Truth Be Told

• Get a driving license before you leave the country, enroll in a driving school while you are still a student. Saves you stress later. 

• Get your tax number. You can do this before grad (For Hungary. Confirm with your university if it's not in Hungary)

• Learn a language while you are still a student. (Especially if you don't plan to return to your home country but if you are like me that does not like learning languages, your chances will be slimmer because an english speaking country will be your focus for job search)

• If Masters or Phd is your next goal, start researching and apply early. Internet is always there to help. For Medical Doctors, you can start a Phd immediately. You don't need another masters because your MD degree covers that. 

• It's advisable to start prepping for USMLE from 4th year of med school. You can use the whole year to prep then write the exam just before 5th year resumes.

• For Ireland, you can't do much until you have your certificate. Long waiting time and costs a handful of money. So while you wait for a job offer, you can build your CV by volunteering at hospitals or start a Masters if you can afford one or do something productive e.g learn a language. 

• For Malta, there's written exam and oral interview. You have to travel to Malta for both. I don't have much info on it but will post when I do. The job lasts for two years (house job) and you basically have to leave when you are done with the house job :( .Update: The info for Malta is here

• For Canada, It's a tough one if you are not Canadian. I heard their board exam is not beans too. 

• For Nigeria, hmm I won't advice anyone to go back home now o except your husband/wife/kids are there waiting for you or perhaps you just want to go back 100% regardless of the hardship waiting there. You can't spend all those $ abroad only to go back to suffer-head life like you never left it. At least earn the total money your sponsors paid for tuition plus accommodation in fact add up-keep too. Add everything together, when you have 70% of that in your savings, you can safely move back home. The good part is that, by the time you have that 70% in your savings, I don't think you will start from the bottom when you go home. I mean you should be done with residency by that time.  LOL see how this naija own long sha but guys it's the truth o.

• For USMLE. Afoma, a medical student and blogger, took her time to write two detailed blog posts about USMLE. It's a long read so I will just post a preview below and you can read the rest on her blog. 

If there's a question I've been asked a million times, that would be "How do you do it?". Even my mother has asked me that question and it makes me wonder how people see what I do as Mission Impossible. Brief intro of who Dedun is, for those that don't know me. I'm a final year Medical Student whoop whoop, a full time baker and hair stylist, part time cook and recently, blogger. You can follow me on IG where I shared info about the different shades of Dedun. I will be revealing how I've been able to combine almighty medical school with my businesses and it goes without saying that this is based on my experience and not something I read in a book. So please adjust and apply accordingly.

• Be time conscious: Most important point! Time is what binds everything together. If you are the president of the procrastinators club,  I don't think you will be able to handle everything successfully. You would be overwhelmed with the amount of work you have to do. Create time for books and time for business. Don't mix the two in the sense that you shouldn't be focusing on business when it's time to study for a test or exam. Needless to say, this is where balance comes in. For example, I don't ignore my business completely during exam period and it's because I know I have a short attention span for studying and if I'm truthful to myself, I won't be studying 24/7. So what I do is, the time I would have committed to catch up on series or sleep for extra hours, I divert that time to my business and yield something out of the business too. What's better? I can still catch up on my series while handling business matters. Bingo!

• Have a planner: I mentioned this point in the previous post here
  
  

On friendships: Choose your friends carefully. Differentiate your company from your crowd. In my 1st year, I didn't really pay much attention to this detail because I was open-minded to meet different types of people from all over the world but you need to also consider those you bring closer. I had a 'friend' then that would come over to my room, I would teach her the little Biostatistics I knew but when it was time to reciprocate, she was always busy or had somewhere 'personal' to be. Needless to say I avoided her after a while. Thankfully, I got to make some very goal oriented, encouraging, Godly, not perfect but walking towards perfection & dependable friends. We are still friends up till date. Of cos there are ups and downs, plenty fights, challenges but they stick by you. You definitely need such people in uni but don't restrict to just people from your country/ethnicity. I know people from similar cultures are safety nets but friendships with other people from different backgrounds will broaden your horizon about other cultures, food and lifestyle. You can never know too much and you also make lifelong connections!