Emperoh: Ok guys, i think a new career era is about to open for me and i am excited about it.
If you look back through my post, or followed through my comments on this topic, you should be able to place where i am coming from.
But for those who don't know, i will do a little chronicle and then allow it dovetail into the current situation.

I graduated in 2006 and finished NYSC at the foremost Newspaper house in Nigeria; 2007.
Almost immediately, i went to work for the Nigerian based alumni association of the most prestigious Business School in the World.
I spent 3 years with them. When i felt chances where passing me by in other sectors, the need to upgrade academically set in.
I left in 2010 to do an M.Sc in Media and Communication with a bias for Marketing Communication at the best PG university in Nigeria
Yes best!! Is it not. . . . cues but we should be able to place it right?

Anyway, fast forward a year later, September 2011 and i was done with my thesis and defended as well
and back i went into the job market, while waiting for the graduation ceremony. I knew it won't be easy but i didn't expect it to be as hard as it became.
I did a couple of consultancies for A media group and the owners of the popular Youths Award brand. I also worked briefly with them in helping with publicity for the launch of a popular satellite music TV channel in Nigeria as well as publicity for a reality TV show.

Well, i had to leave them December last year when i got an adhoc job with a multinational consulting firm.
It was meant to dovetail into a permanent job in a research and market intelligence role since i wrote a test and went through the interview processes.
Well, long story short, after documentation and filing, including continuous submission of my research reports, i was asked to start February 1st but lo, story enter oh
One British Oga, as dem talk, withdrew my offer and they won't be going ahead with recruiting me any more. Devastated? More than. . . but i had to move on.

Little businesses here and there as well a small offer from a relatives agency kept me going while my business proposal was in the works
as well as applications. I also lost another offer with a digital marketing company and turned down 2 offers since it didn't meet my career objectives and target as well.

It all looked like good things were not meant for me until last week, God popped up and said it's my time.
I did a CV broadcast to my 'friend' at the alumni association i worked as well as contacts i met from other companies i worked with during my time there.
Well, one better, past Oga of one of Nigeria's big banks got in touch on Saturday night and asked to see me the following day at his office.
We had a chat (over 2hrs of interview) on Sunday. . . . .i was invited to come and work with him. . . . i picked my offer letter last night and i am going to be working on a brand management role.
What i have always wanted and what i concentrated on in my M.Sc!!

I am really looking forward to the job. The office ambiance, relationship between staff and the whole set-up is just awesome.
I hope the external looks are or can be equated to the internal issues.
I resume Oct. 2nd. . . . . . more gist by then and maybe will answer questions!!

Congrats man. . .hope you enjoy your new office.

Dont forget to 'welcome' us o. . .

Hallo People,

what's cracking?

Work is a total drag, the only thing that keeps me going is my personal curiosity (my colleagues say I'm now a researcher. . .lol) and the fact that I have to make sure I dont make my superman boss look bad so I still have to be on point when I'm called on. For me, it's a combination of all the inconsistencies, the system doesn't work and so I have to consistently go beyond my job scope, because do only job we're still going to have faults.
Thing is, as far as professional devt* is concerned, there's precious little here for people with an electrical bias (e.g.), so I wonder what the motivation is for me to keep working like a donkey? definitely not the salary(I've accepted that I might not reach the armed robber salary range just yet though)


Here, there's something called certification, mechanical, process, quality and production engineers have their certifications but there's none for electrical. Thing is the certifications that pple in my dept do involves learning to use some really cool technologies, ultrasound, infra-red, vibration analysis, penetrant testing, laser alignment, etc so I'll be watching people that entered after me getting certified and I go still dey sell plantain nii?

p.s. the fact that portions of this training are held outside naija doesn't even help matters sef, meself wan collect dollars now

enough whining for today jo...lol

@jcob
I left gidi today after a weekend break, should be back sometime in september...the first day I ssaw that blog I know say na you...lol

@thread nice to see things are picking up, kinda seemed like the thread had gone to pasture, will come back with office gist tomo...

AjanleKoko:

That was quick. LOL.
'Factory' life is not so glamorous in Nigeria, Especially for engineers, who dream of big things like designing the space shuttle . . .

That 'grey area' is actually project management. They always tell engineers what to do
It's a mix of many things, finance included. I personally like finance, in fact I plan to end my career in Finance. So it would not be a bad choice. Just a bit too early in your career to switch. Most likely you'd also start at the bottom in there.

Bossman. . .how things now? anything for the boys?

I'm not planning to switch to finance pronto, I would like to have at least one more bus stop before getting there. I've started to read up on finance and all that, (maybe na because I don realise say I no wan depend on one stream of income sha).

The idea of walking into the future unprepared scares me so I tend to over analyse/strategise when it comes to these things.

How do you deal with people? as in persuading people to follow a course of action you know for a fact is right, but they(the other people) are either to short-sighted/incompetent/nonchalant to notice, I tend to get angry and of course this is counter productive because then it becomes personal. I try to shut up but usually I just stew inside and that's bad for bizniz as well.

P.S. I have mostly horizontal work relationships, so I cant really lay down the law.

davidylan: People should not overlook chemical companies though. I have it on confirmed insider info that 3M and Dow chemical company are going to be moving to Nigeria very very soon. Great companies to work for.

I know a lot of industries in nigeria view 3M gear as the ultimate when it comes to safety, so I'm guessing they've noticed and want to eliminate all the middlemen involved.

@Debosky
ko jo o, na only politics fit pay that kain money, go join PDP

Rynne: Well i tried applying last year for my masters in Nigeria Defence Academy and i was told that i dint meet up to the requirment which is 3.0 CGPA.Bros, ijust need some one that can give me info on where i can get myself trained,since most jobs i applied for are saying i'm inexperience. at least i just want to start from somewhere;ie, get trained,get a job,and probably go for my masters.

dude, you went about it the wrong way, why would you be applying to NDA for masters? sey you wan become soldier ni? if you want to do a masters with your GP in naija then you could try putting in for a PGD first, that ought to give you a chance to boost your GP.

As for the training bit, I really dont get that part, if you're applying for starter positions your experience (or lack of it) wouldn't be an issue, your grasp of the fundamentals would be a lot more important. Maybe your approach to the job search needs tweeking...my two cents

I was prayer secretary at my sub-zone in niger state 2009 Batch A. . .NCCF made NYSC worth it big time!

hello pple.

everyone has just abandoned this thread. . .God dey...

work is just there o...we've proved murphy's law several times over. . .man don over tire sef.

I think it's getting to that time when I move on to the next thing, not really interested in 'factory' life anymore, too one-sided, Mechanical engineers get all the glory,

sadly, I'm not a junior engineer anymore so there are some complaints that people dont expect to hear from me(stuff like training etc), sad thing is to me they're still valid and it pisses me off. I can feel myself holding back, I dont do as much as I can, I just make sure I dont fall below the 'departmental standard'(i,e, make my workerholic boss look bad), other than that I'm on my computer most of the time.

of which. . .chances are this might be my last year as a field-engineering-someborri, been spending a lot of time reading up on finance and I'm seriously considering a move to that grey area between engineering and finance(yep those people that tell engineers what to do. . .lol)

BetaThings:
Trade Alert is compulsory. You pay for it for every transaction you do
Tell your second broker to put you on trade alert. It is your right, you have paid for it
Having a CSCS account does not mean that the broker cannot hold onto your money
After 1 year, if the broker cannot give proof of what they have done, what further proof does the OP need that he/she has been scammed
Let the OP start with the Institute, it is cheaper

Thanks for the info, found a link that explains it http://www.nse-cscstradealert.com/FAQ.htm

lagerwhenindoubt: 1: Do you have an online CSCS Account
2: Did you pay in cheque or cash - if cash, do you have payment receipts
3: Did you pay in the Stockbroking House name or in the name of the Stockbroker in question

A CSCS Account is your right and a good stockbroker will ensure you register to have an online CSCS account where you can monitor trades made on your behalf.
If you do not have it, too bad, you will need to wait on the broker to tell you what you have from their in-house system or their CSCS account

If you paid cash and have no receipts then you have no proof of this transaction, if you paid cheque to the Broker, then you have something to hold on.

@op

lagerwhenindoubt just about has it right, in this CSCS age, when you want to buy shares you go to a stockbroker and they open a CSCS acct for you (and might subscribe your number for tradealert: if they do, CSCS then sends you a text telling you an account has been opened and they tell you your clearing house number <CHN> and that they will alert you when trades are carried out on your behalf). Whatever stock is bought on your behalf will be domiciled in your CSCS account.

If you subscribe to the CSCS online service you can check your account details by yourself (it costs NGN2500 a year but only your broker can apply to CSCS for this on your behalf. Personally I dont think it's all that useful, trade alerts are okay but if you want to be able to check your portfolio whenever you can get it.)

Most brokers have an online account system(not the CSCS one o, it's peculiar to the stockbroker) you should be able to login and view how much money you have with them and the stocks they have bought for you and all. Even if they dont, you can walk into your brokers office at anytime and ask them to print a CSCS account statement for you(I'm sure about this cos I have done this more than once).

NB: I cant say if it's compulsory for stockbrokers to sign you up for tradealert however, I use two brokers , one signed me up for tradealert free, the second didn't but I have a CSCS online account(paid for it myself, the brokers just submitted the proof of payment with my details).


The way forward; (IMO)
1. Go to your broker, ask them to print your acct statement showing when your shares were bought and at what price or the date the trade was executed (it's important you dont mention anything about your issues with them.

2. Collate the tellers showing your payments and reconcile your holdings with the amount you paid.

3. Contact SEC(http://sec.gov.ng/protect-yourself--alert-us--file-a-complaint-2.html) they have a tribunal called Investment and Securities Tribunal, IST http://www.ist.gov.ng, setup to deal with issues like yours, (stockbrokers dey fear them o)

All the best.

P.S. why dont you drop the brokers name, we can make small noise now, brokers dont like bad PR

@travelgal

it's banks that use oracle in naija. . .you'd best be looking in that direction

mennnnn once you've awakened some desires they're hard to ignore, but that is only if you're trying to do things by your strength. . .I believe if you can truly get to that point where you acknowledge your weakness and rely totally and God you'll be fine as far as sex is concerned.

In all other aspects I think a godly relationship isn't much different from any other, although I think you tend to get hurt more because you've had to find other(possibly deeper) ways to bond with the person outside of sex.

@david
nice thread. . .dont know how to handle the part about you being the spiritual head as well o. . .any tips?

@Jarus
congrats o...wish you all the best in your new place!

na wa o. . .na NL this kind thread dey wey me dey sell dodo for other sections?

lollipop someborri. . .meself don join you groupies o. . .twalle!

@Jarus

do you guys have any ERPs(energy risk professionals) in your org?