Once every decade or so, something new comes along to transform the marketing industry. If you draw a through-line from radio and television to the advent of the internet and, most recently, digital channels like search, social and mobile, you’d find one common principle: that early adopters’ advantage pays off handsomely for the businesses who master new, paradigm-shaking channels early enough.

Perhaps, then, we shouldn’t be surprised to see so many companies diving headfirst into the metaverse. Although at this early stage it shouldn’t be a surprise to see some of them stumble and fail in their attempts, the potential of the metaverse to define the winners and losers of digital marketing for decades to come is too enormous to ignore. And it seems more likely than not that the eventual winners will be found among brands who are already testing it out.

Even though the concept for the “metaverse” is hard to pin down, as of yet it exists mainly as a loose and amorphous web of 3D gaming platforms, VR worlds, and AR experiences—brands like Nike, Gucci and Disney have signaled their intention to commit to it.

And they’re not alone. Hiring for metaverse-related jobs had already spiked more than 400% this year even before Facebook went all in and changed its name to Meta, with the overall market size of the metaverse projected to grow at nearly 44% over the next seven years.

Why all the fuss? What is it that makes the metaverse so alluring to brands, and why do so many feel that it’s worth taking such large bets on?

One major reason is it merges the best of the physical and digital worlds to impact the way people work, play, learn, socialize, shop, and generally communicate with one another. Beyond that, there are several other important reasons that the metaverse stands to reshape digital marketing.

Consumers crave experiences

Today’s consumers have grown tired of the static display and video ads that permeate the web and social media. They crave rich, interactive, immersive experiences. With most consumers no longer content to just sit back and be marketed to, they prefer to play a role in defining a brand and to have a say in what it means to them.

The metaverse is built on such experiences. By its very nature, you don’t necessarily watch or view the metaverse but you’re also an active contributor. Your very presence in it helps change it in ways both large and small. The metaverse replaces the flat, two-dimensional world of the web with a 3D (or in some cases even 4D) experience that is much more real lifelike, but this time only without any of the pesky rules of quantum physics. Brands are flocking to the metaverse because the types of experiences that can be created there are practically limitless. This is the most creative world brought to life and brands want to be a part of it.

The entire customer journey can happen within the metaverse

Previous paradigm-shifting channels such as search and social generally catered to just one part of the customer journey. The AIDA (awareness, information, decision, and action) model. For example, search is great at identifying mid- to low-funnel prospects who are already in the information and evaluation stage, but very poor at helping raise awareness and shape perceptions at the top of the funnel. On the other hand, social has always been very good at the latter but, at least until “social commerce” became a recent trend, relatively poor at the former.

However, the metaverse contains opportunities that affect the entire customer journey in a streamlined way. The metaverse allows brands to reach new audiences in new and inventive ways while enabling them to dig deeper, learn more and ultimately make purchases, all in a single, cohesive experience.

It takes co-creation to the next level

Marketers have been striving to involve consumers in the co-creation of user-generated content for practically as long as the term has existed. It is a marketer’s dream to have consumers creating, publishing, and sharing content featuring their brand, but one major challenge has always been how to encourage co-creation in a way that feels authentic and meaningful.

The metaverse enables brands and consumers to co-create content in ways that we haven’t even discovered yet. The metaverse enables brands and consumers to co-create content in ways that were never possible before—and in ways that we haven’t even discovered yet. As the metaverse unfolds, the co-creation of virtual environments, avatars, and experiences will define a new era of UGC (user-generated content)

It powers inclusivity, diversity, and representation

Within the last year or two, there has been a movement to bring more inclusivity and diversity to marketing. A survey from Meta found that 71% of consumers expect brands to promote diversity and inclusion in their online advertising, and yet that same report says the majority (54%) of consumers do not feel fully represented in online ads.

In the metaverse, we can create our own experiences and are at the center of our digital worlds. Through the metaverse, marketers will be able to inject their brands into a consumer’s experience in a way that makes each consumer the star of their show.

Instead of seeing famous actors, models, or rap artists hawking the latest styles, in the metaverse a clothing or fashion brand, for example, can allow each of us to try on their latest looks. If we like it, we can send it to our friends, who may be more likely to engage with the content than if it featured a celebrity they don’t know personally.

If people feel underrepresented in advertising, what better way to represent them than to do so directly, by featuring them in the brand experience itself? We see this today through many of the AR experiences found on social media.

What comes to your head when you hear “Tell me about yourself”. Even though it’s one of the most common interview questions, “it almost always stumps a lot of people. It might seem like an easy win—after all, you know all about yourself!—but responding to this invitation to talk about you in the context of a job interview can feel stressful and complicated. It’s challenging because it is a broad, open-ended question. You might be thinking: Um, what do you want to know? How am I supposed to pick what to share out of my entire life story right now? should I answer what they want to hear or should I be honest?

To prevent moments like this, preparation is key. Adequate preparation will have you ready for this opening question and can help you use this opening prompt to your advantage, therefore setting the stage for a successful interview.

As with any interview, one major key to having a good answer for any question is to understand why the question is being asked in the first place and what type of answer the interviewer will like to hear.

interviewers often ask this question as it serves as a great way to break the ice, lighten the atmosphere in the room and set the direction of the interview. Oftentimes, the answer given by the interviewee helps figure out the next question. It could also build up to a set of follow-up questions that lend an easy flow to the conversation.

Other than serving as an ice breaker and transition question, the introductory question helps recruiters and hiring managers to achieve a major goal in the interview process which is getting to know you better.

Providing a good answer to this question moves the interviewer to probe questions as to why you will be the best fit for the job in terms of hard skills, soft skills as well as experience. It’s also a great opportunity for the interviewee to demonstrate good eloquent communication, connect with and react to other humans, also to conduct yourself professionally.

The question “tell me about yourself” is also another way of the interviewer saying I have your resume right in front of me, but I’ll like to hear it from you. walk me through your journey, your background, and most possibly tell me something that’s beyond what is documented in your resume.

Formula to Answering Tell Me About Yourself Question

1. Tailor Your Answer to the Role and Company

Whenever an interviewer asks this question, he/she is simply implying and expecting your answer should be perfectly relevant to the role and position of the company you’re getting interviewed for.

You should always take advantage of this opportunity but to do that, you need to be adequately prepared. Spend some time going through the job description and researching the company. figure out how you can tell your story in a way that makes it crystal clear why you’re interested and what you can bring to the table that aligns with the role and company.

So when you’re in the midst of a job search looking for a particular type of role, you might have a basic template you use for every interview, but make sure to tweak it to fit the company. It’s an opportunity to show them right away that you have done your homework. If they talk a lot about culture and behavior, weave that into your answer as well.

2. Keep It Professional

In keeping with the notion that this question carries an invisible addendum “as it’s relevant to this role and company” you’re best off keeping your answer professional. In other words, this isn’t the time to talk about your family and hobbies, unless you know something very specific about the company that would lead you to believe otherwise.

3. Practice (But Don’t Memorize)

Practice! Practice! Practice! You don’t want to wait until you get this question in a live interview to try out your answer for the first time. Think through what you want to convey about yourself ahead of each interview and practice saying it out loud. Remember there’s no such thing as over practicing.

If you can, go beyond practicing solo. It always helps to practice with other people to hear your answer and get feedback from how other people interpret what you say. Asking a trusted colleague, friend, or family member to listen and react to your answer will help you hone it. If your practice buddy is game, you can even ask them what they would say if they were being asked, and try to put yourself in the interviewer’s shoes to think about what you’d look for on the other side.

Practice will surely make your answer stronger and help you become more confident giving it

4. Know Your Audience

As with any interview question or conversation for that matter, you’ll want to make sure you understand who you’re talking to. You might get some form of “tell me about yourself” at every single stage of the interview process for a job, from both the phone screen through final rounds, but that doesn’t mean you have to give the same answer every time.

If you’re speaking to a recruiter who’s not immersed in the hard skills of the team you’d be joining, you might keep your answer more focused on the bigger picture, whereas when you speak to your prospective boss, you might get a little bit more technical. If you’re talking to a C-level executive as part of your final round, it’s probably smart to touch on why you’re drawn to the overall mission of the company they run.

5. Remember This Is Often Your First Impression, and It Matters

We only have one chance to make a first impression on anyone. I believe that most hiring decisions are made in the first minute, which includes your greeting, handshake, eye contact, and the first thing you say, which may very well be your response to “tell me about yourself.”

Even if the powers that be aren’t making an irreversible determination shortly after the conversation begins, a first impression can color the rest of the interview. If you have to spend the rest of the time making up for a bad opening, you’re in a very different position than if you gave a succinct, confident, and relevant answer right off the bat.

Be prepared for this question and show interviewers you prepared for it.

As technology continues to evolve, getting a job in the industry is a viable one for many people. Tech allows you to grow in almost all aspects of your life including your career, as it’s a field with many sectors that give professionals the chance to grow their knowledge and abilities. However, it’s also a highly skilled field that often requires employees to adapt to changing technologies and meeting set deadlines for important projects on behalf of your organization.

If you visit the #1 job website in Nigeria that is solely focused on IT jobs, you will always find different types of software developer positions remain unoccupied. This clearly shows there is a growing demand in the field that is not sufficiently matched with adequate supply at the moment.

One major misconception about this industry is that while a lot people believe you need a degree in computer science, mathematics and other related subjects to venture into Tech, that is not necessarily the case. Although an adequate background knowledge in the above fields are really appreciated, it is not a prerequisite for having a successful career in the field. Tech is such a broad term and there are various departments associated with it. I would name a few categories that aspirants can vie into with little or no key knowledge in Computer science and mathematics. I will discuss a few of them as follows.

Other Non Engineering Tech Roles

Design:

The concept of design in tech is pretty broad, but when people talk about design, they tend to mean user interface (UI) design and user experience (UX) design. These two aspects of design are quite broad themselves. They involve pretty much everything that has to do with how the product will look, feel, sound and function.

In larger organizations, especially in more developed tech ecosystems, you’ll find more specialized roles under UI and UX. Some designers, who often start as generalists, are solely responsible for illustrating icons, while some only deal with animation.
This kind of specialization is uncommon in Nigeria, as the industry itself isn’t mature enough to support that at any meaningful scale. In Nigeria, you’re more likely to find design generalists who do everything related to UI and UX.

It’s also common to find designers who are also front-end engineers. This is changing though. As more companies become more successful, they’re able to afford specialists and now have entire teams dedicated to designing. Because of this, simply learning how to become a designer, and nothing else is a perfectly reasonable path towards a lucrative career in the Nigerian tech space.
visit our website for available jobs for UI/UX designers in Nigeria

Project Management:

Pretty much every industry needs project managers (PMs), so you can transfer experience and knowledge in other industries to project management in tech. Of course, not everything is transferable and tech PMs will need a good understanding of the technical details of the project being managed. If you think managing people, communication, and designing efficient processes are your strong suit, then you should consider becoming a PM.

Growth and Marketing:

Growth can be broad, too. In a tech organization, these are the people who are laser-focused on making sure there’s growth — be it the growth of subscriptions, orders, ads viewed, or whatever metric that best captures the core value that the product or service delivers. It also involves quite a cross-section of skills; marketing, design, statistics, written and spoken communication, project management, and more.

Customer Support:

This is often the most overlooked role for people considering working in tech. My theory is that this is because, generally, people in non-tech customer support jobs in Nigeria don’t earn much. This is a second-order effect of Nigerian establishments not valuing or investing in customer support because we have a deeply ingrained culture of “Manage It Like That.”
What are the advantages of having a career in Tech?

The tech industry has been immensely progressing and expanding over the years. And no doubt, it’s an industry that is the most in-demand today. Because of this, there is a great need for tech professionals to create and execute technical processes.

Work Flexibility

In many of the IT companies, it’s not all about a 9 to 5 desk job. Most of them offer work flexibility where you can work at your preferred time and place. This has been a crucial step in the tech industry to induce agile working along with productive outcomes.

Work-Life Balance

Not being tied to a desk or in an enclosed office area is the most significant perk of working in tech. By working in tech, you can indulge yourself in something productive while carrying along with your life routine.

Working as a freelancer has been the most preferred option by the tech geeks currently. With this, you can even get to work higher than those who do a 9-5 job

Discovering New Aptitude

With the continually changing technology, you can never acquire enough knowledge for this niche. However, you might get a chance to work on various projects with different roles to play in each. You can get to switch between other areas of interest as well. Furthermore, this will assist you in learning the course of your work along with discovering and attaining new skills.

Career Growth and Development

Pursuing a career in tech offers you a chance to evolve and polish your skills with each task that you get to perform. Using specific tools and working with creative people enhances your work results.

While many jobs make you stuck in a single job description, working in the tech industry will open other opportunities and will introduce you to new career options.
The best part about working in the tech industry is experiencing persistent changes. You don’t get to sit still in front of your device, working on the same project for months. There are always new ventures to take up, and that makes you more efficient in your work.

However, these changes will rather be challenges, requiring thorough assessment and processing. With each research, you’ll evaluate a different finding, and that leads you to discover something new each time. Thus, with earning, will come the learning.