Why Recruiters Ask Candidates: Tell Me About Yourself In An Interview

Happy Tuesday!
Welcome to this month’s edition of HR Insights & Updates, your source for the latest news, trends, and best practices in the HR industry.

In this edition, we are focusing on ways you can overcome job challenges & landing the job of your dream.

As a candidate, it is needless to talk about your family background, marital status, place of birth, primary & secondary education, and I’ve seen candidates who go beyond to talk about their life challenges.
Remember, there are several candidates who applied for that role, hence you should focus on selling yourself, as the conversation is about knowing if you’re a good fit for the role and the company.

What then can candidates say to win the heart of the recruiter?…Continue ReadingJoin our talent community here 👉https://chat.whatsapp.com/E1BG4wM4dP4A46Qmbfet6t

HR Word of the day

Integrity testing: A pre-employment psychological assessment tool used to gauge an applicant’s honesty.

Apple Tells Employees Not to Use ChatGPT Due to Data Leak Concerns

Apple has prohibited employees from using ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools over fears of leaking confidential information, The Wall Street Journal reported.

According to an internal document viewed by the outlet as well as individuals familiar with the matter, Apple has restricted the use of the prompt-driven chatbot along with Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot (which uses AI to automate software code).

The company fears that the AI programs could release confidential data from Apple, per the outlet.
Continue reading…

Know your rights: Labour Law Segment

(Features content from the Nigerian Labour law)

Where in relation to a foreign contract- Where a worker is recruited for employment outside Nigeria, it shall be the duty of the employer to provide facilities at his own expense to enable the worker’s family (not exceeding two wives and such of his children under the age of sixteen years as he wishes to accompany him) to accompany him to the place of employment and to remain there for the full duration of the contract: Provided that, if the contract is for less than one year, provision may be made for the family to remain for less than the full duration of the contract.

How do I tell my HR that I would like to go on a training to boost my skills?
Answer: Consider how these skills align with your current role or potential future opportunities within the company and pitch it to your HR. Propose a suitable timeframe for the training that minimizes disruption to your team or department

Have a question? Submit it here 👇

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Faces of HR

Imeobong Atiata-Ante is a dedicated human resources developmental practitioner. She’s currently the People Operation Specialist for Shuttlers. We got to ask her a few questions about her foray into HR & how it’s been so far. Read More Here- https://lnkd.in/dh9Yx5bhAre you an HR professional with over 2 years of experience? Would you like to feature in our Faces of HR series, spotlighting the HR professionals in Africa? Click HERE to introduce yourself.

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Are you in the job search market? If you have applied to nothing less than 10 job openings and have not gotten any callbacks, that is most likely because of the quality of your resume and online brand. In this post, you will discover:

• Tips to building a game-changing resume
• Networking tips to spur your career growth
• Dos and don’ts of resume writing
• Steps to take after a job application.

A resume is your ticket to get to the interview door. Your resume helps you have the first contact or conversation with your employer. What gets you the job is how well you can defend your resume.

Tips to building a game-changing resume.

1. Focus on result-oriented tasks: Take note of what you’re doing, your achievements, and your mistakes at your current place of work. This would help you present your experiences with the things you achieved in your resume. What if you have no work experience? Volunteering is a good idea. Reach out to companies and pitch to them. You can also intern to get some work experience.
2. Articulate well with active words: This helps you to properly distribute the information you’re trying to pass across to whoever is viewing your resume. The words you use reflect how vast your vocabulary is. Use words that drive easy comprehension but are not too inconsequential. Find a balance. E.g. Instead of using ‘I worked with’ use ‘, I collaborated with.’
3. Add relevant experiences: Only include the experiences that are related to the role you’re applying for.
4. Your experiences must display the skills you claim to have: The skills you have must be a reflection of your experiences.

The main focus of your resume is your work experiences.

Networking tips to spur your career growth.

1. Be intentional about meeting people in and outside your industry of work. A good place to connect with industry leaders is on LinkedIn, seminars, etc.
2. Be conscious of the conversations you’re having with these people.
3. Always be ready to give a pitch about what you do for a living.
4. Attend webinars and seminars that will improve your career growth.
5. Research about the person or group of people you want to meet.
6. Utilize your online presence. Be mindful of what you put online, it can make or mar an opportunity of employment.
7. Select a few key associations or organizations and participate actively.

Dos and Don'ts of resume writing

Do’s:

1. Professional summary: This describes who you are, what you do or have done over time, what you are learning or hope to achieve from the role you’re applying for.
2. Work experience: what roles have you handled, where you worked, and time duration.
3. Skills
4. Volunteer experience
5. Education: first degree and masters. Including your primary and secondary education is slowly becoming outdated except for some government roles.
6. Certifications, whether relevant to your career or not
7. Memberships
8. Name, location phone number, LinkedIn account ad professional email.
9. Use legible font and font size.

Don’ts:

1. Date of birth
2. Home address
3. Generic summaries

Your resume should be one or two pages, at most 3 pages.

If you are a researcher, social media manager, etc. people want to see the work you’ve done. You could also include a link to your portfolio in your resume.

Steps to take after a job application.

1. Research about the company, its goals, and your role in that company.
2. Find people in that role in the company on LinkedIn to have a feel of their culture.
3. Have conversations with anyone from the company or organization, ask questions, and network.
4. Consume content around interviews. There are a ton of helpful videos on YouTube.
5. Pay for mock interviews so you can be guided by a recruiter.
6. Remember the companies you applied to and what role you applied for.

Questions and Answer:

Q: What are your thoughts on including one’s picture in a resume?

A: Attaching your picture to a resume is not compulsory and not advised. The employer may not like your face and refuse to contact you for an interview because of that.

Q: Is including a referee necessary in a resume?

A: Referee is not necessary except requested.

Kataye Ganiyat Aderinsola

Shoot us a mail — brownhrsolution@gmail.com to get a brand new CV!

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By Victor Iweanya

Taking a quick look at what employee engagement entails and how to improve upon it.

First off, employee engagement simply refers to the level of emotional attachment put into work by an employee.

Employees generally in an organization, are of different categories,

1. We have those who are not engaged or “unengaged employee” they are unattached to their work and organization and are mostly indifferent about the effects
2. We also have the type of employees who are “actively disengaged”, they are unhappy in their workspace and often times resentful
3. Lastly, we have the “engaged employees” they are the type of employees involved, enthusiastic, and committed in their work and workplace.

When employees are engaged they are extremely happy, and most organizations will do a great disservice when they fail to create a culture of engagement amongst employees, and taking such an approach as a simple exercise to make employees feel happy, they therein miss the underlying goal of employee engagement.

The satisfaction is for employees to be happy at the job with an attitude of loyalty and pride, it is being actively invested in their work and their values, with a high level of emotional attachment. As a result, their performance soars, and their team is propelled to improved outcomes.

They are more likely to stay with their employers, as they care even more for the products and services they render even after the employee decides to move into a different workspace.

How then do we improve upon employee engagement in an organization?

This can be done using basic key elements such as identifying the basic needs of the employees, such as

• What do they get from this role?
• How does management support these individuals?
• Then teamwork, which is a broad connection to the organization and the areas they belong
• Lastly, personal growth, which is the desire to learn, grow and innovate.

In a bid to achieve individual and team success, there is a need to position and equip employees (mentally and otherwise).

Dwelling on the last vital elements Managers can achieve this even by motivating staff to increase their pace and also creating a platform within the organization’s space.

I would like to share a personal experience of a front desk personnel Hayford, who played the role of a mid-level manager under the close watch of his senior manager, to tend to a high profile client and in the end yielded a positive output.

With that aforementioned scenario, the client ordinarily was supposed to be in the manager’s office, because of his status and the recommendation gotten at the customer’s request also would have not gone to Hayford.

This created a sense of belonging in the mind of Hayford and also in the mind of other employees who believe they are open to such opportunities to thrive.

Another that could easily be identified in the above scenario is the recognition for good work and also caring about the employee's development.

Creating an environment of trust and support enables managers and employees foster growth in the office space.

In conclusion, creating a culture of engagement requires more, taking a closer look at how elements align and how that will help managers help manage employees' needs.

What are your thoughts?

By Olaoye Oluwatomi Joana

Being successful in achieving desired visions and goals is also described as a social status that describes famous or favorable prosperity.

Because success itself is a relative term, it appeals to everyone differently. This implies that what might be termed success to one might not necessarily be the same to the other. The road to success is one often times than not, plagued with lack of clarity, confusion, influence, and as such it is pertinent to know yourself, know your wants, and also have an idea of what you want the future to look for you.

First of all, you would need to define your goals.

These would be your short term goals, medium-term goals, and your long term goals.

You need to ask questions like:

• What do you want now?
• Where do you see yourself in the next 3 to 5 years?
• And what do expect to be the climax of your career?

Secondly, you would need to evaluate your current skillset,

i.e.,

• Identifying the soft and technical skills you have now
• Knowing your strengths and weaknesses
• And then reflect on your past achievements

Thirdly, you need to identify your sources of help.

• This could be from family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, alumni networks.
• Explore your connections and make requests for opportunities, advice, and even mentorship.
• Get a mentor or a coach who is towing a similar path to help out. You can reach out to top professionals in your field on social platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. Request politely for mentorship, coaching, and advice.

And, Fourthly, Seek out training and development opportunities.

• Take advantage of job trainings, online courses, certifications, attending seminars, and listen to informative podcasts or videos.

And then lastly, you need to revisit, reevaluate and update your plans quarterly/yearly.

This is to keep you in check this is also an accountability guide.

We wish you a successful career.