Nigerian Degrees And Work Experience Are Disregarded In America. Why?

@Ndipe

Excellent point on the value of interning in America. I always advise people to go that route
before they graduate and stop chasing after short term money from so so jobs.

[b][/b]This is such an interesting subject. I can't recall the names or user names of the previous threaders, but I would respond to the statement of the fellow who said s/he is an American and referring to the 30 credit degree earned by the Nigerian in an American university while he as an American got his at 120 credit points. very quickly, i guess the guy meant that, with a bachelors from Nigeria, all u would need to get thesame bachelors here is a 30 point credit and not the whole 120 criedits, got it? so its just like a revalidation process.
   On the subject about Nigeria degrees, I must say firstly that, even American with American degrees do not get jobs like right off the bat.secondly, our degrees do suffer some kind of setbacks thats granted, as a threader opined, Americans would look at anyone from any other country with disdain. They would do this to to even your work experience and as also cited, our system is actually behind them, so guess what? we get just what we have. Now for an individual you got to find your way back to school.You may want to call it starting afresh, but you would turn out to be the better for it. also, should you get a job like I did? you got to show yourself, i mean prove your worth. all the offices I had work, Nigerians there shine like very well.so come with what you have,don't cry about it, go back to school if you can and shine. statistics showed that, there is no ONE major hospital in America without a Nigerian surgeon, you go figure!. they're doing very well, you sure do not want to hear their start point, even as doctors when they first arrive.
 say you're an employer in Nigeria and some kid comes in from Togo, barely speaking English(in this case your accent, makes them think u just can't speak, eventhough you speak a better English then they do)but speaks French(cos to the average American, your accentuated English is like French to them cos they would in most cases understand only 42 percent of whatever u're saying).Now, this kid from Togo needs a job while u have the other guy born in lagos, knew the street got his masters and Bsc from Unilag, u sure would not even look at the Togo kid twice, would you?i guess not cos u don't even have the time to waste or take chances with some stranger, in America time is money. So as stated earlier, pls folks get your heads up!

@pete
Thank you for clearing that up for me because at first I thought that guy must be insane.

And:

@ Donmayor:

Look who's complaining 'bout grammatical blunders; isnt that a blunder??? FOOL!


Another blunder; GUY, you must be a Gunner!!!

Get a 1st Class or 2'1 in Engineering in Naija and see if its gonna be useless!!! They even get to go to this USA place after a few years of work here on vacation or to supervise projects!!!

<BIG HISS> ,  just talking nonsense!

Since I'm not literate enough to spot it, can u PLEASE spot it for me?
You implied that 2-1 is gold even though u did not directly say it. And if i'm going to go by the way you intelligently reply post, I would say that I never said engineering degrees in Nigeria are useless.Unless there are reforms in Nigeria's educational sector which thank God is happening gradually, engineering degrees would gradually become useless. Many successful nigerian engineers became successful after they left Nigeria to study more.It is even evident among the many wealthy men we have in Nigeria, most have an american or british degree. And dats wat u pointed out that their quality of education is generally higher than ours.

stranger - "Another idiot Nigerian yarning dust. Must  you bring up  CNN opinions. If you watch CNN , you owe it to ursef to critically listen to what they say. You (liketoo) are a big idiot for bringing up Cnn opinion without understanding the context in which those allegations were made. You cannot even give an example of your supposed" bad english " spoken by the Laeder of the Freeworld. Next time when u hear something , Crtically analyse it to make sure u understand the context in which any allegations is made. This will save u  any embarrassement in public.  In 30yrs time u and your family cannot and will not be able to spaek at the same level of spoken english , Pres. Bush is right Now.
Talking about people from China, Who ever told you chinese do not speak English?  The Chinese i have come across in America do speak good English . Also, Not all chinese are smart. Evry society has in varying degrees diff  kinds of people, From the overly smart to the extremely dumb.just as somalia has extremely smart people, so does china has dumb ppls.With your unproven allegations and stereotype, u 've just shown the world how naive  ,immature and unexposed you're. I have nothing against u but next time think with your head instead of your Keyboard."


stranger and txlonghorn, what the hell are you people even doing on this board? This is a Nigerian forum. If you want to come hear and visit (or even spy) don't you have enough sense to know that you should be courteous, or at least try to be? We don't need stupid racist yankees (if you are not americans then you can take that as meaning 'wankers') like you coming here and spouting out of your anuses. There is already more than enough of that all over YOUR own forums.

Come on people, calm down, lets not allow this thread degenerate into an insultive one.   

  Well, i know this former classmate of mine who worked with an international consulting firm right here in Lagos, won visa lottery and actually got a place in the US parent firm. Although cannot really say the level at which he joined, i do not think its a less befitting one as his travel fees were taken of by the US arm.
  His credentials include a second class upper social science degree from a federal university, ICAN qualification and about 3 years working experience.

Just my little contribution

Cheers

In engineering, I’m pretty sure a Nigerian graduate will find it very difficult to survive initially especially if he’s to meet the same expectations as his colleagues. That’s not because he’s not smart enough but because the education system is so different. But note that engineering fundamentals are the same no matter where you learnt them but what differs are the courses that you take in your last 2 years of college that builds on those fundamentals.

Just like most people suggested, the easiest way to get accepted is get another degree which also distinguishes you from the next applicant and can also earn you more money - that's a win-win situation for you.

On the issue of English language, I’m not familiar with what Bush said but if he can’t speak English, what was he speaking? Generally speaking, do you realize that language changes over time? When languages develop independently, does that mean one variety is more valid than the other? According to you, what does proper modern English sound like OR is it old English that’s proper?
1.   American English
2.   British English
3.   Canadian English

What I’m trying to say is that English have several standard versions that are all equally accepted to be correct and proper.


Also, in scheming through the posts, I think someone insinuated that all Chinese people are smart…wow, talk about generalizations.  I guess I’m not too surprised because most Nigerians tend to think that being white, “Oyinbo”, means that you’re smarter than your black colleague. , If only you knew!!! Once you start generalizing, you're bound to run into problems.

Why would anyone be surprised about Nigerian trained workers having a hard time getting decent jobs in US or EU? First of all the education that one gets in Nigeria is quite substandard compared to other countries. I even read about rich Nigerians sending their kids off to Ghana for education. Jobs in Nigeria is still rudimentary and therefore does not measure up. I was a Banker in Nigeria before I came to USA but I had a hard time getting employers to even consider my Nigerian bank job experience when I sought job with one of the banks here. I had to actually start over by just getting a job with McDonalds making hamburgers and fries. After a year working there and gaining additional experience as a Cashier, I was hired by Wachovia Bank. The magic is - do something they can relate with and something that is local. Forget about your original background and save it for Naija.

Hey guys, it is not just in America these things happen. I am in the UK and i hear it is extremely difficult to get a job here esp when you do not have a degree from their one of their schools OR come in with some flawless  work (multinational) experience. Yes, i guess it is a case of them not trusting our degrees, or not believing that our 'third world' thinking, technology, processes etc, can sustain their high tech development.

Secondly, when i left Nigeria a few years ago, i had about 5 years experience in some top multinational companies, that afforded me the opportunity of a lot of foreign trips. I schooled in the premier university in Nigeria too. When i got here, i enrolled in a Masters program in one of the top universities here and MAN, I REALLY DID FEEL THAT I WAS LEARNING SOMETHING. I regretted that i had my first degree in Nigeria at that point because the way we were taught in the classes here, words cannot explain. Needless to say, there were 5 other Nigeirans in my class and WE ALL CAME OUT ON TOP, beating students of other nationalities, including the British. Of all of us 6 Nigerians, only two of us have jobs. The other guys have been applying for over a year now and nothing has come out of those applications

Meanwhile, it took a while for me to get the job i have now, even though i had very good results from their school, and top notch experience from the top multinationals. These two things are what even got me to the interview with my present employers cos in the interview, they kept on asking me about my experience in my former job and questions pertaining to my MBA.  BUT IT TOOK A WHILE FOR ME TO GET THAT INTERVIEW, AND THE JOB. MEANWHILE, I HAVE BEEN APPLYING ELSEWHERE FOR OVER A YEAR NOW AND HAVE HAD A FEW CALLS, NOTHING HAS COME OUT OF THEM YET.

PATIENCE,

Which gruellin Nigerian education? Go to UK and see thousands of Nigerians working with their Nigerian University degrees under the HSMP programme, the highly skilled migrant programme, if the Nigerian education system is so gruesome, as you mentioned, why are these graduates getting highly paid professional jobs in the UK without having UK degrees? I see you are one of the people who run down anything Nigerian.

@ Tumfulu I see  you don't  understand english again  - definition of grueling=  exhausting; very tiring; arduously severe

did you even read my post or did you just want to yap me and seek attention again. If you can read my post said Nigerians should do well in the US if they study hard, because more is required to succeedNigeria