The Interview

I got to Abuja, the capital city of my country, Nigeria, Thursday March 2 and went to the hotel accommodation provided by the organisation. Friday morning, after a drive around Central Area, during which I almost lost my nerves, the driver of the taxi and I finally found the ActionAid office. I located the office in the building, went inside and was directed to the conference room. I met about 20 other people there. Wole Odewusi, the HR officer, came around to introduce the process to us. But before he did that, he told us that about 700 people applied for the five internship positions, 35 were shortlisted for the interview, and for Friday, those who are from out of town would have be interviewed. He proceeded to ask some of those who were around to leave and return the following day. By the time he finished his pruning, only 16 people were left. He then went on to tell us about the process. We would first have to go through a group discussion, during which we would be divided into three groups, and then we would have the computer test. After the computer test we would be asked to wait for the result of the group discussion and the computer test. During the waiting period we would be served lunch.

During the group discussion, my group consisted of four other persons. We were given a list of 6 questions; we were supposed to discuss four of them. It was pretty nice discussing the issues, although we almost ran into problems when we had to debate a topic that says that the role of civil society organisations is to provide services for the people and not to antagonise government. It was the opinion of most of the group members that civil society organisations are not supposed to antagonise government but I pointed to the fact that where government makes irresponsible policies I would expect that civil society organisations would fight against the policy. One of the group members, Iye, said that civil society organisations could antagonise the government in the process of providing services for the people; in that case antagonising the government would be a resultant effect. I gave the example of the anti-Iraqi-war movement in the US and asked if that movement did not antagonise the government. Of course, no one could disagree that they did. In my opinion, specific organisations are formed to fight certain policies, and in that case, they cannot help antagonising the government. I also thought that ‘resultant’ or ‘intended’ effects are dependent on perspectives. Certain organisations are formed to fight certain government policies, and in that process they are providing services to the people, for policies are always about people, n’est-ce pas? Also, organisations that take people as the starting point sometimes end up antagonising government because they cannot provide services to the people because of an irresponsible government. I wonder why I am making an issue of this particular topic.

After this we went for the computer test. My typing is not bad so I was able to answer the Word questions on time. The problem I had with the computer test was in writing a project proposal, and doing a budget in excel. I expected that anyway. I had never done a budget before, so what did I expect. I did what I could. After the test then the wait. During the waiting period we had lunch. Each person was then called into a private room and told the result of the group discussion and computer test. When it was my turn I was called in and asked what I would do better if I had the opportunity. Of course, I told them that I didn’t do very well with the computer test. I was told that that was good self evaluation, that I did well in the group discussion but my score dipped in the computer test. I made it to the oral interview anyway. Four out of the 16 made it to the oral interview, and what really impressed me was that three people out of my discussion group of five made it to the oral interview.

The oral interview went well, and I have a feeling that I will get an internship position. I was told that I would hear from them in two weeks, either of my success or failure. So I am waiting.

Will keep you updated