@ JJay1

I know dozens of people who have tried this same idea you propose. . .but then they get used to the money, get other responsibilities (wife & kids) and all of a sudden, they cannot afford to leave the job and go to school. They become stuck in the system and have to forget their earlier dreams.

It does work for a few people, but only the most determined. I insist that he takes the engineering job, even if it pays less. What guarantee is there that there will be another job for him when he finishes the Master's? I have a friend's bro who went to RGU (oil and gas engineering) but is working in Oceanic Bank now.

Engineering experience is the most valuable thing you can get in this field - advanced degrees are good, but are no magical door openers. Another risk is - What if he cannot raise the 200million?? He loses the job, has rejected the engineering job meaning he loses both ways.

Engineering job remains the best alternative.

JJay1, while I see where your'e coming from the truth is that a lot of young people make the mistake of taking  a higher paying job over one they are passionate about and they end up getting too comfortable which prevents them from going back to what they are really passionate about thus leaving them depressed. Unless one is very strongwilled and determined, I advice choosing passion over pay to prevent being depressed and rich. Passion always pays off.

Which yeye box? What makes u think down the road he might want to go further with an M.eng? How about with a solid Engineering experience he gets a scholarship that would fund his education if he wants to go further? How about him doing well with the company that thyey are willing to fund his education? How about him well that promotes him to a better pay, hence killing 3 birds (satisfaction, pay and career) with a stone? We can keep going on with the "how abouts" but throwing a "new" presmise, "Abroad" into an uncertainty doesnt negate the fact that it is an uncertainty. You can never go wrong with making decisions based on reality. Like Bebure rightly pointed out, "What I understand about engineering is this: Every engineer should spend the first few years of their career gaining experience and building contacts in the engineering field of their choice, thereafter, if you have had your nose to the ground and your ears and eyes wide open you should be able to set up your own company and if you are good at what you do believe me the sky is your limit. With banking however, you tend to start off with a decent salary but in the long run I believe there is only so much you can achieve (based purely on my observations). "

JJay1:

Common guys, he can kill two birds with one stone. Get money from banking to fund your engineering passion.

Think out of the box, guys!!!

He's really lucky . .
I'll advice him to go for the bank Job

If his focus changes because he is earning the bank dough, that means he doesnt have real passion for engineering

Its not the lack of passion, other issues come in - he has to get married, take on responsibilities in the family and all that.

Unless you are highly determined, it is very difficult for a young man to become more money-focused than on the career proper.

Passion is delicate, if you don't feed it after a while, it dies.

The banking job though higher now could end up entrapping him professionally
(i.e if he still wants to practise engineering)

The engineering job though lower paying now offers him prospects of professional growth
and much higher pay with subsequent job changes .

@ JJay1
Nice comment but i think u still view "career" from the short term perspective.

Who says he can't save up for a Masters Program in three or four years (with three or four years experience added)?
Who says he cannot get a better/well paid job with six months experience?

Thinking outside the box if i understand it should be considering that both a masters and engineering experience are all inclusive within the industry.

Consider this and make your choice
a) 3 years banking experience+Masters (18 Months)+2 Years Engineering Experience = approx 6.5 years
b) 5 years Engineering Experience and Master (18 Months) = approx 6.5 years

I'll choose option (b) anytime, any-day. I am in the Oil and Gas Industry, so I know what I am saying. Masters is only considered two years experience (with prior industry experience).

Why would someone spend some time in something you don't enjoy doing; You can never have your heart in it.
Don't make the mistake of having your entire life figured out (though it is no excuse to planning) cos you are not God. Something else might pop up to demand the proposed money for the masters.

Use the opportunities available to you now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My dear bro, I will tell you this ` a bird in hand is worth two in the bush `.If you are sure about meeting your target at the bank month in and month out without stress, take the banking job. Otherwise just take your engineering job jeje.

interesting

I was once in a similar situation. I was even in the bank and almost ran mad at the boredom and stress that came with it, worse still i had no passion for it. l later got an offer in an IT firm but with a lower pay. I summoned courage and prayed into the new job. I will say the salary aint attractive but I make much more from the opportunities by the side. Added together, I'm sure a banker will salivate at my earnings. Better still, I have time for myself.

I'm in a similar boat the only difference being I'm not sure I'm that passionate about engineering.
What's a man to do then? Obviously, I need money right now and loads of it so I'm going to scoop up that bank job for now and watch how things pan out in the short term. if i eventually feel drawn to the banking scene i'll punch out in 2 years or thereabout for an mba or else leave banking permanently for a masters in some engineering field, or perhaps something I'm more inclined to.
Better than settling for those bloody infidels who offer a pittance after all those years of calculus and fluid dynamics, nonsense!!!

JJay1:

Truth is that theres no gain without pains. A lot of people complain of the bank jobs because of laziness. If you want to get to the top, expect difficult times and NEVER settle for convinience

My advice is that if you are passionate about being an engineer, why not take the banking job, save hard for about a year and pursue a Masters degree in engineering (possibly abroad), will will make it easier to pick up a good engineering job later. It is when you are trying to climb up to management levels in your engineering field that you will see that you banking experience will give you an edge

You can try University of Aberdeen or any good school in Europe.

But if you settle for the 60K engineering job, you'll struggle to make a good living for yourself and what would you have achieved in the medium term, not much if you ask me.

My thoughts exactly.

If I were that guy, I would never touch the bank offer with a long pole. Marketing jobs can be very fustrating. But with the engineering job, i believe things will surely get better. Let him hang on to his dream and forget the bank offer. Wish him all the luck he need to take this decision. Bank money wey you go get and you no get time to spend am, na investment u go dey put your money. Too stressful dear. So, think twice

Alot of us have spoken fm the pay perspective
This guy has a passion for engineering and i want to believe thats his field of study.
My bro, in my own opinion
i will advice u go for the engineering, wit ur passion u av prospect, mite not b immediate
Think of the outrageous targets marketers have in banks
Think of hw early u'll b leaving the hse and hw late u'll b returning
forget that ur branch is near home now, transfer can come at anytime
Above all by virtue of ur Field of study there isnt much prospect for u in the bank in terms of ur academic qualification

U must go do courses like ICAN, MBA, etc to remain relevant in the banking industry
No compare urselves with thise chicks wey study CRS for sch wey dey bank and dem dey get promotion evry week! dem knw hw dem dey do am o
My bro the decision is urs

hello guys, i want you to think on what will happen in the banking job if you are unable to meet the targety you were given 200million in 3 months. you may be thrown out thereby loosing in both ends. though 60k is small but try and investigate the company to know if it is a job that turns 250k in less than 2 years.

Guy i dey serve for one of the highest paying banks in the country at the moment, and right at the begining of my service i already made a pact with myself that i wont be staying whether they offer me armed robber salary or not(i studied engineering). Wrote this down in a diary and signed my name underneth. Why? Most people say that at first but once they get used to the system they go back on their word and decide to stay afterall. My experience has not been funny. I resume 7/7:30, close around 8/9pm, go for saturday banking, then get called upon anytime the ATM machine goes down, whether na morning, aft or nite, from monday to monday. As a result i have no social life, hardly do i know my fellow corpers, even to travel for weekend na problem cos of the ATM machine. My service dey end in two days time, and my brother, 160k or not, i dey ex. No be the kind way wey i plan spend my life. So i take it ur friend will learn from this experience.

forgot to add, couldn't travel for christmas and new year becos of the bank job! can you imagine? for the first time i spent christmas and new year holed up in my room trying to console myself with enuf movies and tantalizers chops, but i couldn't help but wish i was back home with my folks and experience the spirit of christmas like it's always been.

Now from what has been posted here one can easily conclude that Banks are career-killing sweatshops right?

It is a big shame what goes on in this country, imagine paying an Engineer N60k/month!! What kind of firm is that anyway. . .I say forget the bank and the engineering job offers; there's a more rewarding career in campaigning against firms that pay engineers poorly.

ENGINEERS UNITE!!!!

I really suggest he should pursue his passion for engineering many of our graduates today are dead on the line, study medicine and work in a bank study , study law and work in a Laboratory/Hospital, study geology and become a sales person, study Anatomy and work as a Marketers these things are all crazy men, Stick to your Engineering Work, join professional Association and make do with your passion and talent.

I wouldnt even hesitate to suggest he take the engineering job. Like you said, thats his passion, thats where he sees his career grow. The bank offer does sound good but if what I am familiar with, most jobs place you on 3 months or longer probation. I am pretty sure if he doesnt meet the quota set by the bank at the end of the 3 months, I bet someone will have a story to tell.

This is simpler than you make it seem, with the exception of the pay of course! Everyone want to get rich, but do we look at what comes along with the money, quite well the bank is closer to his house, but does he see himself as a fervent. near aggressive marketer just trying to meet his goal?


He needs to think wisely and weigh his priorities. Passion/satisfaction or something lucrative that comes with enough baggage??
60k with enough satisfaction, chances of moving up the career ladder and relatively somber and content lifestyle with 140k of lots of uncredited overtime hours, emotional/psychological stress about meeting quotas, hmmm GOODLUCK!!!

What are his goals? How much working experience has he got? Is the engineering job relevant to his training?

Here's an experience from an engineer I know who'd chosen to work in a bank when faced with similar options: he stuck with the bank for a year, got a promotion (for excellent performance in credit & marketing, within a year), and then left the bank - which is now one of the biggest - for an engineering job with a take-home of about 55% of the bank salary. Satiafaction is important, along with synergy regarding your set goals. If the engineering job will give him the time to think and plan and execute his plans, he's got to make a good assessment of the value of his time.

If he needs to save money for, say, further education, he needs to think quite carefully. Some engineers have done this. He'll need to compute the correct amount that could be saved from the different jobs and compare them fairly. His personal circumstances are important in this decision. If he's able to put sentiments aside and focus on his goals and plans for the future, he'd 've started on the road to making a good decision.
.

@ poster

let me give u my own life lesson learnt. i graduated from math/computer science and i had worked with a programming firm and also an ISP before heading for NYSC. when i was done with that, i thot i will easily get a job in a computer related field in lagos and i did but after the company i worked for was handed over to some south africans, many of us where laid off and they brought their white boys from south africa to take over. i was later called back but i refused thinking i will easily get even a better job(******no bi lie!************), i searched and searched and searched but nothing was forth coming, mean while i was ignoring all other non IT related jobs to my foolishness. when i finally got one of those IT jobs, i was under paid and used like rag and later even though i was given a big title, "HEAD OF TECHNICAL SUPPORT" i wasnt paid while the junior officers got paid but those of us in management didnt get paid for a long time (they are still owing me even until this day). i was even offered a job by Saipem, to be Network Administrator in Port Harcourt but i turned it down because i thought my love for IT will make me achieve great things in Lagos(****FILM!****). my brother, life taught me a bitter lesson. nigeria is a country of chance not just inspiration. u need to be financially comfortable before u start dreaming big dreams of engineering success. na God save my ass because all these things happen close to the time i was about leaving Nigeria. my mom was seriously ill and yet i couldnt help her. i was confused and fighting depression like mad. God sent a friend to help me and she send me almost $3000 and i didnt even waste a second, i left the country in less than 2 weeks after i picked up my visa. and when i got here because i have already learnt my lesson i took every job opportunity seriously and worked hard in other to achieve my next goal. see, without my cousins or other family members help in the USA, i have moved up greatly and God has blessed me and kid brother and we both are now blessings to my mom. the moral of the story, lagos is not a place for u to allow your engineering aspirations and passion make u enter the wrong company. u can go into banking and u can turn out to be the best marketer ever. true education is adaption of knowledge for the survival of one's self and environment/society. if your education cannot offer u any improvement, dump it.shikana!!!

@na 2day

nice advice. your experience is surely enough to teach the poster a great lesson except he doesnt want to.

@poster
you need to know that "the world will always offer you what you dont need" but if you are really hungry and creative, "you will turn the situation around."

"a word is enough for the wise". always try to seize every available opportunity and aim for the best. who says you cant perform in any other field apart from enginering? i was once in a similar dilemma. when i gained admission into the university, i was offered Philosophy instead of Law. i spent my first year strolling around, trying to apply for a change of course. my GPA was almost heading for the lagoon during my second year when i realised that "every event is an opportunity" and that "you dont know what GOD destined for you". i motivated myself and graduated as the second best in my department and fifth best in my faculty with different awards.

everything is about dreams, challenge, opportunities. dont waste time, seize it.

lets consider this scenario. . . you take the banking job, you hit the target. . what next? a bigger target.

everything i've heard about working in banks always involves mind numbing repitition, ridiculous working hours, a lousy dress code, an insistence that you adopt a 'big boy' lifestyle . . .

no one, not even the people in IT, actually likes working in a nigerian bank. some people can call it laziness, but in my opinion, as a bank worker( not a banker, another oft abused term) you will be little more than a well paid slave.


as an engineer, you will have the opportunity to task your brain in the provision of solutions , you will more likely than not, have enough free time for a real life , a flexible dress code. . .

you may not immediately hit the big bucks, but like i said before, do you have any dependents? if you don't ,then whats the big deal - unless of course you are in a hurry to rush out into the much vaunted . . . and empty. . . big boy lifestyle.

its so sad. . . people keep talking about how backward nigeria is, about the incompetence of nigerian engineers, then they turn round and encourage engineering graduates to take careers in other fields. . .

Hmmm i have a friend in the same dilemma as u right now.
He studied Civil engineering in the uni
He graduated 2 years ago. did his NYSC for 1 year and afta that he struggled to get a job wit an engineering firm
The pay offerred him is soo disheartening
But around the same time he got an offer at the bank and the pay offered him was very good
He is seriously contemplating on what to do now
Cos he is not from a rich home. in fact it was a struggle to see him through school and his mum owes money because of his education.
the guy has a passion for engineering but his economic situation is really bad
am advicing him to pick the bank job so as to stabilise his mum and himself
he can always chase that engineering dream later
and i know he will
but for now he has to choose the banking option
Rome was not built in a day. we have to sacrifice to get some things done.

I have some relevant questions whose answers could help both the poster and everyone in such position:

In which field do you seek a career?
What are your prospects in that field in 20 years time?
Top career banker and Top career Practicing Engineer (Maybe Oil & Gas), whom would you want to be like?
What prospects abound in the banking Industry? Compare to that of the Engineering Industry?
Does what you intend doing guarantee your joy and happiness as well as the quality of life you desire?

@na 2day, U give me a story of a failed engineering career and I'll show you at least 20 depressed and frustrated banking careers. There is something much more than money, That is what guarantees your quality of life, your joy and happiness and the brightness of your future.

I dont always want to see myself in the light of people's failed career stories because what we normally post here on nairaland are mere summaries leaving the in-betweens where the passion lies.

I don't let pessimistic stories blind me to what virtue there is in what i passionately seek; many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere life is full of heroism.

I have a friend that worked in a telecoms engineering firm for a year and half. Through this peiod, he never earned over N60k. He got another job recently and is being paid a whopping $6k monthly with other allowances. Now thats what i call fore-sight. Maybe you can learn from this.

On the other hand, i will advise you take the bank job ONLY if you have a passion for it. There are a million people out there working in banks. They have not crumbled. I guess you are still young and have the energy to go all the way.

Whatever your decision, make sure its the right one.

I was in a similar shit last year. Two offers came my way one in an IT firm and another in a bank (one of the highest paying banks in the industry). I resumed at the bank sometimes in October as a marketer, the IT job was to be in January. I discovered that I was in a wrong place because everyday that I go to work it was as if I was been caned to do the job. There was no passion for the job and I lost interest in the job. January came and I made a shift to the IT company as an engineer (though the pay is less). I enjoy what I`m doing right now. And I think my company will be left with no option than to thrice my salary or more in the next 18 months due to the trainings, exposure and the requirement of the industry.

My brother, I thank God that I made this choice, no regret all the way. Bank will only offer you gifts like money, T-shirt,loan,pride,car,sometimes trainings etc. If you wan work go to the bank ,It you wan build a career go to dat engineerin coy.The Choice is yours to make. I`ve been there before nothing dey there.
Goodluck

Before we advocate for this guy to take the Engineering job, which type of Engineering job are we even talking about here? A one man Engineering firm can be very frustrating even more than the banking job .You dreams can come to an end anyday the man goes insane   except maybe its a Multnational Engineering firm. What can you even save up with a 60k salary?

What is a career and what is a job? As far as I'm concerned you can build a career in any field irrespective of what you studied in school. Because you studied Engineering in school does not mean you cannot become the best marketer in a bank and that is part of what is killing us. Broaden you opportunity ,forget this " I studied Engineering so I must work in an Engineering Firm mentality".

Even the Engineering firm you talk about you still end up being a paper Engineer,most of the Technology is imported while technicians do the support job.

Passion for Engineering , hahahah  , I 'm an Engineer as well but presently working in a bank,though in IT dept. I have not regretted it not for once.Your growth level is higher in the banking sector than the Engineering field except maybe the Oil and gas sector.

I would advice you take the banking job for these two reasons
1. You would have a stronger earning bargain if you want to go to another job with your 140K startup in the bank.
2.  I guess you are still a young guy You still have a whole lots of opportunity to build your career.
who says you cannot drift back to your dream career in Engineering?Still the decision is yours to make.

Why are people making it sound as if banking is a job and not a career? What is a career? Must you read banking to reach the top in a bank? I can list up to ten Nigerian banks' MDs who read courses that are nothing near banking or related coureses. One of them is was a first class oil engineer. Education is about adaptation. In Nigeria of today, money is not everything, it is the only thing. Money creates passion where none exist hitherto.

@poster

divide yourself into two and take both jobs
you want money and you want career in the engineering field,
if you take both jobs, then you can have your cake and eat it,
goodluck