Doobsie, how could you?

Doobsie is an Accounting graduate. She attended an interview in Johannesburg last week. Being an entry-level position, and that she is new to the interview scene, the recruiting consultant phoned her a day before to prepare her.

1. Research “this” and “that” about the company (not knowing what the recruiting employer’s business is can be suicidal.) 

2. You may dress “this” way or “that” way (some graduates wear mini-skirts and show cleavage).

3. Make sure you have notepad and backup pen (somebody once tried helplessly to make his ink-less pen to write during an interview.) Doobsie laughed heartily at this.

4. Ensure that you greet and introduce yourself at the gate and at the reception (some employers put unknown hurdles on your way in.) Doobsie was now serious, and only saying ‘Okay, okay,’ the whole time.
 

5. If you are going to have questions for the interviewer, limit them to 3 only. You cannot be firing a barrage of questions to interviewer, especially when the time is over. You don’t want the interviewer to kick your throat, and kick you out in a huff. 

6. Please make sure that you do not ask embarrassing or controversial questions (you can’t ask the manager(s) at Eskom, ‘Why are you subjecting the country to load-shedding?’)

[The next day]

Consultant dials Doobsie’s phone number. There is no reply. This is odd. The phone continued to ring later in the afternoon. Doobsie was not answering, despite having promised to phone as soon as she was done with the interview. 
‘Doobsie, you did not answer my call yesterday.’
‘I am so sorry; I did not have airtime to call back,’ says Doobsie.
‘It’s okay; so how did the interview go?’ 
‘It went well, actually,’ replied Doobsie.
‘That’s great; well done. I will phone you as soon as I have feedback from the company,’ said the Consultant before ending the conversation.

[Conversation with Employer]
Consultant is curious. ‘How did your interview with Doobsie go yesterday?’
‘Doobsie was okay… buuut, eish… she brought her two friends to the interview,’ said the unimpressed Employer.
‘Excuse me?’
‘Yes, I ended up interviewing all of them.’

By that time the Consultant’s jaw has dropped on the floor. He manages to pull it back up…
‘I am very sorry about that incident.’
‘It’s okay, [name of consultant,]’ Employer assures Consultant.
’Did you determine if any of them was suitable for appointment?’

‘Naah, I don’t think so hey. I understand that mistakes like those happen but my interviewing colleague is not impressed by this. Please send me the other CVs. Be aware that my time is now limited. I want the person to start in April.’

You can sell or sabotage yourself through email - (Continued...

A graduate wrote me an email on Friday. It said the following, in the exact sense:

[‘afternoon mr, fufi im still waiting for your respond coz you receive my cv.

kind regards
(name and surname)’]

I was still biting my lip, and trying to calm down, when I opted to read the next email.

The next email which I read was from the employer. I was being asked to arrange the interviews for two candidates. One of them is the very applicant whose email to me you have just read. The interviews are taking place this week.

My anxiety was getting worse as I was thinking about this situation.

1. Must I proceed to send this candidate to the interview without saying a word, which is to say throwing her to the wolves?

2. Must I correct the applicant by teaching her a proper way of writing emails before I give her information about the interview?

What do you think I should have done?

So I replied to her email in this way…

[Beginning of email]
Hi “Name”,

Thank you for your email.

I have just called you now. I want to give you the details of your interview. Please phone me as soon as possible.

CORRECTION:
My name is Fusi, not fufi. Please don’t make this error again about anybody’s name. As a graduate, you are giving an impression that you are careless with peoples’ names. No employer wants to employ somebody who gets their name wrong in this way.
Secondly, I want to show you a proper and professional way of writing emails, especially when you are writing about something as serious as a job application.

1.     Every first word and sentence - as you should know by now - starts with uppercase alphabet;
2.     The same goes for Mr.;
3.     We have sorted out the issue of incorrect name already;

4.     Salutation “Afternoon (name)” takes up one line; the rest of the message must go below the salutation;
5.     Saying “I’m still waiting for respond coz…” is passive, yet demanding; Ask me if I have the latest feedback for you on the job application, something in that line.
6.     Writing ‘because’ is far more appropriate than writing ‘coz.’ Employers are not your friends. You are a graduate now who is in the job market. Coz does not exist in all the official languages. Improve your vocabulary accordingly.
7.     Replace ‘respond’ with ‘response.’
8.     Because this happened in the past, therefore replace ‘receive’ with ‘received.’



Kind regards



[End of email]



Employers take the email, which is a communication tool, very seriously. They use it to evaluate the type of professional/ graduate a person is. Email reveals whether people understand the basics of writing, which is part of communication skills. If the employer gets the impression that you don’t possess this fundamental skill, then they are not keen to interview you.
It is unacceptable that a graduate in a commercial field (not that other graduates are excused from this) is writing an email in this way. It casts doubt on them, on their self-concept, on the education they have received and on their potential to work and grow within the profession.

You can sell or sabotage yourself through email

A graduate wrote me an email on Friday. It said the following, in the exact sense:

[‘afternoon mr, fufi im still waiting for your respond coz you receive my cv.

kind regards']

I was still biting my lip, and trying to calm down, when I opted to read the next email.

The next email which I read was from the employer. I was being asked to arrange the interviews for two candidates. One of them is the very applicant whose email to me you have just read. The interviews are taking place this week.

My anxiety was getting worse as I was thinking about this situation.

1. Must I proceed to send this candidate to the interview without saying a word, which is to say throwing her to the wolves?

2. Must I correct the applicant by teaching her a proper way of writing emails before I give her information about the interview?

What do you think I should have done?

Here is how some jobs slip through our fingers

I secured an interview for a young person last week. Let’s call this candidate YP - short for young person. The Employer, a very busy lady, proposed that they meet at a restaurant. So I liaised with the two parties.

The Employer was going to phone YP a day before to confirm the place and time of the meeting. So I imagined that this was going to be an easy-going session, over some delicious things stacked on the plates, who knows what opportunities await your hungry self when you meet Employer at the restaurant, at the end of the month? 

The interview did not happen. It was the Employer who informed me about this on Monday when I was doing follow up. ‘I called YP several times but she did not take my calls,’ said the Employer.
In my moment of embarrassment, and anxiety, I hurried to phone YP.

‘YP, how did it go on Friday? I enquired.
‘Yoh Mr. Fusi I am so sorry, I saw the miss calls from Employer but I did not have airtime to call back to explain that I don’t have money for transport,’ she pleaded.

YP had agreed to meet the employer anywhere around West/ South of Joburg, which was an attempt, on the part of the employer, to meet her candidate closer to Soweto (employer was coming from Ekurhuleni.)

‘So why did you not let me know? I did not receive your Please Call Me, at least.’ I retorted.

‘I am very sorry,’ she pleaded again.

‘So what must we do, YP? Do you want the job or not?’ I nudged her willpower.

‘Yes, I am serious about the job.’ She replied.

The Employer has lost interest in this interview. She wants to interview other candidates.

Obviously there are glaring challenges in this story.

1. Many young people, because of their unemployment status, are even struggling to search for the jobs because the money is not there.

2. A young person who can afford to have expensive items (clothing, gadgets, etc.), yet cannot afford to deal with the expenses of job search, needs to examine his/ her priorities.

3. The education of a young person does not have a built-in curriculum to prepare him/ her for the job market by way of empowering them with the requisite skills to search, to research, to articulate and to sell their skills to the employers. These things get to be learned by trial and error, sometimes the experience comes at a costly price to one’s image and the relationships they forge along the way.