A Job Seeker's Experience at The ICS Talent Bank Job Fair

This is the disappointing experience of a job seeker at the recently concluded ICS Talent Bank Job Fair at National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos.

Read on....


What was the ICS Talent Bank Job Fair meant to be? It was touted to turn out as ‘Africa’s Biggest Job Fair’. The theme widely publicised was ’50 Brands meet 2000 Talents at 1 venue’. The profile on the twitter handle of ICS Limited read ‘Be part of the 2,000 job seekers to get employment at the ICS Talent Bank Job Fair.  On the ICS job portal, the main aim of the job fair was to address the scourge of unemployment faced in Nigeria today by preparing and presenting Top Talents to top brands for immediate placement.

With all these carrots being dangled, it wouldn’t be out of place for an average unemployed graduate to conclude that his/ her job search sojourn would most likely come to an end once he or she scales through the hurdles cum selection process required to get invited for the job fair as a top talent.

The selection process for the ICS Talent Bank comprised of 6 major stages which included online registration, candidates’ credentials verification at ICS offices, aptitude tests, first stage interview, second stage interview, employment documentations which included seeking out for 4 guarantors and witnesses, Employability/ Talent Bank Talk (this was meant to give candidates the required information of what to expect at the talent bank but deliberately CV writing and career talks were presented instead) and online career profiling assessment.


At the interview stages, it was widely circulated that major oil multinationals like Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, major manufacturing companies and several other indigenous and international brands would be at the job fair.

It would have been logical to conclude that similar processes undergone by the candidates would have been applied to the recruiting companies/ brands as well to ascertain their credibility, staff requirements and availability for the job fair.

Alas! The situation at the job fair was shockingly unexpected. Instead of meeting 50 great brands that were eager to recruit top talents, we were faced with 9 companies (4 banks, 2 FMCG, a pension fund administrator, a telecoms company and an ICT training institute) who came solely to force their products down the throats of candidates. 

I doubt if any of those companies were represented by their recruitment or human resources personnel. Their representatives at the job fair were marketing officers and sales agents. The same gimmick was used by almost all of them to ensure that their products were patronised i.e., if you are really passionate about working for us, then you have to love and use our products also.


As for the banks, one was ‘secretly’ advised to open an account on the spot for you to be considered. At the fair, I met a lady that was hastily filling out a savings account opening form for one of those banks. When I asked her on why she was doing so, she had to say she ‘truly loved the bank and had been looking forward to banking with them’. 
Seriously? 
A classic case of suffering and smiling. The telecoms company really perfected the art. On scrutinising your resume and discovering that your phone number is not that of their network, you are then recommended to get and register a SIM card at the fair and then purchase a N1000 voucher for you to have the chance to work for them. 
The ICT training institute mandated the unemployed graduates to register for one of its courses valued at N49000 to be considered for employment. The FMCG companies expected you to help in marketing their products as a sales agent. No wonder, some of these companies collected CVs just to later dump them on the floor after achieving their aims.

Candidates battling to submit resumes at the ICS Job Fair