“Your Career Advisor” is responding this week to:

• I am considering quitting, what is your advice? (h)
• How can a 28 year old accountant advance his career? (d)
• Can I continue as both dentist and IT professional? (e)

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 am considering quitting, what is your advice?

I graduated with a BA in English Literature in 1985, and currently work full time as an Office Manager- assisting the Managing Director and performing all types of duties; such as: translation, editing, report writing, regular correspondence, minutes of meetings, coordination, organizing events, petty cash handling, and many others. I am full up and do everything asked from me, but always no one is satisfied. I always stay longer hours, and sometimes go on my days off.

I am also not satisfied with my salary.

I want to have a free lance work next to my current job. I have done a lot of translation and editing and have attended the CACE groundwork translation courses (received A grades). So what do you think I should do ?

Please advise me because I am thinking of quitting !!!

S. N. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Ms. N.

The tasks you described are part of an active Office Manager's role. Additionally, numerous professionals at all levels find they have to work hard, putting in long hours and having to be at the office on the week end. This applies to software developers, financial analysts, lawyers etc… So far there is no real problem, the concern is then based on: (a) others not showing satisfaction / appreciation ; and (b) your feeling for not being adequately paid.

With regards to others not showing satisfaction or appreciation, the shortest way to address the issue is to have a candid talk with your boss; even if you start it with a request for you to receive a formal performance appraisal. This will directly lead to opening up the subject. If will then either be gradually solved, or you will find out it is a character thing and there is no way out, unless you resign or get assigned somewhere else in the company if it is large enough.

The salary depends on numerous factors, one of them is how much you are currently earning in a year (to factor in bonuses if any). Without this information we cannot comment on its adequacy.

Regardless, if you are not happy / comfortable with the above issues, you have the right to seek other employment opportunities.

We do not believe your type of job will allow you to take on additional work as a free lancer, unless you are really lucky. Because as a free lancer, you need clients, which requires business development efforts, you also need to meet their deadlines, deliver your work and collect your fees. Again, not an easy task. We are assuming of course you are a really good translator. You can also register with a translation office, where they can refer work to you, in this case you will earn less, but at least you will save hassle and business development efforts. Please remember, that you are not a professional and qualified translator, like others in the market who have been doing this for year. Additionally, since you will be an English translator, you will have more competition from others and relatively less demand (since more and more people are mastering English) compared to say German or Spanish.

So to wrap up, if the internal work conditions where you currently are do not improve, you may be better off starting to search for other similar, but more satisfying employment opportunities. You must however remember that "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" as the saying goes… in other words, things in a new potential company may appear nicer, you really have to do your homework and talk to employees in any potential new place to assess the situation in light of your previous experience before you make up your mind.

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

Q2: How can a 28 year old accountant advance his career?

I am 28 year old accountant; I started my career about 6 years ago in an industrial company but I feel worried about my future in this company. Hence; I am thinking of advancing my career by acquiring additional qualifications as a means of securing myself.

I heard a lot about some certification like CPA and CMA-and about some other degrees such as MBA .

My question is " WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE CONCERNING THIS MATTER "?
WHICH ONE OF THE ABOVE-MENTIONED DEGREES YOU ADVISE ME TO TAKE? "

In other words which one of them will give me a good chance to find a good; secure and well-paid salary job?

On the other hand I know a lot of institutions which offer MBA degrees; like AUC; OUDA; the Arab Academy for Financial & Banking Sciences; The Arab Academy for Technology; Sciences and Maritime Transportation etc .

So; what is the difference in these programs? or in other words "is the MBA degree given by one institution is better than another? Or The MBA degree is a unified degree?
And at last I would like to ask you to give me detailed information about the cost of these programs .

T. M. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Mr. M.

The good thing is that you are well aware of the options out there. However, if you want the truth, no degree (MBA or other) or certification (CMA, CPA, CIA etc..) guarantees a good, well paid and secure job. Of course they help, but what is much more important is what you are and what you know.

(A) By "what you are" we mean: being mature, smart, hard working, professional, a decision maker, a good team player that works well with others, always willing to learn ….

(B) and by "what you know" we mean: you functional experience (ie. your technical knowledge of accounting, finance, taxes etc…); your industry knowledge (how much you know about the field your company is working in; your PC skills, your familiarity with accounting software packages, your languages etc….

The above factors (A & B) are 10 times more important for your career advancement and getting good jobs.

Having said that, of course it does not hurt to add a degree or certification. A degree, in your case an MBA (master of business administration) will take time and will prove costly. Those who complete an MBA in Egypt, end up paying between LE 20,000 and LE 35,000 depending on the program. The MBAs offered in Egypt through Ouda, the Arab Academy, RITI, the AUC or other are more or less similar. There are no huge difference between them.

In previous questions to "Your Career Advisor" we have addressed the issue of MBA and should one go for it or no. Click here for viewing our answer.

Certifications, are less theoretical and may prove more beneficial to someone in your situation, they also do not cost as much and require less study and attendance time. On the other hand they are more specialized in a specific field. In other words, they are more useful if you want to remain in the field of accounting, finance and audit.

The accounting and finance certifications were also addressed by "Your Career Advisor" a few months ago, click here to check our reply.

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

Q3: Can I continue as both dentist and IT professional?

I am a dentist but I left dentistry for a year and a half during which I became an IT expert. Following that I worked full time in the IT field till the current moment but recently I opened my private dental clinic (Part time) .

So I'm working as an IT specialist by day and a dentist by night !

I feel somewhat disturbed, & I'm feeling that I'm a unique case. Also I found difficulty in writing a reasonable CV to be sent to any job in either fields.. when I write my CV it appears strange for any Human Resource Manager.

I acquired my IT skills by enrolling in the Information Technology Institute (ITI) for 9 months after my graduating from Faculty Of Dentistry. I specialized in CASE TOOLS (Computer Aided Software Design) which has a very small market in Egypt although it is widely used over the world, also I was learned Databases (MS SQL Server & other tools). Therefore I did not work as a developer but ended up working in the IT training field in a governmental IT training organization. Unfortunately, IT training there is not the main issue but there is a lot of administrative work.

I resumed my work as a dentist again because I wanted to stay in touch with my original profession and not to loose my license, also because working in dentistry increase my income. Working as a dentist is financially rewarding but I can't depend on it alone now as its income is fluctuating.

I also like working as a dentist because I see it a more respectable profession, also a more professional job (working in IT training institutes is not a professional job due to the huge administrative work). And finally, practicing as a dentist is more autonomous and independent : NO MANAGER; you are your own BOSS.

Please tell me am I a unique case ??!!

Do I have to make a decision and choose one field from the 2 I work in ? or can I complete my life as it is ??!!

Is there any field or job that I can work to make use of my knowledge & experience in both fields.

M. M. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Dr. M.

We will start from the end: you are a rare case but not a unique one. Graduates in numerous cases end up working in totally different fields for numerous reasons: availability of opportunities, financial attractiveness, boredom, not liking what they do etc… We know of lawyers who turned secretaries, engineers who became reporters, medical school graduates who became graphic designers and management consultants, and the story goes on and on.

On the other hand we disagree with you on two issues:
The first: A dentist does not have a more respectable profession than an IT professional, an accountant or a secretary… these are different jobs, one gains his / her respectability from acting professionally, working hard and excelling at what he/she does.
Second: you ought not to describe yourself as an IT expert, you training and experience may qualify you to be an IT professional or an IT trainer but not an IT expert.

Writing your CV is of course challenging, however as we always advise you should have different versions, each highlighting different aspects depending on who you are sending it to, kindly refer to the Career Resources Section of skill-link.com's Interest Zone for tips and advice on this matter.

The real issue is, what track(s) should you pursue. Of course for the time being you can keep on working in both tracks, however this may not be advisable on the long run. Which one to choose from ? It is really your own call.. however our feeling and analysis from your message are:

• You like to work as a dentist, in other words it does not bore you
• You have work, patients and hence make money as a dentist
• You are not working in the most exciting aspects of IT, where you are managing projects, designing systems or supporting large IT operations…
• You are not terribly excited about what you are doing write now in IT Training…. And it seems, as things stand now, not a fast track career.
• You did not portray in your message any particular passion or excitement about being an IT professional, hence we do not sense you are crazy about it. On the other hand you mentioned lots of positives about being a dentist.

In light of the above, we find it difficult to support you in continuing in an IT training career unless we missed two critical points: (a) that you enjoy working in training and (b) IT is your passion. Assuming these two points are not applicable, then the issue becomes a money (income) issue; so for all intents and purposes you could be working in any other field: recruitment, medical equipment sales, pharmaceutical sales for dentists products, insurance etc…

Couldn't you get a day job as a dentist in a hospital or a polyclinic ? or put more effort in developing your own private practice, as long as you have already invested in a clinic ?

On the other hand, if you insist on marrying both fields together, we can maybe suggest you learn some application development and leverage your database experience to come up with a useful and inexpensive Dentist Clinic Management System that you could be selling to dentists who would appreciate such a solution to maintain there patients records, appointments, collections etc… You may also add to it, all available medications and material used by dentists for ease of reference. Similarly, if you get to master web development and graphics design, you can launch an Egyptian Dentists portal where pharmaceutical and dentist equipment companies would advertise their products, clinics would list for ease of reference and even include a dentists database for those looking for vacancies or those interested in recruiting dentists (a mini skill-link.com dedicated to dentists).

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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