There is the popular saying that only a fool does the same thing and expects a different result. The aim of this write up is to suggest unusual ways in which you can stand out in your job search.
Let me start by reeling out some facts:
It is said that 60% of young Nigerians are unemployed (It could be more).
60-80% of job vacancies available at any given time are never advertised.
Each job advert gets an average of 185 applications.
This is the reality of the job market we find ourselves in; it is therefore expedient for the job seeker to seek new and creative ways to stand out in this overcrowded market.
This is the reality of the job market we find ourselves in; it is therefore expedient for the job seeker to seek new and creative ways to stand out in this overcrowded market.
This write up is based on the premise that you already have the following
1. A great CV/resume
2. That you are employable i.e. you have basic skills that recruiters are looking for
3. That you have built yourself into a brand who is flexible and probably multidisciplinary
If you have these basic requirements then we are ready to begin. I have realized that the major issue in the quest for a good job is getting the ATTENTION of the recruiter. A lot of young graduates are smart and talented but their CVs often get lost in the plethora of CVs that comes by the table of the average recruiter who often has deadlines and may or may not go through the whole pile.
Let me share some success stories, from outside Nigeria, of people who were creative in their job search.
1. I am sure you remember the story of the Nigerian in Britain, who held a small placard at a railway station. (doubt if this will work in Nigeria)
2. I read of a lady who paid for a billboard advert in front of her dream company, advertising her qualities, she got a couple of invites from different companies and eventually landed a job
3. A young lady sent nuts in a can with a note stating why they should hire her, to a company for almost a year, eventually landing a job with them
4. A young programmer identified a glitch with one of the products of an IT company and even sent in the code to fix the problem, he was offered a job.
Other really extreme examples include people singing, doing back flips, buying gifts etc. A lot of these ideas probably won’t work in Nigeria.
Other really extreme examples include people singing, doing back flips, buying gifts etc. A lot of these ideas probably won’t work in Nigeria.
Let me suggest some unconventional ways you could stand out here in Nigeria.
1. Personal Website: it is no news that recruiters google applicants in a bid to know more about them. A personal website ensures that the recruiter sees the right things in one place; it also helps in creating the brand that is you. Owning your own website is no longer as daunting as it used to be with sites like branded.me and workfolio.com providing top notch services for as low as N2000 a month.
These sites save you the stress of building the site yourself as you can choose from already predefined themes. They also help import all your data from LinkedIn and divide the data into sections i.e. summary, work experience etc. Branded.me offers free services while workfolio.com is a strictly paid service. Checkout a personal site I created recently,http://bodeoni.branded.me. Please note that LinkedIn kind of already does this, but these websites give you the option of having a website with your name as the domain name e.gwww.yourname.com
2. Complimentary Cards: have you ever been in a situation where someone asked for your CV and you didn’t have it on you. You never know who you might meet and where you might meet them. Having a complimentary card at hand might just be the one thing that gets you that job. Unlike conventional cards, this card sells you; it has your name, short list of your qualities and your contact info. You could even put a QR code for your personal website that anyone you give it to could scan to view your complete CV.
3. Fold-in Brochure: I know this might sound a bit out of the box, but it could come in handy for those seeking jobs in advertising, PR and the likes. A fold-in brochure if done right could really get you the desired attention. The brochure would contain all the sections of a CV, but with more colour, charts, pictures etc
4. Parcel Mail Service: this could be expensive but it almost always guarantees that your CV gets to a senior person in your desired organization. To do this, you must have done your research on the company and must also have a winning CV and covering letter.
I encourage you to start to do things differently to stand out in your quest for a job.
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