You can get a job in one week – even in Nigeria

The CEO of MailChimp (an email marketing company) told a story of how he gave a job to John W. Foreman, a well known data scientist and the author of the 2013 book “Data Smart: Using Data Science to Transform Information into Insight.”

He said Foreman came to him with ideas  on how to solve problems and improve his business with the simple Microsoft Excel. He didn’t talk advanced apps . He didn’t talk R scripting or even SPSS. He convinced him using an Office application with which everyone is familiar: Excel.

But that is not all, he showed him how to use it to solve specific problems and tremendously improve MailChimp. At this point, the CEO was already thinking that Foreman was indispensable.

“So I hired him on the spot.” He said.

Why did Foreman get the job?

He studied the company and he knew what they needed. So the meeting was a presentation not an interview.

Now keep this story in mind as I tell you another story about our attitude to employment in Nigeria.

A student from Federal University of Technology (FUT) Minna once asked me to pay his tuition fee.

I didn’t know him. He only followed me on social media. But I am used to getting such requests. Unfortunately at this time, I had no money. And I didn’t want to promise him that I would pay later because there was already a long wait-list of those I promised.

So I told him that it would be better to do something that would generate income while he studied. He said he didn’t have money to do business. I said that was a valid point.

However, I was going to teach him a better way that would get him a job instantly wouldn’t require money.

As a science student, I told him, he should pick one topic that he was comfortable teaching. That he could teach anyone excellently,  that he enjoyed himself. Something he could do better than anyone.

Just a tiny topic. It could be in math, physics, chemistry, biology or computing.

After choosing that topic, the next step was to approach any of the many private secondary schools in Minna. At the school, he should tell the head of school or principal that he had a promise: “to make your students score 100% in  all questions that they attempt in WAEC on this topic.”

For example, if the topic was geometry, he could say “your students will get all the WAEC questions on geometry correctly. Furthermore,  I will teach them in such an accessible way that they will never be afraid of geometry again.

“And here is how we are going to measure my success. We will  do a pre-test using WAEC questions to get a baseline of where they are on the topic.

“Then in the next two weeks [or any time agreed upon] after my intervention we will do a post-test using more questions from WAEC and see their progress.”

I told him that with such a clear proposal and confident introduction, any right thinking principal, would give him a trial. And he could do the same for many schools. He could list about 10 schools to which he could present this idea so that even if a few of them said no, some would have said yes.

And I knew many would have said yes to his proposal. How did I know? Because I work with schools. I know their needs. One of those needs is the fact that exit examinations such as WAEC and NECO have become yardsticks by which parents measure their performance. Some schools become so desperate that they help their students to cheat. So if they could get someone to solve part of the problem, they would jump at it.

Job seekers don’t realise one important thing about every hire: the employer is not employing you because you want a job. He is employing you because he has a problem which he thinks you can solve.

Let me put it another way: He is not helping you, he is helping himself or his business.

So why wouldn’t you highlight the fact that you’re better suited to solve that problem?

But my young friend kept giving one excuse or the other. And would come back to his default plea: “Please help me with money in the name of God.”

At this time, even if I had the money I wouldn’t have given him. Because if I was doing it for God there were many options in which to employ the money that would yield more reward from God. It would have been better for the society to help and encourage someone who was hardworking – such as a sugarcane seller than to encourage such laziness.

Even in rich countries, students work while they study. But that’s beneath our students. Yet begging is not beneath them. I myself worked different kinds jobs while studying. Because I collected many skills, I’ve never been afraid of losing any job. If I lose one, God will give me a better one through my skills.

So if you’re unemployed it means you either don’t have any saleable skill to solve real world problems or you don’t know how to sale the skill. Either way, the problem is with the individual not the job market. Fortunately, this column shows you one way to sell your skill in such a way that you can get a job next week.