Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: [WoleSoyinkaSociety] Fwd: WHY FIRST CLASS GRADUATES FAIL JOB INTERVIEWS - UNILAG DON

Another beautiful one on Hitler failing to get published in a scientific journal.

On extra-curricular activities and academic excellence, i ran into a Chinese oxford student who was in Cambridge to take part in the activities of a global student club which trains students in international diplomacy by creating mock united nations sessions involving international crises created to be as realistic as possible. on asking him how he got into oxford he told me he had in A*, in all his A level courses, meaning more than 80 or 90%. i also met a nigerian student at cambridge who got in with a staggering no of A level As, having studied for 8 hrs a day to gain such exam results.

i respect people who do well in exams bcs i hate exams. i only began to do well in most, not even all exams, in my uniben BA when i confronted the fact that i just had to pass exams if i wanted to justify my presence in the university, which i did not want to enter in the first place, but was forced into.

i absolutely detest the idea of someone crafting a series of qs for me to answer within a time limit defined by that person and in a manner defined by the conventions to which the person belongs. this imposition, as i see it, belongs within the larger denigration  of human possibility represented by the globally dominant educational system in which a group of blind people insist on perpetuating blindness as a way of life across the earth, in the name of providing an education.

if a person finds himself on a journey and cant recollect why he is on it in the first place, is the rational thing not try to work out why one is on that journey, and even as one may move forward in order to see where the road might lead, make efforts to reconstruct through clues or recollection the purpose of the journey?

is it not the height of the ridiculous for one to proceed blissfully ahead, ignoring the fundamental problem of purpose, making the act of moving from day to day on the road towards an unknown destination an end in itself, even as various afflictions consistently  decimate people on the journey, a journey that ends at different times for each person, at a time often unanticipated and often preceded by an unwelcome deterioration in a person's health?

is that not the character of the current educational system, which spends so much effort on trying to fit people to life on earth in a context in which no ones knows for sure what we are doing here, where we came from, and where we are going, with claims of answers to these qs being little more than claims that cannot command comprehensive support, even as some try to force others, even through murder, to accept their explanations which they cant prove the validity of to anybody? how is that much better than a madhouse?

after i woke up, through reading and meditation,as a teenager,  to the character of the metaphysical prison we occupy as human beings, i have been trying to find a way out of this prison, without success. the only way out is through knowledge of the rationale of human existence but the contemplative and mystical disciplines that promise a way to know for oneself  the rationale for existence might be exaggerating what they can really do, since the enlightenment gained by their founders, such as the Buddha and Jesus, might be more individualistic than universal in method though enlightening in terms of their general message, that being my conclusion from practicing such disciplines for decades.

the educational system is a major means through which this prison is run, a whirl of largely ultimately fundamentally misguided activity that gives people the impression that they are being bequeathed the accumulated knowledge of a civilization, while, in fact, the more radical thinking of some members of that civilization who recognize the problem are not addressed as calls to action but used as objects of debate, such as the thought of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, in his insistence on  human perception as illusion. films like matrix explore the same idea in a different context.humans are like the rabbits in david adam's novel watership down who are being farmed by a human being and who takes one of them from time to time for his table, a tragedy the rabbit's  accommodate themselves to through philosophy and art instead of trying to understand why their existence is so wretched, so  shaped by uncertainty, but instead take comfort in the fact that the scourge that takes their neighbors does so selectively, leaving others  unharmed.

the ideal educational system should be centred on the individual quest for the meaning of existence and of how to live, with all other disciplines complementing this fundamental challenge, in my view.

thanks

toyin

On Sun, Jul 10, 2016 at 12:22 PM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <oluwakaidara1@gmail.com> wrote:

True, extra-curricular activities are good, but my observations with elite universities in the US and England is that one finds in these institutions students who are both academically excellent and excellent in extra-curricular activities.

The level of competition is very high.

David Cameron, PM of England, for example, had a First Class in his degree at Oxford, along with a strong background in political activity before he entered the university, along with membership in a drinking club the same university, although his academic achievement is higher than ofg ony Blair, who fits more the image you describe, Augustine, and who seems to have been a more successful politician.

They are both Oxford graduates, however. The convention being that UK PMs are often Oxbridge graduates, the most selective universities in England with very high academic demands, like it has become a convention for US Presidents to be graduates of Ivy League universities.

A Youtube comedy starring Adolf Hitler depicts the difficulty in entering into Harvard, the most selective, possibly of these schools, substituting Hitler's words from a very powerful film, in his anguish that a decisive counter attack he had planned agst the Allied forces invading Berlin at the end of WW 2 had failed, meaning he was about to lose the war, using English text on the screen to give the impression Hitler is railing with with such expressions of pained puzzlement  as 'I could conquer Europe but I cant enter Harvard', part of a fantastic genre of Hitler Youtube parodies where  Hitler rails about the most ridiculous things in the most furious manner.

thanks

toyin

On Sun, Jul 10, 2016 at 11:29 AM, augustine togonu-bickersteth augustine308@yahoo.com [WoleSoyinkaSociety] <WoleSoyinkaSociety@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

On First Class graduates  by Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth, London, England

 Job seeking wise there should be more to University  life than academics.  This is why we have clubs and societies

 to develop the soft skills all too well needed by the employers.   Perhaps we do not have to set up CLASSES or Lectures on "soft skills"

 I have read it somewhere, years back ,that   in the western world if you presented a first class  certificate

the employers would be reluctant to employ you because  they would have reasoned that all you did way back at the university was to   STUDY. If you presented a second class upper degree they would ask you why you did not make a First Class

If for instance your reason for not making a first class centred around your involvement in extra curricula activities

there would be a renewed interest in the recruiters.

For instance if you told them you were the captain of the  Volley ball Team at school.They would assume you had leadership skills as well as have the ability  to be a team player.If you told them you were a member of the universiity debating team they would assume you got verbal aptitude or inter personal skills etc

 If you said that as a member of a club you were instrumental to bringing the richest man in the world onto your campus to give a lecture they would assume you have organizational ability..

This is something for our studets affars Departments which are supposed to be in charge of Clubs and societies

On Sunday, 10 July 2016, 5:51, "Oluwatoyin Adepoju oluwakaidara1@gmail.com [WoleSoyinkaSociety]" <WoleSoyinkaSociety@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

EDITED

With all due respect, Prof. Irele, it might not be trivial.

Uncannily, this summation echoes , almost to the exact words, the comments to me of a Nigerian student the University of Cambridge and who has worked in both Nigeria and the US.

He also states that some companies in Nigeria are narrowing doing their recruitment cache even further to only graduates of Ivy League universities. He says one company has told him that in conversation, while from the composition of staff at some other companies he has made such deductions about them.

It also suggests to me part of my personal experience in at least one university in Nigeria and a number of universities in England, as well as the long running debates about public vs private school education in England.

The bottom line is this- having knowledge and being able to deliver knowledge, and for maximum value,  in an interpersonal context are not mutually implied.

Scenario- one is at an interview. One is asked- what can you bring to this company?

Or one is asked- what is your vision for yourself?

Or- can you sum up what you learnt at university?

I have observed that one may refer, in one mode of classification, to four kinds of education-

the kind that encourages critical thinking and  exploration by oneself

the kind that does not

the kind that cultivates the capacity to verbalize subtle and complex ideas, particularly in ways others outside one's field can understand

the kind that does not

the kind that encourages critical thinking and  exploration by oneself and the kind that cultivates the capacity to verbalize subtle and complex ideas, particularly in ways others outside one's field can understand do not seem to be the norm in most parts of the world, but represent the best kinds of education and the kinds that are best suited to help one answer those qs i suggested as possible in an interview

in most of my education in nigeria, even though we were encouraged to answer qs in class, training in oral self expression was not given. yet, oral  self expression is not a cheap skill to acquire. i am still cultivating mine. i have been greatly assisted by the universe of public lectures and conferences at the university of Cambridge, where, if you draw attention to yourself, by asking  qs, you will be invariably asked the equivalent of 'where do you fit in in relation to the world of learning?' a qs i have trained myself to answer as effectively as possible.i have also attended at least one superb workshop where we were trained in the elevator speech- how to deliver your business proposal or sum up your research  in the time it takes one to ride in an elevator with the person one is speaking with. i have developed techniques for asking qs in public fora to make sure the qs are as effective as possible- i review the qs and its sentence structure in my mind, and take a number of deep breaths to steady myself emotionally, before asking the qs.

i am also learning how to present myself in environments in ways that will help one  maximize the social opportunities those environments provide. opportunities vital for one's career growth. how to present oneself and what one wants without seeming needy or pushy. how to present oneself in a way that demonstrates genuine interest in the other person and encourages the person to be interested in one.

i am also learning the difference it makes when i dress in particular ways.  if one is the director of the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at Cambridge, and one's  name is a global byword in one's  academic field on account of one's  achievements, one can dress as one likes, like the current director does. but if not is not such a personage, and one wishes to operate maximally in such circles, it might not be in one's interests to dress like that, except in particular contexts. i understand the people in the US information technology  industry have reoriented  that traditional conception, in making a culture  out of casual dressing, but that culture does not seem to be widespread.

if one is well groomed in self presentation, in terms of how one dresses and how one speaks, one's appearance alone and even the first sentence one speaks can take one far.

the level of access to knowledge globally is rising steadily. increasingly, one's competitive advantage has to include and go beyond academic performance to include what one writer called 'going the extra mile'.

On Sun, Jul 10, 2016 at 5:23 AM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <oluwakaidara1@gmail.com> wrote:

With all due respect, Prof. Irele, it might not be trivial.

Uncannily, this summation echoes , almost to the exact words, the comments to me of a Nigerian student the University of Cambridge and who has worked in both Nigeria and the US.

He also states that some companies in Nigeria are narrowing doing their recruitment cache even further to only graduates of Ivy League universities. He says one company has told him that in conversation, while from the composition of staff at some other companies he has made such deductions about them.

It also suggests to me part of my personal experience in at least one university in Nigeria and a number of universities in England, as well as the long running debates about public vs private school education in England.

The bottom line is this- having knowledge and being able to deliver knowledge, and for maximum value,  in an interpersonal context are not mutually implied.

Scenario- one is at an interview. One is asked- what can you bring to this company?

Or one is asked- what is your vision for yourself?

Or- can you sum up what you learnt at university?

I have observed that one may refer, in one mode of classification, to four kinds of education-

the kind that encourages critical thinking and  exploration by oneself

the kind that does not

the kind that cultivates the capacity to verbalize subtle and complex ideas, particularly in ways others outside one's field can understand

the kind that does not

the kind that encourages critical thinking and  exploration by oneself and the kind that cultivates the capacity to verbalize subtle and complex ideas, particularly in ways others outside one's field can understand do not seem to be the norm in most parts of the world, but represent the best kinds of education and the kinds that are best suited to help one answer those qs i suggested as possible in an interview

in most of my education in nigeria, even though we were encouraged to answer qs in class, training in verbal self expression was not given. yet, verbal self expression is not a cheap skill to acquire. i am still cultivating mine. i have been greatly assisted by the universe of public lectures and conferences at the university of Cambridge, where, if you draw attention to yourself, by asking  qs, you will be invariably asked the equivalent of 'where do you fit in in relation to the world of learning?' a qs i have trained myself to answer as effectively as possible.i have also attended at least one superb workshop where we were trained in the elevator speech- how to deliver your business proposal or sum up your research  in the time it takes one to ride in an elevator with the person one is speaking with. i have developed techniques for asking qs in public fora to make sure the qs are as effective as possible- i review the qs and its sentence structure in my mind, and take a number of deep breaths to steady myself emotionally, before asking the qs.

i am also learning how to present myself in environments in ways that will help one  maximize the social opportunities those environments provide. opportunities vital for one's career growth. how to present oneself and what one wants without seeming needy or pushy. how to present oneself in a way that demonstrates genuine interest in the other person and encourages the person to be interested in one.

i am also learning the difference it makes when i dress in particular ways.  if one is the director of the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at Cambridge, and one's  name is a global byword in one's  academic field on account of one's  achievements, one can dress as one likes, like the current director does. but if not is not such a personage, and one wishes to operate maximally in such circles, it might not be in one's interests to dress like that, except in particular contexts. i understand the people in the US information technology  industry have reoriented  that traditional conception, in making a culture  out of casual dressing, but that culture does not seem to be widespread.

if one is well groomed in self presentation, in terms of how one dresses and how one speaks, one's appearance alone and even the first sentence one speaks can take one far.

the level of access to knowledge globally is rising steadily. increasingly, one's competitive advantage has to include and go beyond academic performance to include what one writer called 'going the extra mile'. 

thanks

toyin

On Sat, Jul 9, 2016 at 11:10 PM, Francis Irele abiolairele@gmail.com [WoleSoyinkaSociety] <WoleSoyinkaSociety@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

This sounds trivial to me.

Irele

On Sat, Jul 9, 2016 at 4:44 PM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju oluwakaidara1@gmail.com [WoleSoyinkaSociety] <WoleSoyinkaSociety@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Okwukwe Ibiam <o.ibiam@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jul 9, 2016 at 9:14 PM
Subject: WHY FIRST CLASS GRADUATES FAIL JOB INTERVIEWS - UNILAG DON

Why first class students fail job interviews- Don

 

ON JULY 8, 201612:12 AMIN EDUCATION, 

NEWSCOMMENTS By Monsuru Olowoopejo

 The University of Lagos, UNILAG, its counterpart, Lagos State University, LASU, and other tertiary institutions across the country churn out graduates annually, but a larger percentage  of these graduates will not get jobs not because Nigeria's economy is bad, rather because they lack 'soft skills'. 

Dr. Olusoji George,, recruitment expert for multinational companies, disclosed to Vanguard in an interview ahead of the training for UNILAG students, that Nigerian graduates lack the final touch needed by multinational companies to hand them employment. George noted that the students could not be blamed for not having these skills, saying "it is not in the curriculum introduced by the Nigerian University Commission, NUC and, hence, the universities will not teach the students. 

"What is in the curriculum introduced by NUC and adopted by each university were hard skills, that is, reading the theories and others and not the soft skills needed to win the hearts of multinational companies. "Any child sent abroad to study gets the best job on his return to Nigeria. It is not because they are more brilliant than those who studied in the country. But they possess the soft skills needed by these companies.This creates an unlevel playing field.

 "It is sad that after four years of intensive studies in school, a student cannot get a job. It is pathetic that not all parents can afford the huge fund required to send their child abroad to study," he added. George who is also a senior partner/Chief Executive Officer, J.Soji-George, explained that soft skills are interpersonal relationship etiquettes that if exhibited, endears any job seeker to anyone recruiting for companies,  Some of the etiquettes, he said were "how to answer questions during job interviews, what to wear and not, how they must sit especially for ladies and others. Don't forget, you will not find this in the curriculum."

 In abid to assist students in Nigeria, George stated that his organisation, Foundation for leadership and Education Development and ESSO Mobile Nigeria, will be training 110 students in first and Second Class upper category from faculty of Business Administration, UNILAG on Soft skills. His words, "we would have loved to handle all the students but the funds is not available. For instance, to train all graduating students in UNILAG on soft skill, it will require over N20 million for the exercise. And each faculty requires different soft skills which requires expert to coach them on it. "That is why corporate bodies are needed to assist in training these graduating students especially the indigents ones. With this training, they will be useful not only to the society but themselves. This training is expected to make Nigerian graduates employable.

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/07/first-class-students-fail-job-interviews-don/

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