Helping Job Seekers find a Better Source of Income is my Hobby. An Interview with David Jaiyeola

Nigerians are rugged and dogged in getting ahead. No wonder the country is blessed. Yes, the rate of unemployment is alarming but we won’t focus on that. Instead, we will find a way to make the job seekers resourceful and gainfully employed.

I had the pleasure of chatting with David Jaiyeola. His vision for unemployed graduates simply wowed me.

”Solving unemployment issues in a way that it’s not focusing on the crisis but channelling their abilities to a meaningful source of income has always been my passion since I graduated.” – David.

Here is what the co-founder of Worka and ProHangout has to say in my latest interview with him:

Can you introduce yourself to the audience?

Well, my name is Jaiyeola Ayodeji David.

I am the co-founder of Worka Nigeria.

I am a human capital development expert and I have been in this line of service for over 7 years.

I have a goal of solving unemployment issues in a way that is not focusing on the crisis but channeling the abilities of candidates to be more and a means of meaningful source of income.

I like to help people, this is what lead me to recruitment and HR and eventually Worka Nigeria and ProHangout

I am very athletic person in the sense that i have had the course to run the marathon twice, played and coached a football team and I am sport lover.

You really have an interesting profile. The one that caught my attention is the Worka Nigeria and ProHangout. Would you love to share more about them?

Thank you for this, Worka Nigeria came to mind in 2017.

I was out of Jobberman for say 12 months and I had this idea drawn up of a way to help candidates prepare more job interviews and also get them opportunities.

The first version of Worka Nigeria had a ranking that sees candidate write a test and get scored and ranked on a table that is accessible to employers.

The goal was to create opportunities for Candidates and also help them grow in their respective careers.

Prohangout is a spin-off from Worka, it’s a stand-alone entity and the sole goal is to break the barrier of connection between Employers and Jobseekers, we had our first edition in September 2019 and the idea is to have people connecting and networking with each other in a more serene atmosphere.

We achieved that and we are in the planning stage of the business edition of Prohangout, billed for Feb 29, 2020.

Do you mean Worka helps job seekers land jobs?

Yes, we are built like every recruitment company and a bit of tilt towards solving job seeker challenges like training and testing for the job and scaling interviews.

So, yes we recruit candidates for companies.

That’s the basic service apart from other related services such as CV and LinkedIn Optimization, Career Coaching, Training and Facilitation, In-House training of staffers and other candidates grooming services

That’s really interesting. I only know about Jobberman and Push Cv, but it seems Worka is the hope for job seekers. Since you have started this, how far have you been able to help job seekers (I mean the percentage of your success)?

Yes, those were the frontiers especially Jobberman, PushCV came along and did awesome as well.

We wanted to be more around our users and get them to see us every so we deployed the social media angle asides the platform itself. We have a strong presence on so many social media platforms

We have been able to help a lot of job seekers land jobs. Say 5-10 on a monthly average.

It gets better with the month and it’s been a good ride as we get companies sending us roles to share with our community.

We also get companies who wants to just do job ads through us while some want is to do the whole process and send them 5-7 candidates.

We have passed through candidates in thousands and I can’t tell you they all got employed but one thing I can say is in the last 2 years of existing (Offline and Online) the number is encouraging

I do follow your work online and I must commend you and the team for a great job. You are someone who has been working with job seekers for a while now, what can you say about them?

Thank you for the feedback.

Well, job seekers are in a different space.

You can get impatient with them if you don’t understand them, but I happen to have been on that divide even though I didn’t really look for any job, it was always there. But I understand how a typical job seeker thinks and processes things.

This is due to the volume I have come in contact with over the last couple of years.

I was going for a lot of job seeker events between 2013 and 2017 and this made me understand them more. I personally don’t like generalizations, so I won’t say they are quite needy or easy to read. But I will say one thing, they need all the help and support they can get

That’s a great way to look at things. You have spoken well. Pro Hangout is almost around the corner. Can you share more about it and the benefits of attending it?

Thanks! Let’s get to the event of the year.

Prohangout is in February and we are going to go really big this time around.

• 1 Keynote Speaker, I won’t mention a name but i hope i get him to come.
• 4 Panelists
• 10 Breakout sessions
• Business Pitch 
• Meet and Greet session

This edition is tagged the business edition because businesses are the reasons we have jobs.

So we want to encourage small business owners, young executives, business managers, recruiters and start up founders to bookmark February 29, 2020 for Prohangout 2.0

We are focusing on job creation and how small businesses will play a big part if we are to tame the menace and create lots of jobs.

We have been speaking to sponsors and partners to enable us to have a great event.

We will also like to give out grants to small businesses on that day.

It’s a packed day already.

February 29 is once in 4 years, the best way to spend it is to be at Prohangout 2.0

I am definitely not going to miss this if I’m still around.

David, you are one of the few making a change out there. What advice do you have for job seekers out there?

You better not miss this edition.

I have one thing to say to job seekers, be the candidate an employer is looking for. Be ready and be skilled at what you do.

I recruited 2 people for a client this week and she is excited to start working with them.

That feeling is what job seekers should thrive for.

And they should keep working on themselves, the big gig will come

How can other job seekers reading this interview reach out to you?

I am around, they can follow me on:

Twitter @obadafidii or @dejijobs 

LinkedIn : Jaiyeola Ayodeji David

What about your company website?

Yes, I missed this one out, the website.

What about your company’s website, Worka?

Worka is being upgraded at the moment, so we took it offline for some reasons. We are relaunching at the event

Thank you, David Jaiyeola, it’s been wonderful chatting with you. I wish you and your team an outstanding success in all your endeavours.

Thank you Chinedu