Dr Chidinma Agbamuche-Maduka – Career Navigation and Employable Skills

Come and join us for our NOVEMBER TO REMEMBER 2023 series of talks from the Centre for Applied Computer Science at the University of Bolton, UK.

We’ve curated a set of top talks relating to technology, research, and employability skills delivered by highly engaging and knowledgeable speakers!

This event is a talk on:

Career Navigation and Employable Skills

Given by: Dr Chidinma Agbamuche-Maduka

A Versatile Business Leader and Project Manager with over 20 years progressive experience serving in fast growth start-up companies, in the Consulting, Technology, Financial Services and Oil and Gas industries; providing core business operations and innovative human resource operations solutions.

I have led HR-Tech business Transformation projects within culturally and geographically diverse organisations, with particular focus on supporting those organisations achieve business sustainability through their talent strategy.

The platforms I have served in have also honed my coaching and consulting competencies in that I have been given in-depth exposure in handling tough business stakeholder engagements/conflicts (either with employees, executive leaders and the community/government).

I’m an alumnus of the Lagos Business School Senior Management Program (SMP) and I hold a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and graduated with a Merit in MBA with a focus in Employee Relations from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom.

𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗔𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀
🎖️Singlehandedly developed gender inclusive HR policies and reporting framework, all these has helped in the achievement of over 60% women in management team in an ideally male-dominated industry, and has helped change in a positive way, the business conversations of investors and partners.
🎖️First Nigerian National to be deployed as a Project Manager since 40 years of IHRDC’s existence as a Global Competency Management Company. This happened within less than a year of my resumption into the company, and I received commendation from Chevron Operations and Management Training Team on the execution of a successful verification exercise.
🎖️Deployed competency management software and delivered on a Competency mapping and modelling framework for Chevron Nigeria (Deep Water Operations) comprising of 200 functional competencies for 70 unique job roles in the organisation which enabled a more structured career management practice for key business areas in the organisation.
🎖️Two Time Pioneer employee, charged with setting up international organisations regional office in Nigeria, West Africa (ie. Compaigne Generale De Logistique, and Business Software Development Company).
🎖️Deployed digital applications and processes (in collaboration with other project team members and government stakeholders) to enable efficient delivery of rural development projects; one was a fully government-sponsored tricycle awards to bottom-pyramid communities in Northern Nigeria.

night Joseph we can’t hear you you should start off now thank you thank you everyone for for this wonderful evening I think we should start now um I have this privilege to today to introduce the speaker of the day no remember to remember and uh before I proceed I will uh give Dr Ana a minute just to pass an announcement for the class that was supposed to be there today and I proceed to introduce the speaker uh I have already informed the class all those students who are here are have read the message that I had floated today evening uh today morning and so rest of the students had not joined the class so probably they will be marked absent okay thank you so today we are going to have a a a speaker who has a she has a very profound profile and um I’ll just highlight some of the things you are looking up to and um some of the profile pinpoint that we are going to experience today and um I will highlight first this speak of the day today she’s a business leader project manager she has over 20 years Progressive experience serving in fast growing standup companies in Consulting technology Finance oil and gas uh just to mention a few she is a h hard tech business transformation project leader culture and geographical diverse organization leader she’s a particular focus on supporting organization in business sustainability and talent strategy and um just to highlight her her people and culture strength we are looking at uh she has a strong experience in coaching Consulting and um just not just mentioning business governance business operation talk about the key achievement that she has achieved and amass in the last 20 years she has developed gender inclusive policies and Reporting Frameworks all all over over 60% of women Management in her team and um not just talk about region wise she the first woman Nigeria National to lead deploy and to deploy and manage project since 40 years of existence of a global company it happened that it did she did in less than a year in assuming Theos that company and just to mention her strength in people she has two time Pioneer employee changed with sitting up International Organization regions in Nigeria West Africa and uh including the business software management and development companies in in digital space she deployed digital application and processes collaboration with project team me members and government stakeholders to enable efficient delivery of rural projects and all fully governed sponsored Tri cycle Awards she I’m just talking about her profile to just ensure that the the person are listen to today the speaker of the day she has a a a strong profile so today we are going to be privileged to receive not just knowledge but people and culture coaching so today as we look forward for the topic career navigation and employable skills so for for you for you who have joined late uh this just this just a series talk started yesterday uh it’s a November to remember series talk and uh the theme is Technology Innovation and social impact for for looking forward for different topics there are different speakers yesterday was a speaker on machine learning today we have speaker on the techn today we have a speaker on Career Innovation tomorrow you’re also having a speaker so keep tuned don’t take this first session and disappear let’s continue learning and engaging more so for those on on on on chat please if any question go on chat and put a thumbs up if you agree with the profile if is any question put on the on on the chat so that we can we we can monitor and give give the speaker humble time to impact knowledge and give us a guidance in a People to People culture cure the the people and people culture touch so let’s let’s continue engaging let’s continue uh using the chat as a platform to raise our questions and uh and and answers will also provided so put your hands together as I also introduce to you the speaker of the day Dr cha maduka um thank you so much Joseph um it’s a pleasure to be here um good good evening everyone and um for about um think about 50 minutes and then really this is a conversation that um many of us might have heard before in the past um but what I’m going to do is to kind of give you uh individual coaching session on trying to get back into work or to change your career is as you try and make sure that you position yourself appropriately to get the best job possible I will share my screen just wanted to give a background and a context for set to see okay all right so um I have a presentation one second all right can you see my screen is it showing in presentation mode yes we can see it yes great right so um as I’ve already been introduced the carrier topic we’re talking today about career navigation and employable skills what we need to know all right so uh many of you are already in some thought of your career Journey either you are still in the education phase of it or you’ve come back into education because you’re planning to rest strategize and go back out there and get the best possible job okay so what you’re doing actually is navigating your career right and this is a process um that will take you through really examining interrogating the career choices that you’ve made in the past or the ones that you’re planning to make in the future right so this involves your understanding your own skill set doing your World audits um and they’re setting up some kind of goals so what are you trying to achieve um when you go out into the job market of course you know today’s um job market is extremely competitive it is very competitive and that is because the access to information now is um has been almost collapsed in a way really um so what many of us spent years getting universities or studying specific courses someone can easily just use um not only Google Now about AI generated information to develop information that can be just almost as good you know as what it is that you spent Years Learning all right so it is a very competitive job market that’s just to put that on the table right and then employable skills now this is not just your technical skills these are skills that you have the compendium of information that you gather together that makes you a better option and then the next person you most ask yourself why would a recruiter take you over another person it can’t just be because of a degree that you’ve acquired in a university or a course that you have a certificate for that will get you in the door to get an interview but I don’t think that will be enough for you to stand apart from other candidates so right you have hard skills and you have soft skills so the hard skills are skills that you have acquired through learning that demonstrates your Proficiency in a certain area um so if it’s a tech skill you’ve done some sort of software learning um certification was in languages um something that you can show as proof of profic proficiency those are your hard skills all also called Technic Tech skills and then we have soft skills and increasingly these soft skills are things that are setting people apart when it comes to recruitment these are the other things that you’ve acquired throughout life really um some of it you’ve done in a focused and structured way such as communication skills team building critical analysis but others you might have acquired um as you have developed such as leadership skills um networking um being able to collaborate these things are very important and then for some recruitment they’ll actually find ways to test out whether you’ve acquired these soft skills so soft skills extremely important and not enough people pay attention to it so for employable skills I will almost in a way pry some ski hard skills because hard skills are things that people many people can do and many recruiters um I mean as was also mentioned I spent 23 years in recruitment in Human Resources actually full spectrum and when it comes to recruitment what we try to do in the first instance is to try and funnel down how many candidates have applied or are open for a particular position and as many of you know um that is a lot so soft skills are usually things that we try to test and will give us the opportunity to streamline those candidates a more manageable quantity okay so why employable skills important now apart from the fact that this is to get you a job course um to put you in the work force they’re also important because this is what makes you marketable right think of yourself as a brand like a product and for your product to sell in the market you have to be as well positioned and as packaged as is possible in the simplest of terms right think about yourself as a product and then you acquir employment skills to make you more more marketable and attractive to do the companies you know I tell someone that what is the difference I was speaking somebody recently and I said what is the difference if you drink soda as if you’re someone who drinks um fizzy drinks right why do you buy one brand over another I mean so many tests if I use Coca-Cola and Pepsi as an example there have been so much testing blind testing that has been done say that really the Tes between the two are very very very similar some people that have preferences for one brand when they do a blind testing they usually choose the other brand right so um just just to show you the importance of marketing and each of us are products and it’s just so important that you acquire these skills identify what they are and then actively develop them so you can make yourself um more marketable and of course your brand positioning when it comes to recruiters is very clear okay so when you want to First startup doing this if you haven’t done it already you need to do your own personal SWAT assessment I mean all of us I mean I’m sure all of you know um Source assessment is but this is what are your strengths weaknesses what opportunities you have and then what first do you have and all of us must do s evaluation in very simple a simple SWAT analysis so what are the things that you have that are strengths right and these are things that you can do very well that you have developed Proficiency in not even only in hard skills in soft skills like are you a good communicator are you someone who’s able to articulate things very well um are you someone who’s able to lead do you have critical analysis do you make on sport um assessments very well are you able to use large data things like that you know put that in your in your strength box then say what are the things that you your weaknesses um one are the things that you really don’t like you’re not very good at um if I think I was talking to somebody in Humanities for instance the person might say I don’t like working with large numbers I don’t I don’t like a lot of data I prefer words I prefer you know and then once you’ve done a very clear SWAT you can now think about with these um strengths and weaknesses have identified what opportunities do I see for myself like what kind of careers do I think that will be able to um properly showcase my strength or I will enjoy working you know it’s not just about when you’re going into the workforce it’s not just about which companies will pay you the most amounts now many of you might be more tic than myself but I know that when I paid employment I was just thinking about where where can I who’s going to give me the most money where am I going to tr my skills for the best compensation right but the longer that I spent in the well past I’ve realized that this is just in my nature really what you’re thinking about um doing um what that you’re passionate about or what the because when you’re doing something um a job that you’re passionate about in a company um that is speaking to your True Values um then you’re able to work more efficiently you’re able to have more um resilient to be able to deal with work on a daily basis and for those of us who worked before and are going back into the workforce you do know that work can take a real toll on you physically emotionally mentally and otherwise so it’s just very important that you clearly articulated um these things with your own personal sort right and the threats I can’t walk in a place where I am not able to do this I’m not able to do that so when I mention um the fact that each of us are a brand when it comes to recruiting and it’s important for us to package and position ourselves to make us more attractive to employers I’m saying this within ethical considerations now do not go and embellish or or outright lie on skills that you don’t have because you’re trying to be uh more marketable you might pass through you might still through recruiter might not find out or you know whatever else but imagine doing a job and don’t have the competence to do day in day out there are no opportunities for learning and then demands are being made on you that can of course we just set emotional and physical strength strength that can get into really um you know capacity so really um do all this within ethical um um barriers and considerations okay now what are you trying to achieve in your career what are the things that you want to do in your career very important do you want somebody who um makes a mark in a certain area you can you when you’re doing this work do make it realistic but as as possible don’t go with no B do yourself to stret so that you’re able to do a very deep a very good Deep dive you know you’re do what are you trying to achieve in your career and what’s your goals you must have goals when it comes to your commity so you’re able to focus and then develop the skills and knowledge um if you don’t have it that you will require to be successful in this um parade you’re setting up okay so um take advantage of training and education opportunities um that might coming way I will give a story when I was doing my MBA at the University of Leicester we had a course that were able to do in French languages art history you know this were not made part of my main business courses and I took the opportunity to do them I was even able to get a marit in French and then of course I just got you know certificated FM in my art history classes I must say that when I was going back into the work was my NBA the first few interviews that I had what was most important in intervie differ was one of my language skills that I was able to have um a speaking task in French and also when I found out when I had my first interview with the line manager and when I had my final interview with the MD he happened to like art history and I saw some art on his role and I was able to speak intelligently on it and that um when I did get the job I found out was a very important thing because was something that a to differen candidates thought I was interested and I show the capacity and the broad spectrum um when it came to information which was very important at the time so it’s just very important that you take opportunity of things now don’t do everything of course you’re already doing a very I’m sure a very time consuming um first degree master’s degree teach whatever it is that you’re already trying to do in school but do keep yourself open to learning um have a a first for knowledge outside of your your core hard skills that you do Vel oping because the job market as we already said is very competitive and these things do have impacts read books attend workshops you know go online um research things that are interesting and know about politics in whatever area developing know what technologies are out there know what is happening in the space in which you’re developing your skill set are very important when com to being employable right and then also have EX atten you know you don’t want to be just one stet L person now determine where in your career you know this information you have to be able to break it down um along the path in which you are are you a new entrance into the job market will this this job have you been working for some time or are you an highly experienced um work these things are very important in the the information I’m about to to share today so please within whichever lens is that applies to you use that when you’re inter this information I’m giving it’s very as well to betiv volunteering internship opportun they have anything that you that really speaks to remember your sport analysis to do your sport analysis you must also determine what your values are who are you really the things that are interesting apart from just the fact that you want to work in a place where um the ation is good is it important to the kind of value system that company has the organization you’re working um you’re working for and if that is important to you why is it important to you is it because of your personal values and if this are your personal values it be it will be good if you’ve probably done something in the past such as volunteering that kind of speaks to what your values are that helps you in an interview to discuss your value system without outrightly asking you know what kind of company are you guys like you know what kind of company is this are you people that have you know are you an ethical company if that’s one of your core values are you a company that is um has Integrity if you’re able to discuss um things that you’ve worked on passion about by demonstrating participation it already gives the company an insight into the kind of person you are this very good is so so important very useful especially if you’re somebody who’s just trying to get back into the workforce or this is your first um job that you’re going into even if you’ve been working for a long time these are things that are passionate to you um it’s good for you to be able to also do these sort of things because they can also give you advancements even in your current job yeah and then networking is just as important you need to be able to expand access to people that are in the same field as you or feels that you have interest in going into um very important your ability to be able to network efficiently now network does not mean you just send random people messages on and tell them you want to connect see people L but um that is not the way to effici remember networking is not just about amassing contacts information of people and then waiting for the time when you need something from them than them to do something for you that is not networking networking is developing a useful business or professional relationship that is a two-way give and take now I hear people always tell me when I’m coaching oh well I’m just I don’t know anything I don’t have any information I don’t have anything I’m going to give this very top Professor this MD um this person so how can I netor in this way and I tell them this remember that time every body’s time is like Capital it’s like money really and you asking somebody to spend their money on you which is spend their time on you why are they going to do that nobody’s going to do that nobody does that nobody just gives you know time away away because they’re not busy for that person to be a professor for that person to be a head of unit for that person to be an MD the person just be ass sure that that person is very busy right so you must take a time to prepare and talk to the person in a way that you can share something could even just be information oh I saw this article that I felt was very interesting and I see that you’re working in this area and I thought to share it with you that you might find this useful now you’re developing a relationship with that person that is a professional relationship that has value and that person will be more inclined to then develop a quality Network relationship something don’t just send them a blanket um Linkin information or you know shove your in your hands and have that’s what network I don’t want to distract from what it is they were talking about but please do make sure that you learn to network efficiently so that it can be productive okay so like I mentioned when you’re going through this process you must self assess you must be able to look at yourself and as I said doing SW analysis talk about your values understand them for yourself they really help you to positioned when you are trying to work when I first started working um when my family was young when my children were very young it was very important for me one of my values is um family that’s one of that is my personal one of my personal values right so I always knew that I wanted a job that I was able to be available to my family when they were very young um that was very important to me so I remember when I will get job interviews from companies um I live in Nigeria and our banking system is is is a little bit peculiar very long hours um and and very demanding right so even though I used to work in Investment Banking I was a portfolio manager um before I went up to do my NBA but then that was when I was single I didn’t have kids so that was fine but my bodyy system changed when I got married and I had kids and I knew that I couldn’t have any job that would be too demanding and I won’t have time for my family so really they will get I will have interviews from Banks and from companies like that maybe the distance was too far from when I live I wouldn’t even go for the interview people always said oh why you doing that you just you know get a job A Bird in Hand is what two in the bushes I’m like no it doesn’t align with my values this is going to cause too much disruption in my mental States but irrespective of how much I’m going to be pay I knew that I will suffer I will be able to do my best that job and after a while I will disengage so what’s the point of setting myself up for failure so when you self assess I’m not talking about just you know patting yourself on the back with lots of Flowery information try and make it as realistic as possible and if you have somebody in your life like a mentor or a coach or somebody independent that can give you real critical feedback it would be also good if you can share your self assessment EV that with them as well so that you can really focus and position yourself for success there is nothing worse than being mentally disengaged on a job it is one of the most miserable things that can happen to anyone so I do not advise that you do that loud okay now explore your options research different uh possible paths in which to get to your ideal job because sometimes it’s not always a straight road it’s not just um you finish from from school you do it course you apply to Google and you Google right everybody’s stone is not sck but if you do want to work in a particular kind of industry there might be other ways in which you get there you might be looking at startup companies that might have a lower barrier to entry and that’s because you’re just positioning to get some skill sets before you know you’re then ready to build into um that major Big League company sometimes that is the way you know the straight the road is not always a straightforward Road sometimes give yourself the opportunity to have different paths that you’re are considering on how to get to your chosen destination and of course set goals for yourself if you know that you want to work in a tech firm a particular kind of tech firm particular sector and you don’t have the skills um and that is because we’ve done research on the jobs you’ve looked at the criteria of the people that have worked there that you can now Focus Target Focus on some particular courses that you may not have ping yourself better one of the easiest things that we can do is to just Google your your ideal job right and then look at the the job descriptions for those jobs and use them as a yard stick in terms of preparing yourself for particular jobs or for interviews look at look at the available and tell people go into LinkedIn put in that job position and see how many people have this job position what kind of careers do they have like what education background do they have what kind of courses do they do this is a cheat sheet a very quick and easy cheat sheet that can help you to have very focused fly in position yourselves for for for roles okay and then while you’re doing this you’re developing a plan right you’re developing a plan that you’re going to be able to work with with cl metries that you will use to assess yourself to find out if you are positioning yourself appropriately um for the jobs that you’re trying to Target and then be flexible now be flexible as I said not everybody has a strict from education to their ideal job um so there different ways that you can get where you’re going um different roles different countries and then decide for yourself whether it’s a particular job role that is important to you or particular industry or a particular company sometimes just get there get there in any which way if it’s a sector if it’s a company and then be able to work yourself through while you’re there I remember when I was changing from comp um Investment Banking to oil and gas which is where I work the energy sector because sustainability was so important to me and I was determined to be in that sector no matter which ways I was going to get there so um I wrote letters to companies and I told them um I didn’t need them to pay me any amount for three months I just needed to have I just needed to have that job um industry on my CV and I just needed to get in there so I was ready to give free fre work for three months because it was important to me to be in that sector and when I was able to do if I whilst doing that I was then able to actually get a job but honestly I was ready to do this job for free because I needed the I needed that sector on my job um on my on my CV I just needed to break into that sector and is a very difficult well in my country anyway it’s a very difficult industry to get into so determine for yourself when in your flexibility do you really want a particular job title is it the job you’re looking for that is very important is it the sector that’s important to you or is it a particular company and then determine how you’re going to get there in a very flexible plan a plan B plan C and then um focus and then go for it this is if you determined um the career that you’re already doing you want to but say you decide to change your career very risky thing to do but it’s a very doable thing as well if you understand the Dynamics when it comes to career changes okay so you want to Swit jobs you have to think to yourself and U determine why is that you want to change jobs now depending on the stage you are in your career this is not a very easy decision for you to take now this is where I would advise external coaching or advice um just to make sure that you’re on a clear path as to what it is that you want to do in this change of jobs because it requires a lot of evaluation um and Analysis and to wear out the pros and the cons before you do it because any job search is difficult in itself sing a career is a whole thing entirely you know there’s a time in my career where I didn’t work for two years uh by choice because I told you one of my Valu since then was my family wasn’t it so when I wasn’t able to get the kind of jobs that I wanted I decided I was going to stay home being homade years was a wonderful time a gift really I think all we mentioned experience but anyway when I was done with that I had to get back into work and then I decided I didn’t want to go back into Banking and then you know I was trying to change my career it was a very very difficult process one first is the psychological part of changing your job because remember it’s not all career changes that you’re going to have a straight line change and that means for instance say you were a manager in one sector and you’re changing you may not be on that same Lev you might seem that you’re temporarily downgraded these things do happen so these are things that are very important you might be earning less because you’re coming in not at the same level um where you were before so these things really need to be evaluated and very very very very very important it will have lasting impacts on your ability to do your job properly because when you’re looking at the rest of your peers in your former career um there will there will definitely be those times when you’re like oh I wish I hadn’t changed everybody else seems to be so far ahead of me and here I am that is why the reasons why you’re changing your career must be very clear and almost somewhat altruistic because you’re going to need a passion to pursue that must come from a place that is not just about how much you can earn right especially if you have spent a lot of time in one the Reas why you’re changing must be very clear and very um defined well for you which is why you must always try and have a sounding board for that someone that can give you really objective feedback about that right so um when you’re truning career there’s some considerations um job advancement that is looking at where you are currently before you now decide that you want to change your careers have you exhausted all the possible options um in the current career before you want to change another one what is the real reason is there a way is it the job that you’re at that is not unfulfilling is it the company that you’re at that is not fulfilling or is it the entire career you know that’s that’s something else entirely so it means like for instance I was a I was an engineer and now I want to go into music I want to become mus I want to do classical music forance that’s a career change just as an example it’s a whole different thing entirely it’s not that I was working in company a as an engineer and I’m moving company that’s not a career change that’s a job change that’s a different thing entirely career change is totally changing the profession in which that you’ve been working at you know so explain understand this is just a little diagnostics for you to do what are the reasons you want to change why um and then um is it about the work environment because it might just be the company that you’re working at not the entire career but then I do recognize that the many people who have actually just been in the wrong career um maybe they studied a course that they were advised to do when they were younger and they realize that this is not something that really fills them he doesn’t feel their happiness cup he doesn’t make them feel fulfilled and that is so important because you spend the majority of your waking hours in life your do life at a job it really must be something that fills you if it doesn’t then you’re really going to be setting for a lot of difficulties um especially as you get older right and when you’re when you’re dealing with the guilt maybe if you have a family or if it’s taking a lot of time on you toll on you and it’s not it’s not a job that you enjoy it will take a lot out of you so the jobs that you do the career that you choose to focus on is very very important another thing that is very important as well is your work environment where do you work what kind of comp compan is it it’s not just about how much you’re getting paid it’s not even about how glamorous the job looks online the company the decor those things don’t matter if you’re working in a toxic environment I can tell you that for free one of my very dear friends got a job in an international in multinational um that everybody knows it’s a company that if I say the name everybody knows this company when she started working there I was dying from Envy I was so excited for her I was like wow I really wants to work in a business that you know and then she worked there she left her company so she left her entire career she did a career change for this job you know it was a whole brand new career and she had worked about 15 years in the company that she had worked at it was a lovely company she was happy there she was well valued um she was recruited on LinkedIn um she got this job it was beautiful she went there everybody thought it was a great job I thought it was a great job um she changed her career set of skills all of that everything went beautifully suly after I think about two years um she she left that job and I was like how could you have L this job that everybody wants everybody craves this kind of job you change careers and all of that for this company but then she said the the work culture was toxic that it was so toxic it was affecting her mental health she was not aable to sleep at night she was having a lot of difficulty and this was a job that pays so well the package was fantastic she was a multinational well-known company all over the world she was recruited she was head hunted change a career but the end of the day it didn’t work out so it’s very important for you to assess when you’re choosing jobs changing careers whatever it is um the the work environment the culture of the place now culture is how people behave right it’s not really something you can Google what the culture of the place yes there’s some things like glass door can give you some information but remember the glass door is really you have to take glass door and things like that with a pinch of salt because they usually roen by employees right and that might not be the entire picture but you must be able to ask certain questions and look at certain things if you def find your value system if you know what it is that is important to you um then you’re able to know the kind of companies that you can work at right on the fundamental level then when you do go in if your opportunity to go into for an interview pay attention to the people that you’re looking around you know right from the entrance of the office you know from the reception if it has a gated entrance you know everyone that interact is in the place just watch them watch their interaction try and listen into um how they discussing how they’re engaging just give some kind of insight into what the comp’s like because at the end of the day you’re about to sign up your entire a large majority of of your life to this kind of organization it’s very important that youve had some kind of assessment on the culture of the place internally if you don’t have someone that works they better ask them the right questions about it okay then of course benefits are very important um of course when you’re you know thinking about um job changes career changes you know compensation is very important and of course compensation goes with benefits and then some benefits are in kind and those benefits sometimes might even outweigh the benefits in cash um when of course you know what your value system is do you do you need a job where there’s a lot of autonomy where you’re able to do things for yourself without being micromanaged is that important to you um do you like companies where there’s a flexible work option do you like working remotely is that very important to you do you like to have you know unlimited days of leave the things that are very important to you are things that you must have articulated so that you’re very clear um what it is that are non-negotiables as I call them everybody must have non-negotiables every time I interview someone that says anything anything I’m just like no this is not even going to work because nobody wants somebody who has no sort of safe to just apart from how much am I earning I mean there are people like that but yeah for for from the company end of it I find this kind of um um employees potential employees fle because when you get another good offer in compensation you’re you’re just going to leave because nothing else is important to you so pay attention to things like health benefits um um leave ability to work um on assignments you know what kind of training do they have those things are very important okay and then weigh everything against the compensation before you’re able to decide on the kind of jobs that you want to take it’s very important the F of the paycheck is is good but have some basic understanding of accounting because you know gross pay is different from net pay is different from taxes all these things are very important because sometimes they advertise jobs and they show you the gross package don’t quite tell you what it is there’s the net which is what enters into your account at the end of the day all of you must understand basic accounting do not go for any sort of interview or compensation discussion if you don’t understand the basics over time so that you don’t have healing costs and charges in things that you haven’t identified okay especially if compensation is very important to you so um think about the challenges you may face on a new job and then begin to think about how you be able to surmount them you know have your non-negotiables and have your negotiables have the things you’re willing to work with and then understand the things that you will not be able to work with man was made for for to work but work was not just mean for man very very important because you you if you know that you’re going to spend the majority of your life your adult life on a job there’s some things that you must be will to consider I know the economy is bad the econom is hard depends on which country it is that you’re working at and it’s very important for you to have a job but it’s also important for you to have a well balanced to life and when you don’t have things articulated not thought about your if you’ve not done the source analysis if you don’t understand your value system if you don’t know what your negotiables are and non-negotiables are you will take any job you will get it you’ll be miserable you’ll be unable to perform and then sometimes you even ask to leave the job depending on which country or which company you’re working at and nobody wants that okay so have those things um clearly defined for you understand what yourself expectations are what are your priorities um very important you must you must do an assessment for yourself if you’re going back into the workforce if you’re trying to get a job that’s the only way that you can be at the top of your game you know sometimes you get into into companies when I do assessments um um Consulting for for companies when it comes to their U people people needs right you see some people in the same job that are working as if they have more than 48 hours in a day not 2 hours they’re working so efficiently so optimally bringing Creative Solutions you know and you see somebody else on the same job and the person is just struggling every day they’re complain about their performance they’re complaining about their you know um engagements they don’t getting the same out of them and every time I coach both people I find that one person is passionate about that job this job aligns with their dreams that they’ve had this thing aligns with their value system this person has a plan this person has a goal the other person just kind of found themselves in the job and is struggling every day because passion is not something that you can manufacture it’s not something you can transite yourself into it must be something that aligns with your self actualization if not have any passion on job and once you have passion on the job then you’re not able to bring your best self forward it’s just so important that we’re able to do that and then remember that we always have options I know it doesn’t seem like that because you know the jobs are limited Market is competitive or wom that you have option there is a place where you’re going to be able to bring your best self forward and do quality work we owe it to ourselves actually to give ourselves the opportunity to find a place where you can do quality work and that is when you’re able to bring yourself forward your best self forward so make sure you’ve done that you weigh the pros and the cons you’ve looked at the job even the location how long do you take to commute there because commuting commuting can can be a joy killer it can take it can suck out the joy out of your job if it takes you too long to get to work and back every day that thing can be emotionally training like I leave in um Nigeria like I mentioned and we have a bad case of of road traffic all the time another one of my non-negotiables I was not going to leave in a place that took me too long to get to work I just can’t do it because by the time I get there I have nothing to give I’m spent I’m burnt out so things like that you must consider um when you’re writing down your non-negotiables for work you know I mean sometimes you might take other jobs that are not exactly ideal but it’s always good for you to have it written down it kind of keeps you focused and targeted on what it is that you need to do do lots of research around the job market if you know people that are work there do quality networking with them like I mentioned already so you’re able to get relevant information that can help you um position more effectively you know and of course look at the general culture of a company if you’re leing if it’s a different country what’s the cost of living um what are the things that passionate to you like your recreational activity just so that everywhere you work you’re able to leave a as much of a balanced life as is possible okay compensation is just one way keep saying so very important for me to work that and then work life balance or work life integration as we call it now extremely important it’s very very important work hours um what are the kind of the employer expectations now this kind of conversation you may be able to have when you’re in the interview um phase of a recruitment because some things you may not be able to research from the outside but do be do do be ready to ask these questions you know what are the hours what kind of expectations do they expect you to keep working outside of what now I know in some countries even by law this is not even allowed that might not be applicable to you but in some countries it’s your your plugged in 247 and being plugged in 247 might not be something that appeals to you so it’s very very important that you’re able to ask the right question during the interview process um especially when you’re about to receive an offer you know where you’ve passed um a few a few levels and then you’re now at a position to discuss your benefits and your package and things like that when you get to that stage this is when you now begin to ask those questions the things that you couldn’t find out maybe when you doing the recruitment process or even when you trying to short list the job or the company um please ask the right questions very important as you navigate your career job opportunities okay and then also ask questions around what is the Outlook you know for your career in a changing um job market so important you know like they have all these research is done at the beginning of the year of good work of works for the future and things like always keep an eye on that right you don’t want to be investing yourself in a profession in a career that is going to be upsate in in a short time because of Technology artificial intelligence and things like that want to do that right you have to think about what are the kind of jobs that are out there you know what’s the growth projection in this tget this industry that you’re focusing on because remember you depending on the course that you’re doing or the stage of your career where you at where you’re at remember you’ve done a plan um for your for your for your career projection sometimes this learning can take four years five years depending on the kind of of skills they are trying to acquire you don’t want to have done all that and then in five years is obsolete is is no longer relevant you know that’ll be unfortunate so we are at a stage where we have a lot of information um that is available so please make um a lot of use for it depending if you’re just starting off in your career like pay attention to those kind of things right you know there was an article regarding lawyers how the legal profession is going to be obol 5 to 10 years because you know the the advancement in a is so high they can write full briefs you know legal documents but just by sending an instruction so just imagine you know what lawyers will have to deal with in the future of course they’re going to have to start developing new kinds of skill set to complement the legal profession just to make sure that as time goes on they still remain valuable um in the workforce maybe do more business courses do some Tech courses you know just to expand out um the kind or maybe even Le coding and be able to write that legal code you know from the angle of a lawyer so you’re going to have to be able to do a lot of research about the profession the career that you’re in all the one that you plan to change to okay and then as you’ve done your assessment you’re going to do um a skills audit so what do I have already and am I really a good fit for this job you know some jobs require not only um competent skills like technical skills hard skills some jobs require a certain kind of soft skill that maybe you don’t have and maybe it’s not even something that you can apply are you really a right fit for this job you know like if you are in if I say for myself now I’m inan human I’m in general I’m in corporate services and as well as a coach and you know sustainability all those things and a lots of it requires a lot of public speaking has to speak to people and speak to crowds how to speak train so imagine you’re an introvert that doesn’t like to engage with people you prefer to work you know in an insul fashion that profession is just not going to pit you you’re going to struggle on that job right so you have to be able to say am I really a good for this job like it’s nice on paper I remember a couple of years ago um when scrum certification which is still irrelevant um skill that was really big and then I I told someone um when I was trying to con have to do s let’s get in there okay let me look at it because I used to be a project manager yeah I did the PMP and all of that so like scrum was a good thing to follow through and then someone told me oh a lot of the jobs are remote and then we do a lot of the work online and I was like wow so when do I meet people who am I talking to so they have like you know spot meetings in the morning the project I was like so when do I meet people I said I asked this question in multiple ways and when the answer came back is online is an online I said no it’s that for me I just i’ be miserable I can’t just see people online I’m not going to see anybody we’re not going to have tea we’re not going to talk to anyone I’m just gonna yeah so for me I was just not good fit I was not a good fit for the job I might have had the hard skills I could have acquired through the training but what I would need to be able to actualize for myself was not just going to work for that so yeah I know they probably earn more than I do now I don’t know what the job fa is like but I be miserable it just what I me so are you really a good fit for this job like when you do your own assessment are you a good um fit for the job is it going to does it align with your values does it align with who you are as a person and if you don’t know who you are as a person advise you don’t even have to have a fancy coach just ask somebody that you know who can give you objective feedback what kind of person am I they have there’s so many free online tools like Myers breaks that you can do to get personality profiling plus you can also just ask someone who knows you and can give you OB feedback I’m an introvert I’m an extrovert am I do I handle conflict well am I somebody just get a picture of who you are because your job is your life in many ways in many ways it can shape your entire life you really need to be able to make sure you do properly so are you qualified what you get qualified in youve done thought you’ve done your assessment you’ve looked at job descriptions online about the job that you wish to apply for you looked for people in LinkedIn that have the kind of job that you desire and you’ve gone through their profile and you’ve done a really good picture right so you know whether you’re qualified for that job as well so do you have the skills the knowledge the ability to meet a future employer’s expectations for the role the good thing now with h is that when you look at um job posts that people put at now they also add a set C called the person specification and I really like that and this is something that I do a lot even in my in my company as well we’re looking for a person that can we need you need we need to give you a picture a snapshot into what your day is going to look like so that you know whether this is something that aligns well with what you are looking for and what you can do very well you know I’ve talked about checking the prop of people already familiarize yourself with what’s expected okay and then have a very good plan you they say if you fail to plan you’re you’re planning to fail and it’s so true have yourself a plan but of course even as you have those plan remember to see okay so um as I mentioned you know have an independent person that can give you some measure of feedback when you’re going through your career inventory like what have I done what can I do well what am I good in doing you know someone that can give you feedback on on that kind of thing it’s just so important it really helps you to have a picture that you can work with so that as you’re developing your technical skills your heart skills you’re also developing so your self skills and then it also helps you to see blind spots right you it helps you to see blind spots and those things are very important you don’t want to come into an interview with anyone if you’ve not done um some kind of self assessment right I remember one interview I went from and um it was a job I really really wanted it was a company I really really wanted I was so excited about this job and the first question the lady asked me was a team of about six people and the first thing lady asked me was so tell me about yourself and you know the question kind of stumped me because I was like what do you mean about myself and I said tell me about yourself I like w you’re looking at my CV everything is about myself and um the lady got a funny look on her face and cared with the interview now when I finished with the interview um suffice say I didn’t get a job not because of my technical skills but the lady apparently was because I always ask for feedback that’s another thing when you’re done with any interview positively or negatively always ask for feedback in the nicest way oh um when they tell you oh we’re sorry we can’t progress with you you know just say oh yeah so can you just give me feedback on how the interview went you know just for my own learning and for me to just you I really appreciate your time and all of that so the the the gentleman who was theing um officer said that in the interview that um when the lady who apparently was the was the manager this role was going to report to asked me the question that my response came across as um aggressive um she didn’t think I was someone that was uh would have been a nice person to work with because she felt I had some measure of attitude now one of my blind spots um which I have developed or realized over the years is that I I don’t I don’t like being asked redundant questions I one of my blind I don’t like it I don’t think it’s a measure of intelligence when somebody’s asking me something be answer to and every time somebody ask me that the way in which I response respond is never in a very is sometimes shows on my face I don’t think that question you asked was a very intelligent question it’s one of my blind spots I’ve never seen it before but when I did go through my first Co session was some of the things that came up so please know your because that was a very great job and it’s actually a very good question tell me about yourself and it’s something I use every day till today and um sidebar many people are very uncomfortable talking about themselves this might be a cult thing but I find people just don’t like the question it makes them uncomfortable they want to talk about things that they’ve accomplished or they’ve done on their jobs but when I say who are you no who are you what are your what are your values you know who are you as a person people are usually stomped and it takes them a long time to answer question so just as a sidebar please you know just write a three minutes um three minute brief on who you are as a person that has nothing to do what you studied what you went to school and what your job is be able talk about your self agreement um and be comfortable um saying it as well so it’s also a very good networking um tool and is very good for recruitments I personally ask that question a lot after that day I’ve worked on it and I’ve refin it and you haven’t done that do that who are you as a person and make sure it has nothing to do about which where you school what you study and what job you do all right so make you’re able to evaluate the things that you need identify what training courses webinars you can you can use that can help you get um more alignment in your career that’s after you’ve done your inventory and you’ve discussed with advisors in the multitude of C you’re going to go wrong especially people that are knowledgeable either about getting yourself a job getting into the career who are just people that know you and able to point you in the right direction very very important um your CV as well when you’ve done it have um a professional recruiter take a look at it because um I mean I know there are many skills now on templates and how to do it but you don’t want to have a c that is not clear and doesn’t have the right information it’s not easy to read like it’s not well articulated so make sure you do that as well and then um you know act responsibly if you do this that you want to change your career you know as I said it’s a very difficult decision to um so please and also very important one you know so do do the right thing and do a lot of Deep dive and review as to why you’re doing it um if you have people in your life that are going to be affected by this change of career or change of job you know it will be important I mean it is ethical to actually take them into consideration and discussion um if it’s important to you to change and you know maybe it might affect your compensation or set you back a bit you know do make sure that you had conversations with them about what that impact will be it is very irresponsible of you to just take a decision that can affect other people’s lives so just a point to note it’s very important that you should act responsibly even though I’ve talked about your values your person who are you and all of that please put that under the concept of responsibility and use the lens of Ethics it’s the right thing to do it’s going to be right for everybody if it’s going to affect more than one person please make sure that you have taken them into consideration or at least had a discussion with them about it okay and then of course assess the difficulty in change hard it’s easier at the beginning of the career if you know that you’re far advanced in your career weigh everything up together and make an informed decision okay before you have um that plan and then always have a plan B I didn’t mention flexible but I have a plan B if this route doesn’t work is that another route I can go through um is some learning I can do while I’m still on my name main job can I do lessons um courses after working hours so that just just let my job and then move move on okay please don’t rush take your time decide give yourself time to consider all the options and then um also think about the potential IAL effects um that changing will have on you and then just for a wrap up I just want to say um if you take some time to also consider the impact of technology on the job market I mentioned the ones about lawyers but just generally there’s lot of information out there regarding what technology will do to the job market it’s going to change the face of work it’s going to change the face of it’s already changing it but it’s going to change it some more so big sure that you’re very conversent with technology you’re not adverse to tech tech the future Tech is here Tech is to Define how all of us are going to work live and exist in the coming years okay so Ai and technology has transforming Industries and job BS and that’s just the fact so you have to be a digital native in everything that you do you must keep it no matter your age you must keep yourself on trend on task on top of information when it comes to Tech be willing to play with it be willing to be open to it accept it adopt it if it’s not that your job is coming to your job that’s for sure so have that in mind okay then think about the potential for Automation and interpretation on employment on the job that you’re looking for is this going to be redundant in a couple of years will a machine be available to do that job right so are you going to develop that machine can you maintain that machine or do you want to just know that maybe it’s not something you need to be pursuing all your time and effort in right you know for the for stable future because you don’t have I call it a tech proof job do you have a Tech proof job is a job Tech proof like if it’s not Tech proof then make sure you’re able to accommodate technology in your plans when you’re making them okay and then the different tools for skills development when it comes to Tech you can learn from coding platforms the project management softwares there just so many things but you can do there’s coera there’s tedex these are all these are extra to the traditional way of learning which is still very good and still has its place but if this is something that you’re just trying to play around with or think um try and look into developing yourself in these areas okay and develop a lot of data related skill data science data anals is important in every job I don’t even know the job that is not important important every job is important now defines how we do everything because INRI you have to be able to look at Big Data you know everything that you’re doing so those things are extremely important LinkedIn for instance has so many learning some of them just even free expand yourself expand your your your ability to develop Tech like I mentioned the French course I went for when I was in my University you can even learn languages now online I mean there even apps that you can have that can translate for you but it can be very useful if you also develop a second language if it is something that traveling is important to you or you want a job as a multinational job and things like that so make sure you always consider the technology implications for every job role that you are trying to do either in positioning for a job chaining a job or making yourself more marketable I believe that brings us to the end of this discussion so just to overview of the things that I mentioned already um you know identify the courses the professionals that you’re trying to go into do whatat analysis of your skill set get an independent person to be able to give you assessment of who you are determine your value system so that you know how you to position more effectively know your negotiables and non-negotiables when you’re getting into the job market um make sure you a personal inventory okay and then Network appropriately and efficiently remember that you are a brand that you’re trying to Market and position when it comes to the workforce and then of course make sure you consider technology in the industry in the profession and in the career that you used to go into so thank you very much it I’ll be ready for any questions um students do you have any question I hope uh because everyone is looking for jobs uh they they will be having many questions to ask so students just ask your questions because they have too many when I am in the class good evening yeah yes yes it’s fortunate man so uh in regards to the workplace culture what if uh what’s what’s the best advice to give someone who finds himself in a in an environment whereby you you find out that the it’s a it’s a toxic workplace culture what’s you think I should do in that situation a very good question for like you know culture is so important because it can make and break your career really if you’re working in a toxic place um there’s only so much toxicity that a person can take so what I say is that if you know that this toxicity is embedded fully entrenched in the culture then I would not say that um you can manage it really what you should do is just to try and stay above toxicity for as long as you can whil beginning to search for another job because you know how tox toxic is toxicity is bad for you that’s actually why it’s called toxic right so what I just say is whilst you try and make a plan to exit stay above it try and make it try and develop some emotional resilience that kind of insulates you from the from the from the culture don’t take things personally just understand I am working in a toxic culture and I will soon be on my way out I’m making my plans I’m looking for how I can leave this company as peacefully as possible don’t get idled in the prey of toxicity just develop emotional resilience know that this is outside of you this is a job you need for now and then make your exits not going to change can’t change one person can’t change a toxic culture so it’s very difficult to hope that it will change um just plan your exits and try and stay above it as best as possible in as peaceful a way as you can because you know that you’re going to be on your way out that’s what I will advise thank you so much um it was it’s really nice and useful lecture and we have another question from tamy too yes tamy too you can unmute yourself thank you ma um my question is what if um I don’t have a background um study in data analytics what uput like what advice do you have for me if I don’t want to do internship like how can I um challenge myself in the markets in the labor markets okay how your data analytics is so important you can’t run away from it you’re just going to have to learn it because the reason why I say that is because data drives everything now honestly we have so much data and you’re going to experience it at work so if you don’t have the skills even though it’s not a course that you’re studying I would advise that you use either Cera or any online platform to learn it start from the basics and get yourself acquainted with it because there just you can’t you can’t run away from it and what happens that when you get into the workforce and you’re not comfortable um with data analytics it it quickly shows and then people don’t want you as a team member or they don’t want to have you on special projects that you don’t want that so irrespective of what is you’re studying I told you I my first degree is in sociology I’m not a teex person but I had to go and learn it I went back to do excel I learned Excel all the way into advanced Excel I went and I studied data analytics I can tell you that now 23 years later in the workforce my HR is just data it’s almost 80% data because that’s what you’re doing you’re looking at the data you’re making inferences you’re making analysis and you’re giving information to management based on what the numbers are suggesting so this is a skill that is extremely useful irrespective of which sector you’re going into so I would advise that you take time and just start learning on the side you know use a free course and begin to get yourself familiar and then make sure you just get more comfortable with it it’s going to be a skill that you’re going to use and will definitely um differentiate you in your workplace I would like to add to what maduka has just said is it’s also developing the passion if you are not passionate about what you are learning and you are just learning it for the sake because uh if I’m doing a a course on it or my friend is doing it you will never be able to learn so develop a p and once you are passionate about what you want to do or what you are doing you will automatically put extra efforts to learn so be passionate any more questions from the students yes jhua yes I I speaking from the on ethical issues you know there are some uh agencies that you would like to apply as an agent as the agency with they would like to ask you to bring work history and all in that case maybe you learned one or two from have online experience how will you not fit in in that position they ask you to bring your work experience um that you don’t have work experience yes okay you don’t have okay now is the thing about ethical um um issues right if you falsify the work experience that you have and you didn’t get the job and then you stop working on the job and then they want to test out this experience that you have and you’re not able to demonstrate it how do you plan to manage that and this happens all the time I’ve seen this happen before you embellish and then your embellishment now turns into something else you’re just setting yourself up for failure you know so is that going to be a failure um when you getting there and then some companies take ethical issues very seriously and they can terminate your employment you don’t really want to be um in that in that sort of situation so if it’s definitely a deal breaker depending on the kind of job that you’re looking for um then I will tell you to go and acquired I told you about the time when I went and I I worked for free because I was determined to get that I needed some measure of experience and I I was I I was willing to commit my time and effort and lack of resources to get it so I would rather you use something that is more ethically um approved so that you’re not cut out at some point and then you not have to build one lie over another lie another lie and then some companies take it very seriously and then you’re you’re terminated from a role because you over embellished you know so you really don’t want to do that I would I would advise that you try to refrain from that or try and get the experience however best you can do that within ethical means it’s always the best long term how would be my advice any more questions from any student yes uh yes Bellow please yes Bell you can unmute yourself Bellow you can un my question is yeah all right my question is that when you are taking a job which one should one take uh first or in in the scale of prevence the one that’s one supposed to consider is it the pay or the passion for the job okay that’s a good question is it the pay of passion for the job now when you see the passion for the job do you mean the career that you’re in already or do you mean the particular company that you’re working for because you really have to leave it to now the passion I’m talking about when I mention P here is the first of all the ability to do the job and the interest to do that job when I was in Investment Banking I was very good in Investment Banking I was a portfolio manager I was very good in portfolio managing management I was able to understand the stocks I was able to advice my clients and all of that but it didn’t it didn’t to make me it didn’t make me wake up in the morning and jump out of bed because honestly I just it was it was not an interesting job for me didn’t align with what it is that I’m really passionate about so when you want to apply for a job for instance like are you going to go and apply in a sector to do a job that you are not interested in you know so that’s what I mean because if you go with compensation over one your ability and your passion because you can be passionate about something and you don’t have the ability that’s not going to help you because you can be passionate from here till next year and you cannot do the job what’s the point no employer is going to keep you for your passion an employer will keep you for the results that you are able to produce what value can you bring to the organization that is what is important right so the passion must be with ability now if you have passion and ability please go for it but if you have compensation that aligns the ability but doesn’t really interest you now you have to make sure that before you turn that job down you also have another job that you have ability and passion please do not be a starving artist of passion that’s not going to work be able to work of course provide yourself because you have the ability to do that or if you do not have the interest in doing that then then go and find a job that would align with your ability and you have the interest therefore you’re able to stack your p to do your job effectively that’s what I’m trying to say so please do that always keep that in mind when you’re you’re looking for a job you must have ability then you can now have interest and then that can now spark your passion thank you can we take more two more questions if you have time um there a question from a PR Young Who said um concering the part where we asked to talk about ourselves please kindly go over what we should talk about and what we shouldn’t so when you’re asked to talk about yourself um as I said please make sure you’re not talking about where you schooled what you studied and where you worked all that information is already on your Curriculum by is already in your CV and the and the recruiter if the person wants you to talk about your CV the person say can you take us through your professional experience or can you take us through your CV that means the person wants to know about what it is that you’ve done that they are looking at in their hands what they say tell me about yourself just imagine you went out and met someone and then you are trying to get the person is trying to get to know you okay so talk about where you’re from when did you grow up what are your interests what are your what are your values um um what are the things that you’re passionate about what are the things that you do what defines you as a person you must you must have that you must be able to know that for yourself and be able to say it so simply in two to three minutes my name is cha you know I come from a big family um I’ve always been very interested in in law and um politics and uh coincidentally I was able to get into sociology by a serendipitous way I studied sociology but then I went in and then I studied Investment Banking not because I work Investment Banking now I’m working Investment Banking was able to give me rise to understand that I like people I’m passionate about helping others about giving back about adding value to organizations and then um that value system has kind of defined how I’ve lived my life and my careers and you know even all the project that I take time to do you must be able to be able to say something about yourself making sure that it’s about who you are as a person what are your values and what you’re passionate about it’s a syc two to three minutes of discussion so when you do that please also make sure that you speak to somebody about it try and try and put this on um to your friends or anybody else if you’re comfortable talking about yourself as I said many of us are not comfortable talking about ourselves one last question uh we have from abidat yes Abid that yeah um my question is there are some uh job or some employer that request for self assessment as their interview so and from the illustration from the assessments they will tell you to be honest and they can ask question like maybe you want to have a presentation and um you’ve already prepared so if at a time your team leader or your manager um gives you an insight to present in another way of which you you really can’t meet up because there will be a limited time so uh in in terms of that situation because I’ve done something like that assessment twice which was unsuccessful so definitely I know I didn’t have the qualities they are looking for but in terms of that situation how can one fix that it just like working under pressure or trying to give you a tet or work which you are not prepared for so even if you find yourself in that situation maybe you have a job like that so how can one fit in or what other way can you maybe answer that question to pass maybe the the interview stage or whatever qualities they are trying to see in that individual um thank you ABA that’s actually a very good question right so many many recruiters now are many jobs are not just recruiting for your technical skills I think I said that initially they want to know what sort of person are you and they they try to simulate um what real life working situation will be in that particular organization so one of the pointers you can you can get from that is in the job post if they have written a section that says job specification please take some time to read that job specification some of you they can say ability to work under pressure or be able to do multiple tasks now every time you get into a job assessment they try to simulate what the work will be like so from your question they give you multiple tasks and they want to know um how you’re able to deal with it how able able to deal with that now they want to see how you work Under Pressure they want to see about your creativity they also want to see how you’re able to do critical analysis like prioritizing these are skills that are important to them on that job and they’re trying to test it um in a in a simulation right so I wouldn’t say how can you pass it um I will say however you want to develop um iCal analysis skills um we also want to be able to play um business games there are all these business games online there’s like a case study and they tell you oh if this happens um what would you do and things like that so if you practice doing a lot of case studies um you begin to see how um people um are able to um simulate different sorts of thinking options you know um you can do that there also something called um decision analysis it’s actually a whole course on his own but many recruiters always try to use a decision Tre Matrix to ask questions to see how you’re able to um respond to all the different questions right and then if it’s about prioritization as well it’s also a skill that you can learn how do you prioritize what is most important so you can focus on per time if you go for interviews where they have assessment um simulation you must first practice a lot of case studies the case study method is going to help you out in many of these things because many companies use them a lot and they will test your ability to think critically they will test your ability to work Under Pressure they will test your ability to prioritize and then decision analysis how did you arrive at that decision decision analysis is actually a course that you can take I think they have one on Kera or Ted just try and find the most simple basic understanding of decision analysis how do you make a decision tree when it comes to attending to a business question and then start practicing how to do that there’s a different skill set for preparing for assessments for rules yeah so you have to be able to to learn that you know so I but I hope that was helpful for you but please try and practice a lot of that and after a while you just get used to it once you once you get into the interview sometimes they ask you questions verbally and sometime they give you to write it out either way once you have Master those particular skills um you’ll be able to come out on top when because remember there’s no real rights there’s no 100% answer they want to see how you arrive at the decision yeah uh thank you so much we will not be taking more questions and it was really helpful uh and your session was really insightful because the students are really struggling when it comes to searching for jobs and giving interviews because they appear for the interviews and they say we were okay with the technical skills but we could not do much when it came to the interviews so that’s that’s quite useful uh Joseph okay I will now uh uh hand over the to you because celese probably is traveling yeah thank you thank you thank you very much yes so let me share my screen uh thank you so much I hope we uh we can see the plag yeah we can see yeah thank you thank you very much Dr shma uh thank you very much for everyone who who have listened everyone has because there are so many questions but we have shortage of time yeah thank you thank you for the yeah we will look forward to seeing you in the next November to remember ser you also thank you so much yeah thank you thank you thank thank you students yeah right thank you so much thank you thank you thank you thank you Ma thank you thank you thank you ma’am thank you thank you okay I am ending the meeting now