“Your Career Advisor” is responding this week to:

• "Where to find summer jobs / training?"
• "What do you think of becoming a Certified e-Commerce Consultant?"

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: Where to find summer jobs / training?

I am a 19-year-old who is interested in working during the summer vacation, specially in July. My previous job experience was as a supervisor at the AUC Junior Summer Program. Could you please provide information as regards to whether I can get a summer job via your website ? I study medicine, but the job doesn't have to be related to my studies, so I would appreciate it if you can send me a link or maybe guide me to where I can find an available summer job.

D. B. (Egypt)

I am a university student currently in my second year at the Faculty of Computer Sciences. I am on my way to complete the MCDBA certification, and I am studying for the MCAD (application developer). I think that all of that must be supplemented with a real working experience; so I thought of summer training.. How can I start my search and what are the chances of getting a summer training (even for no salary) in a good company?

M. A. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Miss. B. and Mr. A

Receiving two such similar messages in the same week, tells us summer is around the corner J

Seeking a summer job is an important undertaking for an aspiring professional; one definitely learns new things and builds his/her CV.

It is unfortunate that the notion of "summer jobs / internships" is not common in the Arab world as much as it is in North America and Europe. There are no dedicated web sites for that purpose, and one has to approach targeted companies personally. skill-link.com is usually not approached by companies for that purpose, however, as a service to our hundreds of subscribing companies (or others) we will offer them the opportunity to post free of charge summer internship vacancies in a special section of our site. This may help on that front.

An alternative to approaching companies, would be to seek summer placement with non for profit foundations and associations. These are more used to short tem volunteer work. One can contribute to some of their projects, help when regular staff are on summer vacation etc…

We hope the above was of some use to you; and we will definitely inform you should opportunities arise.
Good Luck

Q2: What do you think of becoming a Certified e-Commerce Consultant?

I understand there is a new e-commerce center in Egypt that will be offering preparation/study courses for a certification called "Certified e-Commerce Consultant". I would like to know if this certificate has a strong recognition (both locally and internationally) in the field of e-commerce. I would also want to know your opinion in the future of e-commerce in Egypt because i am CIW e-commerce designer and it didn't affect my career positively.

A. E. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Mr. E.

Let us start with your second question: You did not provide us with enough information about what you currently do, to be able to suggest how CIW e-commerce could have a positive impact on your career. In general we believe e-commerce or e-businesses are there to stay for a number of years, until something more advanced is discovered J In the eighties, PCs and local area networks were the most advanced thing, no one envisaged the internet revolution and the associated e-business boom. Egypt, and the Arab region are significantly under developed in the "e" field, compared to advanced nations. Therefore we believe we have a lot of catch up to do. There are new portals and e-commerce entities appearing, even the Egyptian Ministry of Communication & IT in cooperation with the Ministry of Administrative Reform (El Tanmeya Al Edareya) are adopting an "e-government" initiative. The trick for you is to leverage your training and education with an organization that requires such a skill set.

With regards to the "Certified e-Commerce Consultant" certification, in principle it should not hurt. While it is not widely recognized like other certifications: Microsoft, ORACLE, CISCO (in their respective fields); it will help you acquire additional knowledge and will demonstrate (on your CV) your interest and additional qualifications in that front. Having said that, you have to check on the time/effort and more importantly costs associated with the preparation and examination for such a certification. If it is too high, then it is not worth it. In our opinion, upon analyzing the educational content and requirements for the certification, it is more on the "commercial" side, in other words it is a bit of a show off on resume and business cards etc… this is not to say you do not learn something new from it.

Also, you should consider the entity offering the preparation course in Egypt: the e Commerce Center in Egypt; it seems like a new center / start up on which we have no information. Therefore you should be extra careful, and check the credentials (qualifications) of those actually overseeing / instructing the program. You should also note that you have the option to study online courses and apply for the certification (thus not required to go through the Egyptian center).

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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