Long Post Alert:

Santino1:


Sometime it's okay to admit you don't know what the question is or simply just "jump and pass". And I don't mean that as an insult. As a Postdoctoral fellow myself, I struggled with the question of how to navigate my academic career in Canada and was on the verge of ditching academia. However, I have made tremendous progress over the last six months and I will share some tips and advice at the appropriate time as I am very busy at the moment. I just don't want you discouraging people, that's what compelled me to post this snippet.

@iamforcanada, dudade, and other prospective researchers in the house. I'd be sure to mention you when I get around to posting a detailed response.

Cheers and good luck to everyone.

Stemming from the quoted post above, I have decided to give an exhaustive account of how I got Post-Doctoral Fellowship (PDF) positions in Canada including some tips in the hope that it might be useful to some people here.

I completed my PhD a few months ago and having a Canadian PR, I decided to focus my search to Canada and the US mostly. I spoke to my doctoral advisor about my future professional (and personal) plans. He gave me some pointers on how to proceed. But most importantly, he personally reached out to some of his contacts whom he thought might be relevant to my proposed area of research. That seemed to be a game-changer for me as I got 4 interviews via that medium alone.



In addition, I also wrote a PDF proposal that’ll enable go to any university I want provided my proposal is funded. Usually, this is the best avenue as most people would be willing to be your host institution since you’ll be coming with your own funding and require the minimum of investment on their part. See links below for some funding agencies.



Also, word of mouth plays a great role. Attending numerous conferences (I was at EGU, Goldschmidt, IMOG, and AGU last year alone) enabled me to speak to the leading researchers in my field and have a feel of what it will be like working with them by speaking to some of their current grad students and postdocs at the time. But more importantly, I made sure they are aware of who I am and what I’m doing by name-dropping my thesis advisor (a prominent figure in my field). A few months to my thesis defence, i reached out to some again and fortuitously one of them just secured an ERC grant and had a position available.

Lastly, applying via the regular online posting. In my experience, this is perhaps the least effective method because positions advertised this way usually have gone through peer-peer, personal network medium and no suitable candidate was found before ending up on the job placement website.

All in all, I think the following tips might come handy to some:

1. Leverage your advisor’s connections. This is important because as prominent figure in the field, he likely know more people than you do.

2. Make yourself visible. When at conferences or symposia, do not be a passive observer but an active participant. You never know whose interest your research might have piqued. For those not already aware, researchgate is a great avenue to make yourself visible online.

3. Sell yourself (or your research). Here I have to use a personal anecdote. At the just concluded Goldschmidt conference in Boston, I met a Nigerian guy who was looking at particulate organic matter export out of the Niger river. One of my thesis committee member (a German professor at GFZ Potsdam who is an expert in photo-oxidation and organic matter degradation along river-ocean continuum) was also at the conference and I introduced them since they do similar stuff. Unfortunately, while the professor seemed more interested in a potential collaboration (as African rivers has been elusive to him for a long time due to logistic issues associated with sampling in Africa generally) the Nigerian guy was more interested in the financial rewards asking questions like how much do PhDs earn in Germany and other such ridiculous questions without focusing on his research. This brings me to last point.

4. Aiming for the financial reward should be the least of your consideration. Sorry to disappoint you but you won’t be rich on PhD and PostDoc salary. The only time you start making “serious” money in research is when you become a tenure professor. So if you are looking for a well-paid job, well you have been reading the wrong post.



The following are some of the funding agencies (and their links) that I know. It is by no means exhaustive.

1. Branco Weiss Fellowship - Link
2. Entelligence Young Investigator Fellowship - Link
3. Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships - Link
4. Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship - Link
5. Fullbright Fellowships - Link
6. H.L. Holmes Fellowships - Link
7. Pogo Research Fellowship - Link
8. Mitacs Fellowships - Link
Please note that the above list is strongly biased towards geoscience related fields ( as that is my field of research). I included a few medical sciences just to show what’s available.

Here is a link to all Canadian funding agencies - Link

Good luck to everyone and let me know if you have any questions

cc: @iamforcanada, duduade, GlitteringStar, ife01.

Victoriously:


Hi Santino,

I realize you have been offline this year, but if you can get this, I will really appreciate your response.

I have a few questions that might benefit other readers years on, I will fire on when I get a response.

Thanks for your previous contribution to this thread.

Regards.

Hey, my sincere apologies for the late reply. I have been very busy.

Sure, fire on. Though I can't guarantee that I'm gonna reply immediately as I'm online sporadically these days.

Cheers

Ceec115:
Hi @Santino1,

I was lucky enough to meet this thread cos am very confused about certain things required for my swiss study visa.

I got admission at University of Basel for this Fall semester for a masters degree and the offer later just came June ending, is it advisable to proceed with visa appointment or defer to next session. I was strongly thinking of deferring with d opinion that embassy might use any opportunity to deny visa.

Again, the list of requirements I saw the embassy site for study applicants includes TOEFL. Do I really need to show proof of English language profiency being that am Nigerian?

More so, the financial guarantee form made provisions for columns for that of student mother and father. Must I have two sponsors? Also can an external person aside family be my sponsor?

Thanks so much n anticipating ur reply

Hey there, apologies for my late response. I have been incredibly busy all year (I still am but I just saw your message and thought you might need urgent answer to help you make the right plans).

Congratulations on your admission. UniBasel is a fantastic school and Basel is a nice, small town with an amazing old feel to it. It is certainly one of my favourite cities. Well, school generally doesn't resume until the third week of September so you still have time. I left Nigeria 8 years ago and my visa application took only 4 days (I don't know how it is these days). Also, usually you can get expedited services if they are aware that you have to resume for school as soon as possible. The Swiss are really very efficient folks.

You don't have to present any TOEFL certificate (at least as far as I know). After you have been granted admission, the administration office will send a couple of documents to you for immigration purposes. And you can always write/call the administration office if you don't have one of the documents requested for by the embassy and they usually transmit the said document directly to the embassy.

Yes, you can have only one sponsor (even outside of family ties). The caveat to that though is that you have to prove that the fund is available to you. Just a letter from your uncle saying he has the money in his account isn't gonna suffice.

I hope it helps. And by the way, if you are still planning to come this year you should start looking for accommodation because beginning of semesters are usually hell.

Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions.

P.S. My response might be late and sporadic as I'm still very busy at the moment.

Rebarobyn:


Canada is not keen on degrees but skills and certification. Your skills and professional background can guide you to know what Canadian certifications to go for.

Sometime it's okay to admit you don't know what the question is or simply just "jump and pass". And I don't mean that as an insult. As a Postdoctoral fellow myself, I struggled with the question of how to navigate my academic career in Canada and was on the verge of ditching academia. However, I have made tremendous progress over the last six months and I will share some tips and advice at the appropriate time as I am very busy at the moment. I just don't want you discouraging people, that's what compelled me to post this snippet.

@iamforcanada, dudade, and other prospective researchers in the house. I'd be sure to mention you when I get around to posting a detailed response.

Cheers and good luck to everyone.

elfmann:
OK na.. Some adults who have d birth certificates may still include. Do ur thing.

Already did my thing (whatever that means) but thanks.

elfmann:

Bros, go read am up.

.

Well, the reason I'm asking is not because I haven't read on it like your post seems to suggest (on the contrary, I actually read a fair bit on it). Don't worry, I'm aware of your penchant to always tell people to read up (I encourage reading too).

On the issue of sibling relationship however, here is an extract from cic website on what constitute a proof of sibling relationship:

Proof of the relationship of the applicant or the accompanying spouse or common-law partner to the family member must also be provided (e.g., a birth certificate, an official document naming the applicant as a relative, a copy of the inside back cover of the relative’s passport showing the relative’s parents’ marriage certificate, legal adoption documents and any other documents that prove or describe the relationship).

Since Nigerian passports don't include parent's information (like Indian's for instance), I believe the best way to prove that is by attaching a birth certificate.

elfmann:

Sibling will give u d required stuff.

Such required stuff might include a birth certificate, No?

elfmann:

PA and Spouse are exempt.. U be children? LOL

Even when you claimed point for sibling in Canada?

elfmann:
This your story and perspective have been shared long ago, the problem is still not reading. I shared it myself and some folks did as well, I evaluated both my B. Sc and M. Sc, both obtained from Nigeria. Nothing is new but what would be new is reading up.

My apologies then.

Just to add some perspectives to the ECA debate.

If you asked me: Should I evaluate both M.Sc and B.Sc or just M.Sc?

My answer to you would be it depends. If you are looking at the short term, i.e. you don't want to go through the stress of applying for Nigerian B.Sc (especially for guys with foreign M.Sc like myself) and just want to enter the pool as quickly as you can, then by all means evaluate only M.Sc (I'm sure you are aware you won't be getting extra points for evaluating both B.Sc and M.Sc as someone wrongly posited earlier). However, If you are looking long term, then I'd advise you evaluate both (especially if you are in a regulated profession) as you "might" need it for licensing and other job related stuff.

My experience: A colleague of mine that we started the application together evaluated only his M.Sc and I made the "mistake" of evaluating both. We both got our COPR last month and started planning for Canada. Since we are both in a regulated profession, we realised we needed to apply for membership of a professional organisation (APEGA in my case and APGO in his case). All I had to do was upgrade my ECA to course-by-course evaluation (with both my degrees) but in his case he was missing some courses (which he did in his B.Sc) on his M.Sc only evaluation and to be eligible for an EIT (engineer-in-training) status, he has to sit some exams (with fees of course). He called the registrar and he was told he'll get a waiver for those courses if he evaluates his B.Sc as well to show that he has taken and passed those course. He tried to apply for his B.Sc transcript but SANU is currently on strike and he's stuck while my application is under review.

Now in hindsight, my "mistake" turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Apologies for the long rant but like I said I wanted to offer another perspective (with personal experiences) to guide others when making their plans (long and short term).

Happy holidays and good luck to everyone.

@GlitteringStar, my belated congratulations. Looking forward to reading your PPR timeline.

Congratulations to all ITA and PPR recipients.

TEECANN:


@Maternal

Bros, I still don't get...it sounded like you were praising @freeradical for having a "big head" for not "wasting" govt resources and yet getting his objective of settling down sorted out.

Hence, I'm confused with your response in the quoted post above.

Are you saying it is a proper thing to use govt arranged programs for immigrants or where possible, if one can pull it off, one should not waste govt resources?

I appreciate you for all the good works you are doing here.

It will all end in praise IJN!

I think you should re-read that post again. He actually hailed freeradical for "NOT having a big head". Perhaps it has been modified but that's what I got the first time I read it and his latest post reiterates the same point.

Newmum0615:
Good afternoon everyone.

Please does anyone know if WES can send the transcripts used in my evaluation to me? I am asking for someone who is doing SINP and who says they only accept certificates and transcripts instead of WES evaluation.

Thank you.

Nope. All documents used for your evaluation becomes the property of WES.

vcole:
Una no vex. I know this is the wrong thread for this but abeg no vex. Please help me torchlight this kweshun. Does anyone know what the rules are for updating family info after receiving ppr but before copr?
I have someone who just got ppr on thursday and was already scheduled to marry on Saturday. As per they had done intro months before and had done the registry app thing and Saturday was d approved wedding date. However ppr came on thursday.
Can he still update his info that he's now married and what are the implications? His timeline from aor to ppr was 4 weeks so it was unexpected.

I don't know if this helps (or if it's generic) but when I got my PPR, there was nota bene in bold stating that I should notify the Paris Visa Office (where my application was handled) immediately if there has been a change in my family status/composition (can't remember the exact wordings now). Thus, to answer your question, s/he should contact his/her VO before sending the passport and I believe s/he will be advised on how to proceed.

dexla:
For those posting about bitcoin, well bad news!!! North Korea just hacked u and stole $64million. I hope y'all learn from this sophisticated ponzi.

Before you start throwing words around, you should first understand what they mean.

deeore:
Hey guyz... ITS PPR!!!....
my timeline

Congratulations. All the best going forward.

Newmum0615:
How do you guys manage to navigate that immitracker site? Seems so overwhelming whenever I try to browse it.

Just think of it as Nairaland, you have different sections on the dashboard just like you have here. Navigate to "Consolidated e-APR tracker" and the rest is by filtering that data to what you want. The filtering is quite easy, just think of it as the "sort" and "filter" function in microsoft excel. The database itself is more or less a spreadsheet so if you have rudimentary knowledge of excel you can pretty much do anything you want with the data.

Rexphobia:


Interesting, just checked again after you said this.. Found something... Total case for Nigeria.. 29!

It is interesting indeed but I guess there is a reason for that.

Total Nigerian PPR cases = 508

Total Nigerian Passport/COPR cases = 49

I believe people just don't care as much about COPR as they do about PPR or just like you, they simply don't know it even exist.

Bsbabe:


Thanks Elfmann. He is very eligible o. And he signed before it transmitted.

Seen a statement on the profile which says ‘if no score is displayed p, check if you meet the MEC and if you’ve met the MEC, wait for 24 hours and try again’. I just wonder what ‘try again’ means. Is it to recreate? Anyway, we will wait 24 hours because the MEC says ‘you met the minimum criteria’. Thanks again.

It is no big deal. If after 24 hours, your score is still not showing, click on the "report a technical issue" panel from your application page and report the issue. It should be rectified in less than a working day.

Rexphobia:


Word!... Just wondering why there is no support group for this class of people (whatsapp, Immitracker, etc). This process can take as long as 5 weeks, sometimes even longer than the time it took from AOR to get the PPR mail.
The fact that this set of applicants are in the dark is scary... Yes, I know rejection at this point is almost impossible but it will still help to track progress.

Not true. There is a passport tracker section on immitracker.

Here I come with my tin-foil fedora

dogood123456:
I have Bsc in elect/elect eng in nigeria and I have 6yrs experience in oil n gas servicing with a multinational. I recently got ppr and started actively researching on how easy to get a job when I move to Canada. I'm married with two kids(1 and 3 yr old). My wife works in a bank.

I have read about the APEGA stuff and EIT steps while reading from the first page. I say erhnies and dupyshoos posts...no much knowledge...

Based on what I have read so far in the thread, I have decided on the following:
1. plan to settle in Alberta.
2. Start small with the alternative jobs in engineering since I might never be able to land a job that matches my qualification cos I lack Canadian experience, and simultaneously work on becoming licensed (apega, eit... etc) .However, while trying to search for these "alternative jobs in my field " , I also noticed almost all of them require one certification or the other. PLS WHAT ARE THE CERTIFICATIONS I CAN TAKE IMMEDIATELY UPON LANDING THAT ARE RELEVANT? cc: erhnie, dupyshoo (great gbagba), other engineers in the house...
3.if I can't land the alternative job easily, go for per hour or shift temp jobs like the one advertised here (see attached pix)before I finish my settlement fund. Meanwhile,i will start to work on the certification to be able to achieve no 2 above at least. Please any advice people? Let me add that I'm still employed and earn about 2mill naira after tax per month and I won't quit except I get a direction to go when I land in Canada with Family. However, I will eventually quit and move for the sake of my children( maybe one year after initially short landing first). I don't want to be a selfish father.

For some reason, your post caught my attention. I know this is not my concern as I'm sure you must have thought long and hard before reaching your decision. However, I'd suggest you consider an alternative point of view:

You are currently earning ca. CAD 7000 per month (using the current exchange rate), That's a considerable amount of money (yes, even in Canada, where your current income puts you in the top 10% earners) and giving that up for the unknown (at least in the short term) is a very bold move. But since you are doing it for your kids, then I can totally understand the reasoning as Naija doesn't hold significant promise (even our "honourables" don dey take IELTS now. See Desmond Elliot's sighting at the Lagos centre for reference. LOL). Why don't consider settling your family while you (or your wife, depending on who is earning more) keep your job back in Naija. That way you minimise your risk by 50% (i.e only one of you will lose his/her income and not both of you) and guarantee that at least there is a steady stream of income rather than plunging into the uncertain and "hoping" for the best. When you/your wife gets a job in Canada, then the significant other can follow knowing they have the support base in place. This to me seems like a more pragmatic move than the both of you just quitting your relatively well paying jobs and heading for an uncertain future (again, short term) with your children in tow. It would be different if you were single but you are a family person and your decisions have a far reaching consequences on not only you but also your family.

My 2 kobo but feel free to ignore it.

caon:
please house is d dimension of d hardcopy passport for PR card different from the d digital one?i tink i read one of santino's quote on it,pls cld u shed more lite

No. They are different. What my post highlighted was that you can use the same photographs for both. The only thing you have to do is use any available photo editing software (I used photoshop) to reframe the soft copy you get from your photo studio into the eAPR dimension.

Printed photo dimension: 50mm by 70mm
eAPR photo dimension: 35mm by 45mm or 420 by 540 dpi (dot per inch which is the most common way of expressing digital photo dimension)

I hope that's clear enough.

daremum:
please why did you not fill the forms?

Because I wasn't asked to.

See Kontagious post above.

daremum:
@santino1 @Kontagious @40manlappy

Please i seek your keen advice on IMM008 and Additional Family Information forms.

Is the additional family form a separate form apart from the IMM008?

I believe they are different forms (i.e. IMM008 and IMM5406). Since I didn't fill any of those forms, I can't help you. I don't want to advise you wrongly.

Cheers

olajide21:


Wouldn't want to rekindle already over discussed item. I just want to make a personal request. if you can, kindly response to the PM.

Sorry, you misunderstood me. For some inexplicable reasons, my PM doesn't work.

olajide21:
@santino1
Can we have a side discussion please? Just sent you a PM.

I'm sorry, PM doesn't work for me. If it's not a personal issue then you can spill it here and I'll try my best to answer. Also, others might benefit as well.

40manlappy:
@Santino1, bbaby84, daremum, MrsBee and all recent PPR recipients, congratulations! Wish you success in Cannyland.

It's so difficult to keep up with the pages now

Thank you.

Guitarlife:

Hellooooo....

Yes. All you will need to do is convert your ECA to course-by-course evaluation.

You'll need to pay 100 dollars for that though. Also, your credentials might be sent back to your institution for re-verification but you don't have to do anything on your part.

dupyshoo:
The question now is what is termed as lump sum? If you earn up to 20k per month, then it is not a lump sum to you but for someone that earns just 2k per month, 20k is a lump sum.

I don't disagree. As a matter of fact, see my earlier post:

Santino1:

Don't get me wrong, I understand your point (e.g. a guy having a near zero average for the first five month receiving 90% of his POF in the sixth month would surely raise a red flag. But my point is someone who has about 70-80% of his/her POF over 5 months on average shouldn't raise a red flag because he receives a lump sum in the sixth month.

dupyshoo:
Let's assume you had 20k for the past 5 months and you added 20k in the last month to make the final balance 40k. Your average will be 23k while your current balance will be 40k. That is like 50% of the current balance. It is obvious that the pof was obtained in the last 6 months from this analysis

.

Just a minor correction. The keyword in my post is average. having an "average" balance of 20k after 5 months means I must have had at least 100k cumulative within the same time frame. factor that into your calculation above and you get a different picture.

dupyshoo:
I think everyone should just put their best and put as much as they can and trust God to perfect the rest

.

Again. I agree:

cochtrane:


Just to follow with this train of thought, a lump sum in the sixth month will still not show in the average. The average is the sum over the six months divided by six, while the current balance is the present account balance. I still don't see how the lump sum becomes evident? Or maybe I'm getting it wrong.

Anyways, this is just for discussion only. Applicants should definitely do what makes them comfortable.

Nice one.

If you look at my illustration, a doubling of the monthly average in the sixth only leads to a paltry 3k increase over the six-month moving average. It will show but the effect will be statistically negligible over the moving average.

@Ehrnie, dupyshoo and TheWatcher212,

Please how did you guys navigate the 4 years working experience thing with your APEGA registration? I'm in the middle of the application process and my experience that would otherwise count as 6 years has been effectively reduced to 48 months max.

Kindly give me some pointers.

Modified: Please disregard this post. I managed to submit my application and currently under review. Thanks.