Flutterwave’s Developer Job Fair; 5 Ways You Can Stand Out
At the peak of the last wave of xenophobic attacks in South Africa, Nigerians, and Africans at large sued for peace. Airpeace, a leading Nigerian airline took it a notch further to bring some Nigerians back from South Africa, spending arguably N280m in the process.
Did Flutterwave just replicate that?
Andela’s decision to lay off about 400 developers in all of its African branches has left the African tech scene in frenzy. However, timely statements from the CEO, Jeremy Johnson and the Vice President of Global Operations, Seni Sulyman, have calmed nerves, concerning efforts and packages put in place to give the EPIC developers a soft landing.
Arguably, Flutterwave’s Developer Job Fair for Nigerian developers may just have come at the right time, though it may not come as a surprise due to the company’s much-touted dev-centrism.
The job fair promises to serve as a melting pot of ideas, as talents and recruiters meet and possibly network for good.
Talking about recruiters, there are great ways to WOW them, if you are planning to be at the job fair.
Here are 5 ways.
Get a list of all the Companies Attending and Sort out the Ones You Would Love to Work for
Are you a developer seeking to attend this Job Fair, there is a published list of companies interested in hiring you.
However, from now to Saturday which is the date for the event, more companies are likely to indicate interest. Do not forget that Andela is about hiring 700 senior engineers, so companies are probably going to take in more juniors, in preparation for the ‘exodus’.
@kennyio, @fullstackmafia, and @ACE_kyd are all Developer Advocates at Flutterwave. They will likely be in the best position to provide an updated list of companies attending.
What will you do with this list?
Sort the List and Check for those Companies You’ve Been Eyeing
Now you have a near-comprehensive list. Its time to pick your top three. When you do, you may want to have talking points. You may review their platforms and have your facts and how to solve their problems. That in itself is about the hardest kick you can get at an interview door.
The essence of prioritizing is that you may not want to study the platforms of all the companies attending. And the reason why you may want to do three companies is incase your first and second choices do not show up, or your favorite becomes everybody’s fave.
Now Its Saturday and You Need to Make that Great First Impression.
Networking cards may be outdated but the closest substitute is to hold down the recruiter and make sure he/she follows you on Twitter and/or Github. Twitter especially, so you can access their DMs and bombard them with shots, afterward.
But if you cannot do this, it is nice you go with something that will make you stand out, like your resume, bearing your best tweet of the company you are ‘eyeing’.
Just kidding. But the reason behind picking your top three is for you to streamline their experience of you as much as possible. If you run out of all ideas, do not forget to go with as many resumes as companies attending, and more.
No Fear Person Face ooo
Our people would usually say, “person wey dae laugh you when you dae find wetin to chop no go follow you hold your belle when ulcer start.”
Actually ‘Our people’ did not say anything., I just coined that idiom, while writing this article.
But you get the drift. Be bold and SELL yourself. Every recruiter is a target.
Hopefully, Flutterwave provides tags for recruiters and prospects alike, so you do not go pitching yourself to a fellow ‘hunter’, only to find out midway. If that happens, however, I hope you both become Co-founders.
There will be times when you think a recruiter’s face looks unapproachable.
You got jokes right? Go with some.
Bonus point: the ‘unapproachable’ people end up being pretty-spirited.
Now the Job Fair is Over and You Think Everything is Over?
Now is the time the real work starts because the recruiter has slept and woken up and mixed up your faces. Tolu now seems like Emeka and Ada now looks like Ayo. The recruiter can’t seem to differentiate the Cvs.
FOLLOW UP emails?
Send them. They are usually not enough. Also, they would take time for you to get a personalized reply because a lot of other talents following up too.
If you were told to submit your resume on an online portal, do so as soon as possible. If you feel you did not express yourself well during the job fair, instead of submitting your CV and waiting for a miracle, you can ask for an appointment in their office.
That may just turn to your own interview…if you are the lucky type.
I am of the strongest opinion that UI/UX designers should not deny themselves of this opportunity because where there is bread, there should be ewa.
****************************************************************
Now you are done reading all these and one point here just helped you get that job? Do me a favor and add value to that company so they can grow, expand and take in more people like you, and I.
Get That Bread!
