As the job market continues to receive a large ton of graduates every year from various tertiary institutions, the bar for the most qualified candidate goes up. At least, nearly 600, 000 graduates are produced every year in Nigeria. When these graduates make their entrant into the job market, they compete not only with their counterparts who are at the same level as them (co-freshers) but also with other higher-level professionals who have already accrued some years of work experience, including some professional training and certifications.
Most often than not, recruiters will demand some reasonable level of experience, qualifications and/or training from job applicants. Freshers in some cases are not left out from this. You may wonder why these requirements should be matted on freshers, who are expected to be fresh graduates who recently left the walls of the university. However, many recruiters expect that these freshers could have obtained job experience during internships, national service, contract jobs, or could have gone out of the way to equip themselves with training and other extended courses. This may not be the case for most fresh graduate recruitment, however, candidates who already possess these skills and extra qualifications will likely have an edge over those who don't.
The reality of the situation is that recruiters are looking for the most qualified candidates, while in parallel, trying to cut down the cost of too many employee training. As a result, they go for candidates who have already acquired some level of skills. This consideration could be prioritised either at the initial screening before such candidates are invited for aptitude tests, or during the interview staged.
In the event where candidates have scaled through aptitude test assessments, and have scored similar points during other assessments like interviews, among other considerations, factors like the skills acquired through other extra training like online courses, professional certifications, industry workshops, projects managed, among others could become a valid factor for considering such candidate(s). Recruiters are tasty for the best, so they go for the best. Professionals who intend to reach the pinnacle of their careers must polish themselves to become the best. Contract jobs (even with little pay), internships, training, professional courses, online courses, among others, can go a very long way to land you on your dream job.
Regardless of what your discipline is, some courses can serve as a foundation for you, and should be a must-have taken before you start searching for a job. Online courses like Project Management, Leadership and Management Study, Health and Safety Management, Personal Branding, Corporate Presentation Skills, PowerPoint Presentations, Stress and Resilient Management, Starting a Career in the Workplace among other general interest online courses that can be suitable for entry and mid- level professionals.
These professionals can then go a step further to enrol for other specialised interest online courses that are related to the career paths they intend to pursue. These could be paths like Accounting and Finance, Marketing, Sales and Business, IT, Customer Service or Front Desk, Supply Chain, Operations and Production Management, Procurement, among others.
In addition, taking various online courses in about 2 – 3 specialised areas and versioning your resume for these specialisations could do wonder for you when there are openings that require candidates with training or experience in these specialisations. Such a candidate can easily tender a version of their resume that details more about that specialisation, including the online course they took for such specialisation and the Certificate of Completion obtained.
Visit www.dovilearn.com to see more specialised interest online courses available.
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