This is a true story and is a lesson on how to do a job application properly and how to ignore people who constantly discourage others…. And an inspirational story too…
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Back in August -(begin of that month), we posted this job for an HR Manager with a Law firm in Accra. As you can see from the image- the salary offered was between 5.000- max 8.000 cedis net.
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Let’s call our heroine Abena– a fictional name of course….
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Abena obviously decided to apply…
she told us what she was doing in real-time as we usually chat with all ‘finalist candidates’ before we present them to a client… We actually prep all our candidates for free…
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So let me list her steps in a brief manner:
- FYI: Abena came from a company irrelevant to legal or service industries and her salary was a bit less than 5.000 net… the new employer knew that (we told them)…
- she spent almost 1 week customizing her CV… We can tell because we had a CV of her’s from almost a year earlier-
- once again: ‘click and apply’ does not work anymore – not following instructions on how and in what format to submit your CV does not work anymore
- while we were still pre-screening her, she started on her own initiative to search for ‘Legal HRM colleagues and lawyers in her network and make new LinkedIn connections with lawyers…
- when the time came for her 1st interview she had already talked to 3-4 lawyers and some HR connections about what HR does in a legal service firm and what lawyers need from HR
- we always recommend (and sadly most candidates ignore us) to prepare some questions for the interviewers- not trivial questions of course: 5 for the role, 5 for the company, and 5 for the industry/ business that the company is in…
- obviously, Abena was lightyears ahead of all other candidates because she has been talking to lawyers and future HR colleagues for 2 weeks before the interview date….
- she took note of everything discussed during her 1st interview – she made an inventory of all the questions posed to her and started looking for patterns regarding what was most important or critical to the firm
- she used that inventory list to better prepare and create new questions for the 2nd interview
- meanwhile while waiting to even hear about a yes/no for a 2nd interview…she continued talking to lawyers and relevant HR colleagues
- when the time came for a 2nd interview, she was readily able to convey to the interviewers that she was there to add value to the firm and knew what needs to be done and how...
- she basically got her offer before the other candidates had finished their interviews – she had work harder to create that ‘wow’ effect on the employer– the realization that she was the 1 in a million perfect candidates for this job…
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Abena ‘walked out’ with a bit more than 10.000 ghs net – 3x her previous salary !!!
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And we told her that f you want to ‘make more than your other colleagues, work harder and add more value to your employer.‘
…and she listened:
Yesterday Abena got a raise without even asking in just less than 3 months in her new job...
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no, she doesn’t work long hours – but while at work, no personal calls, no WhatsApping no Facebooking no nothing on the employer’s time..
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We have 2- more similar stories (like the MD who went for a 15k job and walk out with 40k net- similar story etc…)
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So – fairy tales can turn into Reality.
DO YOU PUT THAT MUCH EFFORT INTO YOUR JOBHUNTING?????
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Tnx,
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HIREghana