeja, and we know what that could mean. It’s one of three options: It’s legit, it’s a scam, or they want to relieve me of my body parts. The other two seem more likely. But at this rate, I’ll most likely go. One thing must kill a man.
8:00 p.m.
Can we talk about crazy job expectations? Because I just saw one that’s doing my head in. How can you say you’re looking for a virtual assistant but require advanced software administration skills?
Another one I saw even asked applicants to write a 500-word letter. As per school essay?
One day, we’ll find these companies and recruiters and show them just half the shege they’ve shown us. But till then, we keep looking. This money must be made.
Adulting is a proper scam that comes with daily struggles. If it’s not waking up to the reality of just how expensive curtains are, it’s realising you need work experience to get jobs, but you also need jobs to get work experience.
So, how does the inexperienced job seeker battle unemployment and sapa? I spoke to seven people who landed jobs they weren’t qualified for. For some, it was by luck and preparation. For others, well, it involved wuruwuru to the answer.
“Omo, it was God”
— Mide*, 25, Software engineer
After NYSC, I wanted to get into tech, but I didn’t think I was skilled enough to get an entry-level role because of the steep learning curve in the software technology space.
Before passing out of NYSC, I’d reached out to a friend who got an intermediate engineering role in a healthcare technology company. By industry standards, the role requires two solid years of experience (not training experience o). So I tried to get a referral from him for an internship to gain skills and experience while learning from seasoned engineers. The internship didn’t work out, but surprisingly, my friend suggested I give the intermediate role a shot, which I did.
I was scheduled for two rounds of interviews with about two weeks to prepare in a programming language I barely worked with. Although I had taken courses on it as an undergraduate, I’d rate myself a beginner. Yet there I was, prepping for a more advanced role to work in the language. I had help from experienced friends pointing me to needed resources, so I doubled down on studying and watching tutorial videos up until a day before the interviews.
I passed the interviews as I was blessed to get the questions I’d prepared for. Omo, it could only be God. Two days later, I was offered the role. Na so I take resume remotely for US company o. The gross salary and benefits were mind-blowing. God really blessed me, and I’m grateful because I knew I was not up to par for the role. I spent two and a half years there, got promoted and led million-dollar software projects. My experience there really kickstarted my career in software engineering.
“I knew next to nothing”
— Dara*, 24, Talent management associate
My current role is my very first job, and honestly, when I applied, I knew next to nothing. I’d just finished NYSC in 2021, and it’s not like I wasn’t looking, but nothing good was coming. Even internship roles required experience, and I had absolutely nothing except for the teaching I did during NYSC.
So I took free soft skills training online and whatever employability course I could find. Then one of the classes’ Telegram groups would post job vacancies. That’s where I saw the advertisement for my current job. They asked for two years’ experience, so I begged my friend, who writes CVs as a side gig, to write one for me. I don’t know how she did it, but she manufactured three years of experience for me and even changed my NYSC teacher role to Human Resources. She padded my CV with so many skills that even I was feeling myself. I applied, and in one week, they reached out to me to set up an interview. Luckily, I know how to talk a good game, so I completely wowed the interviewers. I got my job offer the next day.
I’m smart, so I’ve learnt on the job. Now, I try to influence the company to hire people who don’t necessarily have the required experience. If they can prove themselves during the interview, what do they need experience for?
For my first video editing gig, I outsourced 70% of my duties, and I don’t think the clients noticed.
Here’s what happened. I was still learning the ropes when a relative told me their company was hiring a video editor. I didn’t meet most of the requirements and had practically no experience, but I didn’t want to lose the opportunity. With my relative’s help, I didn’t have to submit a portfolio, they just put in a good word for me, and I moved straight to the interview assessment.
I was given a small editing task, so I outsourced it to a professional for a price. I got the job, and since it was remote, it was easy for me to just outsource the difficult tasks (which was most of the work, TBH) to other people. The people I paid knew it was for my job, but they didn’t care. But I used my free time to ramp up my skills, and about a year in, I started doing most of the work myself.
“I didn’t even apply”
— Tony*, 22, Graphic designer
I’m a pharmacy student, but I just have a thing for graphic design, which I taught myself with no formal training whatsoever. I recently got my first job as a graphic designer for a not-too-bad media company. And the funny thing is, I didn’t even apply. I tend to post my designs on LinkedIn — in fact, that’s all I’ve done there since I joined in 2020. Fast forward to November 2022, a recruiter reached out to me and offered me the job. I thought it was a scam till I got to their office and got an employment letter. I didn’t even have a professional portfolio.
I’m a trained community health worker, but I really don’t like the field. I just studied for it because I couldn’t get my desired course in university. I got introduced to social media management when I graduated in 2018. My aunty asked me to help with posting the items she sold on Facebook because, according to her, I knew how to write convincingly. I did that for a while, and we eventually opened an Instagram account I also managed. I didn’t even know people got jobs as social media managers till I came across it on an online job board around 2019. I decided that was what I wanted, so I just kept applying to different places, even though I had no formal experience. I kept at it for about seven months till I finally got my first job. I’m not even sure how I convinced them to hire me, but thankfully, they did, and they never regretted it. That job helped me become the content strategist I am today.
“I was just trying my luck”
— Kofo*, 25, Product manager
I studied French in school, and for the longest time, I thought I’d end up as a teacher. But just after NYSC in 2019, I got introduced to Product Management. And I found out I didn’t need a degree to pursue the career path. I could just get online certification. So, I attended as many classes and training as possible.
The next step was to find someone who’d trust me enough to give me a job. I didn’t find many internship opportunities, so I had to focus on entry-level positions, which required some form of experience. I was just trying my luck, so I don’t know if it was God just looking out for me, but I landed a junior role in a startup within six months of actively job-hunting. They just decided to take a chance with me; I’ll forever be grateful for that.
“I technically faked experience”
Ola*, 28, Admin officer
I once got a job that required three years’ experience when I had less than six months in total — from student industrial work experience (SIWES). I’d graduated four years prior, in 2015, and I was unemployed the whole time — save for my pastor helping me out by paying me to train our six-man choir, like a music director kinda gig. It’s a really small family church, so the major qualification I had was that I could sing.
In 2019, when a church member shared a vacancy for an executive assistant with three years of experience in, I wasn’t sure what to do. I told my pastor, and we decided to use his company — a business name he’d registered one time — as my employer, since he was paying me any way. So, we put it on my CV that I was an executive assistant at his “company”. Technically, I faked the experience, but it wasn’t like it was a job I couldn’t do. And I obviously did it well because I got promoted to admin officer in 2022.
*Names have been changed for the sake of anonymity.
And it’s caused by different factors: the job market isn’t robust, with so many looking for jobs and so few job spaces available; employers can’t find qualified people; etc.
So when a job applicant gets their foot in the company door and bags an interview, he/she needs to prepare for it right?
A collection of pictures was posted on Graduate Fasttrack’s Facebook page recently; and it shows hilarious hacks for job seekers.
1. Make sure to mention that you’ve volunteered for community service.
2. Beware, every question is a test question.
3. Productivity is your god.
4. Practice giving your undivided attention to each interviewer- all at the same time.
5. Show your confidence.
6. ‘Divide and conquer’ is operative here.
7. Show that you can do all things.
8. Make sure your social media accounts have nothing incriminating.
9. Let them know that you’re result driven.
10. Show that you can be ‘coded’ when the situation calls for it.
11. Show that you’ll bring something to the table.
12. Describe yourself creatively.
13. Stay positive.
14. You know that job’s for you. Let them know that.
15. Show that you’re good at leadership.
16. Turn the negatives in your favour.
17. Let them know that you’ll be cooking up new ideas on the constant.
18. Let them know that you’ll give your best –plus more.
19. Show them that you can think outside the box.
20. Let them know that it’s been written that you’ll get this job.
21. Let them know that you’re fuelled by results.
22. Don’t be shy to let them know where you see yourself in the future.
23. Make conversation with your interviews — to diffuse the tension (for your benefit).
24. Let them know that with you, there’s never a dull moment.
25. Yes you ‘Can’ (pun intended).
26. Make sure you know the interviewer’s name. Before the interview if possible.
Warning: We will not be held liable for unpredictable results. But if you’ve got the cojones and it works for you, don’t hesitate to share your testimony.
