“Being brute doesn’t earn you a thing. On the contrary, it works against you.”
I am an ardent proponent of gender parity and this stems from my upbringing, my experiences through life and observations generally. Unfortunately, most of the gender allied arguments I tend to bring to light have always been in open discussions with only one in writing here. This was back when I was in the university, had a couple of interactions and realized that there was little being done for the boy child so we started off with a #ManTalk series of discussions. These have had a fair share of their successes and failures but this is for another day. Today I’m going to write to the boy child and any other person who is in contact with a male figure in their lives they feel can benefit from what I’m going to share here. Please pass it on to them especially the young ones trying to find their footing in life.
In the last week of December 2020, I had the opportunity to recruit for one of our partner organizations at Ryculture. The organization was in need of Pharmaceutical Marketing and IT Interns for which we sent a call out. 30th December 2020 was the deadline for the applications so we went to our mailboxes to review the applications in an effort to get the right fit for the job. This is where I got to realize that there’s more to the talk in our spaces. Often times we talk about the girl child being given preferential treatment but then on this account I got to acknowledge the fact that ladies go out of their way to make the cut. Out of 57 applications, we received 13 male applicants and 44 female applicants. Of these, most of the men had a CV that wasn’t appropriately formatted, no mention of the position they were applying for, and less than half had an application letter attached. Of those who had an application, the format of the letter was totally non-existent. A feature that’s taught in primary & secondary schools (letter writing).
On the other hand looking at the applications made by ladies; majority had polished and updated CVs, very few didn’t attach an application letter and most who did had the format right. In addition to this, most of their application letters had a pitch on why they felt they were the most suited for the position. Even without going into the technicalities on whether they can deliver on the job, you’d want the latter to represent your company.
I believe the boy child has to up his game and do better. There are the basics of the game of life and you have to master them. There’s no way you’ll expect the world to align with your values and interests while you personally do the bare minimum for yourself. It’s not going to happen. There are basics and even in applying for jobs, something we all do in our different spaces there’s the focus and the due diligence of getting to see the alignment in your skills and the job in question and how you can make the person recruiting see it through your lenses. Being careless have only earned so much in a lifetime and unfortunately, it’s been on the negative margins. Get woke before it’s too late. To the ladies going the extra mile, you are the phase of change the world needs. Use it for good and shape the world.
On this note, I am glad to acknowledge that this is a trend even in the team I work with at Ryculture where more ladies applied to join the task force last year in April; more have committed and delivered compared to those who have dropped out and ultimately this translates in the overall progression and skills acquisition.