How multiple similarities almost cost me my first job, plus 1 other story

Yes, we talk about mainstream factors that aid job hunting. We tell you to make sure you graduate with a good grade, write professional exams, read extensively, etc. But there are still some factors that are often ignored but which may be the decider in your job hunting efforts. I narrate two stories to buttress this:

STORY 1: Me, my friend and our CVs

Sometimes, you just have to follow your mind. Personally, maybe because of my objectiveness, I hardly predict wrong any outcome that involves me. Anytime I write exams, I hardly guess wrong the outcome. Throughout my university days, I was always calculating the results of my exams far before they came out, not necessarily the exact score, but the grade (whether A or B; oh, ok, I had C and D in a couple of courses in my university days)  and I hardly got it wrong. It was only on a single occasion that I was rudely shocked: I had D in a course I expected A, or at worst B. Other than that, I hardly  significantly missed the point.

This attitude followed me to my job hunting days. The first test I wrote in an investment banking company shortly after I graduated almost eight years ago, my friend and I both wrote it, and he got a phone call on a Friday that he passed and should come for interview the next Monday. I was so sure of that test that I knew I cannot fail it, except the cut off was 100%!  I waited for my own call, but did not receive any. One hour, two hours, no call, and the interview will be holding on Monday. I just asked my friend to give me the phone number used in calling him and I rang the line. A lady picked, and I asked whether all the candidates that passed had been contacted, and she said yes. I asked her to check again, and she said if I didn’t receive phone call that means I did not meet their cut-off. The only thing I could think of was that I wrote about 400 words for an essay that we were instructed should not be more than 100 words (hey, you know I am a story teller, short essays not my strenght, reason I don’t use twitter that restricts me to 140 letters) in the supplement to the test, so I asked her what percentage the essay was, and she said the essay was not part of the assessment, just the verbal and quantitative reasoning. I said she should check again, that I could not have failed, except if I was penalized for my too-long essay

Reluctantly, she asked for my name and I gave her. After a moment of silence, she uttered: but you were called now. I said no, they called my friend. She then apologized and told me that it was a mix-up, that both of us had similar names (Suraju, Sakiru), similar profile (same year of birth, both of us first class, same school, same department, same year), same CV format (we were both living together, so used same CV format ), and – wait for this – both of us scored 71% (the highest). It has not ended: both of us missed same questions! So when the successful candidates’ CVs were passed to her for invitation for interview, with score inscribed at the top of the CV, both of us’ CVs following each another, after ringing one person, she thought the next CV on her desk was still that of the person she just called, and only not passed it on, so she just turned my CV upside down, and called the next person in line! Alas, we were different persons!

Thank God, I was so sure of myself that I called them that it was impossible for me to fail that test. Interestingly, I was also the one that landed the job. Much later, after I had joined the company, she once told me casually in lunch that the similarities between us, especially same score and missing same questions, were so amazing that if not because we wrote the test in different rooms, they would have concluded we copied each other. One more thing: part of the company’s test -though not part of final mark, just to test our English language proficiency – was to write a 100-word essay on what you will do in the first 100 days if elected president of Nigeria, both of us wrote – again, co-incidentally – that we would fix the power sector!

Lessons to learn

1, Follow your mind, when you are sure of yourself, push as much as you have capacity.

2, Pray to have a patient recruiter/HR contact, another would have banged the phone.

3, If you believe in prayers like some of us, pray against this kind of omission. Even if the lady realized her error herself later, shame or fear of her boss yelling at her – if he is the yelling type – or being declared inept and prone to error, may make her tear your CV and bury the case.

4, If you and your close friends are applying for same job, and you both use same CV template, you may want to consider tweaking one of the CVs to make them different. There are tens of great CV formats  that will not look exactly the same. You may want to try Jarushub premium  CV writing service.

STORY 2: The network is not reachable, please try again!

Same company, same recruitment. While I was lucky to still get the job, the affected person in the second event was not. Having joined the company and become friend of the HR lady, she narrated another story to me. About six of us passed the test (me and my friend scored the highest) and were invited for interview. At the end of the interviews, one lady came first, I came second, and another person came third. But while trying to reach the third person, her number was not reachable for days. My guess was she was in a village doing her NYSC (then network hadn’t reached everywhere like this – I remember in 2007 while doing my NYSC in a village in Sokoto state, I got close to climbing trees for my then Glo line to have reception – oh, I’m telling story again!). After trying her number unsuccessfully for a couple of days, the HR lady called the fourth person, and that was how she got the job!

Lessons to learn

1, If you have more than one mobile number, please include at least two on your CV.

2, If you know you want to spend some time where you will not be reachable on the line you have on your CV, there is no harm in making alternative line available even if it is that of your brother and sister, who can get in touch with you by all means. You can always explain to your recruiter why you did that, if they have issue with that. But this hardly happens today, that network is everywhere, including the mythical Kutuwenji!

3, Well, pray to be lucky like the 4th person or not to be unlucky like the 3rd person (lol).

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