Top 10 Reasons You Need Professional Interview Preparation

AbdulKabir Olatunji

AbdulKabir is the Head of Operations & Strategy at JarusHub Careers, Nigeria’s most authoritative career resources platform

As a Management Consultant and Head of Operations at JarusHub, Nigeria’s leading career and mentoring platform, I have noticed a trend of many job seekers avoiding professional interview preparation as part of their job-hunting effort.

The major reasons for this are:

First, they think getting professional interview coaching portrays them as unsuitable candidates for the positions they seek. It is an ego and esteem issue, they feel paying for interview coaching demeans them. Guess what? Graduates of top schools like Harvard, Stanford, MIT etc that you would have thought have the best exposure pay hundreds (and even thousands) of dollars to get prepared for interview. If in doubt, google Victor Cheng and find out how much it costs to get him coach a candidate for, say, McKinsey interview.

Secondly, they fear that their interviewers may find out that they were coached and consequently deny them the job. I have personally gotten feedback from someone who essentially said: ‘I will not be coming for your interview preparation because former executives of the company I am being interviewed at will be part of the coaching’. Such an applicant sees this inherent advantage as a threat to getting his dream job.

Third, jobseekers do not see any reason to be coached for an interview, they think they can get the jobs they seek without any professional help. While this may be true for some individuals, many find that they do not get the big jobs that they really want and often settle for less exciting jobs.

These misconceptions about coaching as part of interview preparation is quite common in Nigeria and to help correct them, I present you with 10 reasons professional interview preparation is good for job applicants :

1. It Equips You With the Skills Required to Succeed at Interviews

Interviews have their dos and don’ts which make or break your chances of getting the job. However, most universities and higher institutions in Nigeria do not have interview preparation and coaching as part of their academic programs, this leaves most graduates ill-equipped to scale this hurdle during job search.

Passing interviews is an art that has to be learnt by most jobseekers.

2. It Helps You Get Good Jobs Faster
We had a client that graduated with a 2.1 from a top university in Nigeria and had his masters at a prestigious umiversity in the United Kingdom.

Yet, with his solid academic credentials, he failed an interview for an entry level bank job that all his friends passed. This bittter experience made him seek professional help from us and he passed the 1st and 2nd interviews after getting coached at JarusHub. Today, he is a very happy staff at a Big 4 professional services firm.

Interview coaching gave him the required cutting edge he lacked previously.

3. It is Cost-Effective

Instead of attending numerous aptitude tests, passing some and failing several interviews with a lot of time, money and energy spent. It is better to get professional interview coaching at a low cost and pass one of the first interviews you get invited to. This has been the experience of the majority of our clients if not all.

4. Helps you Become a Better Employee

The essence of interviews is for organizations to get the best applicants that will perform the duties attached to the position they are recruiting for.

Interview coaching prepares you for the role you are applying for and when added to in-house training of the organization that employs you, makes you a much better employee that adds the required value to his employer.

5. It is a Stepping Stone Towards Becoming an HR Professional

Job applicants that understand and excel at interviews are good candidates for performing HR functions in the organizations that employ them. We find that many small and medium scale businesses cannot afford to employ an HR professional to perform this function. Often, it is a member of staff that is given this additional responsibility. If you have the skill you could advance your career, thereby, or at the very least, secure your job during harsh economic times like we are in when those that cannot multi-task maybe asked to go because they are surplus to requirement.

6. It Could Open an Additional Stream of Income for You

JarusHub is a result of the experience and knowledge acquired about career advancement by Jarus over the years. This includes interview preparation. So, if you have the knowledge about acing interviews, you could teach others for a fee, write and sell a book about it or help small businesses recruit candidates. If you want to practise the HR Management profession fully in Nigeria, you should join the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) to leverage on the benefits of being certified as a member.

7. It Reduces Your Anxiety About Job Search

I have interacted with so many job applicants that are apprehensive about interviews, with many depressed after failing a few or many. These negative emotions can be avoided with proper interview preparation and coaching.

8. It Empowers You Economically

The essence of going for interviews is to get jobs and the essence of having a job is to be able to pay your bills and have a comfortable life for you and your family. Interview coaching helps you achieve these objectives faster. Doesn’t it make sense to go for it?

9. It Gives You An Edge in Very Competitive Interviews

Many of our clients that are brilliant in their own right have found our interview coaching as the X-factor in getting jobs ahead of other eggheads in very competitive interviews.

Nothing beats preparation, not even talent.

10. It Serves as a Bridge Between the School Environment and Professional Setting

There are so many fresh graduates that have student mentality. Interview coaching helps you shed a great part of this naivety and exposes you to what employers want. It effectively widens your scope and expands your reasoning.

As a jobseeker you give yourself a huge advantage by adding professional coaching to your interview preparation. If you have mentors that can do it for free, contact them politely and seek their help. If not, you can contact us on JarusHub on 08085404500 or 08060482880. You can also send us an email via info@jarushub.com