How to Excel at Work as a New Employee

There is this usual apprehension when you finally pass the interview, are hired and now resume at your new place of work. You seem not to be sure you will make a good impression and succeed. The first few months are the periods within which to convince your employers if they did make the right choice. Notwithstanding the anxiety, you can actually follow some simple steps that would enable you excel and fit in properly to do the job you were hired for.

The Standout Applicant: A Sales Approach

William Arruda in one of his articles stated that “if you position yourself as merely qualified, you are merely a commodity – interchangeable with everyone else who ticks the boxes next to the roles core competencies.”

How then do you ensure that you are not like “everyone else” – a mere commodity that can be interchanged? How do you stand out as the best applicant the interviewing panel has ever seen or will ever see? You might know that you are the perfect person for this job – how do you get them to also know this?

I Just Got Fired: What’s Next?

“Getting fired for having integrity or being a thought-leader is probably the best thing that can ever happen to someone because it frees you to move into the next opportunity when you may never have been willing to jump ship on your own.” – Heather Manley

To get fired is a set expression and it means that you lose your job, you are dismissed from your responsibilities.

Career Progression In Nigeria: All You Need To Know

“If you want to achieve greatness, stop asking for permission.” - unknown

Every employee would like to climb the corporate ladder and be at the top. However, each wonder what has to be done in order to get there. Some feel that it is not attainable except with some stroke of luck.

Why Your Job Applications Are Unsuccessful

“You'll never please everyone, but you only have to please a few people to get an offer.” - Harvey MacKay

Stories abound of candidates who have applied for a job all their life after graduation or seeking to change a job, and have not been invited for once to an interview. They keep wondering what they might have done wrong and no one is providing answers.

Skill versus Certification: Which is more important?

 It is possible to fly without motors, but not without knowledge and skill. ~ Wilbur Wright

There has been debate about which is more important when seeking a job.  Some say its “skill” while others say its “certification”.  What exactly is “skill” and how does it differ from “certification”? Are they mutually exclusive or equally important? Should you acquire “certification” before “skill” or “skill” before “certification”? To address this issue burning in the mind of seekers, let’s dive into the discussion by determining the difference between “skill” and “certification”.

Dealing with Procrastination in the Workplace

Procrastination is the thief of time - unknown

 

Dictionary.com defines procrastination as “putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention.”  My favourite definition is from Wikipedia. Wikipedia defines Procrastination as “the avoidance of doing a task which needs to be accomplished. It is the practice of doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, or carrying out less urgent tasks instead of more urgent ones, thus putting off impending tasks to a later time.”  Sometimes, procrastination takes place until the "last minute" before a deadline. People may procrastinate work obligations, such as, completing a report or a specific task, thereby leading to goals not being achieved and/or deadlines missed. Procrastination can lead to feelings of guilt, inadequacy, depression and self-doubt.

WANTED: The Bold HR

 

Recently, while searching for my notepad in order to jot down ideas, I stumbled on the notes that I took down during the last quarter of last year (2015) while reading an article on “the daunting challenges of human resources today by Josh Bersin, Perspectives 2015.”

Getting into the mind of your Interviewer

 An “interview”, as defined by Wikipedia, is said to be “a conversation between two or more people where questions are asked by the interviewer to elicit facts or statements from the interviewee”. Interviews are a standard part of qualitative research.

Have you ever wondered what the recruiter is looking for when you are being interviewed? This article attempts to address what the interviewer is looking for when you are interviewed as well as providing tips that would enable you succeed at interviews.