CAREER ADVISOR

“Your Career Advisor” is responding to two questions this week:
The first; "I am a Faculty of Commerce graduate, I would like to know how to enhance my career in that field , and how it could relate to information technology?"
The second, "I want your advice: how could I find a suitable job? don't tell me "through the recruitment company" because I got bored doing this !"
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: I would like to know how to enhance my career in the accounting field , and how it could relate to information technology?

I am a 24 years old Egyptian male, holding a B.Sc. in accounting from Cairo University. I would like to know how I can improve my career in the accounting field and how I can relate between accounting and information system. Please advise.

W. T. (Cairo)

Replying
Dear Mr. T,

Career advancement is usually developed through a mixture of (i) hands on experience, (ii) knowledge acquired through education / training / reading in addition to (iii) observation. In your case, in order to develop good skills in the area of accounting and finance; the following will apply:
(i) experience: you must obviously be working in a related function (you can not get this experience in a sales or HR job); ideally you will get exposed to various aspects of the work, even if your direct responsibilities a limited to certain tasks, working longer hours (week ends etc…) and volunteering to help others in many cases reflect positively on you and expose you to a wider scope of the accounting function.
(ii) knowledge: in addition to experience, you may be able to acquire reasonable knowledge through enrolling in a post graduate degree (Diploma) or short courses in a university (eg. The Arab Academy, The American University In Cairo) or a reputable training center (The Arab German Chamber Of Commerce, The European Management Center etc..). A very viable option of course is obtaining a recognized certification such as CPA (Certified Public Accountant); CMA (Certified Management Accountant), or others related to internal audit and finance. These mandate you to pass a number of exams and therefore are highly valued. In our opinion they are of more value than the other options presented in this section, however they require a more significant time and effort commitment from your side. You should also note that knowledge is not necessarily acquired in a classroom, reading is very important. For instance, in your case you should be familiar with the laws related to your work (Company Law, Tax Law, Capital Market Law etc…), the text of these laws and their executive regulations could be purchased for a few pounds. Similarly you should be well aware of the Egyptian Accounting Standards. Reading the daily and weekly newspapers and magazines (specially the business and economy sections) will always keep you up to date with what is happening.
(iii) observation: it is not enough to have practiced and studied the subject, but observing how it is being applied around you is important. You need to know how your work , or rather accounting (being part of the finance function) interact with other functions in an organization and the role it plays. As you advance in your career and aspire to be a Finance Director or General Manger (or a Partner in an Audit firm), you need to know that these people to succeed need to have a good business sense and strong management capabilities, in addition to being technically competent in their area (accounting in your case). Therefore if you are working in a company, it is in your interest to understand what it sells, its pricing, the competitors, how the whole cycle works etc…

You also inquired about systems or information technology; there is no doubt that one of the first functions to be automated in most businesses is the accounting function. This is due to the need for up to date and accurate information to serve numerous decision making, control and planning tasks. Therefore if you are familiar with IT (technology) in general or more specifically application systems (eg. ORACLE financials, Baan, SAP, J.D. Ewdwards packages); this combined with your knowledge of accounting should help render you a key player in the company. Specially when a new application system is being introduced, there are a lot of planning, configuration, testing, conversion (of existing data) and training that take place. Such activities cannot be completely left to the IT department or to the Software suppliers, trusted staff from the accounting/finance function must be involved to ensure success.

It is also anticipated that over the coming few years, more companies will be using the internet to transact with suppliers, customers or just other internal departments/branches, this will require staff who understand e business / e commerce, while not necessarily for developing the solution as much as identifying the requirements and determining how such applications will be integrated with the existing operations and systems (eg. billing, inventory, credit limits etc…). Again an opportunity to be prepared.

The major IT training initiative currently undertaken by the Egyptian Ministry of Communication & Information in cooperation with companies such as IBM, ICL and ORASCOM have several tracks that could be of interest to you. This intensive training, of about 900 hours over 6 months is free, another reason making it more interesting !

Good Luck.

Q2: I want your advice on how I could find a suitable job.

W. T. (Cairo)I am a 23 years old female, holding a B.Sc. in Communications &Electronics Engineering. I have also attended a number of IT courses and am currently enrolled in a Masters program. I want your advice how could I find a suitable job? don't tell me "through the recruitment Co." because I got bored doing this!!!! Why am I still waiting to find any job?

S. H. (Cairo)

Replying
Dear Miss. H,

There is not formula for guaranteeing to find a job, it is just like friendship and marriage, there are things one can do to facilitate / help them happen, but since this is not science, the outcome is not certain. Getting a job is the same, a combination of right timing, right exposure, right skills and right attitude. Therefore, any one's chances will drastically improve if the previously mentioned factors are enhanced:

Right timing: the company or organization happens to have job vacancies (in which you could fit) when they meet you / hear about you / receive your CV ? thus it is good to be on the look for companies about to start of in the process of expanding; and for you to maximize your exposure (as discussed below).

Right exposure: regardless of your skills, character and track record, the potential employer needs to know of your existence. Without being exposed to each other, you will never get to meet and explore job opportunities. Such an exposure has many sources, one of which is being listed with recruitment companies (including of course online recruitment services such as skill-link.com); it could also be enhanced by developing a social network of people who could introduce you to the available opportunities or the right people. Such a network will include friends, relatives, ex university colleagues, others you may get to know by getting involved in language courses or other skill development activities. Obviously the most basic way to getting a potential employer's attention is by communicating directly with him / her; thus research is important: through newspapers, directories, web sites, job fairs etc…

Right skills: regardless of how many companies are aware of you and are filling job vacancies, if you do not have the skills they need, they would - usually - not hire you. It is therefore your duty to figure out what 'skill set' is in demand in your field to work on enhancing it. Remember, the more you can differentiate yourself from thousands others with similar backgrounds/education, the better your chances in finding a good job are. Skills are not only gained via formal education, but reading, attending lectures / conferences, and even non paying internships are all valuable sources of skill development. Information Technology (PCs, Internet etc…) and languages (English) are among the necessary skills for almost all jobs today.

Right attitude: without acting / behaving in the right way, being at the right time at the right place with the right skills will not help much. Your attitude (usually felt by others during an interview or a phone call) reflect a lot on your character (confidence, maturity, enthusiasm etc…) which plays a big role in an employer's decision to hire someone.
You will be surprised of the number of people who do not show up for job interviews, are late or attend without knowing much about the company / position they are being interviewed for. More on the topics of interviews and job hunting is presented in the : "Career Resources" section of skill-link.com's Interest Zone.

You are aware of course that the global economy, and that of Egypt are going through very difficult times. Numerous companies are undertaking sever cost cutting measures and downsizing (firing) tens of thousands of people in the process. Such a situation definitely affects the hiring decisions of many businesses.

In most of the points raised in our reply, you will notice "knowledge" and "awareness" pop up. A key contributor to enhancing your general sense of what is happening in the country, the business community, who is doing what etc… is closely following the media. You have no excuse for not thoroughly reading one or two daily newspapers and some of the weekly publications as well. The internet gives you access to numerous source of freae information: portals, online magazines, online newspapers etc… use them to your benefit and do not get lazy. You will never know when / how you will use that piece if information you collected today. It is sad to discover that tens of thousands of young professionals do not read newspapers or follow other media channels regularly (except for Sports and TV entertainment).

In the previous few paragraphs we attempted to address - in general - what 'enhances' a person's chances to get a job. To summarize your case; you graduated with a degree that is relatively in high demand those days in Egypt (it is not for instance in ancient history); you supplemented this by attending a number of I.T courses therefore you are on the right track. We hope through some of the above advice you can enhance your chances.

Good Luck.

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

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