“Your Career Advisor” is responding this week to:

• When will I find a suitable job? (b)
• How to start as a fashion designer? (d)
• Frustration does not describe my situation, what shall I do? (e)
• Any advice on finding a job in the Middle East? (b)

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: When will I find a suitable job?

I graduated from Cairo University's Faculty of Economics and Political Science with a BA in Political Science, with a grade of "very good with Honors". Since graduation I worked in research, event management and content development in a number of entities.

A few years ago, I enrolled in the Political Science Masters degree courses at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, but did not continue beyond the first preparatory year.

I have been searching for a job for more than 8 months but could not find any, I posted my CV one year ago on skill-link. Any suggestions ?

PS: a copy of my CV is attached.

I. M. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Mr. M.

Your online CV was posted on skill-link.com on February 24th 2003… not a year ago. This is not the issue of course, because as you know, skill-link.com does not create jobs… we really wish we could do that for our 54,000 registered professionals. What we aim to do is facilitate or "link" employers with potential candidates to be recruited. Since going live in 2000 we were successful in arranging thousands of employment interviews.

Naturally, these figures are not of interest to you, what you care about is your own case. What we can do is provide you with some advice, starting with your CV.

Your online CV for instance, the one posted on skill-link.com, shows you have selected the "job function" for your last job as "administration". However it is described as "Research and development Manager: responsible for all research and reports or figures conducted or issued by the company I am employed with and responsible for the content Development of the web site". This is definitely not "administration" as you put it, it can be research or editing or even marketing (because of the market research aspect). Hence, with "Administration" our search engine will be mislead with your CV. Your CV will never appear when companies or our own Recruitment Specialists are seeking to find someone with your experience and profile.

In your CV (word) attached to your message to "Your Career Advisor", there are plenty of modifications you should seriously consider:

• The CV in its current shape and form is too long, someone with your age and experience should limit it to one or two pages maximum. Hence it should be shorter, removing or shortening non critical information. For example your enrollment in the first year of the Masters degree (the one you did not complete) is not worth mentioning, it could only be negative to keep it, since it will make the reader wonder why you never completed it…. He/she may question your seriousness or your decision making ability that made you enroll in the first place. Similarly, you dedicated 8 lines to describing your computer skills, which actually are your PC skills; you could very well have it in one line like this: Windows, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, MS Project and HTML.
• The CV is in a format too oriented to academic job applications, as it its currently presented it will not be of interest to a reader working in business. Hence re arrange the sections, to have your "Employment History" before the "Education and training" parts and the "Extra Curricular Activities" section.
• In the "Employment History" - do not call it "Work Background" as you did - you must start each job with a subtitle showing the employer name (eg. ABC COMPANY), your title/role, then the dates (from - to). As it stands today, the reader has to really look hard to find out where you have been working.
• Avoid using negative terms, for instance why say your French is "poor" ? Using the word "basic" is more correct, it delivers the meaning and every one reading your CV will understand what basic means.

There are other suggestions you may wish to consider the enhance your CV content and presentation, we recommend you carefully go through the "Career Resources" Section of skill-link.com's "Interest Zone" where you will find useful tips about CV preparation, cover letters, job interviews etc….

Regardless of the above, ie. even if you have the best prepared CV in the world, this is of course not enough. One has to know where to look. You chose to study Political Sciences, which we both know is not the field of studies with the widest job options in the world (compared for instance to Commerce or Information Technology); nevertheless people with a similar degree make one of two choices; they either:

• stick to their field and seek employment in research, the media, diplomatic service etc…. ; or
• they go to a wider field of employment opportunities not related to what they studied, hence you will find those in sales, hotel business, tourism or those who took some information technology courses and currently work in web development, graphics design etc…

For the second group, the choices are not limited, what you would seek depends on your personal character and preferences (eg. do you like to sell ? can you sell ? etc…). The path you chose to follow so far, is more or less the first one, that more related to your field of studies. It is obvious you are interested in it and enjoy it. Hence, you should seriously go after the fields we mentioned, such as media (TV channels, newspapers, magazines, web sites etc…), organizations, research centers etc.. Over the last few months, we displayed on skill-link.com vacancies for editors (of an Arabic Egyptian magazine), political analyst (in the UK Embassy), program coordinator (in a UN organization in Cairo and Rabbat), content coordinator (for islamonline.net), content editor (for MSN Arabia), did you apply for all or any of these ? There are definitely similar vacancies outside of skill-link.com you should also chase. For instance the latest weekly newspaper in Cairo is Al Mal (it is two months old now) did you approach them ?

With the above, we tried to put you in the right mind set, since this is what we do… as opposed to coming up with a job opportunity.

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

Q2: How to start as a fashion designer?

I have been a flight attendant for five years and I would like to start a new career as a fashion designer . I need to know all about it, from making a dress to establishing an atelier. I just don' t know how to begin. Is there a special institute in Egypt? If so, could you please tell me?...

N. E. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Ms. E

Becoming a fashion designer and getting your own fashion design business "Atelier" are two different things.

Becoming a fashion designer , requires of course some natural talent, lots of creativity and skills (acquired through learning and developed on the job - experience).

Running a successful fashion design firm requires in addition to the above, some basic business skills, that of business development, selling, managing others and having some sense for finance. These apply to any business, whether a consulting firm, a restaurant or a hospital. While some people, are at ease with such roles / duties, other would rather start working in somebody else's organization - ie. as employees - to learn the ropes as they say.

Your first step as fashion designer (whether you are self employed or work for someone else) requires some extensive learning. Some of the existing fashion designers learned on the job at a very early age. Since this is not your case, a series of courses would be required to propel you into the world of fashion design. Unlike Europe and North America, Egypt and the Arab World in general offers very limited educational opportunities on that front. Most of the Egyptian garment manufacturers buy (or unfortunately often copy) designs from abroad. Italy and France are the two best known countries in this field.

In Egypt, after thorough research, we could only identify one institute offering fashion design courses, the Fashion and Design Center in Cairo. It is sponsored by the Ministry of Industry and Technological Development, in collaborating with one of the most famous institutes in Milan (Italy), Istituto di Moda Burgo, a 40 year old organization. Its contacts are presented below:

Textile Hoding Co. Bldg Second Floor,
El Taher St., Abdeen
Cairo, Egypt
Phone: 3960375 / 3960376

Email: info@fashiondesigncenter.org

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

Q3: Frustration does not describe my situation, what shall I do?

I graduated in 1997 from the Faculty of Arts - English Literature Department, and lucky me … immediately after graduation I worked in the field of development in a well known organization, which I thought at that time was a real good one; and that I must be envied for this opportunity.

My work was close to the American University in Cairo (AUC) so I enrolled in the Masters in Mass Communication program.

When I started in my job, it did not initially bother me not to have a job description and no experience in the field am working in as long as I am given enough time to finish my graduate studies. To cut a long story short, I am through with my Masters and got my degree at last. Meanwhile, I was never promoted at work and there was no real job to do except reviewing some studies related to development and small enterprises, contract revision and other routine paperwork. I expect sooner or later many people will be asked to leave from the organization because of the chaos it is in ! I have been considering quitting, but I am clueless because of the lack of experience.

How will I be treated now from a career point of view, even if I am with an academic degree, but no experience in any field ?

Did I waste my time ?

What kind of job shall I go for ?

N. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Ms. N.

To start with, your recognizing that you did not gain the experience you aim for, and that your current job is anti creative and dull; are all positive signs. These reflect the traits of an ambitious professional. Luckily you have invested time, effort and money to obtain a Masters degree from a well known university, something that reflects positively on your willingness to learn and diversifies your employment opportunities (much more than just holding a BA in English).

Some more good news, it is not like you have been were you are for 15 or 20 years, and labeled for the rest of your life to remain in a developmental entity or an NGO. You are most likely in your mid to late twenties, hence still safe.

Some of your concerns are not unique, it is often the case that those who work in developmental entities (local or international) feel trapped in a golden cage. Salaries are above average or even higher when compared to the job market, and in general there is little accountability. It is not like in a for profit company where sales targets have to be achieved, production / service standards have to be strictly adhered to and employees either perform (to cover their cost) in the best way or they are out. Being in such an environment for a long time, makes it very difficult to be employable in the private sector or multinationals operating on a commercial basis (unless of course we are dealing with secretarial, translation or junior administrative positions).

In light of what we started our reply with, several factors play in your favor:

First, outsiders (ie. potential employers) will not be intimately familiar with all the internal problems and sufferings you have gone through. They will have a vague idea that it may not be the best place in the world, but not that you have been shuffling paper for some years. You of course, will not volunteer this piece of information, you can "reword" what you did to make you look like God's gift to social development, employment creation and small business support… This will not really hurt anyone, unless you are applying for that same type of job again… which we advise you not to.

Second, you have a very good justification to make a career change at the current time, you just obtained your Masters degree hence you are seeking a more relevant job. Also, after five years, you believe it is time for a change. As you matured and gained more life experience, you found out that you were much more interested in a faster paced and more dynamic place to work….. These are all valid arguments you can use… reasonably true and very convincing.

Third, the combination of English and Mass Com degree is relatively broad, i.e. it is not limiting to a narrow career path (compare to say: textile engineering, law or capital markets).

So, to answer your question, no, you did not waste your time. In your particular case, the Masters degree provided you with some useful skills, and more importantly a good justification for the change. Others may have sat at home, while working on their Masters.

What to do next ? There is not easy answer for what could be your next job. A key reason is you did not share with us, what really interests you or what role you dream of. Without having such information, and basing our opinion on your education and job exposure, we could envisage a large number of venues. These could include marketing, advertising, publishing, event management and even human resources and training. You must come up with your short list, based on what you generically like: is it selling and business development, is it organizing and following on things to be completed to perfection, is it creativity and writing, is it more intellectual research and analysis ?… for each of these areas, there are jobs that are more relevant.

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

Q4: Any advice on finding a job in the Middle East?

I am from the United States, where I graduated from college majoring in history with a business administration minor; a significant portion of my history coursework was completed in Middle Eastern history.

I worked as an administrative assistant / receptionist / clerk while I have been in college. I spent a year working full time in a law firm as a receptionist. I also have great references from my past employers. I am not particularly picky about what kind of job I have but I really want to work in the Middle East and learn Arabic. Any advice you could give me regarding finding a job in the Middle East would be greatly appreciated.

C. S. (USA)

Replying:

Dear Ms. S.

To tell you the truth, your message is not very convincing as to why you are so interested to be living and working in the Arab region. Regardless, it will not be an easy task, since you are not within the category of highly technical professionals or senior executives thought after by employers in the region. Your areas of professional interest such as administration, office management etc… can be easily filled by competent local individuals, or in the case of the Arab Gulf by expatriates from countries like Pakistan, India, Philippines etc.. at much lower salaries than you could ever accept to move from the USA.

Additionally, in a number of instances, spouses of expatriate workers already in the Middle East, can find work more easily than your case, because they are already "relocated" hence no travel expenses for the local employer and housing is not part of the compensation.

In summary we advise you to seriously consider your decision, and the options you would like to pursue.

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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