David Apaflo's Blog

I first came to the knowledge of the STAR framework when I was preparing for my case interview with Mckinsey & Company . Read here , here and here to catch up. The framework was introduced to me by Seun Oyegunle who at that time was an MBA student at Wharton Business School. A framework simply means an organized way of tackling a problem. You can call it a formula. STAR simply means S - Situation : Give a brief description of the situation you found yourself in. T - Task : State the task you needed to carry out and the challenges you considered A - Action : Describe the specific actions you took to complete the task R - Result : State the result achieved with numbers to quantify the result. This framework is best used for competency-based questions you might be asked in an interview. Usually with these questions, you have to tell a story about your achievement(s). The trick is to weave the STAR framework into your responses without pausing or letting the intervi

This is the part where I get to famz. I and Shade (Flash as she is popularly called) were in the same graduating set in Unilag and we also worked together at Vetiva for a while. We also took our first CFA exams at the same time but while I went on to fail, she has gone on blazing the trail and now gives us clues to lead us in our quest for the revered CFA designation.  In August 2015, she passed the final level of the CFA exams and in this interview, she tells us how she was able to do it at 23 and also shares some useful insights - DA.  Tell us about yourself (Education & Work background) – Thank you David. I studied Finance in the University of Lagos…finished with a good degree too. Since then, I have worked as a research intern at Vetiva Capital Management. I did this for 3 months after which I had to serve at a private school in Festac, Lagos. Once I was done with this, I decided to further my education and just generally build on my knowledge base, so I enrolled i

At a recent summit, I was amazed to learn that Africa’s contribution to online content is less than 20%!! Thinking about it, most times you search for information, you would get a lot of foreign perspectives with that local perspective nowhere to be found. Nairaland seems to be the most reliable source for finding local content on the internet. In the light of the above, we all should get online and start posting! Post about Nigerian, African stuff!! Let’s put Africa in its rightful place. The following steps are to guide you in becoming a content creator: 1. Visit www.godaddy.com and search for the blog address (domain) you want to use 2. If it is available, proceed to check out and pay for the domain using your GTBank Naira Mastercard (should cost about $14 which is about N2,300) 3. Visit www.blogger.com and create a blog account 4. Follow the instructions here and here to link your domain to blogger 5. Fill your blog with content

Recently, the leadership of NYSC decided to introduce a Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Program (SAED) as part of the one year mandatory NYSC Scheme. It is impressive to see the effort of NYSC in ensuring that the unemployment rate in Nigeria is drastically reduced by equipping everyone who passes through the scheme with one skill or the other. I was privileged to be a facilitator at a capacity building session for Corps Members in February this year and it was great teaching budding entrepreneurs the usefulness of accounting records. Anyway, accounting is not the topic for this piece. In this piece we would be looking at how you can take your newly developed skill to the next level be it cake making, bead making etc. So now you know how to bake, what next? In business, having the skill to get the job done is not good enough. You need more. You need to be able to convince people to patronize you (marketing) you need to position your skill or product (branding), keep

Nowadays, everyone seems to have a blog and my initial thoughts were “Should everyone blog?” I think everyone should and my reason is simple -You have access to information that someone needs. Why not share?! Based on that premise, this blog is basically about sharing my insights, perspectives and general gist. I might get a bit personal too. The blog will basically be along the lines of career, money, business, motivation as these are the areas I have had people ask the most questions. I hope you find this blog useful. DA