How not to apply for media vacancies

By Lekan Otufodunrin

One of the goals of the mediacareerng.org is to be a one-stop platform for useful information about the media in Nigeria, including job vacancies.
We do our best to source vacancies in various media organizations in the country and publish them for especially job seekers who may not have access to media where the jobs are advertised.
We are glad that in the past, some journalists have applied for jobs we published and were employed.
I was therefore very delighted when a vacancy announcement was recently sent to us for publication. I had look forward to the good news of being told that many qualified persons applied for the vacancies and the right candidate employed.
Unfortunately the reply I got in response to my enquiry from the advertiser if he is getting some applications was not good enough.
” Yes I am. Problem is that most people who have no experience whatsoever, from Lagos and everywhere are applying. People are not reading the requirements,” he said.
I understand how desperate one can be while seeking for jobs, but applying for vacancies one has no “experience whatsoever” for may be a gamble taken too far.
Such applications are sure to be discarded without any consideration.
I can remember reading in some vacancies that applicants not qualified should not bother to apply.
Applicants should carefully read requirements for each job which are not included in the announcement for fun. It is either you have the required experience or something close to it.
There is no point a fresh graduate who does not have any practical media experience applying for the job of Head of Newsroom.! Look out for vacancies you can lay claim to some knowledge about the job specification.
If you are not qualified for any advertised position today, take note of what is required and work towards it so that next time such advertisement comes up you may have a claim to the job.