Jobs are difficult to find nowadays. We have far more qualified people than the available jobs on the market.

When an advert comes up, hundreds and often thousands of people apply. To be shortlisted for a job interview is a very rare occurrence. When that happens, one must do everything possible to ensure you get the job because you cannot be sure of the next time you will have a chance to be interviewed again.

There may be three or even five of you as candidates being interviewed for the one job, one slot. The panel wants to get the one best person. What if you are number two?

This takes me several years back. I will share this amazing story while trying to keep the anonymity of persons involved. We had advertised internally for a managerial job within my department.

As often happens, we all knew who was to take that managerial job. He had often acted in that capacity, was a great engineer and a natural occupier of that office.

Several engineers applied and we shortlisted 3 or 4 candidates for interviews which many of us thought were just symbolic. Little did we know that one ‘underdog’ candidate had prepared so well. Let us call him Mark for purposes of this narration.

Each candidate was given 20 minutes to make a presentation about the job on offer and how they would execute their duties if selected and why they believed they were the best candidate and so on.

Mark made the best presentation by far. Even the follow up questions were ably handled by him. He was so impressive. By far, he turned out to be the best candidate. The preferred candidate was a distant number 2. We had a big challenge as a panel. If the preferred candidate was not given the job, he was likely to quit because he was a top engineer and highly sought after in the market. If we gave him, we would have been unfair to Mark who was by far top candidate.

To solve the puzzle, we gave the job to the preferred candidate. And for Mark, we promoted him to the same rank as the job he competed for and we created a new managerial job for him and as luck happens, the job had other inherent benefits. In the end Mark got a job beyond the interview, a job far better than what he wanted.

After some weeks, I had a chat with Mark to understand what happened. He told me that he knew there was a preferred candidate like everyone did in the department. Because of that, he chose to over-prepare and turn the tables. He told me that before coming for the interview, he told his wife: “I am so prepared that even if I am not picked, the company will do something about my career.” Indeed, we did something about his career. Something bigger than he anticipated.

Many of you chicken off opportunities too early. Once you know there is someone that everyone thinks will get the job, you do not even attempt to apply for the job. Yet, the world is so interesting. We live in a world of surprises. Allow surprises, good surprises to happen to you. Allow the chance for a job beyond the interview.

Even at the current Africa Cup of Nations games in Ivory Coast, several underdog teams are making it. No-one would expect Democratic Republic of Congo, Cape Verde and such teams to make it when big teams like Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, Morocco and Algeria have flopped. It is down to determination and go-getter attitude. How much fire do you have under your belly? Have total belief and fight for what you want, what you deserve and what should belong to you.

I have seen so many other people grab the job from the preferred candidate. I have seen so many employees get the promotion or job beyond the one they were interviewed for. What you need is to do your part and do it so well. Then leave the rest in the hands of God.

Good luck as you work to get the job beyond the interview! Then you will rise and shine!

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The post Get the job beyond interview appeared first on The Nation Online.