“Your Career Advisor” is responding this week to:

( 1 ) "What are my job prospects after this degree?" e
( 2 ) "What is the unemployment rate in Egypt, and for IT professionals in particular?" h
( 3 ) "What are the salaries for Oracle implementation consultants?" c

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 are my job prospects after this degree?

I am an office manager in my early forties. I graduated in the mid 1980s with a degree in Literature and held a variety of secretarial and administrative jobs since then.

I would like to know what will be my opportunities to find a better job when I receive my MBA form the Sorbonne & Dauphine University?

S. E. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Ms. E.

We understand from your message that you have already enrolled in the MBA program and are about to graduate, and not that you are asking should you go for it or no.

As a matter of fact, an MBA's impact on one's career prospects differs from one person to the other. In general it is more beneficial for those with 3 to 5 years of work experience, who have a non business undergraduate degree, such as engineers, liberal arts (Adab) graduates, etc…. In your case, potential employer cannot ignore what you have been doing over the last 15 years or so, which are mainly office management and administrative roles. In such functions, an MBA is not that required. So, it is a plus, but do not hold your breath. However, there are a few places, where a combination of a graduate degree, administrative background and maybe your French would be appreciated, such as EU / UN / World Bank type of projects, or USAID and the likes. Similarly, the French University and language institutes (eg. Berlitz) may have vacancies in student related matters, where age, administrative background and some advanced studies would be appreciated.

The above, may not be what you wanted to hear , or read, but it is a reflection of the current employment market.

We hope the above was of some use to you.

Good Luck

Q2: What is the unemployment rate in Egypt, and for IT professionals in particular?

I read varying estimates about unemployment in Egypt, do you have any credible figures concerning this issue ? Also, as I am an IT professional, are there any estimates for unemployment in that field ?

K. H. (Giza)

Replying:

Dear Mr. K.

The official estimate of the unemployment rate in Egypt grew in 2003 to 9.9 percent from 9 percent last year, figures by the Central Authority for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) estimated the current number of job seekers at 1.99 million and the active population at 20.17 million. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) states that Egypt needs to create 600,000 jobs a year to accommodate new job-seekers.

Obviously the above figures include all education levels and all sectors within Egypt's 70 million population. Unemployment has consistently been the highest within those with high school only certificates or with diplomas below university levels (some unofficial estimates are in the 40% range), otherwise referred to "intermediate education". This could be mainly due to the availability of university graduates at sometimes extremely low starting salaries. Hence, lots of university graduates are actually under employed, performing jobs that could be efficiently filled by those with a lesser formal education.

Another worthwhile observation on employment in Egypt is the fact that around 5 million of the working population (approx 25%) are employed by the state (on a central and regional / municipalities level). The table below present the break down of employment:

Egypt Labor Market Survey, 1998
The Economic Research Forum for Arab Countries, Iran & Turkey

The following table illustrate the labor force distribution, unemployment and market demand (2001 - 2005) by education status

Labor Force & Unemployment
Central Authority for Public Mobilization & Statistics (CAPMAS)

With regards to IT: As previously stated in our introduction, there are no specific figure with regards to those working in IT, however such a population will be predominantly composed of university graduates and a small percentage with intermediate education (technicians, working in networking, PC maintenance etc…).

Egypt's IT workforce population is understandably divided between the IT sector and the IT function of entities operating in various sectors (financial services, manufacturing, trading, services, utilities, oil & gas, government, NGOs etc…).

Employment in IT Sector

Ministry of Communication & Information Technology

With regards to the above, it should be noted, that in addition to the Egyptian market, the IT workforce is constantly in demand to work as expatriates in the Arab Gulf states. Tens of thousands of Egyptians working in various IT related jobs are currently working in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman. These are attracted by the relatively higher and tax free salaries offered to them. Most - if not all - will be sooner or later returning to Egypt, pending finding a suitable job opportunity back home.

There are no official figures with regards to IT workers unemployment, however we can confirm, that these have a low unemployment percentage, specially among the professionals with a formal IT or Technical university education, and/or a recognized IT certification.

We hope the above was of some use to you.

Good Luck

Q3: What are the salaries for Oracle implementation consultants?

I am the Human Resources Manager of a large industrial company, operating in one of the industrial cities around Cairo. As we are planning to staff for a project requiring Oracle application developers and implementation consultants, could you provide us with some indication on their salary ranges ?

M. Z. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Mr. Z.

The subject of salaries and compensation in Egypt cannot be confined to a limited space, since the variables are numerous. It should be note that Egypt, employment market and hence salaries is extremely fragmented in polarized. Egyptian professionals with identical skills, experience and job responsibilities may end up receiving widely different salaries based on:

• Whey they are employed (Government, public sector, small private sector, large private sector and joint ventures, multinationals etc…).
• The sector they work in
• In some cases their social background and status.

One should also remember that salaries are not be considered on their own, they are part of a total compensation that may include:

• Benefits such as medical insurance, transportation, mobile phone allowances, end of service fund contribution etc…;
• Incentives, in the form of bonuses, commissions, profit sharing, stock options etc…

However, Oracle Application Developers and Implementation Consultants' broad salary ranges are presented below, reflecting various seniority levels:

LE per month

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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