Recruitment woes . . .
Back in early June. this landed in my mailbox:
Safaricom is looking for Kenyans working in the US and the UK who would be interested in meeting us to discuss career prospects especially Engineers, however, we will meet any other professional Kenyans who are interested in returning home to work. We will be going to Birmingham, UK the first week of August and to Atlanta in the US during the second week of August.
Let anyone you may know in the US & the UK send me their C.V and I will send them a formal invite along with specific details of where we will be for interviews.
Thanks.
Njeri Kinyanjui
Resourcing Manager
Safaricom Ltd
Tel: 4273527, email:NKinyanjui - at- Safaricom.co.ke
When I showed what I now refer to as “the Safaricom email” to my wife, she immediately said “junket“. She asked me “What kind of company sends their people to the States/the UK to recruit without first accepting resumes, trying to screen candidates with email/phone interviews or whatever?”. “These are professional positions that they are trying to fill, right?”
I thought about it a little and her argument made sense. I talked to a couple of people in HR who told me that as an organization, you cannot expect to identify, carry out due diligence and hire multiple candidates especially for engineering positions within a week. It also seemed strange that Safaricom was looking to recruit professionals who were making more in the US/UK than they would make in equivalent positions in Kenya. Sort of a reverse brain drain but without the monetary and lifestyle benefits associated with the move. It seems that the only people who were likely to be attracted by the deal were those who had grown disillusioned with life outside Kenya but that is another story.
It just did not add up.
Since we were making plans to be in Atlanta about that time anyway, I thought that I would try and get an appointment with the people at Safaricom, meet them, do the whole networking thing, make some contacts and learn a little about what the IT / telecoms market looked like back in Kenya as I have always been interested in all things telecoms, the field in which I worked at the time and since in all honesty, that type of contact never hurts.
So, I dropped them an email.
I, of course, did not receive an acknowledgment or reply to the email that I sent.
I put that down to the Kenyan way of doing business. Professionalism in dealing with end consumers/customers has never been a strong suit of Kenyan organizations. This is especially true when one is perceived as looking to get into the HR pipeline for hire. So, I thought nothing of it, reminded myself that employment in Kenyan is all about whom rather than what you know and got back into real life.
All of this would have been forgotten were it not for a call that I got earlier this week from a friend, lets call him “MM”. “MM”, who lives in Illinois, and I have been good family/personal friends and next door neighbors back home in Kenya for more than 15 years. He has been considering about moving back to Kenya with his family. This came up in our conversation while led to him mentioning “the Safaricom email”.
When we got into the subject a little, it turned out that dealing with Safaricom had left a bit of a bad taste in his mouth. The good people at Safaricom has agreed to see “MM” so he had paid for a return ticket/hotel room in/to Atlanta from Illinios as well as made arrangements to take time off to get all of this done.
On arriving at the upscale hotel where the Safaricom team was staying, he was met by a gentleman who was apparently a”very senior” member of the IT staff at Safaricom - dressed in lounge wear and basically looking like he had just for all intents and purposes jumped out of bed - and a lady from HR who was also very casually dressed. The interview location turned out to be the very ground on which they were standing in the hotel lobby. They then proceeded to chat with him about nothing specific. No time was spent covering his academic/technical credentials, abilities or experience. His attempts to get specific job descriptions and functions for positions that Safaricom was looking to fill were rebuffed with non-specific answers meaning that he had no idea about the roles that Safaricom was trying to fill.
“MM” tells me that the only technical question that was asked during the course of the conversation (which really did not amount to an interview in his estimation) was how the Safaricom network was implemented - information that would seem internal to the company.
Anyway, a couple of days later, he got this:
Which all served to make me very curious about all this.
Junket or not?
A couple of questions for those of you out there who are willing to answer - I guarantee anonymity to all. An email address (that will NOT be published) would help though.
- did you try to contact Safaricom to set up an interview?
- were you just looking to network/find out what they were offering or were you seriously trying to get into the organization?
- did you get a response to your contact attempts? Was it positive or negative?
- did you or anyone you know actually interview with Safaricom when they run these events in the UK/US?
- what was the experience like?
- and finally the 64,000$ question: did you get an offer?
- if you did receive an offer with safaricom and decided to take it up, let us know as well.
Leave a comment and lets us know how it went.
Like I said, all this will be anonymous do don’t be afraid to leave a comment. While I realize and appreciate that Safaricom has the right to conduct their recruitment in any fashion that they like, I think that it would be interesting to find out if Kenyan professionalism in the recruitment arena has changed and if the approach taken by Safaricom is really and effective technique for recruiting KTs.
If you have a blog or site, please mention this post on it and link here if you can. I would really appreciate it. It would also be cool if you posted a link to this on the various Kenyan forums that you go to so that we can see if we can’t get conversation going about this.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 14, 2006 at 11:03 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can also leave a response or trackback from your own site.
29 Responses to “Recruitment woes . . .”
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Kenyan Pundit » Safaricom and shady recruiting methods? says:
December 15, 2006, 3:52 am -
David says:
December 15, 2006, 4:58 amThought i was alone in this, i was planning to be in atlanta at the said time and actually did email Ms Kinyanjui hoping to be able to meet her in person so that we can discuss of what safaricom has to offer, however i never received any feedback from her apart from an out of office auto reply. i still have a copy of it and i think i should post it here
“”"”Thank you for your e-mail. I am currently out of office until 21st of August 2006. I can be reached on +254-2- 720-738093. Alternatively contact Latiffa Cherono-Murage on Extn. 3518 or e-mail lcherono@safaricom.co.ke.”"” -
Gathunuku says:
December 15, 2006, 8:54 amMaybe the ‘trip abroad’ and all it ‘promises’ was too good an opportunity to pass up for Safcom HR folks since they seemingly weren’t there to recruit.
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acolyte says:
December 15, 2006, 8:56 amI am not an engineer but the roughshod wording of the ad and they now shoddy interview methods have shown that this is an important issue.
We have very different readerships so what I am going to do is link to this on my blog and see if any affected parties come your way.
Nice post! -
bankelele says:
December 15, 2006, 9:30 amHmm - Could they have been fraudsters pretending to recruit for the company? Or were the team members too tired / having too good a time in America to conduct any serious recruiting?
Their careers website still mentions an interest in recruiting Kenyans abroad who are studying engineering, telecommunications or IT
If they were fraudsters, they were pretty sophisticated since they even had company letterheads to send rejection letters back on. The tired theory sounds interesting, what does everyone else think?
- Steve
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Whispering Inn says:
December 15, 2006, 11:17 amDone.
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AfroM says:
December 15, 2006, 11:24 amI did hear of someone who got a job offer at Safaricom, though if they got it through the recruitment drive in Atl - that i do not know, but will inquire and let you guys know.
I hope there are no shenanigans going on..but if there were…(I know y’all are already coining phrases) but i will go ahead and just throw it out there… It will be known as The Great KT SafariCon.
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AfroM says:
December 15, 2006, 11:31 amO.k, the said person attended the interview in ATL and i have forwarded this post to her, i hope she weighs in with her experience…. Thanks.
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wangju says:
December 15, 2006, 12:53 pmi got this invitation to attend some open career fair but opted …….
Dear Applicant,
I am pleased to inform you that you have been invited to the Safaricom Open Career Session where you will meet 2 division heads from Safaricom - the Chief Technical Officer and the Chief Human Resource Officer- and get to know about our business and career opportunities.
We will determine those to be granted personal interviews. For those whom we will be interested in holding individual oral interviews with, we will slot you in for Tuesday afternoon:
Open Day
Date: Tuesday 8th August 2006
Time: 9:30 a.m. – 12:00 a.m.
Venue: W Atlanta at Perimeter Centre. 111 Perimeter Centre West: Atlanta , Georgia 30346.
Tel: (770)396-6800
Please confirm availability.
Regards,
Njeri Kinyanjui
Resourcing Manager
Safaricom Ltd
Tel: 254-2- 4273527
Mob: 254-2-720738093
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Mimmz says:
December 15, 2006, 5:53 pm. . . this post has been removed by the author . . .
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Steve Ntwiga Mugiri » Archives » musical link: Orchestra Mangelepa and Jamuhuri Jazz says:
December 15, 2006, 10:55 pm[...] «« Recruitment woes . . . [...]
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JKE says:
December 17, 2006, 3:55 pmThat Safaricom letter looks pretty awkward to me. These guys are professionals??
Pole.
I think it’s a wonderful idea to pull Safaricom back into some healthy cluetrain.com discussions with this post and others on KenyaUnlimited in the past. Let’s get these gals&guys into answering our questions! Customers!
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tHiNkEr’S rOoM » Blog Archive » SafariCon says:
December 17, 2006, 4:47 pm[...] And then I read that Ory and Steve Ntwiga have had similar reservations about this little email, that looks like a colossal gaffe on Safaricom’s part. [...]
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The.Hanyee says:
December 18, 2006, 5:42 amThanks for highlighting this email, dude..I also received this email and I flushed it down my mind’s drainage system as soon as I finished reading it. The grammar, the lack of clarity, the absence of a clear, transparent process etc etc spelled and smelled dodgy.
As one of the largest Kenyan companies, Safariclown needs to seriously up its game professionally. Also, its rather sad that we are light years behind as far as talent management is concerned - this being in Kenya in general. This shoddy recruitment process detailed here only goes as further proof to this.
Would be great to hear what they at Safaricon have to say about this…
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Stackofstiffys says:
December 18, 2006, 7:14 amHonestly, this is funny way to treat job applicants, least of all by East Africa’s most profitable company! I got that e-mail from a friend in Safaricom and they asked me to send it to my friends in the diaspora. I did and sure enough one of my friends was asked to go to ATL for an interview. They then heard murmurs from friends on the nature of the recruitment and they skipped the recruitment drive, lucky them.
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Stackofstiffys says:
December 18, 2006, 8:36 amSafaricom and many more Kenyan companies need to be more professional in recruiting. They were the first to venture into the diaspora (unless am wrong) and now they’ve made other Kenyan employers look lame. It is one of 2, either they seriously wanted to hire (which I personally doubt) or they wanted to kill the diaspora as a resource base for Kenyan company. Let’s face it, sooner or later they’ll face the challenge of growing their business (Celtel are now 50% or so cheaper) and what better way is the to kill off the compe than crapping Kenyan employers in the diaspora then get expats from the Vodafone plc?
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Tee says:
December 20, 2006, 4:42 pmI was there! I initially sent an e-mail with my information and it took a full month to hear back from them. I made arrangements and travelled to ATL for the session - there were 4-5 other people total and we were put through a battery of tests from 8am until4:00 pm. There was a group exercise that tested our teamwork, a one on one interview with the CTO and head of HR and then, a battery of tests (literally). Some were very specific about the telecom sector (CDMA, GSM, HSDPA etc) and others were more analytical thinking (algebra problems and english comprehensions). They provided lunch at around noon (the hotel catered) and testing continued until 4 or so when it all ended. All in all, it was physically and mentally draining - they told us outright not to expect to answer all questions (I didn’t, along with someone I spoke with afterwards). I went home soon after but upon my return, I found a letter from them declining. It wasn’t as strong as the one posted here..
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ejn says:
December 20, 2006, 10:00 pmI did respond to the email and as everyone else no response or feedback from SafariCom. I learned later that there were individuals in Atlanta that got the opportunity to meet with SafariCom, their experience left a lot to be desired. I will let know of this blog and hopefully they will share their experience with you all.
If you are looking to get back to and be part of a working nation.
post you CV at http://www.careersinafrica.com and good luck.….Happy Holidays
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wangju says:
December 26, 2006, 1:51 pmxxxxxx
???
Unable to decode: try again in another dialect.
- Steve
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Mbutu says:
December 27, 2006, 6:59 amProfessionalism? I shudder to imagine this is typical of how Safaricom Management works. I suspect the two ”Chief Officers” you met are the true face of the company’s Management. I was told by an a friend that they are the level immediately below CEO.
He says the rank and file employees are dedicated and know their stuff. Many people I have met say that the company makes money because (a) Kenyans see it as more of a ”Kenyan” company than Telekom Kenya or Celtel Kenya, (b) the Management is accountable to the minority shareholders only (Mobitelea 5%), who maintain absolute control of the outfit including staffinf, finance and accounting, (c) they must show a profit on their books anyway to create impression of success, otherwise the banks would move in to take over.
it is possible that they may wish to recruit from diaspora because without using objective criteria they can select their kind to tilt the tribal balance in their favour, and ignore/downplay/keep down/underpay the professionals available in Kenya. -
Daud says:
January 3, 2007, 5:32 amI saw a similar email in early June 2005, when I was just about to move back to Kenya.I emailed my CV and I got an invitation letter a week later to go the UK for an interview in mid July.I informed them I couldn’t make it as i had made plans to move back to Nairobi around August, to my surprise, they emailed back and told me to contact the once i got there.I was starting to get impressed by their speed and seemingly professionalism.
I landed in Nairobi sometime in early August and made the attempt to contact the HR person i had been in touch with.Then the dog and pony show started!
Numerous ignored voice mails, emails and visits to the Safaricom offices I finally got a meeting in late September, where I was informed that recruitment was over and that if I could leave my CV, they will go through it and get back to me. By then I was just going through the motions for sake of it.Ironically, I applied for a job at Safaricom in early 2006 and was called for an interview.I decided to do it just to see how they carry out their interviews. i had been dissapointed with my inital contact and wanted a second opinion. Didn’t get the job, which was o.k with me. I didn’t want that particular job. I worked for a company that did work for Safaricom so I ended up working on many of their sites. However, the inital contact left a bad test in my mouth, especially, being given the run around.I hope they have improved on their professionalism for their sake.
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Groove says:
January 5, 2007, 11:31 amHi,
This is all very funny…I applied for a position via their email address for graduates abroad….this was in March 06. I got a call in July 06 asking me whether I was ready for the “scheduled” telephone interview. I told them that I had never even received a confirmation after applying and that I had never scheduled a telephone interview with any HR staff.
Why give me a call 4 months after making my application. Do Kenyans honestly sit down for 4 months and wait to get “that call?” Safaricom are just a bunch of tossers..that is very unproffessional. I’ve applied for more important jobs in UK and/or Europe and I have received a call back on the same day…lets wait for the 3rd operator to hit Kenya and then the strongest will survive..
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allan wasonga onyango says:
January 17, 2007, 9:56 pmthanks for the nice music men i grew up litsening to can you
post the song sofia by maroon commandosAllan,
I do not have Sofia but I will check to see what Maroon Commandos track that I can post as a substitute.
Keep coming back!
- Steve
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Mwiti Kanga says:
May 18, 2007, 11:41 amHi,
There is this message in the Safaricom site(http://www.safaricom.co.ke/2005/default2.asp?active_page_id=187)
(Are you a Kenyan student studying Engineering, Telecommunications and Information Technology abroad? Click on the link below to send us your CV and Contact details”.
kenyansabroad@safaricom.co.ke)Do you know anybody who has successfully been recruited by responding to this message on the Safaricom site?
From talking to my sources at the organization, that number current stands at 0 (zero).
Now, is this the Mwiti Kanga that I think that it is?
Drop me an email with your number so that I can get in touch: my email address is
steve at ntwiga [dot] net
- Steve
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Steve says:
May 18, 2007, 10:01 pmHi Steve:
My email address is similar to yours but no ‘dot’ between the steve and the blogs.
It seems that i have been receiving mail from the people here wanting to contact you.
When i sent a mail to steve.blogs to notify you, the mail was sent to my inbox, that means therefore that you have the same email as me but since i got it first all your mail comes to me.
I advise you change your ‘contact’ mail in the top-right hand corner.Steve
steveblogs*gmail
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Tony M says:
August 11, 2007, 9:35 pmJust came across your blog. Like others I tried sending my resume to hr@safaricom.co.ke and have not received even a courteous acknowledgement of receipt email. Needless to say the kenyansabroad@safaricom.co.ke email they would like kenyans in the diaspora to send CVs to simply bounces. Try it yourself or scroll below to see what I got back. I sent them a heads up about a month ago but I guess they could care less. Cheers let me know if anyone has better luck.
“postmaster@safaricom.co.ke”
to meshow details
11:49 am
This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.Delivery to the following recipients failed.
The information in this email and any attachments is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended only for the use of the named addressee.
Emails are susceptible to alteration and their integrity cannot be guaranteed. Safaricom Limited does not accept legal responsibility for the contents of this email if the same is found to have been altered or manipulated.
The contents and opinions expressed in this email are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Safaricom Limited. Safaricom Limited disclaims any liability to the fullest extent permissible by law for any consequences that may arise from the contents of this email including but not limited to personal opinions, malicious and/or defamatory information and data/codes that may compromise or damage the integrity of the recipient’s information technology systems.
If you are not the intended recipient please notify the sender and immediately delete this email from your system.Final-Recipient: rfc822;kenyansabroad@ safaricom.co.ke
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.1———- Forwarded message ———-
From: “Tony M”
To: kenyansabroad@safaricom.co.ke
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 11:46:41 -0400
Subject: Trial Application -
timothy says:
January 12, 2008, 4:53 amIwishh to be a member to this company.
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jamrick maina says:
January 21, 2008, 4:48 ami would love very much to be among the company as a engineer
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amos waweru kingori says:
August 20, 2008, 12:44 amthank for you better and good service to us as subscribes
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[...] Then today, I read Steve Ntwiga’s interesting post . It seems like Safaricom left a bad taste in at least one potential recruit’s mouth, and like Steve I’m curious to know whether this was an exception, or whether Safaricom’s M.O. is no different from the average Kenyan organization (let’s start with no response to emails). [...]