bigcycs: Interesting thread,most helpful!

Ok so i gained admission to study MSC petroleum engineering @ Heriot-watt Dubai.i actually studied Petroleum Engineering @ FUTO nigeria...and i graduated with a 2'1.am actually supposed to leave by september this year .so i wonder if there is any information,tips,advice etc about how 2 adapt 2 the life in abu dhabi.

What are my chances in dubai assuming i complete this program and will wanna get a job there.

I will really appreciate inputs from folks on here.

Thanks

My bro, i don't leave in the Arab world but have gone to Doha a few times for product training (refresher).
Truth is the Arab people favour the Arabs first cos they are an extremely racially inclined people. If you are white, you have a huge advantage but they have this "look-down" attitude on blacks from Africa. If you are lucky you could get to work in one of the many whites owned firms who respect you on what-you-can-do basis and not the color of your skin.
You will have serious advantage of you have your NSE/COREN.

The OP spoke about acquiring some skills before traveling abroad and I firmly agree! Here are a few things I would do over or have learnt along the way:

1. Learn how to fix cars – even if you’re coming here as a student because you will save yourself a lot of money over your lifetime. You can even use your skills to get a side job while in school. My mechanic charges $125 per hour and typically charges a minimum of 1 hour even for the most mundane thing!

2. Learn how to type properly if you’re going to be a student and/or white collar professional.

3. Learn how to sew (tailoring)

4. Learn how to braid and weave hair – you can make a quick few hundred dollars tax fee on weekends, especially if you’re a student.
You will be paying for a blue collar skill whether you like it or not and you will quickly realize that you can save a lot of money by doing the easy things yourself or charging people that can’t!


Things not to worry about
1. Getting rid of your accent – that will eventually come if you immigrate at an early enough age and even then it will take time, especially for men. All you really have to do is learn to speak clearly and “slowly”.

2. Making it right away – success comes with hard work except if you’re lucky or highly talented.

^^^^

Thanks for compiling a good list...

Ozonna:

Good question. Especially as our educational qualifications/credentials are not recognised outside our shores.

who said our educational qualifications are not recognmized outside Nigeria


do you knw that ppl going to UK for masters use their Nigerian first degree as pre-requisite?

do not degrade out educational system pls

wallie's list is good but i doubt most people will be able to do these things full time if they're students and even if not.

some do make lots of money as hairdressers, but there's also an associated health risk and besides, you could be tied down all day if care if not tsken. Mechanic is good but only if you're disciplined and maybe not interested in further studies. A lot of mechanics tend to fall into spurious lifestyles maybe through carelessness or peer pressure, i dont know.

But if you have a heart for God and are disciplined, you just might scale thruogh.

pato405:


is car an achievement? everyone knows cars are one of the cheapest tins abroad

And is this the only thing you could gather from my post?? Cars might be one of the cheapest things there. But you won't be able to afford one if you are lazy or not well organized! And that is the point I'm trying to make

Sweetlemon: My kid brother who went there last year has now bought a car for himself (something he wouldn't have dreamed of doing here in Nigeria) and sponsoring his own education.

We have wheel barrow pushers in Aba that have bought their own cars.

just my 2cents.
everyone nor need go university.
learn a skill, it will always pay.
tailoring, barbing, hair dressing, mechanics etc.
no be by go university o
master holder for uk dey do security.

Hi everyone. I'll give you tips on how to be successful in the UK. This advise is for only those that want to have a global career. I am telling you this because it is much much easier to be kinda successful at manial jobs in the UK that in a real career job. I know what I am talking about because I have followed the steps I am going to be sharing with you.

In the UK, your Nigerian degree and even your added UK masters degree does not really matter except applied carefully. You would see many Nigerian masters degree holders and some PHD's doing security jobs, cleaning, dish washing etc. Many Nigerians find themselves settling into these routine jobs. Unfortunate, as without spending money on your degrees, you would have been able to get these jobs by building such skill sets cheaply

I worked in a recruiting company in the UK for a long time, and used this as an oppurtunity to study the system

Apart from some roles such as IT back office, you would need a fairly good communication skill. Without this, you might not go very far. The reson you might even be able to get into such back office roles such as technical IT in the first place, is because folks from UK lack such IT skills, and oyibos are already used to unclear communication with Indians who mainly occupy such roles. In such roles, you can afford to be a little bit smelly (I will touch on the smelly bit later)

3) By communication skills, I mean you have to be able to understand the oyibos when they talk. This is very important to them so that you do not make mistakes when executing instructions. Without being able to hear them, they run the risk of running into many problems which unfortunately space will not allow me to list here. However, I'll give a little example using someone working in the front office part of a bank or restaurant. If you're asked for a bill, and you provide something else. The oyibo might be upset and if this gets to the manager, he's not going to be happy with you in anyway. Because this is bad for their business (I'll also explain the way oyibo minds work in a later post). You also need to be able to talk in a way that they'll understand..VERY IMPORTANT, and that they like... also quite important. Some Nigerian folks have changed their accents successfully, others simply adapt by using proper pronunciations while maintaing their accents.

4) You must understand that oyibos in the UK are very elitist, very. Please take note of this, as this will permeate every relationship that you have with them, and other parts of the adaptation proceess that I will explain to you. They LOOK DOWN on many things any many races,many cultures etc. So a good starting point for your strategy will be to realise this. Still on communication skills: They might easilly love your accent if its a fulani one. You don't really need to adapt this except you don't have a clear english communication and structure. If you're a cute female, they might easilly accept you accent as long as your english is clear. But God save you if you're a black male with a strong yoruba, benin or igbo accent. Matters go worse if you dey on the big side

5) Still on communication: Remember that we are talking about getting into the professional career track here. These are jobs that the salary ranges from about 10GBP per hour to about 50GBP ber hour. If you've got an American accent you would be loved (UK oyibos like americans well, well. US na their own jand). Most times, befor you get into these jobs, you might pass through an external recruiter like me. These recruiters are even more demanding than the companies when it comes to communication skills. The reason is because if they send the applicant to the company, and the company is not impressed, they might loose future contracts. So,the recruiters like HAY etc no they play with this at all. Your communication skills might not be so , so important in public companies. This is because the government organisations are careful about being accused of discrimination.

6) I don tire. I'll take a break and continue some other time if folks are interested in not just going abroad to hustle, but to become respectable professionals capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with people from every race.

Also, you might be surprised to know that quite a number of 9ja folks I've met in the UK, have this "we be graashopper dem be giant' approach wen dealing with oyibos. So sad. Many are also only intersted in what they can buy in the UK to sell in Nigeria. That is why you see that our queues in the UK departure lounge seem to have the greatest mass of luggages. Although I am guilt of this sometimes,but I think we should stop and think.

Should we always be the underdogs? What about buying things from Nigeria to sell in the UK? Even business relationships we develope with the UK is all about such skewed relationships. Even the oyibo's we follow in the UK are mostly the left overs from my assessment. Our girls follow their old men, our boys follow their old or fat women (I am not against fat women oo, I just don't like the pattern of psychological defeat)

Lets challenge ourselves

linkin8k: ℓ̊ have gotten admission for an msc in UK but ℓ̊ have heard a lot of people who complete their programme and yet to get a job (after spending close to 5mil). ℓ̊ am considering Germany which is cheaper but two years.

My question is which would u advice me to go for? Is job opportunity better in Germany for foreigners than UK? Does a German Msc certificate have much recognition? Thanks

.TO GET JOB NA GOD HAND HE DEY OO. #KIPPRAYING

clemmonce: .TO GET JOB NA GOD HAND HE DEY OO. #KIPPRAYING

Yea but ℓ̊ would like to know if its better to go for a free/cheap two year msc in germany or an expensive one year in uk

linkin8k:

Yea but ℓ̊ would like to know if its better to go for a free/cheap two year msc in germany or an expensive one year in uk

Go to Germany. There is a 2-year post study for students. The money you will use to pay tuition to study at a UK uni, you should use it to search for a job after your studies in Germany. The German economy beats the UK economy any day, plus cost of living in most parts of Germany is very low.

German schools are also among the top 500 in the world. I suggest you go to Germany. Try to master the language while studying.

T22.

manny4life:


lol...I know right, it's their type that I see that WILL NEVER learn because they keep speaking recycled thrash and call it accent. When I see some Africans in DC forcing themselves to speak, that sh/it irritates the fu/ck outta me, I'm like literally, DUDE, quit it, like seriously, knock it off.

LMAO, same here

Revolva: @poster
Well that advise is good sha but no matter what am still gonna try and go to yankee whenever I want to if naija is good for you then stay if its not find ya way
Nigeria is a a shit hell hole ok I don't care what ever you say that happens abroad I still respect their system over here no constant light and govt are not ready to fix anything
If I had ma way even if na free ship for apapa wharf I ready to leave naija
Bleep you all that wanna discourage those of us wey never go ilu oyinbo before enemy of progress hahaha

[size=18pt]@ileke edi mr tribalistic well I remember in ur village in ekiti state they send goats on errands hahaha[/size]

[size=18pt]Ok, so exactly how many errands have I sent you to do?[/size]

pDude:

You should be one of the following:
1. Your father is a politician
2. You grew up in wealth
3. You or your father is a pastor
4. You work in an oil company maybe chevron hence the 'visit' part.
5. You have been eating out of the national cake.

Which is it?

Sorry to disappoint you, none of the above.

Chairman U try 4 real!

tanimola22:

Go to Germany. There is a 2-year post study for students. The money you will use to pay tuition to study at a UK uni, you should use it to search for a job after your studies in Germany. The German economy beats the UK economy any day, plus cost of living in most parts of Germany is very low.

German schools are also among the top 500 in the world. I suggest you go to Germany. Try to master the language while studying.

T22.

italy also has decided to make english the language of communication in some of its major universities, it seems. It was inthe news the other day. I think some schools in germany also teach in english- i got this from the same source. A lot of british students are applying abroad to continue their studies due to the tuition increase from last year. I dont know if all this is to accomodate them.

esere826: 6) I don tire. I'll take a break and continue some other time if folks are interested in not just going abroad to hustle, but to become respectable professionals capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with people from every race.

Also, you might be surprised to know that quite a number of 9ja folks I've met in the UK, have this "we be graashopper dem be giant' approach wen dealing with oyibos. So sad. Many are also only intersted in what they can buy in the UK to sell in Nigeria. That is why you see that our queues in the UK departure lounge seem to have the greatest mass of luggages. Although I am guilt of this sometimes,but I think we should stop and think.

Should we always be the underdogs? What about buying things from Nigeria to sell in the UK? Even business relationships we develope with the UK is all about such skewed relationships. Even the oyibo's we follow in the UK are mostly the left overs from my assessment. Our girls follow their old men, our buys follow their old or fat women (I am not against fat women oo, I just don't like the pattern of psychological defeat)

Lets challenge ourselves

It's funny how not so many people have noticed your write up.. but i have and i say Bravo! Keep the update coming. Though i'm not a newbie in travelling, yet i find it helpful. Thanks bro

Soyedele1: I disagree with u on dat..our qualifications(university certificates) r recognised outside..d most imp tin is 2 knw ao to defend ur certificate

I don't like people like you, if you don't know something don't say it. Here in South Africa if you're a Waec holder and you never clock 25 men you go go back to their secondary school and burn at least 1 - 3 years.

They don't recognize shait! Even though we know book pass them.

Tootles!

pato405:


is car an achievement? everyone knows cars are one of the cheapest tins abroad

Depending on the type of car, i drive a brand new R300,000 car here. (N6 Million) Hyundai Elantra 2012, well it's not an achievement but any day anytime you can trade in your car from where you both it for just maybe 10% off the original price maybe all depends on the mileage.

And for someone who dey jump on okada for naija to dey drive any kind of car in sort abroad is a big deal. For me I'm a car enthusiast so don't blame me.

efe22: Wise comment. To add to this, the best way to enjoy oversea is go there and buy fast selling goods back here in Nigeria than stay there and wasting years.

You're naive! You make won't make 2 trips, everybody with same mentality why not create your own ideas? Na one person start pure water business for naija, i'm sure the person is out of business now. Naija with copy copy, that country can never grow except GOD intervenes.

pato405:


thread closed! that was spot on. you stole my thunder.

Mumu! I sorry for you Lol, Mtchew!

linkin8k: ℓ̊ have gotten admission for an msc in UK but ℓ̊ have heard a lot of people who complete their programme and yet to get a job (after spending close to 5mil). ℓ̊ am considering Germany which is cheaper but two years.

My question is which would u advice me to go for? Is job opportunity better in Germany for foreigners than UK? Does a German Msc certificate have much recognition? Thanks

Anybody thinking of going to the U.K is clueless. Nothing dey that side again!

jmoore:

We have wheel barrow pushers in Aba that have bought their own cars.

Which kind car? Cars ranges from N45,000 to N35 M.

cube63:

Anybody thinking of going to the U.K is clueless. Nothing dey that side again!

Only a clueless individual will say such a thing. What exactly do you mean by: 'nothing dey that side again'?