newacca: @ajanlekoko,
where are u located? I have two brovaz that are skilled plumber but they are in Abeokuta,Ogun State.

@Yemmy ma,
Yea. u just watch out. I am already making the foundation to get into the Fashion industry. My wife will be going to Italy next month to study fashion in one of the prestigious fashion institute of the world;while I take my time to explore the men's world.
I am damn sure I will do well with barbing both in Nigeria and outside Nigeria.
Do your research and make ur findings how many time men cut there hair within a month? how much it cost to treat men's hair both low and afro? what is the average number of customer a barber shop located in commercial area makes per day? how much do u cut hair in ur area? Then let's calculate.
tell [b]Ajanleko [/b]to go to NEXT in Yaba and see things for himself. There are lot of them making fortune from this.
ciao

AjanleKoko:

This is what I think.
An undergraduate degree in any discipline is very generic. It can't be practical. Yes, there should be some experiential part. But the main objective of going to university is to learn the theory. If you prefer to be more hands-on, go for the polytechnic or technical education track.


Most times you find that the industry is trying to force engineers to become technicians. Which defeats the whole purpose of going to school.

AjanleKoko: These schools sha.
Masters in Entrepreneurship ke?

Trac: Your outlook to life is wrong, therefore you've made judgements at the expense of a fair oversight/investigation. In addition tot he first statement, if it is your destiny, then you are in trouble if you miss it because you will not recognise your helpers. Don't get me wrong, it may/mayn't be your path but at least since it crossed your awareness and in the integrity of your own person, make full conclusions. If you commence on a path and there are no oppositions, it is because it is leading you nowhere.

-- reason for the first paragraph? You had belittled yourself when in actuality it isn't the way you routed your conclusions. Also, in correction, you cannot do all. You will also pick a concentration by junior or rising junior (3rd year) and your focus begins from there. When you get your degree, it doesn't mean that is your focus. School only prepares you for what the real work is. You learn just the fundamentals in school; the courses you pass and the higher you acquire only grants you the ability to understand and translate to use the proprietary information a company/corporation would administer to you. Your specialisation would be when you start working. The medical field is wide with a lot of disciplined specialisations. Do you do all and then fear that you might become discombobulated and end up with nothing? Absolutely not! Howbeit the same with "manufacturing." You are only getting an education and not a career; in other words, a means to an end. I'm not saying manufacturing is what you must do but never to underestimate yourself.

Never look at something and say it is too much for you or it is too big and complicated. If it is a mountain, begin from a point and bore-through till you've overcomed it.

In summary, you learn the bare fundamentals in school. The subsidiary knowledge will be imparted to you by the company you begin you career with. Then you nurture your career and every two-to-three years, you venture into different descriptions (opportunities within your specialty). The overall reflection is what the corporations term as experience.

AjanleKoko:

Which case?
Abegi.

So this 'which is more lucrative' bug has also bitten prospective tradespeople?
Naijas and ATM mentality. Trade na trade. None of them will result in Total kind of money. But any of them can earn a good honest living.
For example, I have been looking for a good skilled plumber for days now

Trac:

Industrial Management will focus more on the financial/managerial/safety/time motion studies at the moderate expense of the engineering aspect. In other words, less rigorous engineering to favour the aforementioned "variables." IE is nothing but a traded-off Mechanical, Electrical and Business Administration fused to make a curriculum suited for an allocated time-frame (4 years). The trade-off of Mechanical and Electrical is more to favour the Business aspect in Industrial Management.


It is very wide subject to talk about and a post cannot explain in totality a mere summary of what it is as one can with Mechanical Engineering. The opportunities are wide and many. Some colleges had it together with their Mechanical Engineering curriculum but it took 6 years to complete and very expensive for the institutions to run, so it was split into two. Your concentration will also matter and prepare you for the field you will professionalise in. I'd recommend this if you decide to pursue this - never skimp on CAD/CAE/CAM (even if you might never use them). For the electrical aspect, be able to digitally simulate digital circuits before implementations. Multisims is the only tool I know about. Your mind will be broadened for these are professional tools. Getting acquainted with the simulating environment is easier said than thought.

AjanleKoko:

UI - Industrial Engineering
Unilag - Systems Engineering
UNIBEN - Production Engineering

I'm not aware of the FUTA program.

Trac:

This is because it is called something else. It is called Manufacturing Engineering and it is very much in use in Nigeria. The oil companies have them and without them, the other engineering branches cannot really function. This is because they interface with the people/client/market and feedback the information to the other engineering sectors while "they" themselves are part of the sectors within the cycle. They are the highest paid of all the other sectors too. This position also has no cap limit as Mech or Elect etc engineers have in their careers. The opportunities are broader as you move up the ladder in your career.

mdsocks: The Op is a blatant liar. I didn't hear of any first class student from Maths department this year.

Highest you guys produced was a 2:1 but all the same your English sucks and need to work harder.

Using past tense in place of present tenses doesn't really bode well for someone who claims to have a first class.

You must be well rounded in all aspects.

s.hypo:
Am currently in 300l statistics,Will clock 23yrs Dec dis year.Am Currently In strong 2.1(4.) But i knw wit God nd Hard work I can still make first class. But i want 2 seek 4 advice.am Planing 2 Build my Carrer in any of dis Field.(Finance,Oil nd Gas,Consulting Firm,Telecoms) Pls what did i need 2 fit in 4 Dis in Term of Professional Exams Now or after My Bsc.thank 4 Ur contributn

deenee: @ yemmy_ma, different strokes for different folks! I don't think it is appropriate to discourage the poster. What we need to is provide unbiased information so that the poster will make an informed decision. No doubt, Nigeria is a TOUGH place to live and do business but one ironic question I keep asking is how come we have Americans, Chinese, Indians and other foreignn n nationalities doing business in our supposedly harsh business environ and yet they are raking in big bucks?

let me outline some names for you to back up my claim

De-United Foods trading under Multipro makers of the popular indomie noodles is owned by Indians. Chivita owned by Indians. WAMPCO is owned by Chinese. Oriental and Marcopolo owned by the Chinese. Stallion group owned by the popular Vaswani brothers. Park and shop - Indians, chocolate Royale- Lebanese, Mega Plaza- Isreali. I can go on and go

Back to yemmy_ma's question. No doubt, there are people that earn 160k USD but just a tiny fraction as I can tell you that most fall within the 25-40k USD range but when you consider taxes and other auxiliary expenses, you will discover that this above referenced amount is nothing to write home about.

I have mates in Nigeria that earn just half of this amount in Nigeria equivalent and relatively they are faring better than their contemporaries abroad.

Let's even add some figures to this claim. Let's assume a fixed tax rate of 40 percent on 160k (i.e 64k), there 96 k left. If the person in question has a car there are lease payments, insurance etc, if kids are in school there is tuition and other administrative expenses. We have not even talked about mortgage! Right now. If you want to buy a house now, you need at least 30 percent equity contribution for a typical 3 bedroom detached house of 250k which translates into about 75k bearing in mind that mortgage in my own opinion is a form of economic bondage!

Now compare this to another fellow in Nigeria that may earns 15m P.A. If such is prudent he can build his own house in a cosy area within three four years depending on preference without the hassles of a mortgage and still afford to have a little set aside for some entrepreneurial business whilst also raising a family without hassles!

A lot of us don't look beyond the big picture and understand that the details also matter. We all assume that America is a bed of roses because we have been brainwashed by the media to think so whilst presenting africa as a disease ravaged continent.

@ the poster, have a back up plan, increase the frequency of your visits to Nigeria as I am doing presently, make a lot of friends with all and sundry don't have a condescending view about any body and be prepared to drop the american accent trust me it will do you a lot of good! (I got the opportunity to acquire some choice plots of land around Lekki axis through the taxi man that picks me up from the airport anytime I am in the country can you imagine!) Also, be careful as there are a lot of scam artists around. Try to have a structure on ground before you relocate finally and remember to pray and have faith. Nigeria is a country plagued with insecurity, economic, tribal and religious strife but also filled with vast opportunities. It all depends on how you want to see the cup- half empty or half full!

I think I will stop ranting at this point and best of luck!

larion: ,

Jobs hmmmmn, d telecom industry is nt like before, dts wat outsiders don't know, you've got to pay your dues or have some1 pay for you. Dts a discussion for another day. remember I told you m a corper, I just came out of d orientation camp some weeks ago n m searching for some RF volunteer jobs in d industry so as to add experience 2 my belt.
Yes you heard me right, work without pay, no one will employ you in Nigeria without nysc (I tried it) and since d same nysc has stopped posting to private companies & MTN n obasanjo has killed ,,,,,NITEL/MTEL I am left to pay d remaining part of my dues d hard way. Dts anoda secret abt d industry now, it will b tough to break in without experience irrespective of wat u hold. Unlike before.

Forget abt dt, v you found d thread I talked abt, get started quick, no time boss! D industry is climaxing, d rush into telecom will soon be over except sometin dramatic happens. ,,,,,

larion: Yipee! I won a prize frm aj, @ least m Better dan team Nigeria in d London 2012 Olympics. Lol, yemmy dts d fact abt unilag ooooo, anyway m still thinking of picking a masters form in info tech next year wen nysc sets me free. D degree is just for prestige anyway, m ashamed of having only one degree on my cv, *giggles*

Back to taiw, I was abt telling you to forget abt dose degrees as no uni in Nigeria can get you polished for telecoms, but I was scared to say it since I am a fresher myself, I didn't want to look like m ridiculing a masters degree n favoring some training institute instead but since a veteran has said it, good, ll blow it up more.


Telcom wise no uni in Nigeria can polish you, so d institutes r d best bet for now I can assure you as m a living testimony . You can't go wrong by going to TTC mobile, m a graduate of d institute, you can't do wrong by going to india, m a telecom returnee frm d country, above all you can't go wrong by taking AJ's advices , m a product them.

How do you start? On dis career board, there's a thread by d same AJ tagged as telecommunications professionals, look for it and read, I found d post 2yrs ago wen I was it 400L during my IT, it had just 16 pages den & I took 2weeks to read it all while jotting some points on a piece of paper, d thread has 23pages now, if you can read it all fine, if not pick d last 5pages, all doubts have being cleared there, dt thread was d takeoff for me... D ball is in your court

Cajetan speaks: [color=#000099][/color] You sound too naive to be an undergraduate.

larion: First I wanna commend your attitude, most nairalanders tend to always wanna fight over issues like ds, I was expecting you to come as same, but you proved different, dts cool

Let's get down to analysis, do you knw wat PGD is and do you think you need it? If your answers to ds questions r yes & yes den futa will nt give you a masters admission without it. So you can't run d two simultaneously. Dept of Physics telecommunications ? No way! Wat you have in futa is physics dept with options in nuclear physics and electronics. You might do one or two topics relating 2 telecoms but no more. Mark you! I said topics nt courses so if you r expecting dt dept to polish you for telecoms, you shld also be expecting Nigeria to win 30 medals in d London 2012 Olympics *chuckles*. To chip in briefly futa don't offer MSC dey do offer M.tech .

To give you a little insight, wen you eventually get into futa, irrespective of d course, don't dream of missing classes cos I don't knw how you wanna juggle oau n futa together. You got to attend a good % of lectures, futa aint no camp for jamboree like Unilag (beef intended) where student go on AWOL for weeks. I can assure you 90% of computer science students dt finished last year attended more dan 85% of lectures frm 200level . We do not live on faded glory like some other uni so if you wanna go in, drop all extracurricular activities, you can't juggle sometin else with futa if you wanna come out with a fair enough grade. Its an advice anyway.

sauer: Thanks Yemmy,
I haven't even heard about Okwui Enwezor, but I'll check him up. Am not surprised. I know a couple of Nigerians (or Africans) who are also successful in Germany. Are you based in Europe? Based on the answers you provided about Germany, I'm supposing that you are.

eNKe!:


Honestly, I appreciate all the advice am getting here. Thanks guys for taking out time to respond to my thread.
I'll try provide as many answers as possible, just so I can get more advice.
Okay, my present job pays a lot, but the truth is there's a lot of need to conform to certain "unnerving" company standards that might very well prevent you from expressing yourself. Don't get me wrong, it could be interesting. But then it could as well be routine and dogmatic.
I also agree with you on the fact that it's possible I'm unable to find a job after completing this masters. I should also look at the possibility. I'll be hurting myself if I don't. If it wasn't a scholarship, I might not have gone for it. But it doesn't remove from the fact that the course offering attracts me, particularly because it has mathematical research elements in it and is oriented towards development. In addition to that, it's a prestigious fellowship with a network of rather renowned alumni worldwide. That makes it more attractive to me. Looking at it, the opportunities that might follow may promise to be less dogmatic than my present occupation.
On your questions: I speak three languages, including French and German. I do not have any published papers, but am greatly desirous of having some (including patents). And I have attended just a handful of seminars related to this subject.
I can't see any guarantee of getting a job with those agencies I listed. But then, the alternative plan would be to get a PhD and anything can follow from there. I know with a PhD my chances are still good in these organisations. SO, am pretty much open to all the possibilities that can result from here.
The truth remains though, that I'm still in doubt about what the future can hold and am naturally skeptical about dropping this seemingly assured future for an uncertain one.

yamakuza:

lol! u are the OP