skill-link: Interest Zone

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.

I recently graduated from the Faculty of Commerce (Ain Shams University) English Section and I am kind of confused and stuck with the question of where and what I want to be in the future.

I worked for PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Vodafone and the Suez Canal Bank performing different functions. In PwC I worked in audit; in Vodafone I did sales.

While in college, I planned to work in the auditing field and that I would obtain a CMA designation (Certified Management Accountant). However, since graduating I am strongly considering working in marketing. I see it as a very open minded and creative field…. I love that. I was going to enroll in an MBA program and I thought I would have to work in a marketing position first but I found it very hard, so I changed my mind … first get an MBA in marketing, then go for a marketing certification from the CIM in England (Chartered Institute of Marketing) and the AUC. I would also add to this a good financial background by starting the CMA afterwards.

I am still afraid of this move because I am not sure if it is the right way or not and above all that working in marketing nowadays is kind of hard so tell me where should I go or can I only start in a marketing and never mind about the CMA or forget about marketing and focus on accounting which is actually my major ?

With regards to the more specific aspects of your question, we believe it is not the right time for you to enroll in an MBA program. Two or three years of hands on working experience is what you currently need. You may of course study for a certification in marketing or finance while you are working, that will be a nice plus. However do not study both (as they say in Arabic: saheb balein kaddab).

As to the exact field you should go to (or work in), as we said, you must be your own judge, no body can tell you that.

I have been asking myself this question but I couldn't find a good answer yet: Why some employers require a recent photo to be attached to a resume when applying for job ?

I can understand this for certain jobs but can not justify it for accounting or finance job.

Actually, one a minority of advertised job vacancies really state the need to include a personal photo with the job application. However, more than half of the job seekers who send emailed or paper CV tend to attach their photo.

As to why potential employers require a photo, there are a number of reasons for it:

Since you mentioned the word "recent" it is obvious no one wants a high school picture or something irrelevant.

I hope you can offer some suggestions. I am Egyptian (female), currently residing in Alexandria. I graduated from Alexandria University's Faculty of Commerce (Accounting Section). I am a CIW certified professional. I'm working as a Web Developer; currently employed by a web development company using the Open Source technologies (Linux, MySQL Database , PHP , C language)

I would like to improve my skills. I need to know what kind of programming skills / technologies I need to acquire to develop my career.

Actually the skills you need to develop are not only related to learning new tools in IT. They could be communication skills (writing, presentations etc…); user handling, project management, quality and testing, systems security etc… Being able to develop (write) content is also a useful skill not related to being able to develop web sites.

If one has to advice you on technology skills, the field is really very broad. It can extend to reach application development, more databases (Oracle etc..), operating systems, networking etc… You did not really tell us what you are aiming to be. Being skilled in graphics design is definitely related to what you do. Also, while "Open Source" is a new trend in Egypt and wide spread around the world, one cannot deny that the Microsoft technology is more dominant… hence you my consider to learn ".net".

First I would like to know the difference between the position of "administrative assistant" and the "administration specialist" position, concerning the rank in ladder, the salary, availability and responsibilities.

Second, would you please tell me the responsibilities expected from a non-technical Quality Control Coordinator ? the expected salary ? and the demand in the Egyptian market to this post?

I am an administrative assistant in a medium sized company. I am being offered this title as a kind of promotion because my job description is not limited to the normal one of an administrative assistant. I work in ISO 9000 Quality projects and HR projects.

"Administrative Assistant" and "Administration Specialist" are more of titles than a description of a well defined position, for instance it is not like Network Administrator, Payroll Accountant or Accounts Payable Manager etc…An "Administrative Assistant" is usually a title given to a junior professional assisting / supporting a manager or a departmental team in performing their function. For example, in a sales department, he / she could be consolidating and compiling sales reports, following up on customer orders etc… In another department, he/she could be collecting information, preparing statistics maintaining documentation and the filing system etc… I many cases "specialist" reflects an entry level rank, followed by "officer" or "coordinator" or "supervisor", later progressing to "assistant manager". This "specialist" designation could be associated to a marketing role (ie. Marketing Specialist), administrative role, human resources role, financial or others… So basically, for both positions, there are no standard salary ranges, or job descriptions. These will depend in each case (ie. the specific company) and what duties are assigned to the person in question. Unlike for instance the job of a receptionist or a front desk officer in a hotel (where they all do almost the same tasks).

With regards to your second question, we will have to say the same. "Coordinator" is a reflection of seniority (below supervisor or manager or section head), if associated with "Quality" then we know the job holder has a relatively junior position that has to do with quality. What is the exact job description ? that will depend on the company and what it decides. It may include taking samples for quality checks, monitoring that quality procedures are adequately implemented and documented, collecting and filing quality reports and results etc… So depending on the scope of the job, its complexity and the necessary qualifications of the job holder, a salary range could be set.

Since these are entry level jobs, as opposed to specialized requiring particular experience, they are as much in demand as most positions requiring fresh graduates or those with one to two years of experience. So yes, they are available all the time, and also the supply (of interested job seekers) does not face any shortages. If you want a very general estimate about salaries, we could say anywhere from LE 600 to LE 1,800… of course depending on the type of company, its size, the work conditions, other benefits, how much skill development is provided etc….

Q5: How available are such IT skills, and what are reasonable salary ranges for them?

I am the Human Resources Manager for the Egyptian operations of an international information technology services company. I would like you advice with regards to the skill availability and salary ranges for the following ERP solutions:

	Low End	Average	High End
Team Leader	7,500	9,000	12,000
Senior Developer / Consultant (around five years experience)	4,000	5,500	7,800
Junior Developer / Consultant (up to two years experience)	1,700	2,300	2,800

Skills are available on the various experience levels, however they are being "snatched" since demand from the Gulf is strong. Service providers are particularly on the looks for the above professionals.

These professionals, on average, have good technical skills, however they lack on the project management, proper customer handling and "quality" aspects.

JD Edwards
IT professionals skilled in such a solution are available, obviously much less that Oracle. Those in Egypt are more (in number) oriented to technical support of JD Edwards then the full understanding of the functionality of its various modules. Not all would be familiar will the latest version JD Edwards One World.

SAP & PeopleSoft
We come across a very limited number of such professionals, more of them are currently working in the Arab Gulf states that Egypt. SAP in particular being a relatively expensive solution, could be found in Egypt in multinational companies or joint venture, where it has been selected and rolled out by the international headquarters.

It is a well known fact that IT professionals with solid SAP experience expect high salaries. However, we do not have statistically meaningful salary figures to provide for that particular skill set.

First I am sending you my congratulations for skill-link.com's 3rd birthday and I send you an e-greeting card, I hope that you liked it .

Thank God I managed to get my very first job but its a secretary position in a small or an unknown cloth manufacturing company located in the free zone in Nasr City. The company is mainly an Indian investment , it imports all the raw materials from the far east and manufactures it in Egypt and then exports it to the United States.

I am really glad that I got this job but I feel that its not for me . Even though it involves lots of work , training on working under stress and also training on doing many things at the same time, I am still feeling that its not me .

I am not comfortable with the tasks assigned to me, like receiving phone calls and transferring them, sending faxes, keeping track of the going out and coming on couriers and faxes, photo copying for the staff etc….

I am not denying that I am how gaining experience, which is not that great, but its ok but I am feeling like trapped in this job.

Lots of people says its just the start and you'll get used to it and may you get promoted soon, others say keep this job till you find a better one ?! I am really confused .

I was thinking of taking computer and English courses, but all this plan was destroyed because I return from work at 6:30pm (some times later or earlier). Where can I find good English and computer courses with these work conditions ? Shall I quit this job to start the courses ?

I am also annoyed about something else: I didn't take my summer vacation , this job popped up a month of finishing my final year exams L I know lots of you will say come on …. lots of people are looking for a job vacancy and not finding any and you have it and just after one month and you are saying that ! I know, imagine working for a whole year under very special family circumstances ( which I don't like to disclose) and then when its the time when all my family members gathered finally and we are planning for the summer holiday every thing is destroyed and I am obliged to stay in Cairo while all of my family is in Alexandria. What to do ????

I also don't know how to describe my current responsibilities to update my CV on skill-link.com ?

First of all, thank you for your kind wishes and the beautiful e card you sent us.

With regards to you message and concerns, our very brief answer could be that you are making an issue out of nothing.

Let us start from the end, not getting your first summer vacation happens to lots of working professionals, some would have been employed for ten years or more… it happens, so let alone when it is your first job, and you really had time off since you exams. It is not like you are exhausted from work and falling apart. There are also week ends where you can relax or take a short tripe to Alexandria to join you family, it is less than 3 hours away by train. So, please get used to the serious world of "employment".

The most important issue to discuss, is your current job. You should be grateful to have it, the only complain you should have now is not doing anything there. Since this is not the case, focus on becoming very good at what you do and while there understand the business (of garments manufacturing and export), also use the opportunity to really know how an organization works from the inside, what each function is supposed to do, how staff deal with each other etc… This will prove to be extremely valuable to you, believe us. Once you become the very effective at what you do, and say in one year's time from now, you are allowed to start feeling trapped and to seek other opportunities. These could be within the same company or elsewhere. Before that year, and you knowing each and every aspect of your job, do not dwell on negative thoughts.

Your working hours ending in the early evening, are not unheard of, lots of people go home at even later hours. So they are natural. We do not believe you should quit your job to enroll in courses. Others enroll in similar courses just to get the same job you already have. We are also not sure why you need computer courses, as for English, yes you need to improve your English writing skills. These could be via attending courses, but more importantly by reading a lot. If you dedicate one to two hours every evening to read in English at home (Al Ahram Weekly, BusinessToday, etc…) you will definitely benefit. And there are no excuses for not having the time. Also, skill-link.com offers online learning courses related to communication. These are reasonably priced, and do not require attendance anywhere, you set your own hours from the comfort of your home. Did you explore these courses ? You may also want to investigate the British Council course schedule, some start late in the evening… so again, the opportunities are still there.

And finally, with regards to your online CV on skill-link.com, you can describe your responsibilities and job tasks as you did exactly in this message. They are typical for the position, so there should be nothing strange about them.

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