Charles Odili 🇨🇦🇳🇬

Mistake 1: Your resume is 4 pages long. In Nigeria, a detailed CV with every project and certification is normal. In Canada, your resume must be 2 pages maximum. Hiring managers spend 15 seconds on the first scan. If they can't find your impact in that window, you're in the reject pile before a human even reads it. 2/10

If I knew I could buy a house in Canada as an international student, I would’ve at least tried. I know myself… I’m that crazy 😩 mo ya weyrey gaan, Today I randomly stumbled on a YouTube video of someone who actually did it. Now I’m just sitting here like… I wish I had this information 3 years ago.😩

Your backend is slow, and you think it’s your server. It’s not. It’s your code making 8,000 database calls instead of one, and you have no idea it’s happening. This is James’s story, and it will change how you write queries forever.

Let me use my own life to explain why some politicians suddenly start complaining about Nigeria once they leave power. When I’m at work in Nigeria, my life is heavily subsidized. I live in an apartment with 24/7 electricity, armed security, cleaners, and house help, all paid for. I even get food at work. I’m driven everywhere, from work to shopping. In that environment, you’re almost shielded from what's really happening on the streets. But the moment I’m off duty and back in my house in Lagos, Omo, reality hits differently. I suddenly realise that fuel is actually 1334 Naira per liter. Yes, I still have a driver and a cleaner, but now, I’m the one paying their salaries. In less than 14 hours outside that comfort zone, I’ve already spent 83,600 Naira on fuel for my car and generator. As I am typing this, my gateman just switched off the generator. I don't know if he's trying to save fuel or if it has finished. All I know is that I’m lying here on my bed, starting to sweat. That contrast is real, and it explains a lot.

We hired a backend guy recently who didn’t know half the buzzwords. No Saga, no CQRS, shaky on K8s. On paper, easy reject. Then we gave him a real prod-ish bug: sporadic 500s, p95 spikes, only on one endpoint. He did 3 things: 1. Asked for repro + timeline. “When did it start? What changed? Any new feature release?” 2. Cut the problem space. Logs first, then metrics, then a single failing request ID. 3. Formed a hypothesis, tested it, wrote down what each result would mean. Found it in 25 mins: connection pool exhausted from one code path leaking retries + no timeout. I’ll take that over memorized concepts anyday. This is what people don't get right, companies hire for fundamentals + debugging. You can teach patterns. You can’t teach calm thinking under failure.

Woke up decided today is the day I'm going to master Claude Code. Any key tips/resources you have?

Exactly this time last year, I was killing it in the final interview for this quoted role I genuinely believed would take my entire family out of the trenches. I even made the interviewers realise the exact responsibilities the role should cover, responsibilities they didn’t even know existed before that moment. The cybersecurity manager was so impressed that she turned on her camera and said, “You didn’t ask anything about Qatar. Don’t you like it here? Let me show you around so you can get familiar with the environment before coming.” About three weeks later or so, the hiring manager assigned to me called back to say leadership had met about my case. They agreed I was the perfect choice, but their policy requires any expatriate coming in to lead a team to have over ten years of experience. My heart sank. I was confused, angry, and full of questions, but too exhausted to ask any. I just replied, “Okay,” and ended the call. You reviewed my CV, I passed several rounds of interviews, and you didn’t notice that I didn’t have 10+ years of experience? I outperformed the other candidates and you still didn’t see the potential?

I am saying it again . Do not mobilize for NYSC if you are posted to the North . Stay at home . I am telling you as one who is a Father . It is madness for a father to invest all he has on his kids simply to hand them over the state who has no empathy . Do not let wicked men use you as pawns . Go to safe areas for NYSC . Don’t risk your life . If you are harmed , I promise you this country will forget you or claim you didn’t even die ! Wisen up !

One pattern I’ve seen in paternity fraud cases: 90% of Nigerian men who find out the child isn’t theirs after a DNA test abandon the child. So, you spent years raising a child, built emotional bond, and now you want to throw away all that love and care? Law or no law, your moral obligation doesn’t disappear because the mother lied. Grow up.

Don’t be their victim. Any lawyer that goes to jail due to insolence in the hallowed chamber has demonstrably prioritized performative activism over substance. Don’t let them use your case to establish their notoriety before the headless mob. They will move on to another distraction and you will suffer. 🐝