Another story to inspire you on your immigrant journey.
I asked our last subject if I could speak to the guy she referred to in her interview, and he agreed. And he also agreed to share his immigrant journey.
Let’s call today’s subject “Oti”.
Profile
Gender: Male
Country of Residence: United States
Profession: Program Manager
The first question I always ask is, why did you leave your home country?
Hmm where do I start from?
I left in 2014 December. But the desire to go abroad and experience life outside of what I knew started from many years ago when I started learning to read and write in English from about 9 years old.
I grew up in a town in Osun state, Nigeria and until my parents moved to Lagos state. We were an aspiring middle-class family money wise so the cheapest way for me to engage with anything at all outside of my environment was books. I read everything readable. Not being able to speak English I couldn’t even interact with people so I just used to listen to my friends talking and I couldn’t contribute much. While my friends had visual representations of what abroad looked like, I had to use my imagination a lot. I could story map everything as I was reading, I had to create things in my head.
So I always desired to see what the real thing looked like. I didn’t want to just imagine it anymore.
When I was in secondary school, I saved some money and wrote the SATs exam without telling my parents. I used that to apply to a lot of schools. This was back then when schools sent brochures across the world for intending students. I remember I used to get a lot of mails addressed to me at home and my family was wondering what was going on. I applied to the University of Washington and the University of California, Berkeley because I still wanted to go to the United States.
Nothing came out of that really.
I went to University at home and started working with one of the major telecommunications company in Lagos. Then again I started reading a lot about investments; this was my introduction days to Crypto: Bitcoin, Ethereum and the likes. At that time these were things that I couldn’t do in Nigeria. For instance I will dig deep about buying a particular type of stock, gain a lot of knowledge but do nothing with it.
Fast forward to 2010, I took the GRE exams but did nothing about it until 2014. A couple of conversations and events, I took the bold step and moved to the United States for a Masters Degree.
How did you fund the masters degree and your cost of living?
It was not an easy ride and so many stories to get me to the finish line but I will share as briefly as I can.
My course was four semesters and I had saved some money from my paid employment. But it was not scratching the surface.
After some research, I found out that American citizens paid a subsidized fee versus what international students paid(Resident vs Non-resident tuition). So I applied through the course advisor and requested to also pay the discounted sum. They agreed under a condition, I would pay the full fees for the first term, then I must get a grade of at least 3.3 after my first term. On that premise I can then pay the discounted fees for the rest of my course by maintaining a 3.3 CGPA.
Now the United States school system also had a loop-hole I could take advantage of. Because most of the students went to University funded by federal student loans which took some long processing time from the government, the university allowed them to start and take classes for the duration of the full term/semester without making any initial payment. This also applied to international students. The only caveat is that you would not be able to register for the next semester due to financial hold. This is unlike the United Kingdom schools, this meant I didn’t need to pay any deposit for fees to start a semester.
The last bit that made everything align for me; I was supposed to resume in September of 2013 but the visa processing was late so I was advised to resume in January of 2014.
So I went to school without paying a deposit, went ahead for the full first semester and wrote my exams and got my results well above the agreed 3.3! This meant I didn’t need to pay anything from January all the way to August. (I didn’t take any courses during the summer (May to August) so I took different jobs on campus- IT helpdesk, Laboratories etc”.
I also took on some tutoring jobs – teaching maths and science courses to high school kids. By the time the second term started, with the money I had saved before school, I had enough to pay my fees for the outstanding first term with the discount applied. I was now ready for the second semester with little to no money. You are eligible to get a proper job outside the school system after a full semester.
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O nice! That really worked out well for you!
Yeah but then things got even more difficult, there is always the next huddle.
How do you mean?
After paying the outstanding fee for the first semester, summer was over so I was limited in the number of jobs I could do (20 hours) . I mean I had a job but the income was just barely enough to cover my expenses. What I had was not enough to register for the third semester of school (or clear the second-semester fees).
The first plan was to access 25% of pension in Nigeria (the criteria is that you must have been out of a job for more than 6 months to legally access the money) Even that was not enough. The exchange rate from the Naira had shifted so much, the sum it would amount to was a mere percentage.
Calling mom and dad was definitely out of the question. The last time I called them for any financial support was at the beginning of my final year in undergraduate school so doing so at that time was not going to happen. But I just didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t sleep or function properly.
As the due date to pay my fees approached, I called up a friend and shared my predicament with him and he immediately said “Why didn’t you call me since??! The solution is easy. Just write a letter to the president of your school and make sure you emphasize the issues you are facing with the currency devaluation at home and all the struggles. And state that you will like to be paying about $400 monthly until you finish paying.
Guess what? I did exactly what he suggested, and the president replied saying the university has been made aware of the exchange rate issues in various African countries. They recognize how difficult it has been for students so rather than pay $400 monthly, he was recommending I pay $300 monthly. It was such a huge weight on my shoulders. I remember calling up all my friends in other schools that were international students and telling them what to do immediately. It was a miracle
That was how I got through to the end. By the time I finished school, I still had about $13,000 in outstanding fees. The school allowed me to write the final exams. For a few students, their schools held onto their certificates till they paid back all the owed tuition.
What a Journey! How did you navigate the job market after school?
It was very very rough for the first few months. About six months.
I still had the job from my school days but I lost it because of work permit. I had to get it renewed after school but instead of the standard 90 days, for some reason, the processing time took way more than 90 days. My office had to let me go. By the time my tiny savings was depleted, I had to let go of my flat and ended up staying on a friend’s couch. At some point, his family came to visit from India, so I had to leave and I started staying in my car for another couple of days until another friend came to help.
Listen! It was rough!
Those days I questioned myself and the decisions I made. I was hustling just to survive. While in school, I had started scalping; buying tickets of popular sport games at low prices and re-selling them at a high yield all on online, I signed up to various freelance sites but these two https://fieldnation.com/ and https://www.mindsumo.com/ were life savers. I was lucky to get some jobs that kept me afloat. I also tutored other immigrants who were trying to write their GEDs.
In all of this I kept applying for roles and was not getting anywhere. There were interviews but no offers because companies were not interested in filing for work visa. Looking back now, I realised the city I was in was the problem. As much as my engineering friends could get roles in an Automobile city, my own skill set was not in high demand in the city I was in. I moved to another city and within weeks I got three job offers.
I will tell anyone this “move to larger cities, move to where your skillset is in high demand.” The job I eventually settled for agreed to sponsor my work permit but the pay was not great and it was a tiny company but I took it anyway. About 2 months in, I was looking forward to finally filing for the work visa (I had been working on student visa – allows STEM students to work for 2-3 years upon graduation) when I got a call for an interview for a contract(temp) position at a big tech firm. It was a 16 month contract job from one of the major tech companies and they also offered the role with visa sponsorship. I knew it was a big risk considering this was a contract role vs the permanent one I already had that was about a month to my filing. I took the interview but I was not selected . 2 weeks later, I got a call from the contracting company and they wanted to consider giving me the role again. This time, when I joined the call for the interview, they didn’t realize I was on the bridge call already and I heard the hiring manager say “whatever Oti says, just let him know he has gotten the role and he has nothing to worry about”.
I have never been so happy In my life.
I really needed a big name on my CV. I remember when I was in Nigeria I got a job offer from KPMG on two different occasions but I turned them down on both occasions because the pay offer was lower than I was earning. I should have taken the offer because having the global brand name on my CV would have been of immense advantage in a foreign market.
After the 16 months contract, I started interviewing again but at least I felt like I had one leg in plus the experience. I got an offer from a big tech organisation but due to some restructuring, the company rescinded their offer a week before resumption and I was out of a job again.
Disaster!
I tell you! It felt like a never-ending circle of me not catching a break. Eventually, I got a permanent role with the same big tech organisation. This time it came with all the benefits including a green card.
That ended well…. whew. What has your financial journey been like since then?
I mean first all of all as soon as I got the job, I got a credit card and used it to pay off my outstanding school fees. But I have since cleared the credit card debt.
I started to invest heavily in stocks, securities, bonds digital currencies…….you name it. Finally, I could now put into practice everything I read about and continued to read about.
Real Estate?
Buying real estate is not a priority for me.
Even a residential one?
For a long time, I wanted the choice of the house I buy for me to live in to be done in collaboration with whoever I marry. This hasn’t happened so I finally made the decision to go ahead and buy one. The legal proceedings are in progress.
I totally agree that real estate makes good financial investment, but for me it is not an immediate priority. I will eventually add a number of them to my portfolio but for me right now, it must be funded by other streams of income.
O nice. So, what would you consider a priority or what I will call a major financial goal for you?
I want to own a bank.
Wow.
Yep! Not necessarily a commercial bank. It can be a microfinance bank. I want to own an institution that is the powerhouse of businesses and economies. I have always dreamed of this, and I am actively working toward this.
How?
A friend and I have been able to set up a co-operative of some sort for our university class alumni. We raised all the funds from the class and have been managing it quite well.
Plus I make strategic investments now. Aside from the stocks I buy, when I listen to the news I am listening for the opportunities. For example, the Olympics games will be held in the city I live in, in the year 2026. I have been actively researching the organizations that will be suppliers, vendors etc. They are currently building a 70,000-person stadium in a town; this means businesses will spring up all around it. These are the ones I am investing in now long-term.
I still do scalping but now with bigger events and I play more long-term strategic goals.
Good Stuff. My Last question…..any advise for other immigrants like yourself?
Hmmmm.
I will say this, be where the right information is. Speaking to you now, I look back at my journey and what has propelled me forward is information. Getting the discounted fee for my masters degree, knowing that when I write to the president of my university I would be able to pay monthly, the decision to move to a new city where my skillset is in high demand………. so many others I had to skip because of time.
Your progress in any new country is about the quality information you have access to and what you do with it. To be honest it all boils down to the quality of people you surround yourself with. It is what they know that they will share.
Information gets you ahead. The right information gets you to the top.
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I am not a financial expert. Far from it. I am just your average girl who uses money as a tool to thrive in the new country and is willing to share my lessons as I go along.
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