Over the week, I read with utter dismay, the lies that was propagated by Sterling bank Plc and the insults that was traded on the average Nigerian graduate that participated in the screening test that took place on saturday,19th April 2014 on this forum and I felt so bad because the reports had no iota of truth and credibility in it. I should have replied during the week but my job wouldn't allow me hence the reason for the slight delay.



Prior to the test, there had been an earlier one in which candidates were given some question that had subjective answers and those that were said to have passed the test with a minimum score of 80% were later informed about this new one that took place last week. The first test itself was marred by lack of organisation and the difficulty of logging into the sterling bank portal but candidates managed to pull through and do the test.



Based on the problems earlier encountered in the first test, everyone thought that Sterling bank would have corrected the mistakes and take appropriate actions but reverse was the case. The second test was worse as most candidates couldn't log in at all talkless of taking the test. I was one of the candidates that couldn't log in despite the fact that I used three different types of modems and two laptops. When I couldn't log in after multiple trials, I rushed to a cyber cafe close to my house to try that out. Expectedly, I met about ten persons there that were trying to access the portal and everyone had the same complaint. It was obvious the website could only take few persons at a time considering the thousands of youths that were billed for the test which must be taken within two hours. After a while, about two to three persons were able to log in but couldn't access any of the questions except for the instruction page and we all read the instruction page well. On the instruction page, there were three basic information on it; The first one was that candidates should read each question very well and follow the instructions, the second one was that success would be based on the performance in that test and the third one was that, credentials and information earlier submitted will be part of the screening as well and that was all.



While we were all still trying to log in, a person got lucky amongst us and question number 1 came. Please, follow this writeup very well and try and digest its contents. As I was saying, question no 1 came and there was no particular instruction on it except for a mathematical question in which 4 options were given. Now, the way the test form was designed, a question can only appear on a page at a time and it is impossible to move to the next question without selecting an answer in the current one and clicking on a next button. From question no 1 to question no 16, there was no instruction in them except for questions and options. It also takes at least 2 minutes for the next question to come after clicking on the next button.



On getting to question 17, there was an instruction before the question and the instruction reads....ANSWER ONLY THIS QUESTION CORRECTLY. What does this statement mean? It cannot mean that question no 17 is the only question the candidates were expected to answer because, if you do not click on an answer in a question, the next question won't come up and it will be impossible to get to question no 17 itself. Logically, the only thing it could have meant was that, answer all other questions wrongly but make sure that the answer to question no 17 is correct. If this is the case, then the instruction should be on the first page before the questions but it was not there. If it were there, that means candidates should skip all questions before no 17 and then answer no 17 correctly, skip 18,skip 19, skip 20 and then submit but remember the way the form was designed .....no question can be skipped which leaves a candidate with the only option of solving each question, getting an answer and then deliberately chose wrong answers except for no 17 but mind you, THAT INSTRUCTION FOR QUESTION NO 17 WAS NEVER IN THE FIRST PAGE, IT ONLY APPEARED ON QUESTION NO 17 ITSELF. Question no 17 actually asked for the name of the MD of Sterling bank.


When candidates submitted, they were told they failed because they refused to follow instructions which said ONLY QUESTION NO 17 SHOULD BE ANSWERED CORRECTLY and which was not possible based on my earlier points.


I have done a lot of aptitude tests by Dragnet, Workforce etc which I have a 70% pass rate and I have seen companies do magomago in their recruitment processes , the worst they have done is not to call one back even after spanking the difficult aptitude tests and all and then one wouldn't hear from them again until some persons resume through the back door but this Sterling bank own is the worst I have ever come across, it was so dubious and filled with lies and Nigerian youths were taken for granted and meant to look like fools and those that didn't even know anything about the process were so judgmental and ridiculed those that wrote the test on this forum for not following instructions and that is why I had to come up with this write up to clear the air.


Finally, it is so sad that in this country, companies treat graduates with so much disdain and lack of respect all because of job scarcity. The Nigerian labour law is non functional and that is why job evils stand and this daylight robbery by Sterling bank is about to stand too, no one to fight for our youths. We would be fighting a losing battle if the management of Sterling bank is sued . Since those that would get the job is already known, why waste people's time? Why lie against them? Why conduct a dubious process? To the unemployed youths out there, may God give you a good job that is devoid of magomago and lie lie like that of Sterling bank. ( AMEN)

Hmmm

This is terrible

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Modified
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I dedicate this freshest FTC to Almighty God

This is truly signs of good things to come this week

God bless Nairaland

God will help us.

Companies been joking with Nigerian graduates since God knows when all in the name of employment opportunities.

God will help us

Honestly, this Sterling bank assessment is one of the worst I ever heard of. I simply lost respect for the bank. Unless they merge or the bank gets acquired, I don't see myself banking with this shambolic institution.

Its so disheartening looking at the way employment issues is handled in this country.

Wish the wind of change can also blow on our labour law.

Scam everywhere; both public and private sector.

Don't you guys know that companies now do recruitment as a form of advertisement??.... Some do recruitments for audit purposes.

They keep their own as contract staffs only to make them full time staffs when openings are available.
Then they embark on a recruitment campaign where over 500000 graduates will apply and in then end they want to take just 5 people, 5 people who are already contract staffs with them!!!!!....

I've seen this happen with a multinational,....they didn't even interview these contract guys!!!!!!!!.....


What can we do?...we just have to keep applying until we get involved with standard meritocratic companies like KPMG, PwC, PnG, NLNG, Kendor, Shell, Slumberger, Unilever, PZ,....and a few others.

Sorry Bro



are you from mars





you should have seen it coming from onset





I feel ya pain





Try on move Bro

I really don't know why some Nigerian graduates can't dive into business or set up a company be it in servicing/manufacturing/production etc sector. We have so many first class candidates these days and yet they roam the streets looking for jobs. Well, graduating with first class does not mean you will succeed in business though Sterling bank and other banks/businesses/companies in Nigeria was someone's initiative. Stop blaming employers of labour, start blaming yourself, that's the way to move forward. If companies are treating graduates with so much disdain, that alone should be your motivation to start something small and grow it till it becomes big. That is my own 2cents o

LEvuls:
Sorry Bro



are you from mars





you should have seen it coming from onset





I feel ya pain





Try on move Bro

Not that bro. I have a job, just did it to stay fresh with respect to test formats but I couldn't take the lies that was told by the company and the way graduates were insulted on this forum for not following instructions.

Op, a friend of mine shared her experience about this test u are talking about wit me. She even munched the instruction page and showed me. Right there on the first page, the instruction to answer only question 17 was there. So I don't know what u are talking about sir.

Modified.
Op, I was wrong. I am sorry.

Cc davide047 ishilove uboma seun lalasticala

So who were the 120 people that passed, how did dey do it, are there NLanders whose names are on that list,

We need clarification.

naturalwaves:

Not that bro. I have a job, just did it to stay fresh with respect to test formats but I couldn't take the lies that was told by the company and the way graduates were insulted on this forum for not following instructions.

I get your point and I have been following the thread only if you have been observant you will see criticizing the firm, there's no strong genuity about the job openings

Most coy take Nigerian graduates for granted...GE take note.

Hmmmmm! It's only God that can help we graduates without job

faceURfront:
Op, a friend of mine shared her experience about this test u are talking about wit me. She even munched the instruction page and showed me. Right there on the first page, the instruction to answer only question 17 was there. So I don't know what u are talking about sir.

Modified.
Op, I was wrong. I am sorry.

You're better off deleting this poo You just wrote.

LEvuls:

I get your point and I have been following the thread only if you have been observant you will see criticizing the firm, there's no strong genuity about the job openings

Exactly. I don't know why they decided to waste people's time.

naturalwaves:

Exactly. I don't know why they decided to waste people's time.

Audit and conversion of contract staffs to permanent staffs.

naturalwaves:

Not that bro. I have a job, just did it to stay fresh with respect to test formats but I couldn't take the lies that was told by the company and the way graduates were insulted on this forum for not following instructions.

I thought I was the only one that noticed it, I still remember clearly the amount of insults that were hurled @ those that failed missed the test. The entire first page of that thread was just filled with insults.
Nigerians? Smh may God help Us.

CHM11:

Audit and conversion of contract staffs to permanent staffs.

SMH.

Cpumping:
Cc davide04.7 ishi.love ubo.ma seu.n lalastic.ala

So who were the 120 people that passed, how did dey do it, are there NLanders whose names are on that list,

We need clarification.

The Op is wrong. . Questions could be skipped. .

But those that passed didn't follow instructions either because the instruction said read 'ALL' questions before answering. There were 20 questions. How then do you answer no 17 when you haven't read all questions? Abi Nos 18-20 no be questions? ? There was no back button, so how were those that passed able to read till the last question (20) and return to 17 without a back button??

Sterling bank contradicted themselves IMO.. They should hv maybe simply put read 'across' the questions before answering...


Then again, network was crap.. scheduling thousands of applicants for an online test within the same time frame?

MarvellousGod:
The Op is wrong. . Questions could be skipped. .




The instruction said read 'ALL' questions before answering. There were 20 questions. How then do you answer no 17 when you haven't read all questions? Abi Nos 18-20 no be questions? ? There was no back button, so how were those that passed able to read till the last question (20) and return to 17 without a back button??

Sterling bank contradicted themselves IMO.. They should hv maybe simply put read 'across' the questions before answering...

The OP lied in his statement.

Firstly, I was disappointed when he didn't mention the instruction that noted that candidates should read through all the questions before attempting any.

Secondly. The 'next' button was visible, and skipping was possible.

Personally, I would still blame sterling bank. Why?

They should have done a proper test knowing that their servers couldn't handle that much traffic. They took advantage of the traffic.

Now, 20 mins was given for a test of 20 questions which a prepared person can answer in 10 minutes, but how possible could that be?

My experience:

I was able to log in at about 11:43, 3 mins later than the possible 20 mins as the test was scheduled to end at 12.

I read all the instructions, and started the test, I skipped question 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8... And the time it took me to skip a single question was about 1-3 mins, by the time I got to question 10, my timer read just 5 mins left, and it was already 2 minutes to 12 as I got through 3 minutes late.

At question 10, I thought 'how come I've skipped half of this test? Obviously I may not have the time to scroll back to number 1 to start answering the questions, so maybe I best start from question 10, surely I can hit a 55% mark if I do so'

Also I panicked when I couldn't find a 'back' button, it was like a Zombie feeling, what if its a trick?

So I selected an answer for 10,11,12,13,14,15,16 and thence came 17 Lol, no need to describe the expression in English

NA THERE I REALIZE SAY I DUN FÙCK UP

By then it was 12:02 already, I guessed lots of persons had given up because the pages started loading faster and surprisingly, I wasn't logged out.

The info on question 17 demoralized me, I answered it and skipped to 20, then the test result page.

It was quite an experience, it won't happen again, however, sterling should have done better.

Imanuelle:



The OP lied in his statement.

Firstly, I was disappointed when he didn't mention the instruction that noted that candidates should read through all the questions before attempting any

...So what does "start test" mean when one was supoosed to read all before attempting any? Does that follow logically? The only deduction that could be made from that was that they meant read each question's instruction before answering and that was why I never took it as a basic info. If you want all candidates to read all questions before answering, then the start test option shouldn't be at the beginning.

Imanuelle:
Secondly. The 'next' button was visible, and skipping was possible.

What's the essence of a skip button without a PREVIOUS one? That means the next button is non functional as you can never go back to a skipped question.







Now, based on the remainder of your argument, the main instruction said read all questions before answering any and that means a candidate should get to the last question ( 20) before attempting any at all, so why should a candidate answer no 17 withouth going through all if the said instruction is to be followed?? That is very contradictory and clearly shows that the whole process is a scam .






Moreover, let us even consider the statement "ANSWER ONLY THIS QUESTION CORRECTLY". Logically, what this means is that you can answer all other questions but make sure that they have wrong answers and only this question no 17 should have a correct answer. There is a difference between"ANSWER ONLY QUESTION NO 17 CORRECTLY" and "ANSWER ONLY QUESTION NO 17". The latter would have even made a better sense. No matter which way you want to look at it, it was a big scam.

If a bank could be this shady in its recruitment of staff from the public, I wonder the kind of atrocities that would be going on with depositors' funds in the bank.

This is outrageous and should be condemned by all and sundry. We, as Nigerians, should take our destinies into our hands.
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kadgets:

You're better off deleting this poo You just wrote.

Get lost

faceURfront:


Get lost

Lame

The fact that less than half of the qualified candidates were able to log in for the test (according to Sterling Bank themselves) shows that it was a failure. Many got false links in their emails. Those that managed to log in could not write the test as the website was hampering progress. I seriously doubt up to 500 people successfully wrote the test (the bank claims more than 2,000 people did). Does the bank actually think they've got the best 120 candidates?

Even the gist that 120 people passed the test is a scam of its own. I know of a guy who managed to log in, and was still struggling to read instructions, when the site got stuck. He refreshed the page, and got a congratulatory message! He was informed that he had the necessary quality of following instructions to the letter bla bla bla...

Ona never de learn abi? The stress it took to carry out the online quiz the other day when their server went haywire is enough to warn anybody against putting hopes in the bank's aptitude test naaa

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Could part of the problem be problematic internet connection in Nigeria?

I think Sterling Bank would have done well to just do a paper test.

ok