Sharmake; A senior HR advice to job seekers

Dear Jobseekers,

Today's job market is extremely competitive with limited job opportunities and with a high rate of unemployment and it may get worse. Having this in mind you know for sure how an uphill task it can be in securing a job regardless of whether its a top or low position though the going gets tougher when you go for top jobs. This competitive condition/bubble has led to some job seekers falsify their experience history in a bid to improve their chances of first things first getting into the shortlist.This trend is gaining momentum and most organisations have taken note of this and what I have seen them do is pre-screening(before written test) with the hiring department where the raw data of current/former employees can be retrieved easily unlike asking their current/former supervisors who may collude with them(candidates) in the falsification process. Initially the reference checks was majorly sent to the current/former supervisor but it's no longer business as usual since they are sent to your HR to ascertain more crucial information that may not be picked by other referees intentionally or otherwise. 

Below are some of the areas of concern bur not limited to👇

• Indicating you worked for organization ABC where you never worked
• Organization that never existed but maybe created with friends and who later respond to all correspondences.
• Wrong titles for example saying you were a Coordinator in a department while you were a Project Officer/Assistant. 
• Inflated roles and responsibilities that supersede your current/Former roles/titles
• Employment period-number of years and months worked for a particular organization and whether you were on casual/temporary or permanent contract.
• Reason for separation. If you left because of theft or lack of integrity difficult to cover you.
• If you have not completed a certain course/certification just put into bracket (In Progress or Completed) and this helps in case you become the successful candidate. Later changing goal post will deny you the job and at the same go with the "dishonest candidate" tag.

Hope this information will be an eye opener and it will benefit you and the rest that will come across for my work is to sensitise the youth and contribute to their success in one way or another. Everyone has passed this painstaking process of securing a job and it can take months for the lucky ones and years for the rest but never despair for your day is coming. Life is never balanced and the fact that employers say they want candidates with over 3-4-5 years experience among the key requirements. I know the familiar angry phrase will ring in your head, "if they don't hire me how will i get the experience".

This small post summarizes the importance of HONESTY both in the short and long term and to digress a little bit from the subject there is one of our casuals (Casual Pool) who recently reached and said Sankara I am applying a job and I want to indicate you as a referee and though I was not the organization’s permanent staff at least if asked you can describe my personality and work ethics, Gave the green light, gave him the small knowledge i knew about hiring until the last stage of signing the Offer/Contract where at some point I told him go sign like yesterday even if its a small offer for money is not a priority especially for a starter (money is never enough). One month in the job we catchup once in a week to make sure he adapts well.

To the men and women currently holding senior positions in any private or public institutions my request is use your positions to positively and practically impact the society, otherwise you will have nothing to show at the end of your tenure. Yes INGO's and LNGO's are daily on the frontline supporting the most vulnerable persons in the society i.e children, mothers, elderly and etc, but we seem to have also forgotten this other group. What am trying to say is come up with programs or initiatives that will have direct positive impact and prepare fresh graduates to match the contemporary local job markets; for example 

1. Internships (paid or unpaid) especially for females since they are mostly disadvantaged in this battles for jobs. Imagine having an internship program for each department (Finance, Health, FSL, Protection, HR, WASH, M&E) that builds the capacity, experience and exposure of one female 🚺 for every year meaning if the organization has 6 departments 6 female interns graduate🎓 every year 
2. Vocational Training centers that are well furnished and registered with the government and even after the supporting project(s) ends they can be sustained not the "White-elephant types".
3. Volunteer roles that obviously have well set guidelines and policies in place.
4. Formal and informal platforms like talk shows where the youth can be invited and they can educated on how to prepare for the job markets and the challenges ahead.
5. Training-Tailor made trainings that can match their experience and skills and bring out how they can apply what they learnt in school at field level.
6. And many others deemed fit for the context.

You can reshare the article, you never know if someone there may pick something positive from here and it helps another persons, of course.

Original source: Sharmake Mohamed Sankara
Telephone: +252 (0) 616 718 002
Email: Sharmake_Ahmed@wvi.org