“Your Career Advisor” is responding this week to:

• Could I find a good job without being specialized? (d)
• What is the best CV format for a Treasury Supervisor? (b)
• What are the average salaries of HR managers? (c)
• What do I have to do to get an excellent job? (e)
• What are a Deputy Manager’s responsibilities? (g)

All reasonable questions related to careers, skill development or employment related issues – sent to advisor@skill-link.com - would be addressed in this section every week.

Q1: “Could I find a good job without being specialized ?”

I am currently completing my Bachelors degree in International Business Administration in the Netherlands. The educational system in the Netherlands however is arranged in such a way that one has no specialization after completing ones Bachelor phase. I now stand for the choice of continuing with the Master phase (which is the usual thing to do in the Netherlands) or to enter the job market. I know however that in most places of the world, including Egypt, continuing with a Master program directly is not very usual.

My future plans are to find a job in an internationally operating company in Egypt, preferably in the field of marketing. Could you give me any advice on what would be in your opinion the wisest move. What are my chances in finding a good job without having any specialization?

Y. Y. (Holland)

Replying:

Dear Ms. Y.

Well that is the first message “Your Career Advisor” receives from the Netherlands, even though skill-link.com has a few CVs from candidates residing in that beautiful country.

The short answer to your question is: YES you can find an interesting job with a “general” Bachelors degree in Business Administration. For an entry level or junior position in the corporate world, it does not really matter what was the specific focus of your studies as long as it was in the broad general area. While this does not apply to certain professions such as law or medicine, in business, IT, advertising etc… it does.

So, you should not be too worried about it, the challenge is to find that decent job. Which of course will not be easy searching remotely, you are better off being in Egypt (on the ground). Some employers may further appreciate the different mind set and environment you have been in (ie. Netherlands).

With regards to a Masters degree (or MBA), as you said, it is too early, it will only delay your entry into the job market and in our opinion will not be a major plus for that first job you are after. Potential employers at that stage, once satisfied you obtained a reasonable degree from a reasonable university (at least) will be more worrying about your character, maturity, attitude and communication skills.

We hope the above was of some use to you.

Good Luck

Q2: What is the best CV format for a Treasury Supervisor ?

A. A. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Mr. A.

Treasury Supervisor or anything else, a well presented CV is a well presented CV. There is no real difference in the way it is presented, except that it should contain the key achievements, role and duties related to Treasury. In other words, what a Treasury Head (General Manager or other) would like to see in a person working for him.

General guidelines for preparing a CV and more importantly the cover letter are presented in the Interest Zone’s Career Resources section. Please click here to access it.

And since we are talking about a supervisory position, most likely you have had a few years of working experience in the same field, so in ordering the sections of your CV, we suggest you start with professional experience before you list your education and other interests. It should be a one page CV, maximum two.

We hope the above was of some use to you.

Good Luck

Q3: “What are the average salaries of HR managers ?”

I am an Egyptian professional in my early thirties. I am CIPD qualified (Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development) with a Masters Degree in Human Resources from a university in the UK. My work experience spans over 7 years, the last 5 of them as an HR Manager.

I have general HR experience in international and multinational organizations and I wanted to go back to Egypt, so I thought that you could help me by providing me with the average salaries for HR managers in Egypt (Minimum, maximum and average salaries).

T. H. (UK)

Replying:

Dear Mr. H.

Our regular “Your Career Advisor” readers will probably be bored with what we are going to start our answer with, since we repeat it often when addressing such questions. And that is:

“Kindly note, that your question cannot be answered with the limited information you provided. The HR manager (or head of HR in a company regardless of his/her organizational title) salary varies drastically depending on a number of factors: size of the business, sector/industry, number of employees in the organization, type of employees & mix (professionals only, mainly workers etc...), location (Cairo, Alexandria, other), entity type (is it a multinational, a joint venture, private sector, public sector, a non profit association etc...).”

Without the above information, our reply becomes very general and not of great help to a particular situation. However, the following are some guidelines on the HR heads’ annual salaries in Egypt:

A qualified HR Manager's salary will be in the LE 84,000 p.a. range in a reasonable medium sized Egyptian private sector company, reaching LE 180,000 to LE 240,000 in an average sized multinational or a Joint Venture or private sector company that really cares about the HR function, these will be staffed by no less than 300 or 400 employees.

In the very large multinationals and joint ventures (eg. soft drinks, mobile operators / GSMs etc...) staffed by 2,000 or more, the salary could reach around LE 400,000 per annum.

We hope the above was of some use to you.

Good Luck

Q4: “What do I have to do to get an excellent job ?”

What do I have to do to get an excellent job ?

I graduated last year from Ain Shams University’s Faculty of Commerce. Currently I am working in a PC technical support role in an education related organization.

I would like to work as an accountant in any respectable company or in the marketing field .

M. G. (Cairo )

Replying:

Dear Mr. G.

An excellent job is hard to define, it differs from one person to the other. In a way it is like saying I am looking for an excellent wife, is it how she looks, how she cooks, her sense of humor, her social class, her ethics and religious beliefs, her coming from a rich family etc... One has to be more specific about the criteria he/she is looking for. For some, it is the learning experience, for others it is the working environment or high pay etc.. You did not give us any indication on that.

We also have a problem with your preferred fields of work, you mentioned “accounting” or “marketing”. In our opinion you cannot have them as both most preferred fields. They are so different in their roles, character requirements, challenges, career paths etc… It is like someone saying my favorite jobs will be either a plant maintenance engineer or a fashion designer  We suggest you first thoroughly think about your own interests and capabilities; then in light of this select where you see yourself more.

In the two fields you mentioned, it is either you like to deal with figures, accuracy and the financial side of things, while not dealing with a lot of people, mainly sitting at your desk (ie. accounting). Or on the other hand, you enjoy the intellectual challenge of market research, you are creative enough to come up with innovative ideas, like to analyze and interpret observations (such as competition, market trends, performance of distribution channels, customer preferences etc…), which would lead you to marketing.

There are of course numerous other fields of work such as sales, logistics, human resources, IT which you ought to consider. Remember you are now working in an IT/PC related job, you did not provide us with any input on how you like it and how well you are performing in it, would it be a field you can further develop your skills and knowledge in ?

Regardless of what you choose, to get an interesting job (for you) within a nice working environment, you must convince that “good” employer to hire you, since he/she will undoubtedly be selective. You will need – in addition to a bit of luck of course – to reflect what most recruiters are looking for in a young graduate: professionalism, reasonable maturity, reasonable communication skills, reasonable intelligence, some general knowledge, reflecting the traits of a reliable and hard working person etc.. The next step will be to go after potential employers that could be interested in you.

Just remember, the longer you work in your current field, it will be relatively more difficult to switch, since most employers will be – right or wrong – more inclined to hire someone with your same length of experience but in the same or relevant field.

We hope the above was of some use to you.

Good Luck

Q5: “What are a Deputy Manager’s responsibilities ?”

I am a 32 year old female professional, currently working in a private organization. After a lot of debates whether I should continue in my current job or not, there was a major change at the place where I work. I was nominated for a very strategic position as the Deputy of the Manager. I am not sure where the responsibilities of a Deputy start and where they end. Can you please outline from your point of view what are any Deputy's responsibilities (in an abstract sense apart from the nature of the place's activity)? and What is the difference between Deputy and Vice ?

Please take into consideration that this Manager has never had a Deputy before.

Moreover, I am quite young in age compared to most of the people in the senior management there. What is the best approach for them to accept me and how can I build a new image reflecting a new status ? We are not discussing my capabilities because they all know it and admire me for it and are very supportive. But accepting this young intelligent person is OK as long as he/she does not rise too fast. Specially that I felt that their congratulations on the announcement that was done on a small scale was very superficial and reflected a lot of worries. I am afraid that they will not support this promotion when formally announced to every one.

I know my questions to you moved in two completely different directions but you are a good advisor and I need all the good advice I can get.

O. O. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Ms. O.

These are not easy questions you are asking !

Let us start with the first one; Deputy and Vice are the same thing (in Arabic Nae’b); which is more of an organizational title reflecting someone who is below Manager level, yet higher than Assistant Manager if this position exists in a particular organization. Out of habit, Deputy is used in association with manager, such as Deputy Manager and Deputy General Manager. Vice on the other hand is more associated with more senior positions such as Vice President and Vice Chairman.

What they reflect is that the person has part of the responsibilities of the manager (in case of a Deputy Manager), but other than that it does not indicate – by default - any particular role or function. The scope of the job will depend on what the organization / job description states, and in the absence of a formal job description, it will depend on what the immediate supervisor (the Manager) will decide to delegate to his/her Deputy.

The above, may have not really clarified things, but the fact of the matter remains that this is just an organizational title like Supervisor, Senior Manager, Assistant Vice President etc... (look at it like a military rank as opposed to a job role like Chief Accountant or Human Resources Director).

If you come to think of it, even the Vice President post (of the Republic) in Egypt or the United States does not have a clear role, he has only two items in his job description:

1. Replace the President when unavailable to assume his duties (illness, death etc..)

2. Perform the duties that may be assigned to him by the President.

Your second question is more tricky, since you cannot control how others feel (Jealousy etc..); what you can do is remaining to be cordial and professional to every one, and work hard to demonstrate you deserve the higher position you earned through your dedication and the quality of your work. With time, people will get used to it. Remember, some professionals get promoted at even younger ages to more senior positions, so at 32 it is normal you advance. Some of the older generation may not have been as lucky at your age, others grew up in a previous time when most jobs were in government and the public sector, these place length of service (and thus age) as the key criteria for advancement and seniority.

In summary your “emotional intelligence” and diplomacy in dealing with those around you should help you navigate through the first months after your promotion. Needless to say, you should not display too much excitement or joy for your promotion, but rather that you are grateful to everyone’s support.

We hope the above was of some use to you.

Good Luck

Note from the editor: 
Employer names and inquiry sender names were withheld for confidentiality

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