“Your Career Advisor” is responding this week to:

• What could be the salary of an Electrical Engineer working in design?

• Who would hire an actuary those days?

• What do you suggest for the "subject line" of emailed CVs?

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 could be the salary of an Electrical Engineer working in design?

I graduated in 2001 from Ain Shams University's Faculty of Engineering with a degree in electrical power engineering. In October 2001 I got my first Job as a pump calibrator, earning a salary of LE 450 per month. In June 2002 I became a Sales Engineer in a company dealing in plastics (blowing & injection; processing and packaging lines for medical and food & beverages products). My salary in this last job was LE 800.

My question is, how much should I be paid from a reputable company if my job title is "designer".

A. O. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Mr. O

Well, at least you did not have to wait for long until you got your first job !

With regards to your question, please note that salaries in most functions do not depend on the title. Regardless of what the title is, the compensation (salary + bonus / incentives + other benefits) reflect a number of factors, namely:

• Complexity of the job and the experience / skills required to perform it
• Working conditions: locations, hours worked, timing (eg. may require night shifts or working on week ends ) etc…
• Scope of responsibility (how many things and people the job holder is responsible for)
• It also reflects the availability of people with the required skill set, and the industry norms.

As per the above, we will need a lot more information from you to provide you with a highly relevant reply.

Having said that, in more general terms, from the salary surveys regularly conducted by skill-link.com, Electrical Engineers with less than two years of work experience working in an industrial company in design or production functions would be earning an average of LE 800 to LE 900 per month (in Egypt of course). For those with three to five years of experience in the same field, the average is LE 1,500.

Again these are averages, only to serve as an indicator.

We hope the above was of some use to you.
Good Luck

Q2: Who would hire an actuary those days?

I just graduated with a BSc. in Commerce (Actuarial Sciences) from Cairo University. I am depressed and have little hope of finding a job related to my qualifications -other than sales. I applied to many insurance companies but got no response.

I believe there is some kind of miscommunication, so I started to think about working in a financial career - my degree is very much related - but I do not know if there are available opportunities (i.e: is it worth it ? ).

Excuse me for my depressed and frustrated words but what should I say ? It is my life going that way....

A. Z. A. (Giza)

Replying:

Dear Mr. A

You make it sound like you have been sitting at home looking for a job for years, you just completed your education just a few weeks ago. As you may know, getting that first job is always very challenging. It does not only apply to you or to Egypt; in a recent study conducted by the United Nations, it was revealed that young people are twice as likely to be unemployed compared to elder / more experienced people. This is more obvious in developing (Third World) nations.

Now, you have made the choice - to the best of our knowledge - of specializing in Actuarial Sciences during your university studies at the Faculty of Commerce. For the benefit of our many visitors / readers who do not know what an Actuary is, we will briefly define it as follows:

An actuary is a person who prices future risk. Risk is an unavoidable evil that we face every day, both as individuals and as a society. In situations where risk can have financial implications, actuaries are often called upon to put a value on these risks. For example: A life insurance company sells a policy to a new customer. How much premium should the company charge to offset the risk associated with insuring the customer? A property insurance company is considering giving a discount to customers with fire alarms in their homes. How much of a discount should the company give to reflect the different risks of homes that have fire alarms versus those that do not? An experienced actuary is not only an expert in applied mathematics and statistics, but also has a deep understanding of finance, economics, business law, and accounting.

As we were saying you chose this field, which obviously you knew is rather specialized, mainly required by companies and organizations involved with insurance: life, health, property, retirement funds etc… So there is not surprise that demand (and therefore job vacancies) is less than say accounting or sales jobs. A good actuary must have lots of experience, in many instances companies would rather go for those "ready" experts with many years on the job. It is unfortunate companies in general do not pay attention to the need of developing new generations to work along the experts to maintain a constant supply. A source in the Insurance Industry, revealed to us that most expert actuaries in Egypt are in their sixties, and that they the good ones are less than twenty !

So, it would not hurt to keep trying with insurance companies, however do not put great hope on that. On the other hand, just because you got a degree in that field, you must not consider yourself an Actuary who should only be restricted to this job. You studied four years in the Faculty of Commerce, in hence have one of the most useful and relevant university degrees applicable to all sectors for job roles in a wide variety of positions ! You must always remember that.

As per the above, you need to know - within yourself - what sort of jobs you like more and your character / capabilities would suit ? Accounting & finance related jobs, sales jobs ? banking jobs ? administration ? etc… There are no good jobs and bad jobs, there are only good professionals and bad professionals filling them. If you do well, and like what you are doing, then it is a good job for you.

So, in summary, our advice to you is to identify what types of jobs you would like to go after and do your best to get noticed, interviewed and offered.

If you like the field of information technology (application systems etc…) and feel you can develop your skills in this area, you may find it useful to work in the IT department of an insurance company or with a Software company that sells custom developed or ready made packages to the insurance industry. Here you degree could be of use and interest to the employers. They are not only getting a developer or analyst that understands systems development, but also someone who has a good understanding of the more complex aspects of insurance. Numerous new insurance companies has started or expanded their operations in Egypt in the last few years, and most still have to do serious upgrades to their IT infrastructure (including the three large public sector insurance companies).

Meanwhile work on developing your languages, PC skills and read a lot (both newspapers, magazines, websites and books) to expand your general awareness in various areas.

We hope the above was of some use to you.
Good Luck

Q3: What do you suggest for the "subject line" of emailed CVs?

These are two similar questions from two different skill-link.com visitors, thus addressed together

First of all, I enjoyed very much the skill-link.com "Job Hunting & Career Advisory" lecture I attended recently at the Youth Leaders Center in Zamalek. It was really excellent lecture and I got some professional experience in practical life during this. I regretted not having attended such lectures before especially from people who really know what they are talking about.

Well, I am a graduate of Helwan University with a B.A. from the Faculty of Arts, (Librarianship and Information Sciences). I work as an information service specialist and I like it as long as the sales isn't main career for me.

During the skill-link.com lecture, it was mentioned that in Egypt, 85% of those who send their employment application (CV) by email tend to leave the email message's "Subject" line blank or just write meaningful or common things like: My CV, Resume, Want A Job etc…. I would therefore appreciate if you could indicate some suggested subject line in job application e-mails.

N. M. (Egypt)

I graduated two years ago with a BSc. in Sciences from Zagazig University. I heard skill-link.com mention a lecture several days ago, that emailed CV should have a useful or attractive "subject" line to go with the email message. Could you provide samples ?

S. M. A. (Zagazig)

Replying:

Dear Miss M, Dear Mr. A

Thank you for remembering some of what skill-link.com said during its Career Advisory lectures. It is unfortunate that most emailed applications are received by recruitment managers with nothing in the subject line of the message or just : Need a Job, CV, Resume etc…. This reflects a person who does not bother to communicate well with the potential employer he / she is targeting. It also makes it very difficult for the receiving manager (at the company) to remember it and retrieve it again. We are talking about busy executives who receive many CVs by email every day. It would be useful to have in a subject line a message that is more or less attractive and that summarizes in a line what the CV is all about.

The good / smart subject line can tell a lot about the sender:

1. He / she has know the courtesy of emailing
2. He / she are smart enough to help the recipient quickly know what it is about, without having to open the message and read the attachment to find out.
3. That he / she can express him/herself clearly

Now, what are sample Subject lines ? The answer is that it differs based on each person's background and qualifications, and based on the type of job or the nature of the organization. Each case could have different options. However, as a guideline, the following are some samples:

· Self motivated graduate seeking entry level position in Human Resources
· A junior Chemists eager to join your Quality Assurance Laboratory !
· A Library specialist interested in joining your Research Department
· My specialization and self motivation could do wonders to your organization
· As an Administrative Assistant, you will appreciate my degree and FGF course
· Ambitious Sciences graduate seeking a chemicals sales or marketing role
· Recent Faculty of Arts graduate interested to be the next secretary in xxxxxxxxx (company name)

the following are more "attention grabbers" like ads...:

- Yours is one of the few places I really look forward to join
- Probably you have seen numerous CVs like mine, but wait till we meet
- How can I prove to you I am a hard worker, self motivated and fast learner ?

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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