Is This Why You Always Lose Out On Your Ideal Job? - Brighter Monday Offers Free Career Tips.

With the current high rate of unemployment, getting a job is the hardest thing for any individual in the world today. Knowing how to get a job is not always easy if one has limited experience in the job market, but there are some things everyone can do to increase their chances.

To majority of the jobseekers, finding a job is usually limited to networking where the word of mouth is key to finding out about the many jobs that aren't advertised. This is usually through the people they know (connections). Others depend media, job adverts and recruitment agencies. There is also this other group that depends on the internet in their job search.

However, one thing is certain, getting a job these days is not easy. Whether you recently lost your job or are ready to jump ship from your current one, the chances of your getting a new position through the want ads is next to nil. This therefore demands job hunters to seek for the best networks that may boost their chances of securing interviews.

This is where Brighter Monday come in. Brighter Monday are the largest source of job aggregators in the country, aggregated (collected) from employer websites all over Kenya.

In an exclusive interview with their Trade Marketing and Events Coordinator Catherine Mburu and Doreen Mweke, the Content Manager during the Blaze Summit in Thika, Catherine explained that Brighter Monday is an online platform with headquarters in Nairobi Kenya that links jobseekers and potential employers who are looking for talent in the job market. They are based at 14 Riverside just off Chiromo Campus.

They also help those who are already in a job to advance to the next level or secure a ‘greener pasture’. They offer job-search and career growth tips that helps jobseekers the edge they need through their career mentors who ‘hold your hand’ through the different stages of your career growth. They help job seekers create strong CVs, offer guidance in a project, help in identifying resources and better ways of managing tasks in particular professions as well as helping them professionally brand themselves.

“At Brighter Monday, we act as a link between jobseekers and potential or actual employers who are already in existence. If you are already working and looking for the next opportunity, we can always find a job for you where you can advance to the next level. Other than jobs, we offer career advice and career tips. All this information is usually offered free of charge,” said Catherine.

She was quick to dispel the notion in some medium that perceive that Brighter Monday is just a one-man briefcase company that sits in a cyber café advertising for fake jobs. The company has approximately 60 staff members with different and integrated departments. Brighter Monday collects available opportunities in the job market from their client database who actually pay for the advertisements.

“For an advertiser to pay for an Ad actually proves that whatever they are putting up is genuine. These are jobs that have actually been vetted and are updated on a daily basis. We have a team that works every day from 8am to 5pm to update our data. Our jobs ads expire after a maximum 45 days,” she says.

She assures those who use their platform that their ads have a reach of about 1.5 million viewers who are looking for the same. They advertise about 2,500 jobs every month.

Brighter Monday has been in existence for the last ten years, based in three different regions in East Africa; Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

“We also have sister companies in West African country of Nigeria (Joboman). We are a company that is under one umbrella which is called ‘One Africa Media’, a firm that connects with companies that deal with properties such as Buy-Rent Kenya. We also have another branch that deals with cars known as ‘Cheki’ which is both in East and West Africa,” explained Catherine.

To stand out of the crowd, job-seekers they need to know what exactly creates a niche for them.

Doreen contends that there is always a very steep competition in all the job Ads that they advertise, the more reason each job seeker has to stand out.

“In most cases we find out that for a particular job you have like 300 applications and the employer only had one vacancy. This shows the levels of competition in the job fields. You have to optimise yourself. That is why we give tips on how to brand oneself in such a crowded workplace,” says Doreen.

She pointed out one great mistake that job seekers make in their applications as having one CV that serves all jobs applications.

“Most job seekers usually send generic CVs that goes to all applications instead of customising their CVs and optimising them. You have to make sure that you always cover everything that the employer is asking for in the job Ad. It is about making the application you are making to be about the employer not about yourself,” explained Doreen.

Another challenge that job seekers face, she said, was the lack of interview skills. Majority of them did not know how to behave during an interview, how to dress or how to respond to the questions posed to them by the interviewer.

This was the reason behind Brighter Monday starting the career centre to assist the job seekers get the jobs we were actually advertising.

“There is cut-throat competition in the job market and only the best person that actually gets the job. So, we now offer the jobs to them and go ahead and empower them to help them become more competitive and give them a competitive edge,” she says.

They give level ground tips to every of their candidates by giving them details of how best they could win the jobs.

She says that, from the feedback they get from job seekers, they have now managed to help so many of them to actually achieve their dream jobs.

To reach as many youth as possible, Brighter Monday takes advantage of forums that bring together the youth and sell their ideas to them. They are also very active online especially the social media platforms where majority of the youth interact. They engage them on real-time through question and answer sessions on these social platforms.

“We have made it very possible for everyone who can access the internet either through a computer or a mobile phone to get this information for free. It is up to you. Here in Brighter Monday we say ‘Kazi Kwako’. We have brought it all to you so it is up to you to be active to engage us.”

Doreen says that they do a lot of job market research to understand all the aspects of the job market and what employers are looking for. That is the information that they put out for their viewers to read in a view to preparing them for the job market.

Catherine advises the youth to be outgoing and not always wait for the jobs to come to them. She advices job seekers to learn how to integrate themselves with different organisations for they will open doors and link you up with people who can absorb you in their organisations.

“Don’t just sit back and say since I have done engineering, for example, I am waiting for an engineering job to come to me. Remember that before you get that job, there are some skills you need to earn. Go to your nearest company or organisation and request the management to let you learn some skills. You can start from the lowest level of even cleaning the office to get to know office cultures. Then move from their and go to a receptionist position and understand their trade. This will give you skills in terms of how to communicate and how to write an e-mail. Then move to another organisation that does something different to experience a different culture,” said Catherine.

To get in touch with them and for more details, log in to https://www.brightermonday.co.ke and sign up to get free job alerts