₦airaland Forum

tysamuel:
Thank you so much for this post. I am happy to have learnt a principle which will be valuable to me. Thanks

You are very welcome! Happy Easter to you and yours!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

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The professional access they say is one of the best ways you can grow your career. What we mean by access is the ways in which you position yourself in order to get work and career opportunities.

In the course of our work at Lingo Africa, we have been able to interact with all kinds of people across different sectors and orientations. One thing that stands out is that many people unknowingly sabotage their careers with the actions they take with their daily decisions.

In more clear terms, there are so many people out there that could have been able to achieve their dreams if they had not taken certain actions which have resulted in them being stagnant or being unable to achieve a lot in their professional life.

Take, for instance, you are working in a nine to five routine job and you have the desire to improve your career chances. Yet, you refuse to engage with people you do not know and have never met. This can lead to lost chances when it comes to improving your career or breaking new frontiers.

By now, you should know that new experiences and new opportunities do not always come from familiar faces or family members. Why then do you close yourself to the possibilities of meeting and engaging people who can give your career a boost through new jobs and growth opportunities.

You never really know what lurks behind a strange hello from an unknown number on Whatsapp or a friendly wave at a conference or good morning from one of your usually silent LinkedIn connections. It has become a habit of many job seekers and professionals to shun messages from strange people especially on social media.

This habit does not only limits your chances of upgrading your career but it also denies you the opportunity of meeting more people, who could very well contribute to your overall success in life. We have advised several of our clients to do the opposite – take all your phone calls, reply to all your messages, respond properly to people you meet at work events like conferences, seminars, and workshops.

The more you do this, the more you increase your chances of improving your career. Yes, there may be times when doing all these will lead to conversations that shouldn’t happen like talking to potential fraudsters and scammers, but, as you engage more, you should also be cautious and wise.

Let us put it this way if you haven’t reached the peak of your career, taking all your calls and replying to all your messages is a small price to pay for your career success!

Source; https://lingoafrica.com/stay-accessible-for-the-sake-of-your-career/

Lingo Africa

Good afternoon

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Lingo Africa, the foremost human capital development platform in Abuja, Nigeria, has compiled tried and trusted answers to 26 interview questions. It is a long read, but so worth it. You can always visit the website link to get access to the tips whenever you want to attend a job interview.

Good luck!

1. Tell me about yourself.

This question provides employers with an early preview of your core skills, your personality and your ability to respond to an unstructured question. Prepare for this question in advance and have a compelling story about your past experiences. Select prominent skills from the job description. Be succinct, honest and engaging when answering the question.

2. What is your greatest strength?

Employers want to see if you can strike the right balance between confidence and humility. Hiring managers also want to get a sense for how self-aware and honest you are and align your strengths to the role at hand. Be authentic – don’t makeup strengths that you think the employer wants to hear. Tell a story about work experience. Be sure the strengths you share are aligned to the role you want.

3. What is your greatest weakness?

Employers are looking for humility and whether you’re committed to learning and growing. This is a place you can showcase what you’re doing to improve. Employers are looking for self-awareness and personal accountability. It’s good, to be honest about what you’re not great at. Share what you are doing to actively improve on this weakness.

4. Why should we hire you?

Interviewers want to see if you can make a calm, confident case for yourself, even if they’re acting skeptical. They’re looking for factual and compelling answers. Start with the three or four best reasons you’ve got. Cite results, credentials, and other people’s praise so you don’t seem self-absorbed. Be concise, and invite follow-up questions at the end.

5. Why do you want to work here?

Interviewers want to understand what prompted you to apply for this job. They don’t want candidates who are indifferent to where they work. Instead, they want someone who offers very specific reasons for why they want this job. Make it about them first. Show you’ve done your research. Use this as a key opportunity to outshine the competition. Speak from the heart.

6. Share a time you showed Leadership.

Employers want to understand your capacity to step up and handle tough situations that undoubtedly arise in the workplace. They want to know when you’ve seen an opening to lean in and lead with good judgment. Describe a situation where there was a lack of leadership. Use the word “lead” to help describe the actions you took. Give credit to your ‘leadership skills’ when explaining the positive results.

7. Share a time you were successful on a team.

If you can show that you’ve helped a team move through a challenge, you probably have strong communication and interpersonal skills. These kinds of “soft” skills are in high demand and make people successful in their jobs. Describe a problem that arose with a team. Outline your key actions with the team. Explain the positive result based on the work you did. Give credit to your teamwork skills.

8. What would your coworkers say about you?

Interviewers want to know if you’ll fit in with the team. This question can also help you highlight your strengths without feeling like you’re bragging. Share something that relates to the job description and back it with an example. Look to your recommendations and reviews for ideas. Be confident and succinct. It’s OK to shine!

9. Why do you want to leave your current role?

Employers say they want to hire people who are running “to” a role as opposed to running “away.” However, they are also interested in your honesty when things haven’t worked out and will give people second chances when they demonstrate hunger. Don’t talk negatively about past roles or former bosses – employers don’t want to work with people who complain. Be gracious when things haven’t worked out in the past. Share some of the ways you’re working on improving.

10. Describe your most challenging project.

Employers want to get a sense of what ‘challenging’ means to you. They also want to know how you handled the situation in a calm way. They’re looking for a storyline to prove that you can turn a bad story into a good story. Have a clear story with a specific challenge. Describe the negative impact if you hadn’t resolved the issue. Discuss the action steps you took and talk about the positive impact.

11. Share something you have accomplished and are proud of.

This question assesses how you define professional success. If the story resonates, the employer will want you to do similar things at his or her company. You should focus on the impact and outcomes. Describe the problem that existed before you took action. Talk about how you took the initiative to solve the problem. Explain why you are proud of the outcome and what would have happened if you hadn’t stepped in.

12. Can you explain your employment gap?

This question isn’t designed to rule you out – it’s a good sign if you get the interview. Interviewers want to get more context about the gap and whether you’re still going to be a great fit for the role, despite the gap. Expect that they will ask about the gap – prepare for it. Answer honestly and strategically. Be confident and succinct. Shine a light on the good that came out of that time.

13. What are your salary expectations?

If this question arises early, odds are that the interviewer is really asking: “Can we afford you?” If it arises much later, the interviewer may be hoping that your salary requirements are aligned with what they have budgeted for this role. Know the industry norms for similar jobs. Talk about ranges, rather than exact numbers. Make the case that you offer premium value.

For the other 13 interview questions and answers, read the full article here; https://lingoafrica.com/26-interview-questions-and-how-to-answer-them/


Source - Lingo Africa.

Good morning!

...

15 Lucrative Skills You Can Learn Online; https://lingoafrica.com/fifteen-lucrative-skills-you-can-learn-online/

Should you have one skill or a wide range of skills? https://lingoafrica.com/should-you-have-just-one-skill-or-a-wide-range-of-skills/

Top Skills that will make your CV stand out in 2020; https://lingoafrica.com/these-are-the-skills-that-will-make-your-cv-stand-out/

Lanre is a 30-year-old Marketing Associate working in Lagos. He is great at his job and has achieved a lot for the company he represented. He has also made it a habit of posting his career achievement on LinkedIn, which is the professional social media network.

On a good day, his posts about his career achievement would attract lots of views and comments and then one day, he made a post about surpassing his set target for the year, about three months ahead of schedule. The post attracted a lot of comments and professionals from various industries, congratulated him on his career achievement.

Soon after, he woke up one morning and went to work, only to see a private message from someone on LinkedIn that he had never chatted with. In the message, the sender commended him for his obvious work ethic and asked him if he knew anything about the basics of software development and his first instinct was to say no, after all, what did he know about it?

He had only taken one software development online course on Coursera and although he understands everything he learned, he still hadn’t gotten a chance to fine-tune his skills in software development. He read the message and didn’t reply immediately.

He went to research the sender of the message and discovered that the person was an IT expert, who owned one of the major software development companies in Ontario, Canada. This new information gave him the boost he needed. So, later that day, he sent a response that he indeed knew how to navigate through the basics of software development.

The sender, then, told him that he was interested in hiring him on a part-time basis as a remote junior developer based on his positive attitude to work and his readiness to work and achieve without micromanagement. To this, he agreed, and the paperwork was prepared and signed by all parties through fax.

At the end of the day, he maintained his job as a Marketing Associate while working as a part-time junior developer for a Canadian IT firm. All he had to do was say yes, even if it was in a sector he had not really worked in before, although he had prior knowledge based on the online certification he received from Coursera.

After he resumed work at the IT firm, he used his weekends to take more online courses and gain more skills. Today, he still holds that position and his career achievement records continue to rise.

Now, imagine if he had said no. The sender would look elsewhere and he would have lost that opportunity. It does not matter that someone is not an ‘expert’ per se in a sector, the essence of life long learning is to ensure we develop our minds with more skills as the occasion arises, so we can deliver value.

This is a fact we preach at Lingo Africa, the foremost human capital development platform in Abuja.

If you are approached by a potential employer to do some work that is different from your discipline, or the course you studied in school, endeavor to say yes, so, you can develop your skills and break boundaries you never knew you could. You can hone your skills while executing your duties.

Source - https://lingoafrica.com/career-achievement-you-should-never-say-no-to-a-great-career-offer/

Lingo Africa.

Npower:
I understand exactly what you are saying bro but don't make it look like it's only in the Northeast that one can volunteer. There are a lot of NGOs in Abuja, Lagos, in fact every state in Nigeria has no less than 5 international NGOs working in it.
Finally, I won't advise anyone to take up a volunteering role in the northeast. I have a lot of colleagues whom even with 5 million naira per month salary, they won't near north so why would anyone risk his like for a voluntary role?. Remember, life is just ONE ...
So what I'm saying is.. You can begin your volunteering role elsewhere and not necessarily in the northeast.

My page is not a platform for arguments please. I provide information people need to know, courtesy of Lingo Africa, a human capital development platform.

If telling people that volunteering jobs were only available in the Northeast, I would never have made the original post. I am sure the readers of my content on this page can read and so can you.

Funny thing is you ended up corroborating what I wrote earlier, which is to be cautious when it comes to accepting any NGO offer from the Northeast.

Shalom.

Npower:
I understand exactly what you are saying bro but don't make it look like it's only in the Northeast that one can volunteer. There are a lot of NGOs in Abuja, Lagos, in fact every state in Nigeria has no less than 5 international NGOs working in it.
Finally, I won't advise anyone to take up a volunteering role in the northeast. I have a lot of colleagues whom even with 5 million naira per month salary, they won't near north so why would anyone risk his like for a voluntary role?. Remember, life is just ONE ...
So what I'm saying is.. You can begin your volunteering role elsewhere and not necessarily in the northeast.

My page is not a platform for arguments please. I provide information people need to know, courtesy of Lingo Africa, a human capital development platform.

If telling people that volunteering jobs were only available in the Northeast, I would never have made the original post. I am sure the readers of my content on this page can read and so can you.

Funny thing is you ended up corroborating what I wrote earlier, which is to be cautious when it comes to accepting any NGO offer from the Northeast.

Shalom.