“Your Career Advisor” is responding this week to:

• Is it something in my personality? b
• What are the employment prospects for a Ph.D. holder? d
• After three years, where did I go wrong? b

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: Is it something in my personality?

I am a 29 year old female graduate of Cairo University's Faculty of Commerce. I registered my CV on skill-link.com some time ago.

Along my life I tried to gather a lot of information and knowledge that would give me a better opportunity to find a job in a reputable company with a high salary, but I could not find one ! . I followed all the steps you have been mentioning on this site, but no way to find a better job. I would like to add that my friends and acquaintances are limited and I am not sociable. I made a lot of interviews in multinational banks but they usually refuse me. I really want to improve my personality, I just feel that what I miss is something in my personality.

Also, as I said I posted my CV on skill-link.com but got no answers from any company … so why is that ?.

M. E. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Ms. E.

It is a positive thing that you stress the importance of knowledge and information, unfortunately lots of professionals once they graduate from university, stop reading or acquiring new knowledge on numerous fronts.

The fact that you were invited to interviews in banks (and other places most likely) is a positive sign, now we have to find out why that does not extend to a job offers. We cannot tell how you conduct yourself in an interview, or what sort of skills the potential employers interviewing you were looking for. However, you must know that the selection process in recruitment is a relative one. In other words, it is not if you are good or bad, it is more of: "who in the recruiter's opinion seems to be the most suitable candidate(s) ?". Again, it is a game of "perception", that is why we used "seems". The trick is for the job seeker to try and influence the interviewer's opinion positively. We also both know, that not every interview ends in a job offer…

According to you, there may be certain aspects of your personality that may require improvements. You did not elaborate on that… however, it may be becoming more open with others, firm and assertive. There is of course no secret "recipe" for solving this… we can only recommend practice and finding opportunities to get involved with others…

In your message, you stated that your aim is to find "a job in a reputable company with a high salary".. that is OK, but it should not be the most important priority for you. We think you should settle for a job where you learn and prove yourself. As you gain more experience, there should be more opportunities for you to be more selective about the company.

With regards to your CV on skill-link.com, it was posted on the 25th of January 2001. Shortly after that you were interviewed by a skill-link.com recruitment officers. In other words we did what we could, as you know recruitment is demand driven and hence, we do not control who gets what job. It depends on the companies' specific requirements: skills, education, languages, character, gender (male or female), appearance, salary range… sometimes where the candidate lives etc… We (skill-link.com) arranges around 1,500 interviews a year between registered candidates and employers.

The internal interview notes taken during your meeting at skill-link.com reflect you are a very decent person, however you need to strengthen your communication skills and your English… which is something we also felt from your message. The English aspect could be worked on with more reading, listening to English TV and radio and practice.

On another note, not all jobs require fluency in English… and we hope very soon you will be able to find employment in a place that is satisfactory to you.

We hope the above was of some use to you.

Good Luck

Q2: What are the employment prospects for a Ph.D. holder?

Thank you for the efforts you exerted to provide me with your detailed and comprehensive reply to my message last week. It answered my question and helped me to obtain a clearer vision of my career path.

Building on your previous reply, I have another question and would appreciate your advice: Does obtaining a Ph. D. in Finance from a foreign university (i.e. studying abroad; specifically in USA, Canada, UK or France) allow me to return to Egypt with high level of confidence that I will have a very good chance to join the Finance teaching staff of an Egyptian university?

And if not, does this Ph. D. have any other market value? (assuming that it is a full-time Ph.D.)

K. M. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Mr. M.

Up till a few years ago, we would have said that Ph.D. or not, it is almost impossible to join the teaching faculty of an Egyptian university if you do not get selected from the start, upon graduation and climb the ladder with that university. Now, things changed when private Egyptian universities started to appear, such as MSA, MUST, the French University, the German University etc… These are providing opportunities for Ph. D. holders who are interested in a university teaching career. Obviously, the more reputable the university you obtain your Ph. D. from, the stronger your chances are.

It is unfortunate that the Egyptian state owned universities have such a "poor" recruitment practice, you must join at the start of your career and stay in the same university for life…. This creates a very stagnant environment and leads to missing lots of fresh blood and innovation. What if Dr. Ahmed Zoweil, the Noble Laureate, would like to apply to Ain Shams University's Faculty of Sciences ? They do not recruit at Professor level !

Outside academia, a Ph. D. in Finance, would be relevant to a limited number of places. These would mainly be research related entities, such as the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies and the likes. You may also be appreciated in a "research" role in a capital market related company, the Stock Exchange or the Central Bank, but do not expect very high salaries (expect for the first one).

Some international organizations operating on a global level place more emphasis on a Ph. D. when recruiting, these would include the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the UNIDO, the UNDP etc… On a regional level, you would find entities such as the Islamic Development Bank (Jeddah), the Arab Monetary Fund (Abu Dhabi), the African Development Bank (Tunisia and Abidjan)….

We hope the above was of some use to you.

Good Luck

Q3: After three years, where did I go wrong?

I am glad to write this message for you to know my story and I hope you could help me to solve my problem. I will try in the following lines to introduce my self for you to know how I feel now:

I'm a graduate from Alexandria University's Faculty of Commerce, in 2000. My major was Business Administration. After that I enrolled in the masters degree program in Business Administration (2001) for a year but I couldn't complete it because I found another opportunity to develop my skills and my career goals, switching from Business Administration to Information Technology. This was a 6 months training program administered by IBM and sponsored by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology . This program provided me with training in Lotus Notes software and by the end of it, I received two certificates from IBM after I passed three international exams.

After I finished my training in IBM (in December 2002) I joined the Future Generation Foundation (FGF) training program, provided by Berlitz Language Center, it lasted for three months (ending May 2003).

After all that I couldn't find any opportunities in the job market, although I did everything to find any job.

Please tell me what I can do to find a suitable job in the IT field after three years from graduation.

I Attach my resume with this e-mail to know lots of things about me and my skills.

O. M. (Alexandria)

Replying:

Dear Mr. M.

We are not sure what the various efforts you made in your job search are, however, we must frankly tell you, that you may not have wisely invested some of the years that elapsed since you graduated in summer of 2000.

For instance, enrolling for a year in a Masters degree in Business Administration at Alexandria University, is of little value to your employment prospects, unless of course you were seeking an academic career, which does not seem to apply in your case. Next, was the intensive IT training program, that was definitely useful for developing your IT skills, while Lotus Notes may not be so much in demand, still it counts as a plus for you. What we do not understand, is why then join the Future Generation Foundation's Basic Business Skill Acquisition Program (BBSA) ? In your particular case and after the long IT program, it was really not necessary. You ended up with three years in the classroom, while others have had two to three years of on the job work experience.

Now, it is time to get working, regardless of what or where… you cannot afford being too selective at the current stage. There are entry level opportunities in the job market… the question is where (Alexandria or maybe in other cities) and in what field. Luckily between a B.Sc. in Commerce and the intensive IBM training program, you may have more choices… do not restrict yourself to IT positions if none are available for someone with your skill set.

With regards to your emailed resume, it is well written, however remember it is customized for an IT job. If you are applying for another category of positions, you should have another version where you tone down all the IT tools and skills you mentioned.

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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