By Angela Wahome,
Interviewing for a job is a stressful experience for job seekers in Kenya as many are not being aggressively recruited and are not fairly certain about getting an offer. IT is even more confusing as many organizations are slowly beginning to adapt to the technology. No matter how confident you may be about your technical skills, you never know what questions you’ll be asked, what skills you’ll be required to demonstrate, or how you’ll relate to the people conducting the interview.
1.Passion play
Sell yourself, sell yourself, sell yourself! Do not make the mistake of assuming that because their skill set aligns closely with
the
potential employers’ needs, you don’t have to make an effort to
demonstrate you are a good fit. It is difficult for us to grasp so spell
out how you are a good fit.
Prepare three or four solid reasons ready to share about to convince us you want the job and let us know why you want it. “Thank you for inviting me for an interview, I admire your organization as you are a market leader in IT consultancy and are dedicated to helping small organizations grow. I want to work here because I’m a person that believes that people should be given products that fit their needs not just one that was created for an large multinational organizations that has little similarity with our small SME’s.”
2. Be the solution to their challenge
Clearly illustrate that you have the technical skills, show your
energy and enthusiasm. Find the biggest challenge that the organization
has and show them how you’ll make things better for you. Tips on what to
share, the Managing Director would want to know how you will help their
bottom line as well as how you will work in their organization. The
Technical Manager would want to know how current your skills are, how
fast you can deliver, your ability to learn as well as how you solve
complex problems.
3. Doing a series of interview for the same position
Technical candidates will probably need to go through a series of interviews. This can be tricky as you need to present yourself afresh to various people. This requires you to keep researching and preparing information for the next interview. At each interview pay attention you will be able to identify a theme/key point they keep emphasizing. Use this to your advantage; for instance, if you are getting a lot of questions about keeping time, tell them about how you made an important deadline despite getting project information at the last minute.
4. There’s no ‘I’ in team
A smart technical candidate researches the organization. A smarter one doesn’t wait to demonstrate that knowledge during the interview but makes a point of bringing it up. The smartest one not only proves they care enough about the job to do their homework, they show they’re already thinking in terms of the team.
5. Can you work under pressure?
Demonstrate, in your examples, that you are able to work under stress a good way to do this is to prepare a brief story from your past work experience for the interview. Learn about how to discuss failures in a job, share how you learned from them, put strategies to avoid those things happening again or share what you would do different. Make sure you maintain a positive perspective.
6. Sure, they may hire you, but will you hire them (The company?)
While you may be talking with an organization about a specific job, you also have a career to think about. Demonstrating a long-term vision is a great way to command more respect.
When asked about your career goals. Explain that they are in line with the companies goals and you are also willing to grow and improve in that organization.
Interviewing for a job is a stressful experience for job seekers in Kenya as many are not being aggressively recruited and are not fairly certain about getting an offer. IT is even more confusing as many organizations are slowly beginning to adapt to the technology. No matter how confident you may be about your technical skills, you never know what questions you’ll be asked, what skills you’ll be required to demonstrate, or how you’ll relate to the people conducting the interview.
1.Passion play
Sell yourself, sell yourself, sell yourself! Do not make the mistake of assuming that because their skill set aligns closely with
the
potential employers’ needs, you don’t have to make an effort to
demonstrate you are a good fit. It is difficult for us to grasp so spell
out how you are a good fit.Prepare three or four solid reasons ready to share about to convince us you want the job and let us know why you want it. “Thank you for inviting me for an interview, I admire your organization as you are a market leader in IT consultancy and are dedicated to helping small organizations grow. I want to work here because I’m a person that believes that people should be given products that fit their needs not just one that was created for an large multinational organizations that has little similarity with our small SME’s.”
2. Be the solution to their challenge
Civil Engineer
3. Doing a series of interview for the same position
Technical candidates will probably need to go through a series of interviews. This can be tricky as you need to present yourself afresh to various people. This requires you to keep researching and preparing information for the next interview. At each interview pay attention you will be able to identify a theme/key point they keep emphasizing. Use this to your advantage; for instance, if you are getting a lot of questions about keeping time, tell them about how you made an important deadline despite getting project information at the last minute.
4. There’s no ‘I’ in team
A smart technical candidate researches the organization. A smarter one doesn’t wait to demonstrate that knowledge during the interview but makes a point of bringing it up. The smartest one not only proves they care enough about the job to do their homework, they show they’re already thinking in terms of the team.
5. Can you work under pressure?
Demonstrate, in your examples, that you are able to work under stress a good way to do this is to prepare a brief story from your past work experience for the interview. Learn about how to discuss failures in a job, share how you learned from them, put strategies to avoid those things happening again or share what you would do different. Make sure you maintain a positive perspective.
6. Sure, they may hire you, but will you hire them (The company?)
While you may be talking with an organization about a specific job, you also have a career to think about. Demonstrating a long-term vision is a great way to command more respect.
When asked about your career goals. Explain that they are in line with the companies goals and you are also willing to grow and improve in that organization.
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