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When you are in an interview, there are a couple of more serious things that could get you rejected for the job and I would like to point them out in this article.

While all of the points I am about to mention might not be crucial to the job you’re being interviewed for. They are important still and some of them might specifically apply to you. Whether you get the job or not, your recruiter is going to note these things down during an Interview.

Your Language Proficiency

In a previous article on this blog and also on a Tiktok video I made a while back, I talked about how your language proficiency influences your job application and your job in general. It’s one of the very first things that a recruiter pays attention to, from the start of the Interview.

Once the interview starts, they’re going to take a look at your appearance and also take a look at your background to be sure that there are no distractions or noises in the background. They would listen to you speak and present yourself, and your language basically starts to show from there. Note: I said language, not accent.

So, what about accent? They would only pay attention to your accent if the job requires you to speak with customers on a call and they’re looking for a specific accent. 

If it’s a job that requires you to speak English, they are going to want to find out if your English is fluent or if you can present yourself in English. Now, I understand that you might be nervous at the first stage of the interview. But it shouldn’t be so bad that you cannot present yourself without ruining language. Now, of course, this does not just apply to English alone. If you’re being interviewed for a French position or a Spanish position, you might also want to make sure your French and Spanish are in check before the interview, because once the interview starts, the interviewer might start speaking in Spanish or French and you would have to follow suit. So they look out for this.

In some companies, they don’t even pay attention to your language during an interview. They send you an assessment before the interview to test your language proficiency. When you take the assessment, your scores will indicate if they should go ahead and interview you or not.

Your Availability

When a recruiter is faced with an option to hire someone who is fully available to do the job and someone who’s partially available to do the job, they are going to hire the person who is fully available to do the job. So another thing that recruiters look out for during interviews is who has more time on their hands to get the job done.

When you are in an interview, they are going to ask you what your availability is like. Are you currently in school or are you currently working? Are you looking to work with us full time or you’re looking to work part-time?

It doesn’t matter If the job is part-time or full-time, make sure to indicate your full availability because no recruiter wants to hear about how you have tests and exams coming up but expect to get paid at work still. If it’s a part-time position, you can go ahead and be more specific… tell them you’re fully available. to work the specified time or shift for the job.

I would also recommend not bringing up the other things going on in your life. So you don’t have to mention all the other things you do on the side when you’re looking for a job. They are not important at that time. If you’re 100% sure you’re going to be available for the job, then you don’t need to bring up all the other things taking up your time right now.

Most companies want someone who can stay on the job and commit to time because it costs a lot of resources to hire, fire or train employees. My definition of resources in this context is time and money.

Your Experience

Another thing your recruiter would look out for when in an interview with you is how much experience you have with work in general. Not necessarily the role you are being hired for. Not that that doesn’t also count. Recruiters are always looking to hire someone with more experience than someone without experience or less experience. Now, this doesn’t mean that you’re not going to get hired if you applied for a job without experience. It just means that your chances of being hired are lower compared to someone with experience.

Hiring someone with more experience costs fewer resources to hire and train. It would cost a lot of resources to hire and train someone with no experience. This doesn’t mean you should back off… If you really believe you can do a job, don’t worry, go ahead and apply still. It’s not all about the experience at the end of the day. Some experienced candidates can turn out to be rude, expensive or both.

How much do you understand the role?

I once attended an interview with a manager who asked me how much I understand the role he was hiring me for. I gave him cliche responses because he simply told me it was a Virtual assistant + support role, then told me to go through the website. I didn’t fully understand what the website did. So it was difficult to explain the role to him when he asked me during the interview.

I ended up not getting the job, and he specifically reached out to me a week after the interview to tell me that he had found someone who understood the job better and also had experience. So, this is another thing that recruiters look out for during an interview. You don’t even have to have worked the job before. They’d simply want to know how much you understand the job.

Sometimes they don’t directly ask you how much you understand this job. They can simply ask If you have done something like this before? Or If you have any questions for them so far? Your knowledge about the job will inform their decision during and after the interview.

So before you go into an interview. Do your best to understand what the role is about and ask questions during the interview, if you don’t understand some parts of the job. Also, ask if training is going to be provided as training is going to make your life easier.

Your Behaviour and Soft Skills

I once interviewed someone and during the interview, he lifted his laptop left the room while still on the call with me. I wasn’t sure where he was going at first until I heard him pouring something into a cup. He was in the kitchen making coffee while on a call with me. And after he was done making his coffee, he picked it up with his right hand, laptop in his left hand and walked back to his workspace.

He never took permission or apologized. He just moved around while we were having the interview. I am not making this up. While I do not particularly find this rude, I thought it was awkward because he was in an interview and could have asked me first.

So recruiters also look out for your behaviour during interviews. The behaviour could be how you move your body during the interview, react, the things you say, how you talked about other people, how much you understand diversity & inclusion and so on. They might also try to find out if you’re comfortable working with other people.

When you go into an interview, you are expected to be prepared. And to ask questions during the interview. Exhibiting unhealthy or nonchalant behaviour might get you flagged and eventually lead to disqualification.

Your Work Environment

This isn’t a big deal if you’re going to be working from an office, but if it’s a work-from-home job, they are going to observe your background to see if you have any distractions, adult content or noise in the background. Your environment is very important if you’re being offered a remote job because nobody wants to hire you if dogs are going to be barking whenever you’re on a zoom call. So make sure to set your background in order. Make sure to suppress all background noise with a USB headset or noise cancellation software like Krisp. Make sure to do this during Interviews. Do not wait for later.

So these are the basic things that recruiters look out for when they are looking to hire you for a job. If you have any questions for me, please feel free to leave a comment here and I’ll get back to you.

You might lose hope on some days. Some days it just feels like nothing is working and you would want to give up. In this post, we are going to be looking at five ways to stay positive while job-hunting or exploring other professional options.

5 Ways to Stay Positive While Job-hunting

Now, before we get started, please understand that these are not formulas. They are not from a textbook or anything. These are steps we have applied and believe will keep you going. If you want to be excited to wake up every day to look for jobs, these are steps we think you should try. Let’s get started.

Remember, they need you!

Now, whether you are applying for jobs or already interviewing for a couple of roles, one of the things you should remember is that these companies need you. They are scheduling interviews with you. They are replying to your messages because they think you might be a good fit for the job.

Now, this is a big deal. Even if you don’t get the job. Try to understand that you got to that point because the company thinks they need you. So I need you to wear that mentality when you’re going into an interview or you’re about to respond to an e-mail. Do not see it as the company doing you a favour. Do not see it as you begging them for a job, rather see it as you being competent enough to take on the job.

Now, what this does for you is that it helps you understand your self-worth and reject offers that you feel and not OK for you. That way. you won’t just take any job just because you need a job.

Always remember that these companies need you and without you or people like you, the company cannot function. They need you to work for them. And you need money in return and maybe some experience as well. Keeping this in mind will keep you going every day.

Inform your friends

One of the many ways to write a few more pages every day, or a few more words every day when writing a book is to tell your CLOSE FRIENDS that you’re writing a book. Or tell them you’re working on something. That way, the next time they meet you at the bar, party or a zoom call and ask you, “hey, how’s the book going? You’d be able to tell them what you’re struggling with or how much progress you’ve made like “hey, I just remembered something I should add to the book.

The example above applies to interviews and job-hunting in general. Tell your friends what you’re embarking on… the kind of job you need. So that they may also send you jobs and recommendations when they find some. This would also help you stay positive as you would feel like you’re not alone and

Focus on the usual stuff

Focusing too much on the job when you’re searching for one can wear you out. It’s like worrying too much about something that hasn’t happened and you have to wake up to do that every day. Let’s not forget all the rejections and responses you will not receive because some companies will not get back to you. At some point, you would want to give up. So another suggestion I have for you is to keep doing the other things you would usually do on a daily basis when looking for a job.

You can go ahead and create a spreadsheet to track the number of companies you apply to daily. If you applied to five companies, list the names of the companies in the spreadsheet and that’s it. You’re done for the day. Now pick yourself up and go out there to play your football, video games or whatever lifts your spirit!

You have to remove your mind from your current problem(s) so that your body, soul and spirit can thrive. If you wake up every day to search for jobs and you keep hammering on it without taking a break, at some point, you’re going to burn out or get frustrated, especially when you’re getting a lot of rejection emails.

So the best thing to do when you’re looking for a job is to also look out for your body. A job is not the beginning and end of your life. You just need it as a source of income and to build some experience. That’s pretty much it. If there’s someone in the house who makes you feel like a bum because you don’t have a job, then apply to as many jobs as possible for that day then leave the house when you can, or take a walk.

Document your journey

I’ve seen a few people do this on LinkedIn from time to time. Some days they come online and make a detailed post about their job-hunting experience, how far they have come and the kind of role they are looking for. Now, this is not you begging for a job, it’s more of a look back on how far you’ve come. The job you used to work and what you’re interested in doing right now.

Of course, these things heavily depend on how you word your message when you put it out there. Instead of saying, “hey guys, I’m currently looking for this particular role. Please help me, I really need your help”, you can say something like:

Five years ago today, I was a waiter at a restaurant and this was what it was like for me…, but three years later everything changed because I got a job as a customer support agent at a big tech company and now, It hat has come to an end. The next phase of my life is to look for this particular job or join this particular company. Or what I would like to do in the next phase of my life is to work in this particular field or in this particular role and it’s something I’m already applying for. I am open to work at this time.

If you are the type that likes to write a lot, you can also talk about an interesting interview experience you recently had or your frustration about Interviewing in general. This might spark a conversation and also, get more people to understand your journey, where you’re coming from, and what you’re trying to achieve. Who knows? Your next boss or recruiter could be viewing the post.

Diversify a little

If have experience working as a copywriter, then chances are you would make a fine blog content writer. If you have experience working as a social media manager, then there’s a chance you would make a fine virtual assistant and so on.

When you are applying for jobs, you should learn to diversify. Don’t spend your time and energy on one particular role. So, for example, if you tell yourself, “hey, I have decided I’m going to get a Social Media Manager job”, that’s good. It’s not a bad idea, but I also think that you should consider applying for the role of Virtual Assistant. Having multiple options will spice up your job-hunting experience.

Need a job? Click here to visit our jobs page for new vacancies posted daily.

It could also be that you’re using the same template to apply for jobs that are not similar. Imagine using your social media manager email template to apply for the role of a developer intern. There are so many other mistakes you could be making right now while looking for jobs, but you wouldn’t know them. In this article, I am going to be highlighting 5 mistakes you could be making while applying for remote jobs.

5 Mistakes to avoid when searching for a remote job

Adding your house address to your CV/Resume

This is probably the first thing I learnt to be taboo when it comes to updating a CV in general. You don’t need to add your address in your CV or resume. You can put your country and city, that’s all. For example, Los Angeles, California and that’s it, instead of using your exact address.  There is no need to use your exact address.

Another thing you should know about adding your address to your CV or your resume is that most companies actually consider it as personal information according to GDPR laws. So, for that reason, you should not add it to your CV at all as it could get the company in trouble. Yes, this is a serious matter

If your company needs your address, maybe for payment or for something else, they’re going to ask you when it’s time, but they don’t need it to interview you or hire you for the job. You just need to include your city, and in most cases, if possible, just use your state or country and that’s it.

Not following up after tests or Interviews

I feel like most people don’t follow up after an interview or first contact because they feel like they are not good enough or they did not do well in the assessment or during the interview. Remember, It’s all in your head. Just because you feel you did not do well doesn’t mean you did not do well.

If a company says they will get back to you after an interview or an assessment but they did not get back to you, please reach out to them via e-mail or whatever channel they reached out to earlier and find out the status of your application.

You can say something like,

“Hey Michael, how are you doing today?
I am reaching out because I haven’t heard from you in two weeks. I’d like to know if I failed the interview or passed.
Thank you.”

Or

“Good Morning Jennifer
I hope this email finds you well?
I want to know the status of my job application as I haven’t heard from you.
I will be looking forward to your response
[Your name]”

That’s it. You don’t have to sugarcoat it or try to cut corners with words. Just go straight to the point and ask them what the status is, but of course, try to be as polite. You need to follow up with these companies because you’re not the only one they’re interviewing and processing… sometimes they get a lot of emails and requests and yours might just get lost in the queue.

Also, if you failed an interview/test and they inform you, ask them what you did wrong that needs correcting so that you can do better in the future. You can say something like this:

“Thank you so much for letting me know.
Is there something I need to do to improve next time I’m applying?
I would really appreciate your feedback”

The recruiter might give you some tips on how to be better or do better. If you don’t hear from them, that’s also fine, but you did your best.

Settling after applying

I ran into a friend once and I asked how the job hunt is going. She told me that she applied to a couple of companies but they haven’t gotten back to her. Although they did tell her that they would get back to her and I told her “okay, so are you currently interviewing with other companies in the meantime?” She told me she’s still waiting for these companies to get back to her. I almost screamed… That’s not the way to go about it.

I think you should keep applying to different companies until you land your dream job. Do not wait for those companies you applied to get back to you. Let’s face it, even if they do, it might take a while and it might not even be the good news you’re expecting. If you apply to a company and they tell you, “we’re going to get back to you”, take those words with a pinch of salt and just keep applying to other companies.

If you feel like you’re applying to so many companies every day or every week then create a spreadsheet to list the companies you’ve applied to or roles you’ve applied for so you don’t apply for the same role twice.

Just because you applied to a company does not mean that you are going to get hired. Also, just because you were interviewed and the recruiter said a lot of nice things does not mean that you will be hired at the end of the day. You are considered hired when you receive the job offer or when they explicitly tell you “hey, you’re hired for this job”. If you do not hear those words or similar, then don’t stop applying. Keep applying to different companies and do not give up.

Bad English

We have talked about this so many times. I made a TikTok video about it a while back, talked about it in our weekly sessions and also wrote about it on this blog. One of the things that get you disqualified easily when looking for remote jobs is your English. If your English is not good, then you’re not going to land a remote job. I keep saying this because I see it a lot. I review job applications and cover letters that have really terrible sentences and grammar.

Even if someone created a CV and cover letter for you, you can fail an English assessment before or after the interview. You can fail English if you’re in the interview and you can’t construct simple sentences. I understand you’re nervous but try as much as possible to construct simple sentences. If you believe your English is bad, then you should check out apps like Duolingo that lets you learn English for free. They can also give you oral and written English assessments for you to take and test your progress.

Learning English will help you understand the difference between “am” and I’m” and which to begin a sentence with. Try as much as possible to speak and write good English. If you don’t know how to do that, then you should actually focus on that first before searching for remote jobs.

I’ve had people reach out to me on LinkedIn and their English is just really horrible and I just instantly know that we can’t really hire them. It also doesn’t matter the profession you’re in. Even if you are a developer., you still need to, you know, present yourself and pitch your progress on the job from time to time. You still need to talk about yourself from time to time. So, It’s not just limited to customer support agents or social media managers.

The goal of interviews is for the interviewer to get to know you, hear you speak, understand your journey, and also learn about your experience. You need to be able to put all of that in sentences. Please work on your English, this is very important. 

Not checking your email regularly

I don’t know how many times the average person should check their e-mail in a day and I honestly don’t want to Google it. If you’re applying to different companies, I want to believe you have the e-mail app installed on your device and you’re checking your mail from time to time. Have notifications turned on. This does not mean you should check your e-mail in the middle of the night or every second. No, I’m saying make time to check your e-mail from time to time. It doesn’t have to be every hour.

I’ve had cases where we send out an invitation for an interview and two whole days will pass, we won’t hear from the candidate. You should be able to check your e-mail at least six times in two days when looking for jobs. It could be in the morning and the afternoon or morning and evening or as many times as possible. Of course not every second, but try to check your e-mail from time to time. Don’t turn off notifications for your e-mail.

Check your spam folder as well. Some emails could go to spam as well because of the Ats that some of these recruitment companies use. An ATS is an applicant tracking system. That’s the tool they used to invite you for interviews and also track your data and all of that. So some of these Ats can send their e-mail to your spam folder and because of that, you wouldn’t see the e-mail until a couple of days or… you know never if you don’t check your spam. So please check your e-mail from time to time and also check your spam folder when applying for jobs. 

It has always been a dream of ours to operate as a startup within Nigeria and outside the continent. For those asking if they can intern with us during NYSC, yes, you can. We are working on that already. Please feel free to reach out.

In the meantime, we’re doing our best to help those without jobs and access to opportunities to get one. You have all seen the testimonials… And I believe we can do more for each other through the jobs portal and the internships portal as well.

Why “Always Never Home”?

We built ANh because we want to remind everyone not to settle. Don’t “feel at home…” Don’t get too comfortable. There are so many opportunities out there on the internet and you can access them from anywhere for free. Learn as much as you can. Participate, collaborate, explore and see where life takes you, Journey far, learn who you can become… No knowledge is a waste.

What we have built so far:

The jobs portal where you can apply to remote and onsite jobs for free: jobs: jobs.iammagnus.com

For internships, scholarships, jobs and opportunities that do not require experience: internships.ng

To find Bookclubs, bookstores, literary meetups and literary opportunities around you: bookclubs.com.ng

Thank you all for your support
 – Magnus

Ps.
We will never DM you. These opportunities are posted publicly for free. And yes, we’re open to collaboration(s) – You can find our logos in all formats by clicking here.

It happens.

Try to reply to the company or recruiter afterwards… Do not be “too afraid” to reach out to them and apologize for not showing up.

“Hi Michael,

Thank you so much for this opportunity. Unfortunately, I am just seeing your email in my spam folder. I am fully interested in this job. Would it be possible to reschedule the interview, please?

I will be looking forward to your response

[your name]”

They need you and your skills. Stop being so afraid