Don't go into that interview without reading this!

Always do your research.

Jason Njoku shared some of his experiences this morning on Twitter as regards recruiting Product Managers for irokotv and blacbetng.

I'm particular about the response to the first question: "Have you used either of the service?"

From his tweet, 100% of the candidates answered NO. That's not good.

This does not mean that these potential PMs won't do a great job but it sends a wrong signal.

As a candidate for any job, it's absolutely important you do your research on the job you're interviewing for. This always sets you apart.

You do not need internal gist of the company and all. If you can get it, not bad. Use it wisely.

What is important is knowing all the "google-able" information and packaging it in an intelligent way to sell yourself as the ideal candidate for that position.

Imagine if only one person came to that interview with a great load-down of how the product works and why his current idea can make it better. He will more likely be considered than others.

Preparation is what precipitates success.

Go get 'em!

P.S: Here is the link to his tweet - https://twitter.com/JasonNjoku/status/1028874632873553925?s=19

Don't give up on life

Learn from the Frogs' Story and be encouraged
As a group of frogs was traveling through the woods, two of them fell into a deep pit. When the other frogs crowded around the pit and saw how deep it was, they told the two frogs that there was no hope left for them. However, the two frogs decided to ignore what the others were saying and they proceeded to try and jump out of the pit. Despite their efforts, the group of frogs at the top of the pit were still saying that they should just give up. That they would never make it out. Eventually, one of the frogs took heed to what the others were saying and he gave up, falling down to his death. The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs said, “Did you not hear us?” The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time. Moral of the story: People’s words can have a big effect on other lives. Think about what you say before you say it. It might mean the difference between success and failure, glory and shame, life and death. I hope this encouraged you.  How will you encourage someone else today?

Make more money with your website

Publishers and bloggers generally have a hard time generating enough revenue. This is known. I have worked with not a few publishers in and out of the country to know this.

You can be a niche blogger or an all-round news publisher and the issue will still be the same.

It is demanding enough to generate rich content on your platform daily, but here are some quick tips (that can be done within the next 1 hour) to position for more revenue:

1. Focus on creating content for readers beyond your current location. Think of others outside of your state and country that will find your content useful and write for them.

2. The reason for Point 1 is because then you can attract high-quality traffic from other countries (particularly US, Canada, Australia and EU).

3. Make sure you have created social media handles - Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram - and made them PUBLIC. (Send me a message if you don't know how to do that or ask Google for quick answers).

4. Ensure you share all your content on all the social media handles as often as you have them and in creative ways.

5. How do you get this revenue? Google AdSense is the easiest mode of generating revenue for publishers (link in comment).

P.S: Have you done all the above and still want more revenue? Send me a message or leave a comment and I'll get back with you.

Grow Your Level

I once heard a man say, "life is in phases, men are in levels."

I have found this to be very true. Every man is on one level or the other.

What reveals to man his level is his COMPETENCE.

But competence stems from CONFIDENCE, particularly earned confidence.

If you do something over and over again successfully, you have gained some level of mastery, which will reflect as confidence in that area.

Usain Bolt could be said to have gained mastery in 100m sprint.

This concept was explained by Victor Cheng (a former McKinsey consultant and the founder of caseinterview.com). Here are some excerpts I found note-worthy:

Competence = Earned Confidence

Unearned confidence occurs when you perceive your skill level to be massively better than it is in reality.

Unjustified lack of confidence is the exact opposite. It occurs when you perceive your own abilities to be significantly worse than well informed outside observers.

A mild case of unjustified confidence or lack of confidence doesn’t hurt you much.

Problems occur when your self-assessment is wildly different than reality.

It is important to know your level and grow your level. Change is the only constant in life. Why not encourage yourself to change positively by growing your level.

Don't Stop Learning!

Some folks leave the classroom and their education stopped. Life is a teacher, no one should ever stop learning.

There is always something new to learn. Be it how to sell, how to market more effectively, how to make more money while keeping your day job, how to win at office politics, how to communicate more effectively.

The question is how willing are you to learn that new skill that will make you a better person? How willing you are will determine how much time you will allocate to learning.

What will you learn this week?