“Your Career Advisor” is responding this week to:

• Which diploma should I select? (d)
• Do we have "career counseling" in our region? (h)
• Where should I start looking for a new job? (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: Which diploma should I select?

I'm a 30 year old manager who despite graduating with a Bachelors degree in Hotel Management, ended up working in a sales and marketing role within the Information Technology field for the past 4 years. Prior to that I held a number of positions in hotels, real estate and office equipment companies.

Right know I am unemployed and I need to back my career with some kind of a diploma not minding a career change for the rest of my life. I have 2 choices, both are Diplomas by the AUC (American University in Cairo):

• A 1 year Diploma in the Management of E-Business.
• A 1 year Diploma in Total Quality Management.

Which one will provide me with a more stable career and higher income in Egypt or the Middle East? Which one should I go for?

I would like to move out of the sales field, so, I specifically picked these two Diplomas because they have the highest interest to me and I would believe they both are highly needed for the future of any business. Electronic business for the virtual world is the trend now, so is quality (TQM, ISO etc…).

A. B. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Mr. B.

You have a nice and diversified background, where you can claim "sales and business development" know how in addition to knowledge of the products/services you were lately selling.

Lots of people at one time or the other want to get out of sales, specially when the market it tough or the product/service they are entrusted with is not easy to sell. One gets fed up with the constant follow up needed with clients, calls that are not returned, appointments constantly postponed or just cancelled, arguing prices to death, slow invoice payments etc…… The fact remains that sales in any organization is THE key role, it is the sole purpose for which most companies exist. Hence, we urge you to reconsider "dropping" sales from your career choices, that is unless of course you cannot really stand it anymore, or you did not achieve well in it, because it does not suit your character.

Now, with regards to the two diplomas you mentioned, we ought to tell you that despite their subjects being important, interesting to some people, and "good" on a CV, they should not be considered an easy ticket or passport to an open world of career opportunities. We cannot think of that many companies that is particularly interested in professionals with those degrees. They are useful of course, but not instant door openers. There are those who worked in quality for many years (specially as consultants), who will have a competitive edge when a business is recruiting for a "quality" related vacancy (in Egypt or the Arab region). Noting, that this diploma would be more useful to an engineer working in a manufacturing environment. As for e Business, maybe Dubai has a bit of a need (while in Egypt, we cannot think of so many entities interested)…. Those with a strong marketing experience and some understanding of the internet / e Commerce will have an advantage. Take skill-link.com as an example, this is a 3 year old e business, it is not interested to recruit professionals with e business experience or degrees, it is more interested in those with pure sales capabilities, or those with content and writing capabilities for its online magazine "Interest Zone"

So, in summary, we would not be terribly excited about spending the time and the money in either of those two diplomas. And that is our honest belief. What you need is a job where you feel satisfied and acquire new skills.

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

Q2: Do we have "career counseling" in our region?

You guys / gals are amazing! Can you give us a brief background about the person / people who answers / answer the "Your Career Advisor" section ?

I am interested in "edutaining" myself about Career Counseling in the Middle East. I have done some literature research and searched the web, but I would also like to seek your advice in this respect. What, in your opinion, is the status of this profession in the Middle East? Is there a clear distinction between career counseling and psychotherapy in the Middle East; and if they overlap to which extent?

K. (location not disclosed)

Replying:

Dear Mr. K

Thank you for your compliments…. "Your Career Advisor" is a mysterious person, lots of MBA program providers are placing a large reward for killing him or her, because of his/her constant advice to think very carefully before committing to such expensive programs. Some other employers want him eliminated because of his salary advice that caused some internal rebelling within their staff. It is also rumored that the Iraqi Information Minister, El Sahaaf is promising the world a big surprise when the identity of "Your Career Advisor" will be revealed J

On a more serious note, with regards to your question concerning Career Counseling, it is unfortunately not an established profession anywhere in the Middle East. Or more precisely the Arab region (to exclude Israel, since in some cases some of our regional statements and observations will not be applicable).

Before we proceed let us - for the benefit of our readers - highlight what a career counselor is or does: "it is a professionally trained counselor who specializes in helping people make and carry out decisions and plans related to career/life issues. He /she should have the skills and knowledge to assist with this process at various stages of one's career."

In the Arab world, only a few places will attempt to offer career counseling, namely the American University in Cairo and the American University in Beirut. We cannot say they do it by the book, or that those responsible for the function are particularly experienced and competent in the subject, but at least they provide reference material, organize career events (meetings with professionals in various fields), job hunting advice etc… Their priority is placement… You may of course consider skill-link.com as providing online "career counseling" via "Your Career Advisor" and a number of lectures we conduct every year to young professionals and about to graduate university students.

The research you have conducted has undoubtedly lead you to discover there are professional certifications in "career counseling" , namely in the USA. Among them you will find the "National Certified Career Counselor" certification. The National Career Development Association includes among its membership categories the Master Career Counselor (MCC) and Master Career Development Professional (MCDP). While such certifications and courses may provide a general framework of the role, we believe the realities on the ground in the Arab region, require a more thorough and practical understanding of the education system, labor market, employment practices and more important corporate environment.

In our opinion, the extremely limited development of "career counseling" in this part of the world is due to:
1. Relatively high unemployment
2. Underdeveloped human resources and recruitment practices
3. Career counseling is mainly provided by government and non for profit organizations, such as universities, youth centers etc… and these in the various Arab countries are less sophisticated than the corporate world, and have limited budgets for such "luxuries" hence the supply of "career counselors" is basically not there.

While there is some psychology in career counseling , "psychotherapy" is a different ball game, it addresses the treatment of problems such as depression, phobias, anxiety, obsession, attention deficit, learning disability, etc….

As opposed to psychology, a more closely related field may be that of "assessment centers", while it is not geared towards advising professionals on their careers, it intends to assess employees, new recruits and measure their potential and adaptability. One of the firms with a track record in that field is HR First, a Cairo based entity (www.hr-first.com). It is lead by Ms. Lauri Tapozada and Ms. Nadia Haridi and they seem to know what they are talking about.

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

Q3: Where should I start looking for a new job?

I am a thirty something lady, currently working in a private university in Egypt, actually I have been in this field since graduation about ten years ago. I am doing very well in my work but I am looking for a different job with a more promising career path.

I am very innovative, creative, good at strategic planning, capable of multitasking and many other skills that are always praised by my boss in my work and reflected in my work level.

It is worth mentioning that I have enrolled in numerous post graduate management, business and IT programs and received relevant certificates and degrees.

But I have been looking for a job for months with no success. I do not even know where to start and what to do. Are the skills I have gained worth something and what are my options ?

Note: My CV is registered on skill-link.com and attached for your review.

O. O. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Ms. O.

You seem to have good qualifications, skills and a solid career progress to date. Of course just by reading your message we cannot judge how good you are in planning and multitasking or how creative and innovative you are… but we will take your word for it.

Professionals at every level, have a different set of challenges when seeking a new employment opportunity. Fresh graduates have little to demonstrate for that first job, senior executives cannot move easily since there are relatively limited opportunities at the top, and middle level managers like yourself, may sometimes be labeled with the role / function they perform. In other words, a professional in say accounting & finance for ten or twelve years cannot easily move to a sales role or a customer service role. Some fields are easier than others to move within (eg. IT, sales, HR are relatively easy), in your case you are in a niche area, in other words university management (students affairs, registration, administration etc..) is kind of a limited field, most companies and organizations would feel they do not need that skill set. You cannot blame them if they "think" they can find individuals with more relevant experience to hire.. for them it is kind of a safer bet… in their minds it will be "why take the risk of giving her the chance to prove her self, when we can hire someone who has been doing it before for the last five years…". Right or wrong, this is the logic of most managers recruiting. On the other hand, when an entity in higher education is recruiting, your "niche" experience will definitely play in your favor since you will have very little competition (others with similar credentials).

The name of the game for you will be to try and move into a field that is not far from what you have been doing, for example a language institute (Berlitz, the British Council) or other training entities (Raya Academy, EMAK Academy, etc…). There are also US Aid projects looking after training and education, there your skill set may be of some relevance, similarly some IT companies have long term contracts with the Egyptian Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology to conduct 6 month intensive IT programs from university graduates. 5,000 young Egyptians go through this program every year, IBM and ORASCOM are leading the pack in this area… they may require someone like you to look after the logistics and trainee administration matters. The Future Generation Foundation (FGF) runs a program for thousands of graduates to help them acquire basic business skills to increase their employability. Gradually in such positions you may be able to branch out into a wider role and gain more diversified experience.

There are also some recently established companies in Egypt that are getting into distance learning via the internet (e Learning), this field is some aspects related to your background, since online students would register and upon completion get a certificate. Some may have questions or problems along the way that have to be addressed. In that respect you may want to check: www.arabacademy.com ; www.e-learningegypt.com ; www.eknowledge.com.eg

If you want to remain in your exact same field, but just change employers, you are probably aware that the German University in Cairo is currently in the process of hiring its staff, the German Chancellor will be inaugurating it in October 2003. Similarly, a British University in Egypt should be live in 2004. And the Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology is planning an IT University sometimes in the near future.

On a separate note, your CV is very well prepared and professionally presented !

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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