This book is a product of practical experiences on the field as one time job seekers, researchers on entrepreneurship and human resources development, learning and development from asking questions from mentors, human resources experts, and our inquisitiveness to know the answers to the life time bug of excelling in aptitude test and Interviews in contemporary Nigerian society. One major pervasive social problem of our present society is the issue of unemployment. It has become a daunting challenge on the government and even the generality of the public on how best to tackle the issue. It has been so difficult and traumatizing that whenever a job vacancy opens up in any organization, thousands and most times millions of applicants send in their applications, a practical case was during the last recruitment exercise conducted for officers cadre of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps in 2010 it was reported by the Commandant General that over one million HND and B.SC graduates applied for the job where less than five thousand individuals were needed. The Ministry of Youth Development recently said there are 68 million unemployed youths in Nigeria, Mr Bolaji Abdullahi, the Minister of Youth Development, made this known in Abuja when he visited Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, his counterpart in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
So pathetic is the story of a young graduate as we were compiling this book we had an encounter with. While on a visit to a suburb and outskirt of Abuja main town Nyanya we met an Okada guy (motorcyclist) whom after our interactions we discovered he was very fluent and asked him what were his qualifications? Behold he replied, my name is Oscar I am a 28years old B.sc graduate of Accountancy from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria and for the past four years after my NYSC I have been toiling here and there to get a job without any good fortune so I decided to use this motor cycle as means of survival while waiting for when God will smile on me. Just like the story of Oscar above, there are millions of other individuals in the highly competitive job market trying to secure a dream job.
Recent statistics shows that forty nine percent of Nigerians between the ages of 15 to 24 in urban areas are unemployed. Nigeria’s Ex-Finance Minister, Segun Aganga said that "While the growth of the Nigerian economy remains robust, we face a challenge in making sure that the growth is all-inclusive, as the unemployment rate remains fairly high”. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the national unemployment rate for 2009 was estimated at 19.7 percent. Unemployment for the 15 to 24 age group was estimated at 41.6 percent (49.9 percent in urban areas and 39.6 percent in the rural areas) in 2009.
In the same vein, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Onno Ruhl, recently stated (May 2011) that Nigeria’s current youth (15 to 24 years) unemployment rate was put at 46 percent, 4.4 percent higher than the 41.6 percent being quoted by the National Bureau of Statistics. Ruhl noted that Nigeria has 100 million people under 30, which is roughly the equivalent of the combined population of Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. “Most shockingly, every year about 1 million aspiring students pass Nigeria’s Joint Admission Board’s entrance exam, but only 200,000 of them actually gain admission to Universities in the same year. This means that each year the equivalent of the population of greater Amsterdam, my home town, qualifies for university but do not get in.” In similar tone, Nigeria’s former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in his address during the 100th International Labour Conference (ILC) Tuesday June 14th, 2011, in Geneva, Switzerland, warned that the situation in the Middle East may occur in some African countries including Nigeria if leaders do not take urgent action to check the unemployment situation. He stated categorically in the following words: ‘’ I want to underline the situation that will signal red alert for us in Africa. I am worried, I am apprehensive about unemployment in our continent that it has not been taken as seriously as it should be. I give example of my own country in Nigeria where we have about 120 tertiary institutions. When I was growing up, there was only one university in Nigeria. Today when you include the Polytechnics to the tertiary institutions we have over 200 institutions of learning. Each institution graduates about 3,000 students every year, you have well over 600,000 graduates every year but we are not creating 100,000 jobs every year’’
Moreover, according to one of the views of experts, who dissected the high unemployment rate in the country in a recent interview with THISDAY in Abuja shortly after the Job Creation Summit hosted by President Goodluck Jonathan, President, CES Industries Inc., New York, United States of America, Dr. Mitchell Nesenoff, and a Director, Dove-Cess Industries Nig. Limited, Mr. Ngozi Anyogu, said the high unemployment rate in Nigeria had been exacerbated by unemployable job seekers, who are said to account for 70 per cent of the jobless people in the country.
“The unemployment situation in Nigeria is not demand-induced; it is supply induced. The quality of employable manpower is not there; The issue is not really certification, the issue is that after training, they have verifiable skills - skills you can verify - skills that meet international standards to enable them work in Lagos, Kaduna, Accra (Ghana), Sierra Leone, New York, Johannesburg, etc..
Come to think of it, in the midst of this competitive job markets several other people get jobs and change jobs from time to time, not because they have an excellent academic pedigree or outstanding jobs experiences neither are they any better than those who were not selected. These set of individuals are those who possess the secrets of the necessary criteria in demand by employers. Based on the various assertions raised above, it is so glaring that available jobs are few while the numbers of individuals seeking the job opportunities are high meaning that the employers will have to increase their recruitment criteria on several indices
Furthermore, job seekers have a belief that jobs are scarce, and those who get jobs have one connection or the other and as a result getting one’s dream job is always a herculean task. Contrary, to this view, are people who get jobs daily and change jobs for better paid and secured ones, without necessarily knowing the boss in charge of recruitment or the organization. Even though the society is corrupt there are still some organizations that are looking for the best hands they can hire to achieve their organizational goals. This does not mean that we are undermining the power of connection in securing you a dream job; but you need to prepare yourself with powerful arsenal to overcome the ordeals of tests and interviews in the labour market. A first class product from a world-class university does not just scale through the hurdles of a job aptitude test and interviews; but must have the secret of approaching and proving himself in the job selection process.
These and many other issues bothering on post job interviews tips and strategies you need to possess to get secure and maintain your dream’s jobs are given explicit answers in this book. We wish to recommend this book to all job seekers especially final year graduating students of tertiary institution, serving corps members and those seeking for change of jobs. Read on and see you at the top!
We welcome any constructive criticism that will make our subsequent publications better than this. Such comments and advice can be sent by text or emails to our contacts at the beginning of this book.
