The inability to come up with accomplishments happens to lots of Kenyan job seekers. We know because we ask our CV and cover-letter clients to list accomplishments as part of the process of preparing their CV and cover letters for their next jobs. Although we stress that accomplishments are far more important than duties and responsibilities, a surprising number of clients are unable to articulate beyond the day-to-day tasks they performed in their jobs.

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So, what are some of the attitudes in the workplace that can help you get ahead at work? These are many positive attitudes that can help you do that. In fact, the value of these attitudes is that they make you more motivated and hence, give you a career boost.

These are the 5 career booster attitudes in the workplace to get you ahead:

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2009 was the only year that Equity bank did not post growth in profits and the management are  keen to ensure cost reduction.

Though the year was bad for Kenyan  financial companies,its not yet clear whether we are out of the woods and Equity’s bank latest move might dash any hope.

You can read more on this by clicking here

One of the most shocking aspect is how candidates are good when it comes to one on one. Some are a really convincing when it comes to holding a conversation but tell them to put it on paper and you will be shocked with the output. Even more disturbing is for those going for managerial jobs where how you represent yourself is one of the most important aspects of job hunting.

And then you have the interview. There is where most candidates fail. Number one failure being to convince the HR manager or panel that you’re the right person for the job. Some candidates are shy of their achievements but majority can do with an improvement in their communications’ skills.

Have you ever attended an interview and one candidate took more time than majority of you? I can tell you the chap had well developed communication skills. From today on learn to communicate properly. Learn how to communicate persuasively and confidently and I can assure you the next interview won’t be so hard on you.

Here at the office we were reviewing who had the most job openings in Kenya last year and surprisingly the Government come tops.

As Kenyan private firms cut back on spending due to the economic crunch hiring was left to the Kenyan government and thousands of Kenyan job seekers have gotten  jobs courtesy of the public service commission.

The government has embarked on a plan to modernize its operations and the civil service is no longer the place for those who couldn’t secure obs elsewhere. We are optimistic that this year will be the same more so with the expected K’sh 22 billion stimulus package from Ministry of Finance.

Other notable employers for year 2009 include Safaricom,and Yu Kenya.

Banks in Kenya and other financial services players were most affected by recession  and they either retrenched i.e stock brokers or stopped hiring. The same went with the tourism industry.

However, for most of you out there the only way to know a job exists is through the Daily Nation Newspaper or through Career Point, Brighter Monday, Kenyan Jobs and other wonderful Kenyan websites all offering the latest Kenyan jobs and vacancies.

As a job seeker have you ever asked yourself how vacancies come to be? If you do understand then it will completely change the way you make applications and hopefully raise the chances for you to get called for an interview.

Let’s take scenario of your average Kenyan company who have a vacancy for an accounts assistant.

Regardless of the way you got to know of the job vacancy many candidates assume the company just decided to contact Nation Media yesterday for the advert.

I will take you through the various stages of the recruitment process.

Most Kenyan companies have independent departments. The chief Accountant is in charge of finance, the HR manager handles HR, and then you have the MD or general manager depending on the complexities of the company.

Now when a vacancy arises in finance it’s the work of the chief accountant to inform the HR of his requirement and the candidate he has in mind. Maybe the accountant wants a CPA Part one or even section six, aged 25 and below, tall, skinny, fat…whatever are his or her requirements he or she furnishes the HR with the details.

This is where it gets interesting. If you had sent your CV to the company earlier on even when no position was advertised the HR manager might decide to call you for an interview and save the company time and money if you have the relevant skills and level of expertise. At this point it upto the HR to make the decision. On the other hand if you had sent your CV to the finance manager or chief accountant and he likes your CV it would be advantageous for you since you might be the only candidates he recommends for an interview. And as you and I know it’s very easy to convince someone when the competition is drastically reduced.

Lesson number one. When sending blind applications don’t send to the HR rather the department you have an interest.

Assume the company has no CVs in their database. The HR Manager can ask staff members to forward CV’s from their friends and the interviews follow. Lesson number two. 50% of Kenyan jobs are filled this way. You won’t see these jobs adverts at Fridays Daily Nation etc. Learn to network and keep your ears on the ground.

If the first two options don’t work then the company decides to advertise for the post either through the websites or Daily Nation.

For a job Candidate this is not the best option. From a HR position I can tell you a simple job advert will attract all manner of applicants. One accounts assistant job will attract applications not less than 2,000. Some are qualified, some have the right qualifications but few have the right combination.

Faced with such many applicants the HR manager gets creative. He might just decide to read the first fifty applications and everything else gets tossed to the dust bin or deleted for email applications. Lesson number three, Make your applications soonest possible. By the time the recruiter or manager goes through the 75th application he or she is already bored and more so if he gets qualified candidates with the right skills along the way. So you who wait for the last cut off date to make applications despite your impressive CV may not have your application even opened thus losing out on the job. My advice, make application the soonest you get to know of thee advert.

The reason why I said newspaper jobs or vacancies known to all are not the best is because of the level of competition. The whole of Kenya has seen the advert. And this is where you’re CV and cover letter counts. At the end of the day these are the only two documents representing you. It’s important then to make sure the two are selling you proper.

Don’t be like many candidates who just remove their usual cover letter, edit the companies contact details and add the REF PART. You need to pay attention to your key skills making sure it’s a match with whatever the employer is asking.

And that’s why Fridays Daily Nation may not get you a job.

The problem is you are not fully qualified for this position. Your papers either fall short or the level of experience desired.

If you are like many Kenyan jobseekers you will certainly apply for this job without careful consideration of whether the skills and experience you posses match those in the advert. Many apply hoping things will work out well. Wacha nijaribu  is a favorite motto with many candidates.

My advice, and you don’t have to follow it is to ignore job adverts that you don’t meet their requirements. If you don’t meet atleast 85% of whatever the advertiser is asking for then don’t even bother to apply. Obviously aspects like years of experience may not count much i.e. I may require 5 years of experience but you have 3 and a half years. So long as you can demonstrate that you can deliver with your 3 years of experience then go ahead and send me the application.

But assume I want someone with a certain level of expertise which you clearly don’t have i.e. an accountant knowledgeable in donor reporting then you can see why despite your ten years of experience this one little requirement will exclude you. It’s not that you’re not qualified; you simply don’t possess a skill that is so central to accomplish the required task. And that’s why NGOs in Kenya will always prefer someone with an NGO background.

Let me drive the point home with a holiday example. Last week I wanted to buy a shoe for myself (the Kid in me) and Before going to the ATM (which stands for Another Terrible Mistake) psychologically I knew the kind of shoe I wanted i.e. size nine, black, rubber sole, and costing not more than K’sh 3,500. Since I always look for a bargain I began my search with the many exhibitions in town. And whenever I went some shoe sellers were dumb enough to just remove any shoe for me not caring to ask what type of shoe I wanted. The clever ones did ask and some actually tried to convince me why brown would be better for me. Ultimately and after visiting 7 shops I got my perfect pair as earlier outlined.
Please note that all the shops I visited had very good shoes. Some even cheaper and some had the best sales people money can buy. But in my mind I knew what I wanted and it was either that or nothing.

Recruiting is not any different. For any job advert there is something the recruiter or the HR manager is looking for and if you don’t have it  or your CV doesn’t bring this aspect out very well then chances of landing that interview and ultimately the job are very very slim. In this instance hoping and wishing for the best doesn’t work. Back to our shoe example; assume a shop having only brown shoes and hoping that all clients even the ones who want black shoes will change their minds once they see their handsome brown shoes.

Unless it’s not serious company, by the time the HR manager issues a job advert the company is pretty sure of what qualifications, age, salary, marital status and specifically what the candidate should be able to deliver (achieve). And just like the shoe shopper it might be hard trying to tell them that you’re also capable.

And please don’t send your CV thinking that even if you don’t qualify for that post the HR will save it for future use. The person on the other end may save it or just delete. If you want to be considered for upcoming job openings simply send a hard copy of your CV through the postal address and after the current job has expired. Recruiters and HR managers are like you and I, no one wants to be distracted!

So for you who has been applying for any job that you think you stand a chance it’s a high time you started to look seriously into the jobs you are applying. Give it a second glance and be sincere to yourself. If you don’t stand a chance admit it and be patient enough. The job that you want will surely come around just be patient. Otherwise you will continue missing out on opportunities as you not targeting the right jobs.

Tomorrow I discuss how Kenyan jobs reach the newspapers or job websites and why it’s important you know this.

Hope you’re enjoying the holidays.

Corporate Staffing Services. www.staff-kenya.com

If you need to start the new year with a new CV & Cover letter then pay us a visit. We are the premier CV writing company in Kenya and have assisted many.

Please check the career coaching section for more on professional  CV writing service and interviewing coaching sessions. www.staff-kenya.com

Send us your cv at admin at staff-kenya dot com.

As a qualified Kenyan accountant its easy to despair when job hunting.  Accounting jobs and vacancies are being advertised on a daily basis and even though you’re making applications almost on a daily basis no one is calling you for an interview. some candidates have gone to the extent of asking whether the jobs advertised are for real. Well, the jobs are real and candidates are being picked.

If you are looking for an accounting job then you need to read this carefully.

1. You need to realize that you’re very very many. Accounting is the cheapest profession to study in Kenya. Provided you have the right K.C.S.E qualifications you only need to register for exams. Many high school graduates choose to register with KASNEB  ‘before something serious’ comes up i.e joining campus and all that. It’s no wonder you will find a law student having a CPA qualification. Back at the University of Nairobi Main Campus CPA was referred as a common course. After all 90% of the students were in various stages of studying CPA. The end result is many qualified candidates chasing fewer opportunities. And it’s going to get worse now that we have all manner of private universities coming up.

2. CPA (K) is only important if you have experience. Currently the trend is for one to register for CPA and get to the K part in the shortest time possible. The end result is CPA-K candidates applying for jobs, quoting higher salaries while in essence these individuals have no practical experience. some don’t know how a bank recon is done and yet you apply for even an accounts assistant position. As a recruiter who gets to interact with Kenyan Chief Accountants my advice is for you to seek any form of experience right after passing section four/part two. You stand a better chance of getting a job at section four than CPA K.

3. Salaries. This goes hand in hand with paper qualifications. Nowadays many candidates are getting the right papers at a young age. Fresh graduates are coming out with B.Coms, CPA, CPS and some CFA’s. With this kind of papers and as a human being its natural to think of yourself a little bit special and hence demand a higher salary. The fact is if you’re a fresh graduate you haven’t proved yourself and sincerely speaking those are just paper qualifications. Many candidates will turn down job offers because of low pay when they don’t have the experience to match.

4. Different Sectors. The good thing with accounts is that you can work in many industries. You can work for a bank, an NGO, college, hospital etc. The disadvantage of this is that different sectors have their own way of operating. Kenyan NGO’s are notorious for requiring you to have prior NGO experience. And this is perfectly in order. For the employers its easier for such an individual to fit in easily than you coming from a manufacturing concern. If you’re trying to enter a different sector from the one you are currently in then you need to learn what those fellows do before hand and give yourself some time. At this level accounting is not just about debit and credit and skills transfer is not an easy task.

5. Be willing to start from ground zero. This goes hand in hand with points 2 and 3. No one will employ you on the strength of your CPA & degree alone. May be banks who will put you in customer service and this is not accounts. If you envision yourself  having an accounts careers and as a way of beating competition then get some experience. You should be prepared to even work for free. Ask around your friends who seem to have made it in accounts and they will tell you stories of how their first  jobs paid them 5K or nothing.

6.For Those Having CPA-K and not working in Accounts. I had discussed this in another article but the point remains, if you want to change jobs from your marketing job to accounts then you need to have relevant accounting skills. You can get this by finding some part time work or even volunteering and in the process getting to gain the required skills. If you don’t know how to file VAT, do bank recons, handle debtors/creditors, file statutory returns i.e PAYE, NSSF etc how o you expect to beat competition from individuals who do this on a daily basis? Jobs are scarce and its in order to do sales as you wait for that accounting job but don’t neglect your skills.

7. Are you all rounded? Still on experience you will find individuals employed to handle only one aspect of accounts. For example if you’re working for a large company you might be allocated debtors only. Day in day out you only know of debtors. Obviously you will become an expert on debtors management but this is very hard to sell unless you want to concentrate here all your life. To make it in accounts you need to know something on everything touching on accounts. specialization is good but only at those higher levels. For individuals with less than 5 years experience strive to know practically all departments in accounts and as your career progress you can get to choose area of specialization.

At the end of the day it whats you know that will separate you from the thousands of qualified CPA’s. A decade ago having CPA K was a big thing because few candidates had it but today with job seekers having the right papers you can only distinguish yourself by the level of expertise you posses.

Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worse things that is going to happen to you all day long. Your “frog” is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it.

Conquer the Hardest Task First
If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first. This is another way of saying that if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first. Discipline yourself to begin immediately and then to persist until the task is complete before you go on to something else.

Don’t Procrastinate
If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long. The key to reaching high levels of performance and productivity is to develop the lifelong habit of tackling your major task first thing each morning. You must develop the routine of “eating your frog” before you do anything else and without taking too much time to think about it.

Take Action Immediately
Successful, effective people are those who launch directly into their major tasks and then discipline themselves to work steadily and single-mindedly until those tasks are complete. “Failure to execute” is one of the biggest problems in organizations today. Many people confuse activity with accomplishment. They talk continually, hold endless meetings, and make wonderful plans, but in the final analysis, no one does the job and gets the results required.

Develop a Positive Addiction
You can actually develop a “positive addiction” to endorphins and to the feeling of enhanced clarity, confidence, and competence that they trigger. When you develop this addiction, you will, at an unconscious level, begin to organize your life in such a way that you are continually starting and completing ever more important tasks and projects. You will actually become addicted, in a very positive sense, to success and contribution.

No Shortcuts
Practice is the key to mastering any skill. Fortunately, your mind is like a muscle. It grows stronger and more capable with use. With practice, you can learn any behavior or develop any habit that you consider either desirable or necessary.

Action Exercise
What is your “frog?” What is the one task that you despise doing each day? Once you have chosen your “frog,” make it a habit to wake up every morning and do that task first.

Nation Article. 

The article is on salary negotiation skills and the steps to take to get the pay you deserve.

We also have a vacancy for a college administrator and for now we don’t have suitable CV’s in our database. If you know someone who has worked as a manager/principal/ in a Kenyan college for  period of not less than 4 years do tell them to send their updated CV to jobs@staff-kenya.com and indicate salary expectation.

Read moreon the place of ICT in you career development by clicking here. Media Article. 

If you bought Fridays Daily Nation you will notice the job advert for nurses courtesy of the Ministry of Health. And today the press carried driver job vacancies and 600 clerical jobs by the Office of the President. In total more than 2,000 jobs have been advertised the Kenyan Government in just a week.

Even as we discuss the draft constitution we need  to realize that the less we have of politics and concentrate on real work the better and that’s the only way to move ahead.

Government can only deliver service when there is cohesion and  the few weeks we have some semblance of order in the way our politics are run opportunities are available.

If you have a sibling or a friend encourage them to apply for these positions.

QUESTION FROM A SUBSCRIBER:
What is the best way to handle being away from the job market for an extended period of time (over 2 years) both on the CV and in interviews? My absence was due to medical/psychological difficulties and I want to be honest, but discrete. Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

– K.M.

Dear K.M.,
If an employment gap is short or occurred several years ago, most employers and recruiters won’t notice and you probably don’t need to bring it up unless they do. However in your case, it sounds like the gap is noticeable. There are several ways you can deal with the situation.

USING A FUNCTIONAL CV
A solution many CV writers would recommend is to use a functional resume instead of a chronological one. This can work if you have a complex job where you have achieved many things in various areas. For example, a programmer who has worked with several technologies could legitimately use a functional CV, dividing up the resume by technologies worked with instead of time periods. This can also work with other technical professions like engineers, attorneys, etc. If the work you do is rather straightforward and you work with a fairly limited range of skills, using a functional resume could make it seem like you’re trying to hide your dates of employment.

If you do use a functional resume, many people looking at it will still want to know what kinds of companies you’ve worked for and what the most recent employer’s line of business was. You can deal with this by including a note above your list of experiences indicating the most recent employer’s name, location and line of business. In this same section you can list other employer names and lines of business you have worked in.

INCLUDING AN EXPLANATION OF THE GAP
Another approach is to include an explanation of the gap on the resume itself. This makes sense to do if using a functional resume instead of a chronological one would seem odd because your profession doesn’t lend itself to such a resume format. It’s also important to note that most people reading resumes prefer the chronological format. If you have a legitimate story as to why you have a gap in your employment dates that most people could sympathize with and understand easily, just being forthright and listing it on your resume is fine.

If you have a noticeable gap in employment dates but don’t explain it on your resume, many recruiters will either just discard your resume and move on to the next one, or come up with their own theory about why you weren’t working. Although you might still be considered for the job, the recruiter’s (probably false and somewhat subconscious) story about why you weren’t working could put you at a disadvantage in their mind compared to other candidates they’re considering.

If you had a medical condition that has since been resolved completely or nearly completely, my sense is you’re better off explaining that briefly on the resume instead of not mentioning anything at all. For example:
Dec 2002 to Nov 2004: Took sabbatical from work to deal with a medical problem. The issue has been completely resolved and the doctors feel it will not reoccur.

If it’s a minor problem that most people could understand, like a problem with back pain, you could even bring it up in the interview. An employer might not feel comfortable bringing up the subject - especially because if they asked about it, it could look like they were discriminating against you illegally - but if you think you can make them feel more comfortable with the fact that the problem has been solved by explaining it, you could give it a try. The biggest concern an employer will have about a gap in employment is whether it is any indication of your likely future performance.

If it was a medical problem, they could be concerned that it could happen again and that they’d be stuck with having to find a replacement for you. If you don’t provide any explanation, the employer might think you couldn’t find a job and were unemployed because your skills were not up to par.

I would recommend leaving out the psychological aspect since psychological illnesses are rarely understood by the general public.

Another alternative would be if you did some other things during your time off which could be mentioned while leaving out the part about the medical condition. For example, if you spent more time with your kids, you could put down:

Dec 2002 to Present: Left work to spend more time with children. Children are now older and I’m ready to return to the workforce.

The bottom line is you’re best off having some kind of story to tell that the employer will find palatable. You don’t want to tell an outright lie, but you may want to emphasize certain things more than others depending on what you find gets the most favorable response (in terms of replies to resumes and in interviews).

The very worst use of your time is to do what need not be done at all. The Pareto Principle says that 20% of your activities will account for 80% of the value of your activities. This means that, if you have a list of ten items to accomplish, two of those items will be worth more than the other eight items altogether.

To achieve great things, you must always be concentrating on the small number of activities that contribute the greatest value to your life and your work.

Determine the Consequences
The value of anything in your order of priorities can be measured by assessing the potential consequences of doing it or not doing it. Something that is important has significant consequences to your life and your career. Something that is unimportant has few or no consequences of significance to your life or career. The mark of the superior thinker is your ability to consider possible consequences before you begin.

Ask the Key Question
Continually ask yourself, “What is the most valuable use of my time, right now?” And whatever it is, work on that. Your ability to discipline yourself to work on those few tasks that can make the greatest difference in your life is the key quality that makes everything else possible for you.

Action Exercises
Here is how you can apply this law immediately:

First, make a list of everything that you do as a part of your job. Now, analyze the list and select the three to five things that are more important than everything else put together.

Second, imagine that you are going to receive a K’sh 100,000 bonus at the end of the month if you can work on your highest priority items every minute of the day. How would that change your behavior? What would you do differently?

When i joined University of Nairobi regular programme a decade ago the university was in the latter stages of  launching the parallel degree programs or in the right wording evening classes. These were self sponsored students who did not enjoy government subsidy inform of a loan from the Higher Education Loans Board.

Although met with resistance the programme was launched and has since been copied by all the major Kenyan universities with some even going further to collaborate with colleges of dubious reputation.

All this is commendable but my  major misgiving is the way universities are approaching the whole issue as a money generating venture as opposed to ensuring the next generation is sufficiently trained. This has got to do with the MBA program in Kenya. This post graduate degree has become a must have thanks to the clever marketing by these universities. The result? We are having students in their thousands trooping to lecture rooms and who have no idea how an MBA will improve their lives apart from a possible salary increment or a better paying job.

These are good reasons but take it from me an i handle more than 15 Cv’s in any given day. Kenyan employers are interested first with your experience and then the qualifications. You stand a better chance if you concentrated on getting the right skills and exposure as opposed to rushing for the ‘right’ papers.

Let no man stand on your way

If you have a dream,go for it.

Do the right thing and fear no man.

If you fall seven times, stand up eight times.

This simply means, if you have been doing something many times and never turned out right,go for it one more time and you wont believe it-you might just succeed.

If the going gets tough, also get tough on it.

Make wise decisions in anything you do and avoid bad company.

When you are sad,look for laughter which is the best medicine