coogar:

but that's the reality......
to even know there are vacancies in some companies involved a super duper networking of friends. not everybody gets to hear chevron is recruiting or mobil is recruiting. thank heavens for internet and mobile phones, things are a bit better but you still need to know someone to get by.



how do you know for sure they got it on merit and nothing else was involved? it's not like they would tell you what they did here and there as most of these things are done under secrecy.



i agree - it would be unfair to say people don't get hired on merit alone in nigeria but far majority don't get in by merit. something somewhere must have act as a catalyst!

In its social mobility white paper the Government admits that access to certain careers can be 'frustrated by traditional cultures, established recruitment processes and inflexible career pathways.' Let’s spell it out: the best jobs, hidden away from graduate milkrounds and advertisements in the Guardian, are usually secured through daddy’s contacts. No chance for the son of a worker at the local factory, is there?

Internships are really the only other way into professions such as politics, media and the Bar. But young people from modest backgrounds can’t afford to live away from the parental nest on no pay

It’s time to get to the heart of the problem. Many of the journalists, lawyers, bankers and politicians who form the metropolitan elite are supporting the careers of their own children, thereby excluding others from joining what is becoming an impenetrable circle of success.

Sure, says the journalist to the MP, I’ll offer your daughter a position on this paper, knowing full well that his political anorak of a son will stand a better chance of being a MP’s researcher when he finally graduates. All very nice.



An interview shouldn’t be an empty gesture, just to show you are going through the ropes, with a friend of a friend’s son selected weeks ago.

Ola one: I have noticed something about Nairalanders: anytime I see a thread like this, the commenters always claim they got their job on merit.

As if they are not in Nigeria. Even in houses of God in Nigeria, it is very hard for anyone to become a leading minister without help.


Haba! Liars!

Slant77: Yea, it's quite easy to just accept that "there are no good jobs out there", but the thing is it depend on you.

If you're good and you groom yourself (speak good english, dress for the job you want, LEARN BASIC INTERVIEW SKILLS (this one is very very important) and have the right attitude), the jobs are there.

I've seen people (that I knew before "hammering" & still know) who had no connections and did not school abroad, who have gotten good jobs.

If you've got yourself a foreign degree, good for you. One good advice - drop the accent , it pisses interviewers off . Every interviewer wants to be sure in his/her mind that you can fit in (and work well in teams made of poeple - who are Nigerians living in Nigeria)

Ola one: it is a common practice worldwide, even in sane societies let alone Nigeria. Keep telling us you didn't get a legup

Even in the UK, it is rife:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1126498/RYAN-SHORTHOUSE-Heres-liberal-elite-help-poor-climb-social-ladder--stop-giving-plum-jobs-friends-children.html

coogar:

but that's the reality......
to even know there are vacancies in some companies involved a super duper networking of friends. not everybody gets to hear chevron is recruiting or mobil is recruiting. thank heavens for internet and mobile phones, things are a bit better but you still need to know someone to get by.



how do you know for sure they got it on merit and nothing else was involved? it's not like they would tell you what they did here and there as most of these things are done under secrecy.



i agree - it would be unfair to say people don't get hired on merit alone in nigeria but far majority don't get in by merit. something somewhere must have act as a catalyst!

Jarus:

So it is common practice worldwide that 90% of jobs are on man-know-man?

ANY-PEN :
We all remember GEJ saying these words "i don't give a damn" in an interview sometimes last year. A lot of Nigerians must have digested those words but they are too complex for me to digest so am breaking them down to these ones for easy digestion.

WHEN LEADERS 'DON'T GIVE A DAMN'

Right before our eyes, gas freely flare
while they sit in glass houses making budgets for fuel
right under their noses bridges partly fell
while they allocate money for old private jets

they eat away time like lions feeding on flesh
claiming it is better being slow than to fall for fear
whereas the fret of a fall is being comfortable just standing there...
while the world moves swiftly with the speed of a launched rocket

our streets harbor crimes everyday of the year...
yet their beds grow succulent from the loot of our collective wealth.
their cheeks and bellies firmly keeps up a lofty swell...
pushing suits and 'Agbada' buttons to their very edge

is this what happens when leaders don't "bloody care"?
bloodshed everyday like the world is coming to an end?
build security in every corner of their own marbled fence?
and leave out masses to live here next to hell?

homicide, suicide, genocide reigns everywhere
malaria still kill most on this part of the earth
and toothpick breaks less often than an adult's leg
it is them that see it that can truly tell

rainfall should give daily bread but it takes it instead
sunshine should dry our crops but it saps our daily sweat
oil should make us rich but it make us poor instead
one now wonders if it is a curse to be richly blessed

no work for the arms full of strength
no thought for the brain full of ideas
yet they claim to be running well a government...
the type that tags their own few friends

THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS WHEN LEADERS DON'T GIVE A DAMN.

ANY-PEN :
We all remember GEJ saying these words "i don't give a damn" in an interview sometimes last year. A lot of Nigerians must have digested those words but they are too complex for me to digest so am breaking them down to these ones for easy digestion.

WHEN LEADERS 'DON'T GIVE A DAMN'

Right before our eyes, gas freely flare
while they sit in glass houses making budgets for fuel
right under their noses bridges partly fell
while they allocate money for old private jets

they eat away time like lions feeding on flesh
claiming it is better being slow than to fall for fear
whereas the fret of a fall is being comfortable just standing there...
while the world moves swiftly with the speed of a launched rocket

our streets harbor crimes everyday of the year...
yet their beds grow succulent from the loot of our collective wealth.
their cheeks and bellies firmly keeps up a lofty swell...
pushing suits and 'Agbada' buttons to their very edge

is this what happens when leaders don't "bloody care"?
bloodshed everyday like the world is coming to an end?
build security in every corner of their own marbled fence?
and leave out masses to live here next to hell?

homicide, suicide, genocide reigns everywhere
malaria still kill most on this part of the earth
and toothpick breaks less often than an adult's leg
it is them that see it that can truly tell

rainfall should give daily bread but it takes it instead
sunshine should dry our crops but it saps our daily sweat
oil should make us rich but it make us poor instead
one now wonders if it is a curse to be richly blessed

no work for the arms full of strength
no thought for the brain full of ideas
yet they claim to be running well a government...
the type that tags their own few friends

THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS WHEN LEADERS DON'T GIVE A DAMN.

Ola one:
It isn't 90% in the UK, I'm sure. But, I can't vouch for Nigeria.

But, in Nigeria, you need to bribe one way or the other to get hired at any level. Even in your primary school in Offa, I'm sure most teachers there lobbied one way or the other to get in.

Look at it this way, Jarus, you spent about 3 years at Oando, yet you were powerful enough to get a friend in. Now, assuming you sticked with the same company for 20 years, I'm sure you would be powerful enough to recruit your beloved "great Ife" (you dont miss any thread about OAU on NL ) graduates without any tests. .

What is the main essence of LinkedIn? What actually does "networking" mean? Why do we say Oxbridge, Harvard graduates get the best jobs through alumni this or that.
They don't have to write the tests for you. Shortlisting you alone represents a leg-up, trust me.

Jarus:
The lack of merit being talked of in this thread is that of bribing, senator writing notes, exams leaking etc. I don't have any problem with networking. Networking is fair part of the game to me. I have recommended friends for 'shortlist' in organizations and they got called up for test (because they have good CVs, not because they were my friends. If they didn't have good CVs or didn't meet the employers' criteria, my recommendation wouldn't have helped. Some got the jobs, some didn't, because they couldn't scale the selection process (tests and interviews). That to me, is fair. They went through the standard selection process.

Ability to network (without any unholy means) and keep good friends is itself part of being smart. Good network gives you access to helpful information. For resource-saving reasons, some organizations may not advertise some positions (and it is not a crime not to advertise) and may rely on internal recommendations. For my friend that got Oando job, I only sent his CV to HR (you don't expect an Oando to advertise NYSC position) and they found his CV good enough, called him for test alongside other guys whose CVs they got and he was among the 4 0r 5 taken at the end, because of his performance in test. That was his first contact with the company, but later got permanent position after NYSC because he scaled another round of interviews for permanent position.

I don't have any problem with networking. Linkedin was helpful to me too in getting my current job. That is networking. Networking crosses the line of merit when shady practices begin to come in. And with or without network, you can still get job in Nigeria.

Jarus:



I'm just imagining who they bribed. Definitely not the school proprietress (a multi-millionaire) for a N20,000 per month teaching job, recruitment for which she supervised herself. Just wondering if the entire lifetime salaries of the teacher will be enough to bribe my toughie primary school owner.

Ola one:
Sorry, I meant govt-owned school. I thought you're an ajepako like me who attended public school.

Emperoh: Ola One,

It will be totally incorrect to assume that networking is about bribing and contacting with a Senator or sleeping with an Alhaji to get an NNPC of ministry job.

I am against nepotism as far as it concerns doing some corrupt actions to get hired for a job you most certainly are not qualified for.

Regardless of how you get a job, it is only how good you are that keeps you in it. No serious minded organisation will employ and keep anyone who isn't adding to the bottom line of the organisation through his/her area of expertise or whatever you are hired for.

The idea of getting a job through you network is never bad. You know someone, that's as far as it can get sometimes. You need to prove to the interview panel how your presence can add to the bottom-line and how your activities can help it grow. If you can't ace an interview, how has the network helped?

Some contacts go as far as ensuring you scale through all the hurdles but eventually, if you were prodded in, you will be lifted our in due course.

But i still maintain, a high percentage of Private sector jobs are on merit!!!

Ola one:
It isn't 90% in the UK, I'm sure. But, I can't vouch for Nigeria.

In the UK, children of the rich and powerful go for top jobs only. Nick Clegg is an example. He said this about his first job.
But, in Nigeria, you need to bribe one way or the other to get hired at any level. Even in your primary school in Offa, I'm sure most teachers there lobbied one way or the other to get in.


Look at it this way, Jarus, you spent about 3 years at Oando, yet you were powerful enough to get a friend in. Now, assuming you sticked with the same company for 20 years, I'm sure you would be powerful enough to recruit your beloved "great Ife" (you dont miss any thread about OAU on NL ) graduates without any tests. .

What is the main essence of LinkedIn? What actually does "networking" mean? Why do we say Oxbridge, Harvard graduates get the best jobs through alumni this or that.
They don't have to write the tests for you. Shortlisting you alone represents a leg-up, trust me.


Also, and I'm not joking here, we must be careful of OAU graduates in Nigeria. They have this camaraderie, this oneness about them. And, they have a way of shortlisting their uni graduates and getting them in wherever they are. They do it regularly. Isn't that a leg up?


But people must accept one thing and stop whining: life isn't fair. So, get on with it.

Cheers

nitrogen: One thing that I believe is that spending millions of naira to get a foreign 'pali' in a useless foreign university and not a top notch one is completely an unwise one. You will still come back and join the league of freshies of local universities looking for entry level jobs, especially when you ship yourself out without a single work experience.

Jarus:

Great post, only lowpoint being you were a little harsh on foreign-trained in the bolded.

Can we start discussion on the 'role of networking/informal recommendations/poaching' side by side in this thread? That's another interesting subject I enjoy discussing.

honey86:
Unfortunately its the truth. I have discovered that not all UK universities are schools. Take for example, pple studying hr in university of salford only spend 3 weeks in class and the remaining 7 weeks doing nothing.Biko, which kain school be that. [b]What about naija students in woverhampton who pay their colleagues to write essays for them?.[/b]Those ones too will come back and complain of their inability to get jobs.

honey86:
Unfortunately its the truth. I have discovered that not all UK universities are schools. Take for example, pple studying hr in university of salford only spend 3 weeks in class and the remaining 7 weeks doing nothing.Biko, which kain school be that. What about naija students in woverhampton who pay their colleagues to write essays for them?.Those ones too will come back and complain of their inability to get jobs.

debosky: Reality check for all involved - there is nepotism/cronyism etc. involved in getting jobs in Nigeria, but most are ignoring the underlying issue: insufficient jobs.

Insufficient job opportunities is what drives the majority of those that go to seek degrees abroad - the jobs are few and you think getting (better?) additional qualifications will put you in a better position to get the few jobs available.

As some have mentioned, if the volume of jobs available was comparable to the number of job seekers, then you wouldn't need as much an emphasis on connections/foreign degrees to secure most jobs in the first place.

I know each person wants to have that fantastic job, but then what? What happens to the thousands that didn't make it?

Something needs to change - by engaging with the political process to ensure the massive job creation potential in government is harnessed for the benefit of ordinary Nigerians, and for the creation of an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.

Those who are 'comfortable' in private enterprise cannot continue to say 'I'm ok so don't need to get involved in politics/government'. We complain about 'wrong people' in power - if you right people don't rise up and try to get there, you think the 'wrong people' will simply do right?

If these things don't happen, the problem is simply going to get worse - with a young population, the number of graduates being produced will only increase; more and more people are getting foreign degrees so that number will only increase as well.

[b]We all can't work for MNCs or IOCs, neither can we all start businesses (though some can, and they should). We need those among us with the experience/connections/resources to come together create more opportunities for us young ones to get started.

[/b]I hope my big brothers like Ajanlekoko, Jarus, Rhino, Dayokanu, etc. are listening.

All the best in your job search.