“Your Career Advisor” is responding this week to:

• How can I get to work in the financial services sector?
• What are my contractual rights and obligations towards my employer?
• What is actually e-commerce, and is it profitable?

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: How can I get to work in the financial services sector?

I am 25 years old Egyptian graduate of the Sadat Academy for Management Sciences (1999), where I majored in banking. During my university years' summer vacations, I trained in a number of banks. After graduation I have been employed in a variety of administrative roles in several non-profit organizations. I do not seem to be able to work in the field I like, which is banking or the financial services sector in general.

I do not know what to do to work in the financial services field, I am especially interested in the Brokerage/Portfolio Management field and I already obtained a diploma in Stock Market Operations from the American University in Cairo. Can you please tell me what to do to help me get into this field?

I am also planning to start studying for my CFM certification (Certified Financial Management) hoping this will help.

R. H. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Miss. H.

You do not really have a problem other than finding a suitable job in your industry of choice! On the educational front you have the right university degree and have enrolled in the right courses. The CFM is useful, actually to a broad range of financial positions not necessarily only in Capital Markets related roles.

The main challenge you are facing is that the Egyptian economy as a whole, and the capital market (thus portfolio management and brokerage) in particular are going through a severe slow down. This has seriously affected all the players in that industry, which understandably led them to downsize their operations and staffing levels. Employment opportunities for new entrants, regardless of how qualified are therefore at their lowest levels since the early nineties.
Banking on the other hand has a lesser problem, a number of commercial banks are still expanding and the banking industry as a whole would provide more career opportunities. This is where we would suggest you focus.

You probably realize that fast action is required, the longer you work in administration related jobs, future employers will tend to "stereotype you" in them. For now you are OK, but it will be more difficult in a few years to make such a move.

Where to find that job in financial services, well for a starter we hope your resume is registered on skill-link.com and you should also consider approaching banks directly. Another financial services related field you may want to consider: Insurance. The insurance industry in Egypt is undergoing change, a number of multinational players recently entered the market (either property insurance or life insurance) and they are hiring.

Good Luck

Q2: What are my contractual rights and obligations towards my employer?

I am a graduate of Ain Shams University, currently working in an international company in Cairo. I need to know my rights and my obligations towards my employer regarding signing contracts and social insurance, during the probation period, and after it. Especially regarding quitting the job and the notice period.

M. M. (Cairo)

Replying:

Dear Miss. M.

In Egypt, there are basically two types of employment contracts: "fixed period" (usually one year contracts renewable by mutual agreement) and "open ended" contracts (permanent). To answer your question, we would have to read your employment contract, since it will include the required notice period on both sides (for you to resign and for the employer to end your services. However, as a rule, Egyptian Labor laws (a new law is currently being discussed in parliament) make it very difficult for an employer to end an employee's services before the expiration of his/her contract, unless of course the employee has committed gross negligence or serious misconduct. For an employee to leave it is easy. Leaving laws aside, we believe that once an employer - employee relationship is not going well, or the personal chemistry is not there, there is no point of maintaining the employment relationship just because the employer is not allowed to ask an employee to leave. You can imagine what sort of "unfriendly" environment that will be! In other words, regardless of each party's legal position/situation, once things are not working, it is better to end the relationship.

With regards to notice periods (and again we have not read your particular contract), as a general rule, "open ended / permanent" contracts usually start with a 3 months probation period during which either party (the employer or the employee) can end the employment relationship without the need for any particular notice. Once the probation period is over, for the employee to resign, he/she is usually required to give a one-month notice. In practical terms, both parties often agree to a mutually convenient notice that may be shorter or longer depending on what the employee has to do (work on hand, unfinished projects etc…). Some "fixed period" contracts, would only have the notice period before the end of the contract; therefore if it is an annual contract, it will stipulate that should either party not wish to renew it, the other party should be notified in writing one month before the expiration of the contract in question.

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

Q3: What is actually e-commerce, and is it profitable?

I am a graduate of Helwan University, currently working in company operating in textiles and garments. I would like to know what is e-commerce? All I know about it is selling and buying through the Internet, also is it profitable or not? And is it getting to be known in Egypt? And what if it is profitable how will the government get the taxes from those people who are gaining through e-commerce?

H. N. (Giza)

Replying:

Dear Miss. N.

Are you a tax inspector or what?! J

E-commerce or e-business refers to the Internet based services, usually conducted with the objective of realizing profits. The could be in the form of providing content (such as a news website: CNN.com or an online newspaper: NYtimes.com) or selling products (such as the well known online book retailer Amazon.com) or providing a service (airline / hotel booking, stock trading, recruitment: skill-link.com or other). Therefore a company's website acting like just an electronic brochure or a governmental organization's website displaying information is not considered e-business.

Of course the "e" stands for electronic, it is a way to allow individuals (customers) to transact or get useful services through the net without having to go to a physical location. And since the Internet's wide use has started to take shape in the mid nineties of the 20th century, e-businesses are at their early stages. More so in Egypt and the Arab Region. There are currently a few (maybe twenty or less) credible e-businesses in the Arab Region, predominantly in the fields of: content providing (e.g. ameinfo.com, zawya.com, yallabina.com), recruitment (such as skill-link.com), brokerage (e.g. arabfinance.com) and real estate (e.g. betna.com, realestateegypt.com) or other (e.g. otlob.com).

Now, is it profitable? Before getting to that let us first look at how they generate revenues (i.e. make money). There are various business models, however e-business's income is usually generated through one or more of the following methods:

• Subscription fees: a fixed monthly or annual amount paid by users to access certain content or use particular services. This is the case of an online newspaper subscription for instance or for companies to be recruiting through skill-link.com
• Transaction fees: an amount or a percentage of the value of transactions taking place through a certain e-business's web site (e.g. A hotel reservation site getting 2% from hotels that receive room bookings through the site)
• Sales revenues: like a regular retailer or shop, some e-businesses would be selling products such as books or stationary or computers and benefiting from the margin between the sales price and the purchase price of the items sold (e.g. Amazon.com).
• Advertising revenues: like other media channels (newspapers, TV stations etc…) popular websites with high traffic present promotional opportunities for advertisers. Some e-businesses rely only on income from advertising and keep their other services free to encourage more visitors to use them, good example for that would be Yahoo and Google and CNN.

In relation to the above, skill-link.com for example generates income from corporate subscribers recruiting through the site; it also hosts advertisements for various products and services, which allows it to keep its services free for job seekers.

With regards to profitability and taxation (the last part of your question), like any other business it varies. In general, very few e-businesses are profitable because they are relatively new and have spent heavily in their early stages on development and promotion. Since e-businesses are owned/managed by companies, the companies get taxed on their profits (as per the relevant tax laws) like any other company. The rules apply to the company and not the website. Therefore there is no difference between an e-business, a restaurant or a cement factory on that front.

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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