By Okuanwan Offiong
Google on Tuesday said that it has gone live with the inauguration of its Interview Warmup, a tool that enables job seekers to practice answering interview questions.
Mojolaoluwa Aderemi-Makinde, Head, Brand and Reputation, Google, Africa said in a statement that the launch of the tool is to help job seekers become more confident and comfortable with job interviews.
Aderemi-Makinde said that Google was excited about Interview Warmup because it showed how new technologies have the potential to help young people in Africa have the skills needed to grow their careers.
According to her, the tool can help create more opportunities for African job seekers.
‘’Africa has the youngest population in the world, with 70 per cent of Sub-Saharan Africans under the age of 30.
“Many of them are creative and entrepreneurial, and over the next five years, 300m people will come online in Africa.
“The digital exposure of young Africans will create opportunities to acquire digital skills through training to assist them in getting the right jobs.
‘’Just as important as it is for them to acquire digital skills, it is also important that they have the skills to successfully scale an interview session to land their dream jobs,’’ she said.
She said that the Google Interview Warmup tool reinforces Google’s commitment to continue helping job seekers in Africa improve their interview skills and prepare them for the careers they want.
Aderemi-Makinde said that as important as it is to learn the skills needed to perform well on a new job, it is even more important to learn the skills needed to qualify for roles.
According to her, the tool, initially announced in October, 2022 at the second Google for Africa Event, was designed to help Google Career Certificates learners prepare for job interviews.
The head, brand and reputation said that it is available for everyone to use.
She said that an average job listing in Africa attracts over 2,400 applicants showing that the chances of landing a job could be very difficult.
Aderemi-Makinde said that interviewing in a new field could also be hard especially when a job seeker does not have access to people in the field to help practice and prepare.
According to her, interview Warmup enables job seekers to practice answering questions carefully selected by industry experts.
She said that it uses machine learning developed by Google Research to transcribe their answers and help them discover ways to improve.
Aderemi-Makinde said that individuals preparing for interviews could simply start practicing with a simple click on the homepage, choose the kind of job they are interviewing for.
According to her, then do a practice interview that consists of five randomly selected questions or individual interview questions.
She said that users would also be able to see insights patterns detected by machine learning that can help them discover things about their answers.
According to her, interview Warmup is available at grow.google/interview-warmup and could be accessed on the latest versions of Chrome on OSX, Windows, Android, latest version of Safari on iOS devices.
Aderemi-Makinde said that interview tool makes it a little easier for anyone who plans to complete one of the most important parts of the job search, which is the interview.
(NAN)
