3 Most Critical Factors in Getting Shortlisted after a Job Application

My wordsmith friend and Social Media evangelist, Sola Fagorusi, recently did a widely traveled 3-part series on the mistakes Nigerian graduates make in email applications. The articles, inspired by his experience assisting a startup NGO recruit, were well received.

I have also shared many thoughts on CV writing, networking skills and interview taking on this platform.

A greatly designed CV like one done through Jarushub Premium Services, a cover letter that whistles, are all very important, but hardly more than some factors. These, in addition to Good English, are usually tie-breakers, used after you have met some irreducible requirements. For example, no matter how excellently designed your CV is, and you have 2:2, it will be a miracle to get shortlisted for a position First Class is required.

I present these very critical factors.

ENTRY LEVEL

These are CVs of fresh or stale graduates, or people with 2 or less years experience or those with experience that are as good as nothing. In Nigeria – it may not be so in other climes – these are the basic and most critical determinants of whether your CV will scale this first stage of shortlisting

1. GRADE: Truth is, if your CV was designed by the best designer in the world – we are the best in Nigeria – if a recruiter asks for second class lower and above, for instance, and your CV is showing you have third class or pass, forget about being called. For experienced positions, grade may no longer be relevant, but at entry level, it is very critical. That is the first thing that determines whether you will be shortlisted or not. Except where the recruiter does not specify class of degree, it will take miracle to get shortlisted for a vacancy that specifies the required class of degree which you don’t meet. In fact, where class of degree is specified, it is usually the first criteria that is used in shortlisting before other things set in.

2. COURSE OF STUDY: Course of study is the next most critical factor in CV at entry level. Even if you have first class in Economics, you cannot be shortlisted for Petroleum Engineering role in an oil company. So, to have any hope of being shortlisted for an opening you applied for, your course of study must be the one that is specified or within the range of specified courses. For example, some adverts say “any Engineering degree” or “any Social Sciences course”, which embody several courses. But the good thing now is that many companies are now realizing the fact that course of study in University matters little, and are not specifying course. For example, some banks and consulting firms like PwC, KPMG etc, just say “graduates irrespective of course of study”. This is why an engineering graduate can get a job in a bank.

3. AGE: I don’t have any empirical fact to back this, but I can comfortably say that 1 out of every 4 Nigerian graduate job applicants has doctored his age – and that is even being conservative. This tells the criticality of this criteria. A combination of factors like matriculation examinations (SSCE and UME) that make many secondary school leavers take several times before gaining admission into university, industrial action by higher institutions unions, and students unrest that lead to closure of schools, mean many students have already crossed the maximum age criteria of most employers before finishing schools. Only few employers in Nigeria don’t put age peg in recruiting graduates. Some people graduated with good grade, studied the required course but are disqualified just because of age.

EXPERIENCED POSITION

Some factors that are important for entry level positions may not be critical for experienced hires. Below are the most critical factors that determine whether you will get invite for interview after putting your CV for an experienced position.

1, AREA OF EXPERIENCE: In very few circumstances, experience in an entirely different field may still get you job in an unrelated industry. This applies mostly in executive management positions, like CEO or CFO. For example, late Bayo Ligali left his job as CEO of Dangote Pasta Industries Limited (FMCG industry) to become CEO of Zain (now Airtel – telecommunication industry). He didn’t have telecommunication industry experience, but got a telecommunication industry job. However, for most jobs, your line of experience matters. I am accountant with oil and gas industry experience, it is easier for me to get job in oil and gas industry than say telecommunication. If you work in a bank, it is easier for you to cross over to another bank than to an oil and gas company. So field of experience matters in experienced positions. In fact most experienced hire positions ask you “X years experienced in Y industry”.

2, YEARS OF EXPERIENCE: Consider this: X has a summa cum laude ( first class) in economics from Harvard, with two years experience in the oil and gas industry (without prior experience elsewhere. Y is a third class degree holder from say Sokoto University, with 15 years Finance experience in multinational oil and gas industry. Y is likely to be considered for the role of CFO in an average oil company than X. That is experience at play. Experience matters. So apart from relevance , lenght of experience also matters in shortlisting for job interview.

3, QUALITY OF EXPERIENCE: Quality of experience is another important determinant of whether an experienced applicant will scale the CV screening stage. This comes in different facets like job content, brand of the company, period in the life of a company or industry. I worked with Oando Plc for 4 years and the Oando brand was useful for me in moving on. Sometimes, 5 years experience in a Shell for example, may attract more value than 10 years experience in a small oil company. Job content or job involvement may also be an important factor here: you are the Tax Accountant for your company but most of the jobs were outsourced to tax consultant. Compared to someone doing same role in another company, but does the work himself, he is more likely to be given preference when both of you are jostling for same position say Tax Manager vacancy in another company. It is also for quality of experience that someone with 4 years experience in say PwC may be shortlisted for an experienced level position and someone with 6 years experience in Asaaje & Co, may not, despite both having auditing experience.

Before the turn of the week by God’s grace, I will come up with tie-breakers – if X, Y and Z all meet the basic requirements above ( for entry level and experienced positions), but only two need to be shortlisted, what is usually used in pruning further. Stay close to Jarushub, Nigeria’s most influential career portal with purely local content!