“Your Career Advisor” is responding this week to:

• What should be my next field of study? d
• Should I switch careers after the hegab? d

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: What should be my next field of study?

I have several inquiries for which I need your helpful feedback, but first let me give you a brief account of my current status.

I am a holder of a university degree in English and currently working as a technical translator in a big firm operating in the field of arabization of software programs. Though my job provides good working environment and the money is not bad, yet I can not imagine myself doing this work for the rest of my life .I need a career change and I thought I would start over from the beginning but the problem is to decide on which track to go for. Therefore I urgently need your feedback on the following questions:

1)Is there any place in Egypt that enables a university graduate to study biology or geology , since the Science faculties accept only fresh high school graduates ?(I know private universities do not offer such disciplines ).

2)I also want to know which of the two faculties "commerce" or "law" would promise better job opportunities ? (I am more inclined to the legal study and would try to be a law professor but what if anything goes wrong!)

3)Can I find a job by earning a Masters degree From the AUC in a field different from my BA degree,(i.e. would an M.A. in Economics or Business Administration for example be enough without a B.A. in that discipline ?)

M. A. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Ms. A.

We are not sure why the interest in biology or geology ? are you interested to pursue a career in that field ? the options are not that great. Regardless, as you know the Egyptian university system in the majority of disciplines does not accommodate professionals wanting to enroll in an undergraduate degree in a later stage of life, so unlike the "entessab" system which is available for concentrations such as commerce, law etc… engineering, medicine, sciences etc.. are either enrolled in upon graduation from high school or never. It is not a good system, but this is the fact we have to live with.

So with regards to your first question, we cannot think of a university you could join to study such topics. Your option would be to investigate online college degrees from international universities - distance learning.

Moving along to your second inquiry, one cannot really provide you with a definite answers as to which of the two degrees (commerce or law) have better career prospects. They are both in demand, and the supply (ie. professionals in the field) is enormous. So, the career prospects are on the side of the professional who is good at what he / she does. One has to also like the field of study, for instance not everyone enjoys studying law. All other things being equal, and if you want to be on the safe side, then a commerce degree is a more general one, providing more options. In the legal profession, there is a serious shortage of those with strong intellectual capabilities and fluency in foreign languages, so if you really enjoy this field, and have the right character, mind set and capabilities go for it. However, do not put too much hopes on becoming a law professor in Egypt, since to date all faculties of law are in state owned universities, and these because of their recruitment policies - which is very bad in our opinion - rely solely on those they hire from among the top of the graduating classes.

Your last question was:
"Can I find a job by earning a Masters degree From the AUC in a field different from my BA degree,(i.e. would an M.A. in Economics or Business Administration for example be enough without a B.A. in that discipline ?)"

The answer is yes, you can. We strongly believe that in many fields (other than medical and scientific ones), have a post graduate degree (such as a Masters) in a different field from the undergraduate degree is of added value to the person. The mixture adds more value and knowledge to the person, for example, an engineer getting an MBA or a business graduate getting a masters in mass communication etc.. We would caution you however about pursuing a Master in the field of economics… if it is to enhance your employment prospects, you need to know that it will be relevant to a limited number of entities (such as research centers, government, international development organizations). A degree in business or mass communication may be more useful for subsequent employment.

We hope the above was of some use to you.

Good Luck

Q2: Should I switch careers after the hegab?

First I would like to highlight my personal admire towards your site and specially the career advisor section.

My question is concerning training and career development. I graduated from the Faculty of Alsun (languages) in 2000, day one after my graduation I thought of career switching to something much similar to my personality, so I chose marketing and PR and thank God I easily got a great opportunity and I started my career and I have been in the field for almost 3 years.

I am thinking of having a degree in marketing because I always had the feeling missing the academic background compared to my colleagues, job partners or clients. I also believe that studying positively impacts your performance and is an added value on your CV. So I was thinking of starting an MBA with a Marketing specialization, I have the will to study and work hard but unfortunately all the MBA courses I checked are very expensive and above my expectations. I am thinking now of limiting my expectation to a Diploma or a Certificate from a reputable institute with a specialization in Marketing and PR. Would you please advise?!

Second, I have another concern I am intending to wear Hejab in the coming days, does this affect my job hunting in any way. If so, does this have anything to do with choosing Marketing as a job field, in this case do you advise me to switch jobs, noting that I am not so much into routinely jobs I like a creative job that has challenges, responsibilities, and allow communication with others and meeting clients.

D. E. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Ms. E.

Let us start with your second question first…. The Hegab is an issue recently addressed by skill-link.com's online magazine "Interest Zone" very recently. We hope you read it. The bottom line is, by being veiled you stand to loose the opportunity to work in certain places, right or wrong, these are facts of life we have to deal with. We would imagine that the issue is more accentuated in job functions such as marketing and client interfacing positions, compared to an HR, accounting or administrative role. We would not however advise you to switch careers just because you are planning to be veiled. We are not also sure what planning to be veiled means ? If one strongly believes it is a must, then one does it on the spot… you do not plan such a thing for a future date ?!

Now back to your first question: if you find an MBA degree too expensive for you to pursue, the options are enrolling in shorter courses in marketing or becoming certified. There is the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK you could be interested in. Courses are available from a number of sources in Egypt, such as the International Marketing Institute in Giza, LOGIC Training, the American University in Cairo etc… We sincerely believe that if you attend one or two courses and read a number of recommended books in marketing (market research, brand development, advertising etc…) you will know all the key concepts and principles in that field and will not be surprised with anything new or black boxes. There are also a number of web sites for marketing associations and publications, these could provide you with some interesting insights and keep you up to date with what is happening on that front.

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

Top