After graduation and service, you then realise albeit too late how ill equipped you are for the rigors of the current job market. Your certificate isnt going to get you something good unless you had a "strong" connection. You need to acquire a skill, you know what your passion is but dont know how to go about learning what you need to know to make a living from it.

Come in internships,you are excited, the low barriers to entry was a blessing, you apply for numerous positions advertised and relating to your field/passion. You finally get an invite and get the job.

The pay and terms were nothing to write home about, afterall you are just an intern. There was promise of retaining you if you did well after the stated period and a little stipend.

First month everything goes well but quickly spiralled out of control, the mentorship wasnt available, you were assigned frivolous tasks that had nothing to do with your job description pay was virtually non existent reason being "we are in a recession". You suck up and start learning on your own, making untold sacrifices, being loyal to the organization until the scales eventually fall off your eyes. You hadnt achieved your goals there, be it in financially, skill-wise or in any other way. You had only wasted valuable time and resources thinking you would be appreciated.

You leave with many regrets and lessons to learn from. This is my experience. What's Yours?

ehyA! you just got a raw deal. it's not that bad in other places. Their are individuals/organisations out there genuinely interested in filling the skill gap and training the next generation of Nigerian professionals. It's just unfortunate that some unscrupulous people see it as a means to source cheap labour (after an unnecessarily rigourous recruitment process).

I am not really an intern per se, but I am currently underpaid for my educational qualifications. A sacrifice I had to make for the sake of career change. After an MSc in one of the biological sciences, I realized how really screwed up the system is.

The bottom line is that few people are really willing to train new individuals in a particular field of endeavour. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CAREER ADVANCEMENT. This is the bitter truth.

The system is really messed up, i assume you are currently in a field working which is totally different from what you studied. Sometimes it is luck sometimes it takes guts and hard-boiled will.

But you cannot do it all alone, one way or the other you would eventually need help but incase one doesnt see, he has to make do by himself. What a country we live in.

@chrisbaxtian are you into ICT?

abdeiz:
The system is really messed up, i assume you are currently in a field working which is totally different from what you studied. Sometimes it is luck sometimes it takes guts and hard-boiled will.

But you cannot do it all alone, one way or the other you would eventually need help but incase one doesnt see, he has to make do by himself. What a country we live in.

@chrisbaxtian are you into ICT?

not really