The public relations practitioner and head of corporate communications at SIFAX, Olumuyiwa Akande has shared some useful tips that aid job seekers chances during job interviews.

Akande, who left Mediacraft Limited, a well-known PR agency in Lagos to join SIFAX Group, one of Africa’s fastest growing multinational corporations with diversity in Maritime, Aviation, Haulage & Logistics, Oil & Gas said on his LinkedIn handle that “I have been privileged to be on many job interview panels over the last five years and I will like to share few success tips here based on my experience.”

In recent time, several job seekers have stumbled at the interview session in spite of most of them obtaining fantastic results and degrees.

The communication specialist said in one of itemized tips that “Your overriding objective is to “SELL” yourself. Arrive at the interview with enough confidence to give a good account of yourself.

“Appearance matters. A sloppy appearance puts some recruiters off even before they hear you speak,” he added, “Let your answer to the first question be on point. It must be convincing. Don’t lose the recruiters early. Let them look forward to more from you.”

Other tips he provided include enthusiasm. He said, “Enthusiasm is key, I have seen many boring applicants who appeared like they didn’t want the job. Passion is infectious. You could transfer the positive energy across to the panel. They will return that with positive review.”

Job Interview session

Akande brought the five tips to a close by saying that “Bring something extra. You need this because of job competitiveness. A lot of applicants are raising the bar. Go beyond the normal.”

“Few years ago, I was on a panel recruiting for a graphic designer. The two guys that made it to the last stage were exceptionally good in their area of core competence – creative design. But only one was needed so we had to find a way of picking one,” he concluded.

Mercy Okpako, who has experience in employees engagement, training and development, client advisory,& Financial services while reacting to Akande’s tips said, “Good knowledge of the company is quite needed but in a case you stand against a tough candidate, you have to sell what makes you the right choice irrespective of the added advantage the tough candidate has, sometimes some organisation look for the one with not too 100% on the requirements but one who has the  “Agility to learn” and is “Flexible to changes”.”

According to Okpako, some may know it and can and may not stand the change in times of technology.

Lastly, she said, “Look for the weakness of the organisation either by browsing or through existing staff to know what they may be lacking even in the market space and ‘suggest’ a possible SOLUTION as your final statement during the interview.