“Your Career Advisor” is responding this week to:

• "Should I continue in my technical job ?"

• "What is wrong with my CV ?"

• "What salary should we give our Content Officer ? "

• "How can I make a career change ?"

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: Should I continue in my technical job ?

I graduated from Ain Shams University’s Faculty of Engineering - Electronics & Communication Department a few years ago. I currently work in a large multinational company in the communication field, and I am facing the following problems in work:
 

1. My salary is not increasing, although I started with a high one.

2. No positions can be taken before a known fixed number of years (governmental system), that makes me disappointed.

3. The technical field is not that interesting to me, and, is not so secure (I mean that in Egypt the most secure sector is the business one).

So, I'm currently considering the following: changing career, i.e. to work in the business field, however, I have been searching for over a year now and I couldn't find a good chance.

On the other hand, I have some concerns:

1. I am afraid to start in a new career, as I have been working now for about two years and half in the technical field, and, to start working now in the business field, I will start working as a fresh graduated.

2. I don't know in which field I should concentrate now, I mean, whether to improve myself in the technical field and accepting my career as it is, or, to start improving myself in the business field in order to help me in changing my career.

3. I completed a project management diploma, and, I found that the business field is much more interesting that the technical field.

So, is it smart to change careers ?

Another small question with regards to MBAs:

1.Is there a difference in taking it in a certain place, and if so, what is the ranking of the places providing it?

2.Will it help in enhancing my career?

A. H. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Mr. H.

It is good of you to present your case in such a methodical and clear way, at least you are helping us follow your train of thought and logic.

There are a number of aspects to your inquiry:

First of all, if you do not like purely technical jobs, then there is no point of sticking to them for the rest of your life. However we disagree with your definition of technical and business sector(s). All for profit organizations are businesses, Dar El Fouad Hospital is a business, Microsoft is a business and Vodafone is a business. What differs are the roles or job functions. For instance Alcatel, a business entity operating in the telecom sector, would have purely technical jobs (eg. Technical support, installation etc…) and will have more business development jobs (eg. sales, marketing etc…), a third category would be a mix of both (eg. Pre sales). Those in sales would definitely benefit from the technical knowledge of the products they are selling.

So while you may consider a more business oriented job / position, you must ask yourself if you possess the qualities and character it requires. For instance a sales job requires an outgoing, persistent and aggressive personality. A training job requires somebody who is likeable, patient, able to communicate with others clearly and above all interested to teach and assist others. No one can know your interests and capabilities more than yourself.

With regards to your salary not increasing, even though you admit it is high, you did not explain if that was related only to you in the company, or was it across the board due to a business slow down or other. If it is only you, then you should discuss it with your manager. In all cases, we believe the key issue is the fact that technical jobs do not interest you. Find out what does, and ideally, you could leverage your technical education and experience in a new role. Lots of people do that, specially in the IT and telecom sector. We would not be too concerned about your two to three years of experience (for all intents and purposes you could have been serving in the army as a reserve officer).

As for your statement that “the business sector has more job security than the technical sector”, by now we have explained that all companies are businesses. Each sector has its risks, depending on the market it serves and its conditions. For instance, today the automotive sector and the construction sector are not doing as well as the media, IT and fast moving consumer goods / food sectors. This has nothing to do with being technical or not.

So in summary, find out what you enjoy and go for it.

Finally, your MBA questions:

MBA are of added value to professionals, this differs from one person to the other. In our experience those with non Commerce university degrees benefit more since they were not exposed to management, finance, marketing and HR topics during their studies. You must however assess your ability and willingness to invest the time, effort and money in an MBA program. They cost lots of money and require lots of work.

MBA programs vary depending on the education institutions offering them. In advanced countries there are elaborate ranking of these programs. In skill-link.com’s ‘Interest Zone’ we periodically publish these rankings for North America and Europe. The credibility of the program is derived from the entity that offers it. Very similar to school, students go through primary, preparatory and high school, but there is a difference between Banba Kaden School, El Saedeya School, Port Said School and the Jesuites or Saint Marc.

We hope the above was of some use to you.

Good Luck

Q2: What is wrong with my CV ?

I have 9 years experience working in USAID projects as a Translator, Special Studies & Communication Manager, Researcher and Assistant's Chief of Party. I have B.A in English Literature and Translation, and I have 2 years High Diploma in Translation From Cairo University. I am currently preparing my MBA and I am looking for a job in a USAID project or NGO in Egypt.

I am looking for a full time job since August 2002 and I applied in skill-link.com for a long time in addition to all recruitment agencies without finding a job. Can you please tell what is wrong in my CV. I attached to you the updated version of my CV.!

A. N. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Ms. N.

There is nothing particularly wrong with the CV you attached to your message. We would advise however that you shorten it a bit. Instead of a 3 page CV, you can deliver the same messages in 2 pages, and take it easier to read, by inserting more spaces.

As for your online CV registered on skill-link.com, it reflects someone who is not really keen on attracting potential employers. For instance under the ‘brief self description’ section you just wrote ‘thank you’ as opposed to briefly describing yourself, your interest and your career objectives !?

Also, in the online CV, for each job there is a section for you to write two or three lines about your responsibilities and achievements. You left it mostly blank. So the message you are delivering to anyone browsing your CV is that you could not really care to describe yourself or what you did. Or even worth you cannot express yourself.

Of course the above are not ‘killing’ factors, prove of which you have been invited at skill-link.com for an interview. The other issue is that your have always been working for NGOs and developmental projects, and labeled that way. Lot of business entities, prefer to choose people who have been in businesses before (ie. For profit organizations). So, most likely you will have better chances in non for profit organizations. Hence, we would not place too much hope on pursuing an MBA. Project management, communication skills or finance for non financial professionals would be more relevant to your employment prospects.

In all cases with your type of experience, you must be fluent in English and have good communication / writing skills. Otherwise, you have a problem.

We hope the above was of some use to you.

Good Luck

Q3: What salary should we give our Content Officer ?

I am the General Manager of a new company about to launch an e Business for a certain industry which deals directly with consumers through retail outlets. I am seeking your advice at to what salary we should set for our Content Officer, responsible for all the content to be displayed on our internet portal accessible by our users (over 1,000 entities).

A. O. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Mr. O.

Average salary figures vary significantly for a particular job, from one industry to the other and according to the type (multinational, joint venture, private sector, NGO etc…) and size of the organization (large, middle sized, small, micro etc..) in question. Another important dimension would be where the entity is in its life cycle: is it start up, rapidly growing, mature etc… so the challenges of being the first incumbent in a start up, may render the job more critical and hence could affect compensation accordingly.

Additionally, salaries usually reflect numerous traits and criteria in the job holder that may differ from one entity to the other or even from one department to the other within the same entity; even if the job carries the same title and job description. These include:

•  personal factors (social background, appearance, experience, skills and qualifications, not necessarily measured in number of years),
• job factors (diversity of responsibilities, pressure, working hours, the need to be frequently outdoors etc…)

One should also remember that salaries are not to 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 etc…;
• Incentives, in the form of bonuses, commissions, profit sharing etc…

1. With regards to the particular position you mentioned, that of ‘Content Officer’, there are two types of content management roles, it was not clear to us which one would be adopted by your company:
    Simple administration of inventory, items lists, prices, distributors and subscribers data. In addition to periodically updating help screens, general instructions etc… The recommended annual salary would be in the range of LE 24,000 per annum.
2.  In addition to the above, the role may expand to providing a content rich web site (something along the lines of skill-link.com’s Interest Zone, and may be email newsletter. By content rich we mean where information, advice, tips, news, interviews etc.. would be regularly published on the web site (eg. weekly). In this case the recommended gross annual salary would be in the range of LE 36,000 to 42,000 per annum

We hope the above was of some use to you.

Good Luck

Q4: How can I make a career change ?

I am fresh graduate from Ain Shams University’s Faculty of Commerce, English Department. I want to change my career path to marketing or sales, what should I do?

M. M. E. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Mr. E

What ‘change of career path’ are you talking about ? You are – as you described yourself - a recent graduate (ie. With less than 2 years into your professional life), so actually you are still starting not changing. Add to this that you are a Commerce graduate interested in business development (sales, marketing etc.), which are all relevant fields to your education. It is not like you are interested in becoming a lawyer or getting into medicine or something. In other words, you backgrounds and age support you, it is left to be seen if you have the pre requisites to convince an employer you will perform well in sales or marketing roles. The pre requisites are mainly character related one: a creative and outgoing personality, self motivation, good communications and persistence (for sales) or analytical abilities (for marketing).

You can of course improve your chances by extensively reading in your preferred fields, observing best practices in the local market and may be enrolling in short courses addressing ‘selling’, ‘market analysis’, ‘brand development’, ‘distribution channels’ etc..

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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