Graduates need special training to pass job interviews- George

Have you ever wondered why you failed a job interview after scoring close to a hundred per cent in the written test?

The reason is not far-fetched. There is a whole world of different between passing written tests and doing well at oral interview. And this is disturbing.

Reason majority of those in employment consultants has been recruiting for top jobs happens to be graduates of foreign universities including, Ghana, the United Kingdom and United States of American.

We did research and found that Nigerian graduate with First Class and Second Class Upper certificates cannot get their dream jobs because they don’t have interview etiquette.  We had to speak with some private companies and individuals who agreed to assist us in teaching these graduates what they need to know to get their dream jobs free of charge.

Nigerian graduates and foreign graduates will go for job test; the Nigerian graduates will score 80 per cent while the foreign graduates will manage to score 50 or 70 per cent. But when it is time for the job interview, the Nigerian graduates will score 20 per cent while the foreign graduates will score 90 per cent and they are going to get the cumulative of the test and oral interview.

For graduates to pass job interview in multinational companies, they must process certain skills which many feel are not necessary. If you have a First Class, except it is your father’s business, you must go for a job interview and if you don’t know how to dress, you wont get the job.

It is very important to note that the biggest problem facing Nigeria is the employability of her graduates. Majority of them cant even write a good CV.

Someone who doesn’t know how to behave at interview cant get the job. I conducted interview where a lady has mouth and body odour and she doesn’t know how to go about it. It is a natural thing, if you don’t talk for about one hour, your mouth begin to smell. What you have to do is just chew a gum before you walk up for the interview. If you have body odour, treat it, it is very easy to treat with lime.

We have seen people coming for interviews with strong perfumes. What gives the job seeker the impression that the interviewer loves perfumes or that he is not asthmatic? strong perfumes are meant for evening outing, parties or clubs where you are going to stay for a long time and most interviews are not in the evening.

Most Nigerian graduates don’t know that if you have an interview by 8.00am, they should not get there by 6.00am but 15 minutes to the time. If you early, stay around the venue, so you will not disturb others who are supposed to be there that time.  because they will start looking for a chair for you to sit.

Another issue in Nigeria is strong attachment to religion.  If you are a fanatical Christian, what gives you the impression that the interviewer is not a fanatical Imam? And even if the person is a Christian, what gives you the impression that he is not biased against your denomination? Just be prepared and know what to do and make sure of doing it rightly.

As a man, you should choose colours carefully and know what button to leave open or closed on his jacket when he is standing or sitting. If it is three button jacket, the three cant be closed but two. You have to know. All these things are very important. They are the soft things in employment interview; they are things that you can use to have competitive advantage. That is what the foreign graduates have been using against the Nigerian graduates. They have been taught about presentation.

The number of waist beads on some of the ladies while presenting their slides is disgusting. It may be, it is the ladies charm and nobody will give a chance to such person to join their organization.

You go for an interview and entered an office and grab a chair before you are asked to sit. Do you, as a man, stretch your hands to the lady that is going to interview you first? Do you, as a man, go for an interview and all you do throughout is to stare at the chest of the lady that wants to interview you? you have just lost the job because you are embarrassing her.

People have come to my office for interviews and while the interview was going on, they were shouting in responding to questions. People passing had to stop by my office to ask if all was well.

During interview session, you should also pick your words but don’t be too slow, so that the interviewer will understand you well.

Job seekers should not shy away from their weakness but instead state them and say they are being worked on.  Anyone who says he or she doesn’t have a weakness may not get the job, because companies are not looking for machines or robot to work for them but human.  They need to know their weakness so that they can understand the kind of people they are working with.

When you are going for job interview, don’t wear a new shoe because it might be inconveniencing. Don’t wear a new shirt without dry-cleaning and testing it first because you might think that it is a size 16 but it is not. You might have also lost so much weight in the process of looking for a job that it will look like an ‘Agbada’ on you.

When you dress, look at yourself in the mirror. You should present to the mirror and make corrections. Shave a day before the interview as a man because you are naturally tensed and you might cut yourself while shaving and it start bleeding. The first thing the interviewers see is your face and if it is bleeding, they think you fought in the bus while coming to their office.

A man who wore a green shirt, a red tie and a black three quarter trousers to defend his master’s project.  And when asked while he is dressing the way, he dressed and the young man said that was the first time he would be wearing a jacket. I had to beg the Head of Department to hold on so we could get him proper dress. I took him to a nearby market to get him a better dress. Ladies are also guilty of these.

Some go to interview with six-inch shoes. what if there is a fire outbreak and they need to run? Even the way you walk is part of the presentation because some offices are very smooth, what if you slip and fall? Why not wear a low shoe when you are not going for a party.

Lot of ladies going for interviews fix hair a day before not considering that the hair might be too tight. Some will bound their hair because of dandruff and by the time they leave,  there will be a lot of dandruff on the table where the person sat.  why not wear a low cut if you can’t afford the maintenance of the hair.

Some graduates goes to the interview with hand bands of religion organizations and if the interviewer is someone that doesn’t like such things. Some during the interview session are doing the sign of the cross at the entrance of the office.

Even if you are already employed, you need to manage the organizational politics because there is politics everywhere. While in secondary school, they taught us how to use cutleries but now, no one has the time to teach the graduates that.

During our days in the university, companies come to the schools to recruit graduates and trained them too but today, companies don’t have such time because the competition is so much that they expect you to train and sell yourself.

Dr. Olusoji George, A Senior Lecturer, Department of Business Administration , University of Lagos (Culled from The Union Newspaper publication 2014)