We Are Looking For Discussion Panelists; N150K Per Month

[Grand_Unc]

Please read to the end

We are looking for someone with excellent communication skills and a great work ethic to join our online discussion forum as a Panelist/discussant

NewsComers.com is an online discussion forum, but with the discussions more guided and deliberate. The idea is to discuss hot and value-adding topics each day (Nigerian and Foreign).

Topics/threads are started by and facilitated by the admin or forum moderators, and for each topic or thread, the discussion will be driven by pointed questions. The commenters (or panelists/discussants as we choose to call them) structure their responses according to the questions asked. See the thread below to have an idea of how the discussions on the forum flow.

COVID-19: Did Nigeria Relax the Lockdown Too Soon?

Nigeria relaxed the lockdown imposed in some parts of the country due to COVID-19 on Saturday, May 2nd. The question that most people are or should be asking is whether that was done too soon seeing that the number of cases recorded daily in the country is still on the increase. The USA has started relaxing its lockdown because the numbers of cases are reducing. Is it right for us to follow the US when our own case is different? The charts below (courtesy of www.worldometers.info) which show th…

Required Minimum Qualifications

You must:

• Not be a religious or tribal bigot.
• Be educated (minimum of an HND or BSc degree) and be able to write very well (in English, of course!)
• Be efficient with a computer and can sit for long periods
• Own a desktop, laptop, or an appropriate smart phone.
• Have a reliable internet connection
• Have good comprehension and analytical skills
• Good writing skills (a published-author-level of skillfulness is too farfetched). You need to be able to write your thoughts in a way that will be correctly understood.
• Must be active on the relevant social media (Facebook, Twitter, Nairaland, etc) with decent following and posts.
• Be able to argue for and against any position (this should be evident in your social media posts). In other words, you should be able to see the pros and cons of any side of an argument or position. This also means that you should be able to do good research.
• Be research-savvy. You should know how to research (internet mostly) and get relevant information. You should know how to include references in your posts
• Be knowledgeable in several areas like politics/governance, technology, entertainment, etc
• Have a good sense of logic (i.e. high logical reasoning and analytical capabilities). Your logic should be superb and easy to follow and understand. Whatever argument you are making (for or against a point) should be convincing on its own
• Have a good working-from-anywhere discipline since this job will not be office-based, and it is 7-days a week role. You will be required to post every day!
• Have experience posting on online forums. We may need username to confirm quality of posts.
• As part of the recruitment process, all candidates will be given a test, and the test will basically be to comment on a specified post on the forum. From your comment we will evaluate your knowledge, research abilities, intelligence, how well you understand issues, logic, speed, and communication skills. Register and comment on the topic below and include your username in the CV you submit. Please do not bother submitting a CV if you have not participated in the test. The post to comment on is below.

Is The West Trying To Depopulate Africa Using Vaccines?

If you are in Nigeria, you would probably be familiar with the arguments some anti-vaxxers (those that oppose vaccinations) put up about the COVID-19 vaccines that several companies have recently started producing. Some of their beliefs are that: The vaccines, especially since almost every human will receive it, is a means of creating a new world order. They wonder why if this was not the case, why some countries and even airlines are making the vaccinations compulsory. I remember some even …

Your Role (if your application is successful):

• You will act as panelist/discussant/analyst/argumentator, etc on NewsComers.com
  • The idea is to fully discuss at least 3 topics per day. The topics can be on politics, government and governance, education, etc
  • Daily expectation: you will be expected to make at least 20 posts per topic per day. Your posts would, of course, be driven by the questions the thread moderator asks. Each topic will have at least 20 questions … It’s a full-time job!
  • Be commenting on all questions on the forum intelligently, to a conclusive end
• You must invite friends to register and start commenting on the forum. At least 5 new and commenting users per week is the target. Intelligent users!
• You will share links to all posts from the forum on your social media handles especially Facebook and Twitter
• You can act as a forum moderator when given the opportunity. In other words, you should know what kind of questions and follow up questions a topic can elicit.
  • When acting as a moderator, you should be able to spot behaviors that are against our rules and apply the appropriate sanction (warning, deletion of comments, banning, etc).
• Any other role that the admin may assign to you from time to time.
• It’s 24/7 job, meaning public holidays and weekends are still work days

Remuneration:

• N 150,000 per month (gross)

How to apply:

• If you are interested in this job send your CV to NewsComersForum@gmail.com on or before January 15th, 2021.
• Please note that your CV must clearly state the social media you are active in and possibly links (or your username on those sites) to your posts for us to be able to evaluate how well you present your arguments online

[Grand_Unc]

In a little over a week that we put up this advert, we have received about 150 applications.

One thing stood out… people do not bother reading till the end of the job requirements. It is clearly stated that CVs must contain social media handles, but less than five people included that in their CVs!

CVs should be tailored to the job being applied for. For this role, we really don’t care if your career objective is to be the greatest accountant or engineer that ever liveth. We need a discussion panelist and the only way we can ascertain that you are the right fit for us to to look at the quality of posts or arguments you make on social media. If you don’t include that, how do we evaluate you?

It is also surprising that of all the applications received, only one applicant posts on a forum! So the bulk of applicants have no experience posting on a forum, not even the popular Nairaland.

In order not to go the easy route of judging a book by its cover, we have included a test (which was hitherto reserved for shortlisted candidates) to the application process. Applicants must respond to/comment on the post shown below. They will need to register and include their usernames in their applications for us to evaluate their response. The post is below

Is The West Trying To Depopulate Africa Using Vaccines?

If you are in Nigeria, you would probably be familiar with the arguments some anti-vaxxers (those that oppose vaccinations) put up about the COVID-19 vaccines that several companies have recently started producing. Some of their beliefs are that: The vaccines, especially since almost every human will receive it, is a means of creating a new world order. They wonder why if this was not the case, why some countries and even airlines are making the vaccinations compulsory. I remember some even …

Please note that only the applications of those that commented and furnished their usernames will be reviewed/evaluated.

To make the process fair, we are going to send a mail to all those who have already sent in applications intimating them on the need for them to comment on the thread above. The essence of this is for applicants to show us a sample what we will be getting from them if employed.

Please note that comments will be evaluated based on quality, depth, thoroughness, details, and links.

Successful candidates will be announced here (number taken, not names).

[Grand_Unc]

So, an update on the recruitment exercise…

• We received a total of 230 applications

• 90% of the applicants did not follow the instructions for application. These instructions were included in the posts above.

• Less than 5 applicants post on forums (Nairaland), while less than 20 post on Twitter (even though many have Twitter accounts).

• Some people’s replies and responses to the test are a bit difficult to read. Either through inexperience in posting in forums or not being knowledgeable in punctuation/formatting, their posts are not formatted, presenting everything as one long paragraph! We will have to painstakingly read through and try to punctuate so the message of their posts will clear. That will take a few days.

• A few people commented on this thread instead of on the thread explicitly pointed out. I wonder what could have led to this. I have deleted those posts. Perhaps, I have a communication problem I will work on it.

• The response of one applicant @Semdok met almost all the qualities of the kind of posts we are looking for.

• The response of @Ekeoma_Chimdi is also good, but lacking references (i.e. links). You cannot argue for or against a point without some references to back you up. It lends some credence to your argument. It somehow also gives the impression that your position was not subjective but objective based on available data.

• There will be another test for the shortlisted candidates

Thank you

[Grand_Unc]

As at 9:18 AM on Thursday, February 11th, 2021, the eight (8) users listed below have been shortlisted for the second and final test:

1. @Semdok

2. @Ekeoma_Chimdi

3. @emaxmoo

4. @Fatizahra

5. @Jeboyjude

6. @Ellaunique

7. @kierankdot

8. @AishaOtu

We have sent out emails to the users asking if they are still interested in moving to the next phase. We hope to start getting responses from them later today.

Thank you.

[Grand_Unc]

So far, we have received replies from almost all the shortlisted candidates indicating their interest to proceed with the final stage of the selection exercise.

The final test is scheduled to hold next week. The exact date will be communicated to each of the candidates via email.