For International Jobs, Masters is the First Degree
I used to advise that Nigerian graduates delay their masters as much as possible. This view was informed by knowledge of three things:
- Most decent equal-opportunity employers of graduates (banks, audit firms, consulting firms, FMCGs etc) in Nigeria put age limit as part of their employment requirements. This is usually pegged at 26, in fact as low as 25 for some companies. Now, given the notoriety of Nigerian universities for strikes, many graduates leave school at 24/25. Now, add one year of compulsory NYSC to that, and you are 25/26. Now, if you go for your masters, you have another 1-2 years to spend on that. By the time you’re ready for the labour market, you are 26/27 already. You may have been cut off by the age requirement.
- I entered the labour market in 2007/2008, shortly before the global meltdown of 2009/2010 that did not spare Nigeria too. To be honest, we were spoiled for jobs during that time. As early as two weeks after my final exam in the university, I was already writing job tests and doing interviews. By December 2006, just 2 months after finishing my final year exams, I had two job offers on my laps. During my NYSC year in 2007/2008, I got job test invites from at least 7 companies, all top companies including Accenture, KPMG, PwC, ExxonMobil and Shell. I settled for Oando shortly after returning from NYSC. This was the same story with many of my friends that graduated around the same time (2004 – 2006). Now, some of our friends went abroad for their masters after our NYSC in 2008 and by the time they came back in 2009/2010, things had gone south for the global economy. Many struggled to get jobs. Those of us who entered the job market immediately after graduation/NYSC (ie pre-2009) were very lucky as we had settled down in our jobs. It became a struggle from 2010 as companies were hardly recruiting. This still tells on the career trajectory of some of us till today – those who entered the labour market pre-2009 crisis and those who delayed by 2-3 years due to masters.
- Even when the economy opened up a bit and jobs started coming again, the masters did not make much difference. Without experience, you are in the same bucket with someone with only first degree for jobs that require only first degree, as many Nigerian jobs do. So all of you will write the same test, that’s even if you are still within the age bracket that gets you invite for test.
It is for these reasons I held the view that young graduates in Nigeria should not go for their masters immediately after NYSC or consider masters in the short term.
However, some exposure and experience in recent years have made me change this view.
The most important of the factors is the globalization of the job market. Most international organizations like OPEC, ECOWAS, UN, World bank, IMF etc require minimum of masters degree irrespective of the level – whether entry level or experienced hire. These international institutions open their recruitments to Nigerians and I see many Nigerians who have the experience requirement but without masters degree.
A case in point is the recent OPEC Fund for International Recruitment (OFID aka OPEC Fund) recruitment. All the positions, even for young graduate programme, require applicants to have masters degree.
This is just an example, any vacancy you see from other international organizations will require masters degree.
So it is strongly advised that Nigerians looking for such opportunities get theirs masters in readiness for when the opportunity will come – whether as experienced hire or entry level position. While a good school abroad is great for such CVs, any masters, even if from a state university in Nigeria, is actually better than no masters. At least that requirement will be ticked and you get moved to the next stage in the shortlisting process, determined by other things on your CV.
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