HIRING: WHY AN IMPRESSIVE CV IS NOT ENOUGH  

I was asked to do a piece that would be relevant to job applicants and corporate staff, not just entrepreneurs and CEOs. So, in this article, I will provide a little insight, from my perspective, on a question that I have been asked too many times in the course of my entrepreneurial/business management journey. That is the question about why a candidate may not get the job even when he/she has an impressive CV and the required experience. In other words, what are the things that receive consideration other than qualifications when hiring a new staff?

Surprisingly, even some HR officers do not know why out of three well qualified and shortlisted candidates, a CEO may say ‘keep searching,’ which means that he didn’t find any of the three a perfect fit for the role in mind.

First thing we have to note is that a strong CV gets you noticed. It gets you through the door but it does not automatically get you hired. Many candidates assume that once their qualifications and experience are solid, the interview should be a formality, but hiring decisions are often influenced by subtler, human, and strategic factors.

1. Communication Skills

A candidate may have excellent experience but struggle to express it clearly. Some brilliant persons still get confused with tenses and pronouns. At a certain level of corporate growth, these things are too important to be waived aside and may easily disqualify a candidate. Communication must be concise and clear in an interview. Rambling answers with no structure or overuse of jargon without explaining impact, are some reasons that may disqualify the candidate.

In one of my private companies, I once asked a marketing manager with over eight years of experience to tell me about a successful campaign she led. Instead of giving a structured answer, she jumped between ideas, tools, and team issues. I waited to hear about her goals, the specific tools she employed and the measurable outcome, but none came. As she rambled on, the job was off the table.

If you can’t communicate your value in an interview, employers assume you may struggle with clients, teams, or leadership roles.

2. Claims without Proof

A polished CV often contains strong claims but interviews test whether those claims are real. You may read claims like “I improved sales significantly.” In an interview, the candidate may be asked to substantiate the claim with numbers, metrics, and verifiable outcomes. Many times, these candidates are unable to explain with data how the results they took credit for in their CVs were achieved. You start hearing phrases like: “It was a team effort” or “I can’t remember the exact figures right now.”

This signals exaggeration or worse, lack of real ownership.

3. Poor Cultural Fit

Highly skilled candidates may get rejected if they don’t align with the company’s working style or values. Appearing overly rigid in a flexible environment, displaying unnecessary arrogance, being dismissive about company’s core values, or misalignment with company tone (too formal, too casual, or too aggressive) can all disqualify a candidate. A candidate interviewing for the position of an Audit/Reconciliation manager in one of my start-ups once told my HR manager that he could only “work within clearly defined roles and structured timelines.” I never even got to sit with him; my HR let him go from that point. The reason was that such a person though brilliant and with relevant experience was likely to slow down the new dynamic environment we were building.

4. Weak Emotional Intelligence

There are questions that reveal the ability of a candidate to adapt to team work or to manage conflicts effectively. These are revealed during interviews. A candidate had passed the written and field interview to join my publishing company. She was invited for oral interview where salaries would be discussed. She lied about her last pay, about the fact that she was asked to go and said trash about her previous employers. She was not called back.

Interviews assess how well you understand people, not just tasks. Speaking negatively about past employers, interrupting interviewers and general inability to read the room might disqualify a candidate that had checked all the boxes.

5. Inability to Think on the Spot

Employers need people who can respond under pressure, not just recall past achievements. Many top officers actually just thrive on past successes. It is in interviews that employers sieve through the impressive resume to determine real-time thinking. Some people freeze when asked situational questions or they give rehearsed answers that barely match the question.

For my trading company, my HR had four very good candidates for the position of Business Development manager. They were trying to recommend two for the final discussion with me but found it difficult to sieve anyone out. I asked them to invite all four because I needed to assess their problem-solving ability.

I asked the candidates the same two questions and at the end, HR team easily picked their candidate.

First question was to test market intuition, risk assessment, and structure under ambiguity. “We want to expand into Ghana next quarter, tell me three things you’d check first and what your go or don’t go criteria will be.”

The second question was to test creativity, negotiation and stakeholder management. “Our South African suppliers just told us that prices of their wine will go up in 60 days due to harvest issues. Our Nigerian retailers won’t accept any price hike. What will you do in the next two weeks?”

The ones who could think on the spot were easy to pick out. The one who had a clear idea of what to do was the winner.

The CV does not give these answers.

6. Lack of Preparation about the Company

Some candidates go for interviews without a good knowledge of the organisation they want to get into. This is surprisingly common and very costly. They don’t take time to know the company’s products, target audience, competitors, or recent news about the company and its management. This signals low interest and poor initiative.

7. Over-qualification or Misaligned Expectations

Sometimes the issue isn’t capability, it’s being fit for the role level.

A candidate may be too senior for the role or the salary expectation may be far above budget. Sometimes, it could be that career goals just don’t align with the job. If a senior manager applies for a mid-level role but says “I don’t mind the step down, I know I will grow as the organisation grows or recognizes my input,” he may still be turned down. The reason is that he may never fit into that role effectively. He may not accept discipline from people that were his juniors and may soon show signs of discontent. HR identifies such candidates as retention risks.

8. Lack of Authenticity

Candidates sometimes “perform” instead of being genuine.

They give over-rehearsed answers or say what they think HR wants to hear. I was told once that a candidate says her biggest weakness is that she works too hard. It was the office joke for a while. Of course, she did not get the job because she sounded insincere.

Sometimes, the claims on the CV do not align with what it says on LinkedIn and also differ from verbal responses. Hiring managers note all these things and even small inconsistencies matter.

9. Poor Non-Verbal Communication

Body language often speaks louder than words.

Some candidates avoid eye contact during interviews. Or, they keep looking at their phones and appear anxious to be somewhere else. Nobody would hire someone who already looks difficult to engage with. Some slouch and look as if they want to minimize themselves. When the interviewer asks if they have any question, they quickly shake their heads. This shows low curiosity and little self confidence. An interview is a two-way communication. When asked about salary or why the person should be hired, it is an opportunity for the candidate to sell himself and justify the salary he is asking for.

Employers hire solutions, not histories

10. Better Competition

Sometimes, the harsh truth is that someone else performed better. Another candidate gives clearer, more impactful responses or aligns more closely with the team. Two candidates have similar CVs, but one gives structured answers and the other gave generic answers like “I just want to grow my career.”

Hiring is comparative, not absolute.

In conclusion, an impressive CV gets you into the room but interviews confirm trust, clarity, relevance, and connection. It confirms who you really are and what you can do and that is what decides who gets the offer letter. So, don’t just prepare your CV, prepare yourself.

Cheers!

Fatherhood with Ibe

GONE TOO SOON: A Tribute to my Uncle and Ally, Steve Kachikwu

Steveooo!!!

I am not sure where to begin, because unlike most people who knew him only in the earlier or later years of his life, I knew him all the way through — youth, adolescence, and adulthood.

He was my uncle in a literal sense. But the three-year age difference between us made that title too small to contain what we were. He was more like an older brother, or a reflective cousin of sorts. The word uncle never truly did justice to our relationship.

Every half-brother and half-sister of my father came to live in our house at some point in our lives. My father, Late Justice Chief Okafor Kachikwu, the Okwelegwe, Onicha-Ugbo, was a quintessential example of open-door parenting and mentorship. From him, we learned that a successful man’s home must remain open to family, to siblings, to responsibility, regardless of the complexities of polygamous roots and family intricacies.

So people came and stayed with us, and my two stepmothers, Mercy and Joe, had no choice but to become instant mothers and mentors to whoever walked through those doors.

Steve and Uncle Felix Onekanse were among the closest to me because we lived together the longest.

In those early days, I attended public primary school, just like them. Uncle Felix, about eight or nine years older than us, was our disciplinarian and rules enforcer, yet also our protector. We would trek many kilometres to school, Steve and I, struggling to keep up with Felix’s agile, athletic strides. Steve and I would both be frowning in silent protest as we tried to match Felix’s pace. In those days, it was our duty to keep up, not his responsibility to slow down.

Our primary school was only a few poles away from Uncle Felix’s modern middle grade school, so he would walk us to our own gate — already sweating and tired — before proceeding to his. Of course, he always left us with a warning to go straight to class, and be ready and waiting at closing time for him to walk us home.

Phew… those were the days.

Steve and I later attended the same secondary school — Saint Anthony’s, Ubulukwu, and when my father moved me to St. Pius Grammar School, Onicha-Ugbo in my fourth and fifth years, Steve followed again. I was always a year ahead in class, and as a naturally gifted top performer, I would push him to buckle up. Without minding the age gap, he always deferred to me.

He was the very definition of humility. That humility and respect he gave me lasted all his life, as our paths kept weaving in and out of each other’s. Over time, he became one of my most trusted allies.

Steve was a brother and friend to anyone who opened their doors and heart to him — anyone willing to receive him. After my return from the United States, I set up Hints Magazine, and Steve joined me. He rose through the ranks to become the Marketing Manager, and later Deputy Managing Director. He was one of the pillars of that business. Alongside remarkable colleagues like Chidinma Agwu, Tony Kan, Reuben Abati, Kayode Ajala, Cyprian Onwuli and Amaka Obiofuma, he helped steer the company through the unpredictable tides of publishing for over twenty years. In a time when staff disloyalty was common in the industry, these people gave their loyalty, energy, and excellence without reservation.

So we did not just come a long way as relatives, nor as products of the Justice Okafor Disciplinary and Mentoring School, but as comrades in adolescent mischief, and partners in professional growth.

Steve was a man of truth and deep faith, serving God faithfully each day. He was a man of family; he balanced the care of his immediate household with the towering responsibilities of the Okafor Kachikwu dynasty. It was therefore no surprise that after the passing of Uncle Felix, Steve became the trusted custodian of our grandfather, the Oga kachikwu’s dynasty, a position that he did not just occupy but embodied. He wielded its authority with firmness and dignity until his last days. That dynasty, I dare say, remains one of the most respected in Onicha-Ugbo — not for wealth or fame, though those have been present, but for its enduring pursuit of justice, principle, and peace.

We, the members of this dynasty, will miss Steve deeply, just as his immediate family will, because he made all of us his immediate family.

But me — me, Ibe, simply Ibe — stripped of life’s titles and decorations, I will miss a friend, a brother, an ally and a trusted adviser. I will miss a unique uncle, one in whose quiet and private presence I have let my vulnerabilities show, sometimes shedding tears of pain and frustration, and sharing confidences and challenges too personal to me.

Today, in my quiet moment, my tears fall for Steve … but now, ALL ALONE.

Steveooo…

May the angels accompany you home.

May God receive your soul with the same enthusiasm with which you served Him on earth.

Simply: Gone too soon.