Why Tanzanian graduates fail to impress in job interviews BY DANIEL SEMBERYA 24th December 2014 Head of Human Resources Unit with World Food Programme, Tanzania Jamila Isdory The current economic situation creates a sense of urgency in devising ways to boost the creation of jobs, and to improve young people’s access to those jobs. One distinct aspect of the current global labour market is that relatively high unemployment coexists with widespread recruitment challenges faced by employers. In other words, while there is currently excess labour supply in the aggregate, the distinct labour markets for specific skill sets are highly segmented and many employers are having difficulty finding individuals with the right skill sets for the business tasks at hand. It is not a secret that there is a widespread perception, right or wrong, that some Tanzanian graduates are being deliberately passed in favour of foreigners when it comes to job placements. Speaking to this paper in an exclusive interview over the weekend in Dar es Salaam, Head of Human Resources Unit with World Food Programme, Tanzania Jamila Isdory said that there are a lot of reasons that cause many Tanzanian job seekers fail in interviews. Having worked in the human resources unit with different UN Agencies working in Tanzania mentioned the first reason that make many interviewees perform badly in interviews as lack of preparation. To her preparation is key to having a great interview. “As a candidate you need to invest time in knowing the company and the job you are interviewing for.” She further said that an interviewee should know what are the main objectives of the companies, how do they operate, where do they operate, what are the core functions for post and how does the job contribute to the company’s objectives? “By understanding these aspects, you can start preparing examples and evidences on how your skills, education, work experience, and the like are a perfect fit for the job. This will also help you to identify what you are bringing to the table and present your work more clearly and confidently,” she explained. She says if job seekers will not be able to link their education, skills and experiences to the job they are applying for “it is not enough to say I have an MBA or I have five years of experience; instead you need to clarify how the MBA and the five years of experience will benefit the post and company in general.” “Failing to sell yourself – Understandably this is tricky since it is very hard to talk about yourself, but in interviews you need to put your modesty aside, many candidates make the mistake of assuming that the hiring managers have read their CVs in details, so they know their skills and potentials.” She adds that hiring managers receive more than 100 applications for each post; they spend a few minutes in each CV. Isdory says candidates need to step out of their comfort zone and use their strong points to their advantage. If you designed a new process that helped to simplify work load or wrote a proposal that won a grant, or set up a filling system that improved record keeping use it to make your case. She notes that some job seekers fail to impress in job interviews because they are not solution oriented. That means they are not problem solving, but they are part of the problem. She says according to her experience, when a company advertises a vacancy, one should know that it has a problem that needs to be resolved. It can be expansion of business, introduction of new services or clearing some work backlog. At times this information is indicated in the advert that “We are hiring for an X position to help with implementation of this project.” Isdory says “When preparing for the interview, you need to think how you can be the solution to the challenge faced by the company and come up with a few suggestions or ideas to present in the interview.” Bad attitude/manner is another factor that causes job seekers to perform poorly in their interviews. She says interviewees should avoid any bad attitudes when they are invited for an interview. According to Isdory some of these bad attitudes are such as for an interviewee to show up being late for an interview, chewing gum during the interview, keeping his cell phone on and speaking badly about previous employer. She says that is not the way to win in interviews, but it can rather deny him that post. Asking wrong questions: She urges prospective candidates to ask work related questions, when they are given that opportunity instead of asking silly questions. “This is not the time to ask about maternity leave, Hiring Managers want someone who can work on a continuous basis, since interviews are costly and time consuming; no one will hire you if they know you are thinking of taking leave soon,” she urges. So in order to reach the over 800,000 Tanzanian graduates who complete their high education every year to easily secure jobs meant for them Isdory has created a website that offers free information to help job seekers, such as CV writing, and preparation for interviews; known as ww.interviewcoachtz. SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 20:48:23 +0000
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