“Your Career Advisor” is responding this week to:

• Should I focus on marketing or finance? (d)
• How to shift to a real HR role? (e)
• How can I acquire programming skills? (d)

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 focus on marketing or finance?

First I'd like to thank you about all valuable advice you offer me and other youth.

Over the time, every one faces problems in taking decisions during unusual circumstance and unknown future. I need your advice on the following:

I have been working for a leading e -payment company as an Operations Officer for 3 years, and my target is to get a corporate finance job. After struggling in the Egyptian market with no result, I decided to get a master degree in business since my degree in accounting was in Arabic in 1998.

Therefore I am considering obtaining an MBA from abroad. It is not for improving my CV, since I have many friends with MBAs that did not find their dream job !. But I am considering it to get quality education in English. Also, once the MBA is obtained, it is easy to get training in the field you like. I have the advantage of having an uncle who lives in Canada and I see my self qualified for the admission criteria in many business schools.

My manager told me to major in marketing not in finance because I have no experience. And I won't find a suitable job after returning to Egypt, while the marketing field is very wide and my character fits with marketing.

So I think that MBA in Canada would be very useful to provide me with the many skills I need in my life. My problem is in selecting which field to major in: I like corporate finance very much and I like marketing too but my first priority is finance.

I think you see this question many time but maybe it is a different case.

F. F. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Mr. F.

Thank you for your kind words of appreciation to "Your Career Advisor", the matter is we provide career related advice to a wide range of professionals in different age groups, not only young ones. In some instances we also address inquiries from employers concerning organizational, compensation, recruitment or labor law issues.

With regards to your question (s), it is not clear why you stated that you struggled in the Egyptian market. If you mean you could not find a suitable opportunity to work in Corporate Finance, then it is probably because of the economic conditions we are going through. Corporate finance professionals work on investment appraisals, mergers & acquisitions, debt arrangement, capital restructure, privatization etc… These could be employed in consulting firms (eg. KPMG, PriceWaterHouseCoopers, FINRATE Consulting, FinCorp etc..), investment management companies (eg. Gulf Arab Investment - GAIC, IT Investments, Horus etc…), investment banks (eg. EFG Hermes, HC Investments) or in large groups with many subsidiaries (eg. Ezz, Orascom etc…). Such fields are obviously more active when the economy is booming and the capital market is rapidly growing. In the opposite case, which is what we have been going through for three years, corporate finance is rather slow. Hence less need to recruit and more qualified professionals with relevant experience are available. The professionals available on the market are not only those who worked in corporate finance, but also in related fields such as securities research, corporate banking, investor relations etc… In the cases where a company needs to recruit, it is obvious why they will have a wide pool of qualified individuals (junior and seniors) to choose from. In times of high activity, eg. Egypt in the 1995 - 1998 period, the same companies were inclined to recruit those with limited or no experience and train them.

Having said that, it is not mission impossible. However, working in financial services operations will not get you there. Nor would an MBA guarantee such a position. A closer step may be - if you are really committed to get into corporate finance - is to work in bank credit or at least in financial analysis in a company. That is as valuable as an MBA.

We disagree with your concern regarding education in Arabic and English languages. You do not need an MBA just because of the language of instruction. There are many ways to improve your English, such as enrolling in courses, reading one or two hours a day English business magazines, newspapers and books etc….. On the other hand, acquiring skill related to Finance could be through multiple sources, not necessarily an MBA where you will invest lots of time and money. For instance a professional certification (such as CFA or CMA, will be relevant).

In case, you are still proceeding with your MBA decision, then we can tell you not to be overly concerned about what to major in. It does not really matter. All MBA programs, have a large number of common programs, whereby people study finance, HR, marketing, logistics, etc… and the concentration comes in the end. You can make your decision after you join. Whether it is finance or marketing, the MBA teaches a way of thinking and looking at business. So, this is a trivial issue we advise you not to worry about it. More important is which business school to go to, if you want to enroll.

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

Q2: How to shift to a real HR role?

I have a serious career path issue I would like to discuss.

I am in my mid twenties, a holder of a BA in Arts . I am excellent in two languages English and French and have very good inter personal skills. I consider my experience as valuable in the field of human resources.

The problem is I cannot find what I am looking for. I am currently working as a Human Resources Department Secretary in a very well known Egyptian company and there is no place for me as a Human Resources specialist there or at any other company for the time being. Please tell me what I should do to be on the right path for such positions.

M. E. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Ms. E

First of all, one has to be objective and reasonable about his/her skills and capabilities, so as not to over estimate them and know where he/she needs to develop. For instance, you mentioned your English is excellent, we tend to disagree, judging from your original message sent to "Your Career Advisor" (before editing). Similarly, your current role does support the claim of having "valuable HR experience", what would an HR professional with 5 years experience in recruitment, compensation design, appraisal systems then say ?. A better description of your skill in that area would be to say I am "exposed" to the HR function and practices.

Now, more importantly, what to do ? Since you seem to really like this field, we suggest you start some serious reading in the HR field, skill-link.com also has a wealth of information available online. Additionally, you may consider enrolling in a program to prepare you for an HR professional certification. Both the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt (AMCHAM) and the American University in Cairo (AUC) have such offerings.

You may also consider becoming a member of the Egyptian Human Resources Management Association (EHRMA). They hold regular meetings to discuss HR topic and publish a quarterly newsletter. It would also give you the opportunity to network with others in the HR field and share with them real life experience.

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

Q3: How can I acquire programming skills?

My question is not related to my career because I'm happy with my current job, I am just interested in Programming for my own knowledge.

As I am a good user of Word, Excel, Internet, ...., I am just wondering how to start studying Programming, I mean which course is good for a beginner?

A. H. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Ms. H.

What a nice topic to discuss for a change J You are not suffering from a serious career block, you are not desperately in need of a job, and you do not have serious problems with your boss …..

Let us first comment on your first statement: "My question is not related to my career because I'm happy with my current job"; you do not need to have a career problem to seek advice in that field. No one, except Bill Gates (the Chairman of Microsoft and the richest man on earth with a fortune estimated at USD 40 billion) could make such a statement. Even the President of the United States has career concerns, what would he do after leaving the White House ? What we are trying to say is that on the long run, there are always opportunities for more development, more challenge and more impact. This of course is for the benefit of our readers in general, we do not know your particular situation since you did not elect to present it in your message.

With regards to your specific question, software programming, know referred to as "Application Development" is a useful skill to have, that can serve in a number of fields. It also teaches one new ways of thinking and problem solving. In a way one can think of it, if not as a profession, as a hobby like gardening or painting etc.. There are many development tools (programming languages) out there… However, in your situation we would recommend a simple, PC based one, with which you can develop small applications. Once you master the key concepts and the logic, you may choose to proceed with more complex tools. If we had to make a suggestion, we would mention the following:

• Visual Basic
• Java/HTML (this is to develop web based applications, web sites etc…)

These two are simple and numerous entities in Egypt offer courses (elementary to advanced) teaching how to work with them. In many cases, you can acquire the basics in a course and then using a reference manual (book), you could develop as you work.

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

Top