An interview for a job should never be taken lightly even in cases where the applicant might have come recommended or when the hope of securing the job is very small. Applicants must be fully prepared to stand the chance of success. A positive mindset and good preparation is of absolute necessity when planning to attend an interview.

Some people have been offered a more senior position or unexpected job opportunities simply because of their outstanding performance at an interview. Even in cases where an individual may not be suitably qualified for a particular job, your performance at an interview could become a springboard for securing other positions.
Below are specific areas for a successful interview:

1. Physical appearance – We all know that a book should not be judged by its cover; but in reality, most of us are guilty of forming an opinion of people by their physical appearance well before we get to know the person.
Remember, your appearance is what the interviewers will see first. A good physical appearance means well-groomed hair, appropriate and fitting clothes, good shoes and no unnecessary accessories. The choice of clothing would depend on the type of job on offer. In the corporate world, it is more appropriate that male or female candidates wear a dark suit. However, for a job in the entertainment sector, a smart appearance is usually all that may be required. This makes it imperative for any candidate to research their chosen area of work and establish the dress code.

It is also wise to err on the side of caution and appear more conservative rather than more flamboyant. It is worth considering that a person who has a job already may be able to get away with a crazy hairstyle or dress sense whilst an applicant may get a ‘No’ for wearing a certain look.

For gentlemen, a simple rule to note is that a busy shirt would require a plain tie whilst a plain shirt can accompany a checked or striped tie. Black shoes are appropriate except you are applying for a job as a comedian. Coloured hair and long nails on a man may not be the best, neither is an unkempt beard or a scruffy look.

It is also important to understand that dressing for a job interview is very different from dressing up to a social function. Both require the person to look good but in very different ways. A trendy person may be in touch with all that is in fashion but some of these items would not sit well for a formal job.

Women need to be careful not to wear clothes that are transparent or skirts and trousers that are too tight or too short. Cleavage-bearing tops may not get you the job either.

It is not necessary to spend a great amount of money on clothes, it is more important to appear clean, neat and sharp, without overdoing it.

2. Good knowledge of the organisation and industry – It is important that you read up on the organisation as you will need to ask questions at some point during the interview. If you do not understand the business the company runs, your questions may be irrelevant.

3. Sell yourself – You are essentially a salesperson at an interview. You will need to sell yourself to convince the interviewer to hire you. If you consider that there are other candidates, you will know that you must say why the company needs you.

Reading the job specification before the interview will give a good view of what kind of person and skills are required for a particular role. A candidate must seek to match each of those requirements with a skill, ability or qualification they possess. Sell yourself, be creative but do not lie.
You can be creative by thinking deeply of every area of your life and extracting from them experiences and skills gained which can be transferred to a new position. For example, you may never have been a receptionist; but you may have gained telephone and administrative skills from being an office assistant.

4. Good communication skills – It is very important to be able to express your ideas and thoughts. This is because no one else can read those thoughts and no matter how brilliant an idea may be, it must be properly communicated for it to make an impact on anyone. For a job applicant, whilst a CV and good personality can go a long way on the path of helping you secure a job, there is also only one opportunity to make an impact by articulating your point of view. Any good ideas or intentions – no matter how excellent or original – are in the head of the person who owns them and are therefore totally useless to an interviewer if they cannot be effectively communicated. The same goes for a person who might already be in a secure position. The need to make sensible contributions to your team at work is crucial in moving up the ladder. Fantastic ideas need to be communicated for everyone to appreciate and implement them.

In conclusion, you need good communication skills to scale through an interview and to continue to hold down a job. You can develop these skills if you put your mind to it. Starting may seem difficult but it only takes practice and it becomes a newly acquired skill that will be invaluable for you, your employer and people around you.

We all benefit when we do things right.

Customers can be rather nasty,’ we often hear people say. ‘They are demanding and downright rude, they demand for things to which they are not entitled, they raise their voice, shout at people and in some instances turn to verbal abuse.’ ‘How should I as a professional respond to this very bad behaviour?’

The answer is “Don’t eat the flies.”

However tempted you may be; responding in kind to a customer is a lose-lose situation to a service provider or their staff. Even if it appears you have won the battle, you will still carry the wounds of war afterwards.

Why flies? You may ask, and what has ‘eating flies’ got to do with customer service? I will explain.

If you have an open sore and you live in the hot and scorching sun of Nigeria, chances are that a couple of flies, if not dozens, will drop in on the uncovered sore to feast. The Yorubas of South West Nigeria literally refer to these flies as ‘eating’ the flesh of the person with the sore. Whilst the flies engage in this eating frenzy, no one will bat an eyelid as flies are expected to do this sort of thing. However, if the person with the open sore should attempt to pick one of the flies and ‘eat’, all hell will be let loose as people around will consider him insane.

In other words, people accept that flies can have a feast at the expense of the person with an open sore. Everyone expect flies to do so. ‘Eating’ the flesh of a person with an open sore is seen as a prerogative of flies. For the person with the open sore however, there is an acceptable level of behaviour that is expected of him and this does not include trying to teach flies a lesson by eating one of them.

The moral of this is that a professional is expected to behave under a higher moral code to that of clients, even under serious pressure. Customers can get away with certain behaviour. As a professional however, you are expected to know better. This rule can also be applied to colleagues or even family members. Whenever a spouse, colleagues or friends choose to provoke you, restrain yourself from the temptation of wanting to respond in kind. Don’t eat the flies!

We all benefit when we do things right.

In the past few years, ParkRoyal & Lagos Finishing School has been developing a book club. We are formally going to bring this on-stream later in the year. In preparation for this, Dr T. Ayodele Ajayi, a psychiatrist and avid reader has generously contributed an article for Etiquettebank.com that will transform your reading habit. Enjoy!

“There’s READING books, and then there’s DOING books. What are you DOING based on READING that book? Read, but then DO “. These are the poignant words of Daren Hardy, Success Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief in a recent post. I could not agree more. So, how then, do you read a book? In other words, how do you ensure yours is not just a case of going through books, but the books getting through to you?

Here are four suggestions on making you a doer rather than a reader of books:

Be intentional in choosing – Obtaining optimal benefit from a book starts when deciding on what to read. Reading to a carefully designed plan pays off. It is helpful to periodically decide what areas of your life you need to grow and develop a reading plan to meet those needs rather than play things by ear.  One can incorporate such a plan into a personal end of year review or New Year goal setting. What are the leading titles in your area of need?  The social media is a good sounding board to identify the must-read titles and authors in your area of interest. For instance, John Maxwell is the leadership guru, Marcus Buckingham an authority on playing to personal strength, Darren Hardy the go- to man on peak performance; and Jim Rohn on business philosophy.

Be realistic in expectation – Since reading Bill Newman’s book Soaring with Eagles, I have adopted his tips on turning good intentions to practical habits when reading any book. So impactful and pragmatic were Dr Newman’s six steps, that I obtained his kind permission to cite him in my own book Footprints of Giants. Simply put, he advises readers to select not more than three lessons to faithfully apply promptly until these become lifestyle habits.  In reality, although authors usually write to cater for wide audience, only selective content of any book is relevant to your personal needs. The recognition that you are reading for your development, and not to pass an examination frees you to skim through or skip irrelevant portions.

Be systematic in recording – What’s the point in obtaining potentially life changing content from a book when you can’t quickly retrieve the information? Many avid readers have devised their own colour-coded system of highlighting relevant information. Here’s the code I use. Information of general interest is marked in yellow, new words in blue, and action points that require prompt attention in red. Public speakers are ever in search of interesting stories, anecdotes, interesting quotes and statistics to illustrate points. I mark this re-useable content in green. Some of these are then transferred into my journal or kept away safely in an electronic or paper file marked for future blogs.

Be prompt in application – The Law of Diminishing Intent states that the longer you wait to do something you know you ought to do, the less the likelihood of doing it. Aim to apply what you read to your life as quickly as you can. A simple means of doing this is to re-read your highlights after your first reading of the book. The second reading focussing on your highlights allows you to collate your lessons and formulate them into a maximum of three action points. Armed with your action points, you can share the lessons with a friend or reading buddy. It helps to keep a handful of reading buddies with similar interests. Cultivating such an association also promotes accountability and encourages execution of goals from your reading.

A free smart phone application on www.dictionary.com has assisted me in prompt application of my reading. This versatile tool is equipped with a dictionary, thesaurus, and phonic device that pronounce words out loud. You can check the meaning, grammatical application and pronunciation of new words immediately as most of us usually have our phone at hand. I highly recommend it to you as it would improve your vocabulary over time. Remember that improved vocabulary is a key to better communication. Excellent communication skill is in turn associated with success whatever your endeavour.

I expect applying these suggestions will make you a doing reader on the short term, and better communicator in the long run.

Dr T. Ayodele Ajayi MBchB, MRCPsych is a practicing psychiatrist. He is the author of Footprints of Giants, and writes a daily Facebook and Twitter blog titled ‘Footprints for Today.’

Whether we like it or not, we cannot avoid people. In fact we all need people – friends, buddies, acquaintances, family, work colleagues and neighbours. Of course, it is entirely up to you to decide the level at which you want to maintain each relationship.

As reputation is a major determinant in how far and deep a relationship can go, it is important to be aware how you portray yourself to people around you. Students for example are at a period in their lives where they meet many people, some of which are pivotal in their lives. Some of their friends may go on to become political leaders and captains of industry. Having a good reputation may seem a trivial matter to someone whose major preoccupation is how to pass exams and to survive on a meagre income. However, the reputation you slowly develop of yourself in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years of university soon become how you are known in later years. Essentially, what people know and see of you now becomes your reputation even well after university and you may never have the opportunity to shake it off.

For example, you may consider your habit of never returning items or money borrowed from other people as a minor thing. But this minor indiscretion may be the only thing that Uche down the block remembers of you. This will certainly affect her opinion of you 15 years on when she is deciding on whether to make you a strategic partner for the large conglomerate she now heads.

In other words:

• Don’t live a reckless and irresponsible life. The way people see you today is how they will judge you in years to come.
• It takes years to build a reputation and it only takes one moment to destroy it so be consistent.

We all benefit when we do things right.