I don't know if some of you might remember this thread i made https://www.nairaland.com/8006821/should-go-masters-degree-remai where i contemplated going for a masters degree instead of remaining jobless at home. Well after assimilating all the advice i got from that thread, i decided to kill two birds with one stone and apply for the masters degree while also getting a laptop to start an online business in writing and copywriting which is where my passion lies.

Shortly after i got the laptop i found a creative writing opportunity via reddit and applied. One of the requirements for the job was to have a really fast typing speed (minimum of 60 words per minute). I just got my laptop so my typing speed was really slow but i resolved to increase it by practicing daily for a month and i grew from 35wpm to 62wpm which the job required.

That was just the beginning, the recruitment process for the job was done through a platform called Discord and they had a specific writing style that they wanted to inculcate in the applicants via daily trainings after which you will have to pass some exams. I started actively training for about a month and felt i was confident enough to take the intro exam, which i did and performed excellently so i moved on to the last stage.

Now this is where things got kind of complicated because this last stage required me to share my laptop screen in real time, kinda like a video call and prepare creative writing scripts for different scenarios that will be provided also in real time. The session was supervised by the recruiters and would last for 4 hours. I was fully locked in and confident in all that i had already learnt from training, However, the time for the test came and i was given a resource to download that i would use in writing these scripts. After downloading, setting it up on my laptop and then hopping on the live video call with the supervisors, i could not for the life of me get it to run efficiently, it was extremely slow and kept giving me a connection error feedback, I use MTN 4G and can't believe that the network chose that moment to start acting up. I still don't know if the real culprit is my laptop (2017 hp elitebook) or MTN network but after i switched to 3g and tried to hop back on the call to apologize to the supervisors for having a network glitch, i realized they had already blocked me, so i wasn't even given a chance to showcase my skills and this is what pains me most.

This is the reason that was given: "poor internet on a remote job, i'm sorry but it cannot work".

I'm so devastated, all the effort, time and resources invested into becoming a perfect fit for the job has been washed away in a blink. Now, i'm back home in my mom's house, in shame and defeat, with less than #1k to my name having used all my savings to get the laptop and for data subscriptions. I'm just lost on what to do right now, i have been admitted but i can't even go for the masters i applied for anymore and i was thinking to myself that even though i had gotten the job, how would i have kept up with the 8 hours per shift work schedule when there is very epileptic power supply where i live.

Is success still possible in Nigeria for those that are still struggling? or are we all doomed to fail again and again, especially for those of us looking to succeed online. I'm 26 atm and i don't know how long this will continue, it's just like all the forces of nature are working against me being rich and successful. Where can i find the motivation to search for something else to do in order to be productive when everything always ends in failure? is there even anything else to do?

Sorry for the long post, just thought i should share my experience and this is like the only platform that i can vent due to not really having anyone to talk to irl.

The challenges are many and most remote workers have gone through different of these challenges. I once got to the final stage and they ghosted me. Normally I would ignore, but I persisted because I knew I did well. The man told me it is because I am Nigerian in Nigeria and the job requires high ethics.

Meaning: Nigerians are unethical.

---

Just keep it moving. It is a game of numbers. You keep applying for many and not dwell on one loss. Learn your lessons and keep developing yourself. Many days I cried. I will dump my laptop and a few days later I pick it up again. I guess it was easier for me because I had a good job and support system (friends, family and lover rooting for me). So I wasn't jobless or hungry. I just needed more and I knew my 6-digit 9to5 wouldn't give me what I wanted in the next few years.

It was also supposed to be a second source of income, but when I got an offer that trumped my 9to5, I resigned.

I went through your stage in 2021. Peaked in 2022. Struck gold in 2023. In fact, I had to go back to ask my firm's co-founder why he picked me (A Nigerian) out of numerous applicants and he said "GUT FEELING, you came off as someone willing to learn/work and your CV wasn't bogus". Today I don't remember the days of crying and disappointment. My own is to enjoy life. Remote work completely changed my life and I genuinely wish it for those who desire it.

That said, na who giveup lose.

GET A SECOND ISP (MAYBE AIRTEL). YOU NEED BACKUP FOR REMOTE WORK. ONCE ONE IS MESSING UP, SWITCH WITH THE SPEED OF LIGHT

---

dauntless15:
Don't bother asking her, she loves showing off and pretending she wants it for others but in reality she doesn't want others on same pedestal as hers, she'd not tell you anything tangible, no waste your time, find it yourself.

1) Which is what you should do. I found it myself too. Nobody held my hands and I didn't go accusing senior remote workers of showing off and pretence. I have remote workers I look up to on this forum and I am sure I never tried to bug any of them with the burden of guiding me.

2) I have nothing tangible to tell you. Our expertise and experience are not the same.

3) You were 1 of 10000 people that reached out to me. You really think I should leave my job and sleeptime to start handholding all of you to prove that I want you to be on the same pedestal? Delusion...

4) I don't mentor people ANYMORE. I have said it numerous times on Nairaland and I am unabashed about it.

5) I don't disclose personal details of my work on Nairaland or to Nairalanders. I have no reason to do that on a toxic forum where I am serially a target.




Warm Regards

Stay strong bro/sist. It is not easy everywhere. But this I know, when it is your time, everythings will fall into place trust me

My land. Stay away




All you got to do is simple; keep trying eventually it’ll work probably the ones you never even expected to workout

sorry maan

Oh my. Sorry for your experience, poster..

That 'would be' employer might just be a sadist and just have no interest in giving you a offer, everyone with a single internet connection source would always be faced with that challenge, whichever part of the world you are.

You might have been profiled.

The network downtime is not your fault and it's not the end of the world.

Note that your have greatly improved your self, skills and confidence. Do not be dismayed.

Go on and apply for more positions and hope for the best.

dauntless15:
Don't bother asking her, she loves showing off and pretending she wants it for others but in reality she doesn't want others on same pedestal as hers, she'd not tell you anything tangible, no waste your time, find it yourself.

it's wrong jumping to conclusions or assumptions you know. I'm yet to see her show off. Not that I'm idle enough to notice anyway.

---

qtx:

Funny what you meant by Usually, I often recommend used PCs . Are u suggesting that the OP wasted money buying laptop just because he didn't get through the interview? If so, then you are wrong. Was the laptop meant for that job interview alone? There are a lot more opportunities ahead for the OP to use the laptop for. Compared to PC as claimed, pls keep in mind that laptop has more advantages when compared to desktop. e.g its portable, has battery for power backup, occupies less space must etc. They each have different areas of advantage however based on above listed merits, laptop should still be preferable for a remote mobile job person.

To best of my knowledge, a PC is a general term for a Personal Computer (wether laptop or desktop).
Also I only made the comment when he said He's spent so much buying the laptop that all He's got left is a thousand naira.

Most times, some of these people only bought them for the remote work. and they often go for the costly ones for soemthing they're yet to know how things would turn out to be.

Imagine if for example, He spent just 30% of the total cost of that PC (laptop), He still would have had the remaining 70% left.

We wey start during the days of cyberCafe nko. Me wey be say despite handling projects of numerous volumns, my laptop costs less than 60,000 naira and was bought UK used. All ma life, na only once I don buy brand new laptop, and e no even last sef.

What matters firstly and mostly, is what you got to offer. The tools are secondary and so long they work well, their costs is not important.

A used Core i5 laptop with average battery life + about 4GB ram could be gotten for 50,000 naira or a bit lower if you sabi market. of course you could increase the ram later if need be. You no get business with GPU or graphicCard except you're in a field that requires one.
A lot of people spend so much on things they end up under utilizing.
Ask am make e share the laptop wey him buy and you would see my guesses are mostly accurate.

@pocohantas , what's your line of trade / speciality ?

pocohantas:
The challenges are many and most remote workers have gone through different of these challenges. I once got to the final stage and they ghosted me. Normally I would ignore, but I persisted because I knew I did well. The man told me it is because I am Nigerian in Nigeria and the job requires high ethics.

Meaning: Nigerians are unethical.

---

Just keep it moving. It is a game of numbers. You keep applying for many and not dwell on one loss. Learn your lessons and keep developing yourself. Many days I cried. I will dump my laptop and a few days later I pick it up again. I guess it was easier for me because I had a good job and support system (friends, family and lover rooting for me). So I wasn't jobless or hungry. I just needed more and I knew my 6-digit 9to5 wouldn't give me what I wanted in the next few years.

It was also supposed to be a second source of income, but when I got an offer that trumped my 9to5 over-and-over-and-over. I resigned.

I went through your stage in 2021. Peaked in 2022. Struck gold in 2023. In fact, I had to go back to ask my firm's co-founder why he picked me (A Nigerian) out of numerous applicants and he said "GUT FEELING, you came off as someone willing to learn/work and your CV wasn't bogus". Today I don't remember the days of crying and disappointment. My own is to enjoy life. Remote work completely changed my life and I genuinely wish it for those who desire it.

That said, na who giveup lose.

---

1) Which is what you should do. I found it myself too. Nobody held my hands and I didn't go accusing senior remote workers of showing off and pretence. I have remote workers I look up to on this forum and I am sure I never tried to bug any of them with the burden of guiding me.

2) I have nothing tangible to tell you. Our expertise and experience are not the same.

3) You were 1 of 10000 people that reached out to me. You really think I should leave my job and sleeptime to start handholding all of you to prove that I want you to be on the same pedestal? Delusion...

4) I don't mentor people ANYMORE. I have said it numerous times on Nairaland and I am unabashed about it.

5) I don't disclose personal details of my work on Nairaland or to Nairalanders. I have no reason to do that on a toxic forum where I am serially a target.




Warm Regards

To add to the above, myself is a slut when it comes to ISPs as I own at least 2pcs of each of their simCards. Even spectranet and Swift sef I get. GloBaCom sef wey sabi disappear when breeze blow, I get the simCard. And monthly, I have active subscriptions from at least 2-networks.
I no follow buy elonMusk network because I never finiish the ones wey I get.

With regards to mentoring people - wish I learnt early enough. Went as far as utilizing my own resources numerous times. Till I realized they're either lazy, or want to move & earn faster than yourself. They refused understanding there are stages & dues to be paid.

As for those saying you pretend, and love to showOff, well people would always talk, especially when you seem to be doing much better than their sorry a-s-ses.
Person wey dey sleep first, wake last, go expect to be on same or better pedestrial with you wey dey sleep last, wake first, come still inconvenience yourself join + deprive yourself of the fun enjoyed by your peers.

As for my asking of your area of speciality, that's because often I tend to have need for people in other specialities e.g writters, and you seem more matured & responsible enough, unlike the lots on this forum.
Me no dey find tutor, or mentor. Me don establish enough I run a small team + repeat clients. I dey come nairaland to come blow off steam & release STRESS sha hence no matter how rowdy the forum is, I kinda benefit.


what most See is the GAIN, hardly the PAIN

pocohantas:
The challenges are many. Most remote workers have gone through different of these challenges. I once got to the final stage and they ghosted me. Normally I would ignore, but I persisted because I knew I did well. The man told me it is because I am Nigerian in Nigeria and the job requires high ethics.

Meaning: Nigerians are unethical.

---

Just keep it moving. It is a game of numbers. You keep applying for many and not dwell on one loss. Many days I cried. I will dump my laptop and a few days later I pick it up again. I guess it was easier for me because I had a good job and support system (friends, family and lover rooting for me). So I wasn't jobless or hungry. I just needed more and I knew my 6-digit 9to5 wouldn't give me what I wanted in the next few years.

It was also supposed to be a second source of income, but when I got an offer that trumped my 9to5 over-and-over-and-over. I resigned.

I went through your stage in 2021. Peaked in 2022. Struck gold in 2023. In fact, I had to go back to ask my firm's co-founder why he picked me (A Nigerian) out of numerous applicants and he said "GUT FEELING, you came off as someone willing to learn/work and your CV wasn't bogus". Today I don't remember the days of crying and disappointment. My own is to enjoy life. Remote work completely changed my life and I genuinely wish it for those who desire it.

That said, na who giveup lose.

Lots of NewComers wanna achieve much more faster than those they met there.

They fail to realize there's always that point you get to pull your hair. If it doesn't occur at the initial stage, it would happen in-between.

Him lucky say no be say him work finish, he no see money collect.

But wait Ooo @pocohantas , wetin you do Nairaland guys wey make dem tag you "evening newspaper" ?
You know often times, guys speak ill of ladies who appear in higher class than their level

Sorry bro
Don't give up yet

I dey wait for othe remote worker to help make i learn

please where did you apply for this job ?

Reading…

You have to keep pushing. I remember i had similar situations in my first remote jobs back in 2016/2017.
Keep applying to other opportunities and one will work.

BucketMan:
I don't know if some of you might remember this thread i made https://www.nairaland.com/8006821/should-go-masters-degree-remai where i contemplated going for a masters degree instead of remaining jobless at home. Well after assimilating all the advice i got from that thread, i decided to kill two birds with one stone and apply for the masters degree while also getting a laptop to start an online business in writing and copywriting which is where my passion lies.

Shortly after i got the laptop i found a creative writing opportunity via reddit and applied. One of the requirements for the job was to have a really fast typing speed (minimum of 60 words per minute). I just got my laptop so my typing speed was really slow but i resolved to increase it by practicing daily for a month and i grew from 35wpm to 62wpm which the job required.

That was just the beginning, the recruitment process for the job was done through a platform called Discord and they had a specific writing style that they wanted to inculcate in the applicants via daily trainings after which you will have to pass some exams. I started actively training for about a month and felt i was confident enough to take the intro exam, which i did and performed excellently so i moved on to the last stage.

Now this is where things got kind of complicated because this last stage required me to share my laptop screen in real time, kinda like a video call and prepare creative writing scripts for different scenarios that will be provided also in real time. The session was supervised by the recruiters and would last for 4 hours. I was fully locked in and confident in all that i had already learnt from training, However, the time for the test came and i was given a resource to download that i would use in writing these scripts. After downloading, setting it up on my laptop and then hopping on the live video call with the supervisors, i could not for the life of me get it to run efficiently, it was extremely slow and kept giving me a connection error feedback, I use MTN 4G and can't believe that the network chose that moment to start acting up. I still don't know if the real culprit is my laptop (2017 hp elitebook) or MTN network but after i switched to 3g and tried to hop back on the call to apologize to the supervisors for having a network glitch, i realized they had already blocked me, so i wasn't even given a chance to showcase my skills and this is what pains me most.

This is the reason that was given: "poor internet on a remote job, i'm sorry but it cannot work".

I'm so devastated, all the effort, time and resources invested into becoming a perfect fit for the job has been washed away in a blink. Now, i'm back home in my mom's house, in shame and defeat, with less than #1k to my name having used all my savings to get the laptop and for data subscriptions. I'm just lost on what to do right now, i have been admitted but i can't even go for the masters i applied for anymore and i was thinking to myself that even though i had gotten the job, how would i have kept up with the 8 hours per shift work schedule when there is very epileptic power supply where i live.

Is success still possible in Nigeria for those that are still struggling? or are we all doomed to fail again and again, especially for those of us looking to succeed online. I'm 26 atm and i don't know how long this will continue, it's just like all the forces of nature are working against me being rich and successful. Where can i find the motivation to search for something else to do in order to be productive when everything always ends in failure? is there even anything else to do?

Sorry for the long post, just thought i should share my experience and this is like the only platform that i can vent due to not really having anyone to talk to irl.

Pick yourself up and continue trying. Are you not a man? Stop whining!

I lost a $5000/month after getting to the final stage where it was just me and one other European guy as the top two candidates. The CEO said he wanted a white face for the job (recruiter told me this in confidence later) and that was it.

Did the world end for me? We move!

...This is the reason that was given: "poor internet on a remote job, i'm sorry but it cannot work".

I'm so devastated, all the effort, time and resources invested into becoming a perfect fit for the job has been washed away in a blink. Now, i'm back home in my mom's house, in shame and defeat, with less than #1k to my name having used all my savings to get the laptop and for data subscriptions. I'm just lost on what to do right now, i have been admitted but i can't even go for the masters i applied for anymore and i was thinking to myself that even though i had gotten the job, how would i have kept up with the 8 hours per shift work schedule when there is very epileptic power supply where i live...

Repeatedly, have suggested and sounded it as a warning to most newbies to never spend so much on getting certain things especially Laptops when initially venturing into remote works. Usually, I often recommend used PCs nd often suggests they ignore funy features such as SSD, graphic cards, etc.
I even went as far as listing out product-lines of various brands that are very mostly durable.

But una hardly hear word. Una think say na by having the latest gadget dem dey take get work

bassdow:


Repeatedly, have suggested and sounded it as a warning to most newbies to never spend so much on getting certain things especially Laptops when initially venturing into remote works. Usually, I often recommend used PCs nd often suggests they ignore funy features such as SSD, graphic cards, etc.
I even went as far as listing out product-lines of various brands that are very mostly durable.

But una hardly hear word. Una think say na by having the latest gadget dem dey take get work

wouldn't be surprised you probably bought a brand new Router Modem, rather than a [USED] pocket mifi or modem.
in fact, you could even use your Mobile smart phone as a Modem. That's if you happen to use a quality phone e.g LG, Sony Xperia, Motorola, etc; [s]I no mention Tecno, inFinix, Gionne, etc Ooo[/s]

As for data pla, you look out for cheap data plans.

But we wey really dey into this for long go talk, highest una go do na to thank us, BUT end up doing what you wanna do.

in this life eh, learn from others so as to reduce the amount of mistakes you would make yourSelf

So sorry about this painful experience. Please don't sound defeated, keep trying

Nigeria ....

You are young. You will get there. keep trying.

For some success could come faster, but just keep caining your own line.
Do not lose focus.

I will share a personal experience. in 2009-2010 a lot of guys lost their banking jobs.

The ones who retained their jobs were considered lucky. the ones who lost their jobs started finding their way abroad.

10years down the line, they are now the big boys and girls abroad assisting the ones who still had their jobs here. even assisting some settle in during this recent Japa rush.

Your time will come bro.

ciao!

The forces of nature are not working against you kankan... What you face is just a setback, people face setbacks and don't ascribe it to any negative force... Why didn't you think about the epileptic power supply before applying?

People lose their jobs, people get fired, people get scammed, business owners watch their businesses fail... That's life

Dust yourself up and move on... If you still dey find motivation, go and look at those guys that swim down to river beds to pack sand...

Stop the pity party and move on... You even get mama wey you fit fall back on, better dupe ti e

Eyyyaaa so sorry about that

Pick yourself up and believe in yourself.

Chai, although I laughed at the point of using MTN 4G. Sorry for your loss. Reapply and this time get Airtel and 9mobile on standby this time.

So sorry, thou difficult pick up yourself and move on. Don’t focus on the past, it’ll draw you back almost 2 years. Stay positive and look ahead for a brighter future. Cheers

Edit: everyone who replied or sent a dm will be gotten back to before the end of the month. Unfortunately only one person can get the role so please don't take it personal if you're not the one.

Don't overthink it.

Take the lessons from this experience, it should guide you on how to proceed.

Keep applying.

Na who give up, Bleep up.

Well, this is your first experience. Learn from it and move on.

It's not as painful as being ghosted.

In your freelance journey, you have to learn how to deal with rejection.

Best.

It is sad and unfortunate that our leaders made this country a dream killer. Nothing works in the real sense of it. No light, no fuel, internet services is massively unstable, nothing works well in this country. OP MTN 4G is actually 2G.