My MEST Recruitment Experience
January 2019, social media was agog with the news about the application for the next cohort of MEST training program. I checked out the link to apply and it was a series of essay questions to be answered with a certain number of words for each question. The essay questions were about twenty-three.
At a point, I almost gave up applying but I had this friend who believed very much in me and thought I had all it takes to be part of the MEST training program. Amidst all the ups and downs, the pressure and the stress I went through at the time when the application was almost closing, I found the courage to put in my application and that was it!
The online application was the first phase, out of a total of five phases that I later went through to eventually make it amongst the 56 Africans in the MEST Class of 2020. After the online application, I was sent a mail that I had made it to the next stage which happened to be an online test of twenty (20) questions.
The questions were focused on Tech, Business, Mathematics, and English. One could see one’s score at the end of the test and my score was 76%. I felt very excited because this looked like a pass mark to me and I really hoped that with this, I would make it to the next stage. Luckily for me, I did make it to the next stage.
The next stage of the recruitment process was an online interview. You could either have it on Skype or on Google Hangouts. I opted for Skype because I had used it before and it made a lot of sense to stick with what I already knew. I scheduled my interview with Tobi, the MEST recruitment manager and this was done on Calendly, an appointment scheduling app.
The day for the Skype Interview came and I got set for this phase that would determine if I would make it to the next phase or not. The interview happened to be a very interesting one. Tobi started the interview by introducing himself and the work he did at MEST before diving into the questions he wanted me to answer.
I tried not to be tensed but I also tried to answer questions to the best of my knowledge and ability. When the interview ended, I was told I will get an email stating whether I have made it to the next phase or not. The next phase was a two-in-one phase which is the Group Interview and the One-on-one Interview.
The wait for the last phase was quite long. I was excited when I got the mail on the third Saturday in April 2019 stating that I have been selected for the next phase of the recruitment process. I do remember the date very well. The date slated for my final round of interviews was May 4, 2019. I didn’t know what to prepare for but I made sure my clothes were well-ironed.
I seemed to be just on time for the interview. I met some other people who also came for the interview but they were all males. They were having cool conversations about tech, business, what they do and the entire tech ecosystem. I found the conversations very interesting even though I didn’t participate in any of it. In no time, other interviewees joined us and I could see some other females. Then I knew I was not alone.
While we were there sitting and waiting for our interview time, I could see that the first round of interviews was already ongoing. We waited until we were called and it was our turn for our own group interview. We were about 16 of us for my group interview and it started with introductions from the MEST team that had come to interview us.
We had a rundown of what the MEST training program is all about and what we will be involved in when we eventually get through to being an Entrepreneur-In-Training (EIT) at MEST Africa. MEST really looked like a place to be and it is an amazing place to be, speaking from the one-week experience I have had so far in the program.
Back to my recruitment experience! Everyone on the group interview later got a chance to introduce themselves and the part I loved most was the fun fact about yourself. There were a lot of unique fun facts about most people in the room and I could tell for sure that I was sitting with awesome individuals with unique potentials and abilities.
We gave our personal introductions and it was time for the first group task. Do you remember that I mentioned that we were sixteen in this group? Yes, sixteen of us were split into four groups of four people. We were given about 3 minutes to come up with a problem statement, a tech solution to the problem and how we intend to make money from the solution. Time went really fast. Before you could you count one to three, it was time to present our ideas.
Each group presented their idea in one minute. Yes, you heard me right. One minute.
Next task was a debate! This time around, we were grouped in twos with one side speaking for the debate topic and the other side speaking against it. The topic for my group was: Internal Hires vs External Hires. We spoke for internal hires and we had just one minute to prepare our points. It was great to be thinking on my feet.
We ended the debates and the group interview came to an end.
Those who made it pass through the group interview returned for the one-on-one interview, same day, same venue. Successful applicants were later called and congratulated on being selected for the MEST training program.
I am happy to have made it this far with the other entrepreneurs-in-training.
I share some interview tips in this article for one-way interviews. You can find some useful tips there for physical or telephone interviews.
