I got this from Bella Naija's blog

Olujimi Tewe is a career coach , he is a very successful guy now , he was interview by Bella Naija so i decided to share

When I ask him, he quips, “Mistakes young graduates make. Are you ready to spend five hours with me? …Instead of talking about mistakes from an action point of view, I like to talk about them from a mindset point of view. If you can correct the thinking part, the action can be reviewed and corrected. The biggest problem is that our educational system does not prepare young graduates for the real life, so they are often ill-prepared. I don’t think there are no jobs in Nigeria again; if not, Tuesday and Thursday Guardian would not be selling fast. People don’t just wake up and say they feel like advertising every week. There are actually jobs; but, they are not looking for people, but for the skills. Interviews and tests are just trying to find out whether people have those skills. Young people need to understand what skills they have – whether you were a leader of AIESEC or whatever group in your school..”

He continues, “Recently, in one of my organization’s programmes for fresh graduates, I found out people are still very clueless. I took a session and did an overview of thirteen industries in Nigeria – where the jobs are and what kinds of jobs are there and how to get those jobs and I had people just staring at me like they had never heard about it before. I am not looking for a job, and I know all of these, and there you are looking for job and you don’t know any of these? Obviously, you are not going to get it. If you have to go interview somewhere, when you show up there and say, “I did this, I did that, I did this…” “I did” means I have the ability to do, so if that’s what they require there, they say ‘we have the right person’ that has the knowledge and the skills. …And also, the right attitude – because that’s another dimension. Many young people want the job primarily because of association. ‘Oh, I work with Zenith Bank, I work with Chevron…’ They want names, association, prestige, and to collect salary while they don’t mind going to just to browse Facebook, but they are not thinking about adding. Stop being a job seeker, become a problem solver. Find out what problem you are designed to solve; develop your capabilities in that area; look for who needs those capabilities; you don’t need to attend every interview.

“If you have several abilities, find that area where you can fully deploy yourself and add the best value. A lady once came to me on referral, looking for work. I looked at her CV and it was empty. I just dropped it asked her, ‘Tell me; what do you love to do?’ She said, ‘Well, I actually like planning parties. It’s so interesting that when I’m in school, from home, when there is a party, they call me to come and handle it. My friends too call me.’ I said, ‘Beautiful! There are some event management companies in Lagos. We’re going to see how we can get a job for you.’ Her countenance changed. She said, ‘I want a job’. I was the head of recruitment for Bank PHB. In her mind, all I needed to do was wave a wand and she would get the employment letter. I was never going to do that because I had that responsibility to my own organisation. I also had the responsibility to tell her the truth because if she had joined one of the growing events management companies in Nigeria, she would grow and build a network and eventually create her own company. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see it. I don’t know what she’s doing today. Maybe she has a job now… Then, if you doctor your resume, one day it will tell. I know someone who was 39, but claimed 29. What if one day he falls on the job, because they expect you to work as a 29-year-old. One day the stress will tell on you. It will affect you. Where the truth cannot get you to, don’t bother going there. Mentorship is also very important. Throughout the course of my career, I’ve had people that I follow actively. I seek them because I want to do things, the path of which they have toed. I might be going farther than them, but, at least, they are ahead of me. I can still learn from them.”