‘I CAME HERE TO CAUSE A STIR’ A Havard Business School Story.

 

Pssst! Hey, MBA student – want an internship at a major international corporation? It’s an “amazing” opportunity, and a chance to violate all you hold dear.

Cosmetics giant L’Oreal probably wouldn’t have known they were inviting the fox into the henhouse when they sent an internship posting to Harvard Business School candidate Jessica Assaf on Nov. 3. But the truth was soon revealed to company talent director Shadan Deleveaux, after he emailed Assaf what was probably one of hundreds of notices to MBA candidates at elite schools, in which he cited his own “amazing experience” during a L’Oreal internship.

 

“I guess you didn’t get a chance to review my resume before sending this email,” Assaf wrote back. “If you had you would have realized that I am definitely not the right candidate for an internship at L’Oreal.”

 

Assaf has crusaded against hazardous chemicals since she was 15, “committed specifically to spreading awareness about the unregulated cosmetic industry and the unnecessary chemicals in our beauty products,” she wrote to Deleveaux.

THE MBA CANDIDATE AND THE ROCK STAR

 

Since June, she and Alexis Krauss – singer for pop-rock duo Sleigh Bells – have run a blog dedicated to exposing dangerous ingredients in cosmetic products. Assaf, after receiving the L’Oreal internship letter, took to their BeautyLiesTruth blog and wrote a post titled, “L’Oreal Tried to Recruit the Wrong Girl“. The post, containing the letter, her response, and now a counter-response from Deleveaux, has gone semi-viral, and prompted coverage on the feminist website Jezebel and on the front page of The Harbus, the HBS student newspaper.

Of course, if Assaf had applied for the internship, the company would have had reason to look into her background and realized she would not be a good fit.

However, Assaf’s tilt against L’Oreal illustrates the value many elite B-schools place on admitting to their henhouses the occasional fox. In fact, soon-to-be-published research by Poets&Quants reveals that top schools are increasingly targeting prospective students from non-traditional backgrounds, mostly because such candidates broaden debate in classrooms and throw curve balls into traditional business ideologies and perspectives.

‘I CAME HERE TO CAUSE A STIR’

And that, in a nutshell, is Assaf’s goal at HBS.

“I came here to cause a stir,” says the 24-year-old from Marin County, California, where she was a founding member, at 15, of sustainability-focused youth group Teens Turning Green. “You can be like this crazy activist that doesn’t fit into any boxes and still have something to contribute.

“I came to HBS with the sole mission to . . . improve public health and spread awareness.”

Assaf describes her GMAT score as “definitely on the lower end,” but notes that she had a 3.93 GPA at New York University, where she received a BA in public health, documentary film, and social activism.

Three months into her first year as an MBA candidate, Assaf has found strong confirmation that her work to inform consumers about the health risks of industrial chemicals is the correct way forward. “It’s not like I’m anti-business. I want to be part of a business that provides a solution to the L’Oreals of the world,” Assaf says. “I came here to get that corporate mindset, to kind of tweak it, twist it. What I’ve learned from every (HBS class) case is that consumers control the market.”

On the day earlier this month on which Assaf received the invitation from L’Oreal, she had just finished a class with professor Joshua Margolis – who specializes in leadership and ethics – and noted down a quote from him: “Change requires creativity and courage.”

That comment helped inspire her response, when, before her next class that day, she received the missive from L’Oreal, she says. “I literally gasped,” Assaf says. “I never thought I would see L’Oreal in my inbox, at least not to recruit me for a job.”

HBS PROF GIVES NEW IDEAS ABOUT LEADERSHIP

The cases she’s studied in Margolis’ class have given her new ideas about leadership, she says. “You can use your story or your strategy to change the way other people think about an issue,” Assaf says.

The recruitment letter gave Assaf a launching platform for her story, and she updated it with the response she received from Deleveaux the next day.

“Please know, our company’s top priority is the safety of our customers,” wrote Deleveaux, a 2005 Columbia Business School MBA. “We would never put an ingredient in a product that we wouldn’t put on our own skin.”

That response provided further fodder for Assaf, who then posted L’Oreal’s online statements about the safety of their products, following them with a link to a list of 1,373 chemicals prohibited in cosmetics by the European Union, and a statement that, “As of today, 1,362 of them are still legal and widely used in U.S. products.”

Now, Margolis is helping her “develop a business plan to try and disrupt the beauty industry,” Assaf says. “It’s just incredible the support here.”

EAT IT, AND SMEAR IT ON YOUR FACE

Peers within her HBS section have joined her in working on two business plans, one of them based on using common foodstuffs such as olive oil and coconut oil to make beauty products.

On carrying her activist bent into an elite business school, Assaf says, “There are always going to be people who believe that I went outside the designated boundaries of how I’m supposed to act as an HBS student.

“Next time they’re in the shower, maybe they will flip over the shampoo bottle and look at what’s in it.”

Written by Ethan BaronPoets & QuantsAuthor on November 11, 2014.

http://goo.gl/oziWu7

 

 

The demand for study abroad among Nigerian students

Perspective on the Nigerian

Study Abroad Market by an Experienced Agent & Student Counsellor

If you are thinking of investing into the study abroad market in Nigeria, I hope this insights shared by a major player helps your decision making. Happy reading.

As we highlighted earlier this year, Nigeria is a country to watch for anyone involved in international higher education. For starters, there are statistics like these:

• With roughly 169 million people and growing, Nigeria could be the world’s third most populous country by the end of the 21st century, according to UN projections;
• Nigeria has the world’s tenth largest oil reserves;
• Its GDP growth has been around 7% for the past few years, as compared to 2.8% in the US in 2012 and less than 1% in the UK.

Nigeria is definitely a country with potential, but also one with insufficient educational capacity to prepare its students to find work in Nigeria’s economy – and/or the global one – as we will explore later in this article.

Today we’re pleased to present an interview with Felix Adedayo. Mr Adedayo explains the reasons behind Nigerian students’ strong interest in study abroad, outlines the areas of study most in demand, and provides advice for foreign educators recruiting in Nigeria.

Why such intense demand for study abroad among Nigerian students?

In 2013, World Education News and Reviews (WENR) reported:

“After Morocco, Nigeria sends the most students overseas of any country on the African continent, according to data from the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS). The UIS pegged the total number of Nigerian students abroad in 2010 at just under 39,000, although anecdotal evidence from education watchers in Nigeria would suggest that the number is considerably higher, with many students taking up places at private institutions in neighbouring countries, with Ghana reportedly being particularly attractive.”

Mr Adedayo explains that a key reason Nigerians are so eager to leave the country to study is a lack of domestic capacity at Nigerian universities, despite the government’s efforts to expand the number of university places open to Nigerian students.

It is not surprising that the government is being hard-pressed to keep up with demand; according to WENR, “at the tertiary level alone, the number of students has grown from under 15,000 in 1970 to approximately 1.2 million today.”

Mr Adedayo notes that every year, there are about 1.5 million students looking for undergraduate placements alone – but there are only half a million places available. Given this disparity, Mr Adedayo says that every year, nearly one million Nigerian students look for admission to foreign higher education institutions.

Scholarships abound, especially for Engineering-minded students

Scholarships to foreign universities are one way Nigerian students are able to receive the quality education they need. Mr Adedayo estimates that there are about 50,000 scholarships a year for Nigerian students wanting to study abroad, some at the federal level and some at the regional/state level – especially in oil-rich Nigerian states. Many of these scholarships are targeted to key labour market areas for which Nigeria needs talented graduates – engineering, for example, especially as it relates to chemical and petroleum technologies. Mr Adedayo notes that these same fields, as well as medicine and IT, are in general the most popular among Nigerian students looking for foreign degrees.

Australia seems to be one destination country benefiting from Nigerian students’ study abroad demand and study interests: the Financial Review reports that in 2014 nearly twice as many Nigerians are studying in Australia as last year, “many of them engineering students planning to work in their country’s oil industry.”

One Australian engineering university, University of New South Wales (UNSW), is keenly aware of the potential of Nigeria as a source country. Aleksandr Voninski, UNSW’s executive director, international, quipped: “It’s a zero to hero market.” He told the Financial Review that Nigeria is moving ahead of major sending markets such as Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan, and that next year, Nigeria will likely be among Australian universities’ top 10 source countries for international students.

Canada, the US, the UK, and other European countries are also taking a more active recruitment interest in Nigeria. AllAfrica reported last year on the ways in which Canada is trying to attract Nigerian students; the opportunity to work during and post-study completion is one of the advantages Canada promotes in its efforts.

In the UK, Iain Stewart, British Parliament member, estimates that 30,000 Nigerian students will be studying in various universities across the United Kingdom by 2015.

Overall, the most recent UNESCO data show the following countries, in order, as the destination markets with the most Nigerian students enrolled:

• UK;
• US;
• Ghana;
• Malaysia;
• South Africa;
• Canada.

Growing incomes another driver of students’ interest in study abroad

Nigeria’s booming growth rate has led to a sharp increase in the number of Nigerian families able to fund students’ study abroad ambitions. It is one of the reasons that, according to UIS, the number of Nigerian students at overseas institutions grew 71% between 2007 and 2010. Mr Adedayo guesses that about 95% of Nigerian students going abroad are able to self-fund their studies.

Demand is everywhere, and not just for

English-language courses

Asked if Nigerian students are primarily interested in English-language instruction, Mr Adedayo responds that this trend is changing. He notes robust interest in European study destinations and growing interest in learning such languages as French, Spanish, and German.

He also strongly advises foreign schools wanting to recruit in Nigeria to look beyond the financial hub of Lagos. His agency has offices in Abuja, Ilorin, and Lagos and he lists off roughly Ten Nigerian Cities that would be worth having a presence in, and laughingly adds that it wouldn’t hurt to target cities in rich, oil-producing regions.

Much remains to be improved on the domestic front

As exciting as the demand for foreign university places among Nigerian students is in some ways, it is also a result of a domestic education system under stress. The poor quality of education available to most – not to mention how inaccessible education is to millions of Nigerians – is so problematic that Nigerian employers are having trouble finding qualified workers and this is a major factor in a huge youth unemployment rate. University World News reports that a British-funded study, Universities, Employability and Inclusive Development, on four African countries – Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa – found that the unemployment rate is as high as 23.1% for Nigerian graduates with first degrees.

The report noted:

“With the partial exception of South Africa, other African countries lack strong information on the labour market, on transitions from university to work, and on the link between disciplinary area and employment prospects.”

Beyond problems at the tertiary education level, there are also serious issues within Nigeria’s secondary school system. In 2013, only 44% of high-school-aged Nigerians were enrolled in school – 21 percentage points below the global average – which helps to explain stubbornly low levels of youth literacy in the country. Enrolment rates, particularly among girls, are low in the north of the country (where the notorious Boko Haram kidnappings have taken place).

Looking to the future

In a fascinating CNBC Africa interview, Milan Thomas, a Programme Associate at the UNESCO Results for Development Institute, says his organisation has determined that there are 10 million students “out of school” in Nigeria. Apart from humanitarian costs, Mr Thomas says this has a negative economic impact per year of 1% of GDP, or US$3 billion dollars. Because uneducated youth go on to earn significantly less as they enter the labour market, Mr Thomas says, they represent a huge source of untapped potential for the Nigerian economy. He notes that there is an exciting possibility for providing traditionally hard-to-reach out-of-school students are “innovative education solutions such as open distance learning or low-cost private school alternatives, which are rapidly spreading across Africa.”

For now, it is good news that an increasing number of Nigerians are taking advantage of scholarships and/or greater family incomes to obtain quality education in other countries to overcome the capacity and quality issues in their own education system. The next stage will be for Nigeria to strengthen its own education system, perhaps with the help of the “innovative” technologies and infrastructure Mr Thomas references in the CNBC interview. Toward that goal, CNBC also reported in March 2014 the promising development that the government has allotted over US$6 billion dollars to the education sector in the next four years.

Credits: http://goo.gl/lF6p9C

Nail That Dream Job With This Open Secret

Hi folks I came across this wonderful article from one of my best site http://www.lifehack.org/ on career development. It was very timely just as a young friend of mine was preparing for her 1^st time major employment interview. The result was amazing and she was full of testimonies and gratitude for the privilege of the information. I promise to feature her in our subsequent post. So here it is;

    

Questions You Should Ask at interview to be the

Most Impressive Job Candidate

1.      “What are the common attributes of your top performers?”

2.      “What are the one or two things that really drive results for the company?”

3.      “What do employees do in their spare time?”

4.      “How do you plan to deal with _____?”

5.      “How do you measure success of the people currently in this position?”

6.      “What does a career path look like at this company?”

7.      “I am really excited about this opportunity; what are the next steps?”

Most interviewers follow a basic model these days called “Behaviour Interviewing.” The purpose is to see how a candidate has acted in the past in certain scenarios, because most of the time, past behavior will predict future behavior. Along with this interview style, there are also seven questions you as the candidate will most likely be asked. My boss in our career centre refers to them as the Seven Deadly Questions. This includes: “Tell me about yourself” and “Where do you see yourself in 2–5 years?” These are loaded questions that if answered wrong can ruin your chances of getting the job.

So if these are some of the questions the interviewer asks, what should you as the candidate ask? After all, aren’t you interviewing them too? Do you know for certain before an interview if this somewhere you want to work for the next year, two years, five years? If this is somewhere you want to work, then how can you be the most impressive job candidate?

Believe it or not, many times, the best way to show an interviewer you have done research on their company and industry is not through the answers you give, but through the questions you ask.

Here are 7 questions you should ask to be the most impressive job candidate.

1.“What are the common attributes of your top performers?”

This question serves many purposes. First, you didn’t ask “what are the common attributes of your worst performers?” The reason being is that you want to show them that you want to identify with and be one of the top performers, and not one of the worst. You will probably have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the interview, so to show you share common traits with the top performers, you can either reiterate an answer you gave earlier in the interview when you hear their answer about top performers, or mention your matching skills in a follow-up email and written thank you letter. You should be sending both.

2. “What are the one or two things that really drive results for the company?”

Based on the research you have already done prior to the interview (you did do research prior to the interview, right?), you should have an idea of what is the answer to this question before you ask. This illustrates to the interviewer that you understand the position you are applying for fits into a bigger company picture. This is not the “you” show. The company has a need and you are trying to convince them your background and skill set fits that need better than anyone else and you will make them more successful than they already are. You are part of the “thing” that drives results.

3. “What do employees do in their spare time?”

This question helps you gauge how you will fit in with the people working there. “Fit” has become a big focus for companies these days. You may have the skills to do the job, but if you are socially awkward or your personality does not make the interviewer feel comfortable with you they will probably pass on hiring you. Also, this question will help you understand the job/life balance at the firm. One too many jokes about “what spare time?” from the interviewer and you may want to consider whether you are willing to put in the hours this job may require.

4. “How do you plan to deal with _____?”

This question will end with an industry-specific issue. Maybe it is regulatory like the Dodd/Frank Act that hit the financial services industry a few years ago, or maybe in doing your research, you discovered a new player entered the market. My advice to you is be CAREFUL with this question. If the company does not have an answer for the issue yet, you will make the interviewer defensive. Focus on the positives if you want to show you have done your research. Ask something like “how do you plan to spend all the money you are going to make with this new product’s sales?” I’m kidding of course, but on the serious side be careful in choosing to ask about an issue.

5. “How do you measure success of the people currently in this position?”

This question differs from the question about attributes of top performers because you are not asking what they think makes someone in this position successful, but rather how do they measure success. The point you want to make with this question is that you plan on being successful so you want to know what goals you should focus on. Also this question may lead to a conversation about commissions and bonuses, not specific numbers probably—and do not push for that—but it will give you an idea of expectations and how realistic they are.

6. “What does a career path look like at this company?”

When you ask this question you want to make sure you get the point across that you are looking long term. Do not ask, “how long does it take to move up?” or anything like that. You are there to fill the job at hand and add value immediately. The point of asking this is to show you are in it for the foreseeable future and that you are again coming to this job with an attitude that you are a good fit and will be successful.

7. “I am really excited about this opportunity; what are the next steps?”

If you don’t tell them you are really excited about the job, how will they know you are? They are excited about filling it; you should be excited about the possibility of being hired.

If you are in the process of interviewing for a few jobs, and you should be, then this is when they can tell you it may take a few weeks before you hear anything or that there are more interviews coming. If you get an offer from another company a few days after this interview, you know you may have to ask that company to give you more time to decide, because this company told you it may take a few weeks to get back to you. Any question you ask should show either that you did your research on the company and industry, or that you are there to fill the need they have and be successful. That is what will make you the most impressive job candidate.

Credits

 http://goo.gl/AWBn2p

DreamStarter Seed Funding & Awards Programme for Teens 2014/15

Introducing...Edufunfunds Academy &

(DreamStarter) Seed Funding Programme for Teens 2014/15

From August 1^st, 2014

Deadline: 30th September 2014

Edufunfunds invites Teenagers (In Nigeria) to join its Youth Networks initiative.

Edufunfunds Dream-Starter Network will be accepting applications from registered teenagers/youth member of its 2014/2015 Grant Program from 1^st September 2014.

Are you between the Ages of 13 – 21 years?

As much as up to 40$ – 50$ Dollars will be given to support and start-up your dreams.
For more enquiries please send us a mail @ edufunfundscholar@gmail.com, +2347041161629, +2348098229374

What is a DreamStarter?

1. Do you have a dream of something you love to do and to become
2. Do you desire to succeed massively and impact your generation?
3. Do you want to be financially independent?
4. Do you want to win SCHOLARSHIPS and study abroad? 
5. Do you need experienced and successful mentors to guide you through the process?
6. Do you want to learn more about your dream, goals setting, proposal writing, project management and more?
7. Do you want to acquire job skills and pursue a choice career?
8. Do you want to own and control a bank account now?  
9. Do you want to succeed, save up to (4million Naira) for future investment adventure before your 25^th Birthday. 
10. Do you wish to start a business or become an investor?
11. Do you desire a Nigeria free of poverty, corruption and unemployment?
12. Do you desire a Nigeria filled with dignity?
13. Do you want to OWN your future?

Are you up for the challenge? If you are, join by following us and register now with your mail or face book account! It’s Free @ http://globaldreamstarters.blogspot.com

Edufunfunds Dream-Starter Network is a social enterprise founded in 2009 with the objective to create a platform for teenagers and youths to attain sustainable social and economic development and massively impact their communities.

Dream-Starter Network Membership is free, young people in Nigeria (with internet access) can register and interact with other youth members on the social platform and they will have free access to mentorship, get seed funds to start-up their dreams and raise more funds through the platform. This will provide them opportunities to collaborate on projects, find individual sponsors, corporate donor organizations to support their dreams and make impact.

Priority Areas for Seed Grants Program 2014/15:

Agriculture Hair Stylist Entrepreneurship Running/Sprinting ICT Travelling Tourism swimming Arts and CraftGolfing

Social Media Manager Marketing Acting Film making Volunteering Writing Singing Dancing Cycling

Drawing Fashion designing Professional football Cooking Comedy Shoe making Motivational speaking Photography E.T.C The choice is yours.......

Eligibility Criteria:

The seed grants are open to Young People between the ages of 13 – 21 years (based in Lagos Nigeria for Now!) But all teenagers and youths are eligible to become member free of cost.

Register by following us @ http://globaldreamstarters.blogspot.com

Your Search Ends Here@ Edufunfunds Academy

Edufunfunds Academy is a training school with a unique focus in creative youth leadership development, Purpose/Passion incubator & innovation think-tank. Through our Award winning curriculum and Dream-Starter seed funding program:

We want to develop the next generation of creative leaders that will have a significant impact in Nigeria and beyond.

Become a Dream-Starters today, no boring lectures, you learn by engaging in thought provoking and life changing discussions with mentors and in variety of topics that Leaders should know about. Our participants will be supported by workshops on powerful questions, on dialogue, and on real life storytelling.

Our mentors, trainer and participants work together to create innovative solutions to everyday societal challenges.

Our award winning, tested and proven creative youth leadership development program is truly participative, experiential, learning-by-doing, personalized for each participant and with a global testimony of over 5,000 professional alumni achievers.

What we do

Our program consists of 4 phases of interconnected platforms –

·         Money 101

·         Youth Leadership Training Development

·         Financial Football

·         Purpose/ Passion Accelerator mentorship.

At Edufunfunds you can expect Hands-on Experiential Training, Facilitation & Learning

·         No teachers, but master trainers working with you as peers.

·         No classrooms, but a real creative, inspiring environment

·         No lectures, but one on one and group sessions with global creative leaders and leading experts.

·      Not just feedback, but personalised development through intensive coaching from professional coaches and peers.

·    No case studies, but real-life scenarios, challenge projects with leading corporate partners to develop innovative solutions on large societal topics.

·    No tests & grades but a 12-month passion incubator and dream accelerator phase where we support you with implementing what you learned and accelerating your dream project or venture.

#Edufunfunds DreamStarter…A Nigeria where not a single person is unemployed, poor and corrupt!

Terms & Conditions Applies