This expert has written an excellent piece on common mistakes job seekers in Kenya make when applying for employment.If you are a job seeker,you will learn one or two things from this article.
Show, don’t tell. You know, I get amazed every day about the shit people write on their CVs. I can’t even recall how many CVs I’ve read, either recruiting for myself or for clients. This is even true with executive C-level recruitment. In fact, if I’m ever bored at work, it’s always amusing to pull out applicant’s cVs and start laughing.
Why on earth would I want to know your gender, religion, marital status, sijui ID number or age on your CV? I can tell your age from the year you finished high school. Next people will start telling you which church they attend and the frequency of their menstrual cycle. You’re wasting valuable real estate on your CV stating what is absolutely irrelevant for me to decide whether I’ll give you a job or not. And for the record, I can read through so much bullshit on CV’s.
And what’s with this disease of people copy pasting their previous job descriptions onto their CV. Responsible for this, did that, Catered for this, worked on that. Here’s some free advice to all you job seekers out there. I don’t give a fuck what you’ve done before. I want you to tell me what you can do for me. How does what you’ve done before add up to a hill of beans? What have you actually achieved that can help me as opposed to what you’ve been “responsible” for?
Don’t tell me you’re self-motivated and driven. Are you out of your frigging mind to think I’d be employing someone who isn’t and forgot to mention it? As opposed to what? Don’t tell me you have excellent communication skills. I can tell whether you have it or not by the way you present yourself. I would never for example, give a job to someone who spends 4 years doing a computer science degree. And just to clarify, I have a very comprehensive technology background. Why you might ask? Because by the time they finish their theoretical adventure, technology has moved on. Give me an MCSE any day without a degree, and I’ll get them a job that pays at least $300 a day.
I once guest lectured the MBA class at USIU’s Chandaria School of Business. It was an MBA class on strategic management. The average age of the students was 26, and I’m thinking, “What the fuck have you guys managed?”. See, when you’re teaching an MBA class, one of the tools you use is case studies. How now do you expect folks who’ve never experienced the sharp end of business problems to share their experiences as a means for others to learn from? Take change management for example. I don’t think I could have ever attended any university course or degree to prepare me to become a change management expert. Baptism of fire taught me that. No school in the world can ever teach you how to respond, react to or guide a process where you’re literally challenging the value systems people have, what they’ve known most of their lives. You’re literally telling them, what you’ve believed in for most of your life isn’t necessarily the right thing. People bite back, they sabotage you, they go into self-preservation mode, they protect what they know. It’s ugly, it’s personal, and it’s human. People hate change. It threatens their very existence, what they know, what they’ve believed in most if not all their professional life. It makes them petrified that change will stop their ability to feed their families and put a roof over their head. How now are you going to learn that experience from a text book?
A few years ago, I advertised a job in Kenya for a PA. It was on Brighter Monday. . the response was overwhelming. At least 70% of the applicants had Masters degrees. And looking at the CVs, I was thinking, “this isn’t happening, no, it really isn’t”. I’m not even going to tell you about the spelling, typos and grammar mistakes for those who claim they have excellent communication skills. Using Am instead of I’m for example. Incidentally, for every person who says they have an MBA, the next place I usually go is the high school grades. You’ll be surprised about the disparity between paper perceptions and the reality.
I suppose I’ve always been an unconventional boss, let alone an unconventional person. I’ve employed some of the most loyal and productive people on a gut instinct. From a conversation in a pub, from a feeling of something in your water. Remind me to tell you about Lorna for example. I’m going to write about her in my next Adventures of Migosi Odumbe series.
What’s my point here? We have issues. We have half baked graduates who have no idea how to apply what they learn in real life. Personally, I blame our education system. It’s not fit for purpose. It hasn’t been as far back as I started questioning it. And what? I must have been 12 years old then?
Source:Odumbe Kute
