“Your Career Advisor” is responding this week to:

• What does an Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer do?

• I have certain issues related to skill-link.com’s employment services!

• Should I consider a job offer from the Stock Exchange?

• What salary should a mechanical engineer with 4 years of experience expect?

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: What does an Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer do?

Would you please provide me with some information about the job responsibilities of an Assistant Chief Executive Officer? Is this the same as Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer?

E. M. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Ms. M.

There is a very big difference, as a rule "assistant to" reflects a position where the person handles a number of tasks for his / her superior, these are usually of a support nature.

Therefore the job of "Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer" would usually include one or more of the following: organizing meetings, following up on the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) directives to other managers, preparing certain reports, conducting some research on a certain product / market etc… assisting in preparing presentations or speeches. It could also go as far as meeting with other managers internally or with service providers to initiate and monitor progress of various projects.

The above position is not a typical one in organizations; however, smart busy CEOs find it helps them in managing their heavy workload. In some other cases, the CEO's executive secretary or office manager is really doing the work of an Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer. The title is also more attractive than Executive Secretary for some ambitious professionals who want to progress into other management functions in the corporate world after a few years in the Assistant to the CEO position. If the job holder is smart, he/she will learn a lot by working close to the CEO and getting a full picture of the business.

On the other hand, Assistant CEO is more of formal organizational title indicating a senior executives one level below the CEO (same as Assistant General Manager), however it is rarely used in the corporate world. If it exists in a certain company, the jobholder will be entrusted with more executive responsibilities than an Assistant to the CEO. For example the Assistant CEO could be in charge of the Finance, Administration, HR and IT departments in a certain company; in another he/she will be entrusted with overseeing the international branches of the company etc…

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

Q2: I have certain issues related to skill-link.com’s employment services!

I am an Egyptian university graduate who has worked in the fields of consulting and banking. I would like to start by congratulating skill-link.com for its second anniversary on-line and to wish you all the success.

I've read the articles written in your home page and I personally have some comments and feedback, which I would like to forward in order to help you enhancing your service. These comments are as follows:

1. I tried to find a feedback link as per most of other online recruiter, but I could not find any. I guess having a clear feedback link would be an advantage.

2. I always search your data base using " Prof. Services / Consulting " under the main function and then " Management Consulting " under the detailed function, I got only one job posted on 01/04/2001. I do not really believe this position is still open. Honestly this tends to harm the credibility of your database. Instead I would suggest having an arrangement with the employer that includes an expiry date for the advertisement. Alternatively, as you cannot turn business down you can simply update the date of posting, in coordination with the employer, should the position be still open. This will have a positive impact on job searchers and will add more credibility to your site.

3.I received about three messages through skill-link.com from interested companies and I replied positively. I was interviewed by one of your Recruitment Officers regarding one of the vacancies with Newteck, unfortunately I have not heard from either skill-link.com or the employer since then and the message stayed in my messages box for around a year until I asked the technical support department to erase it. This happened with the other two messages. It would be better to have an internal mechanism to update applicants of their CV status and to regularly delete old messages that were sent to applicants in case the employer has not taken any action.

4. Finally, I was interviewed by the skill-link.com " Operations Manager " for a position with Andersen, Jeddah office, then I was interviewed by the client who advised that I will get feedback through skill-link.com. I strongly requested skill-link.com to give me a feedback on the interview regardless of the result as I was having other opportunities. I regret to inform you that you failed to do so, Andersen disappeared and I have not got an answer yet!!!. I guess this does not reflect the level of professionalism you requested your job applicants to show when not showing up for an interview. Skill-link.com can simply update candidates on the status of their job applications through their accounts. I'm almost sure this can be done using the employment matching system you have with a minimum level of human interventions. I think you need not reply by phone or through regular e-mail accounts.

I would like to stress that I have mentioned specific incidents just to build the argument and to prove my point with no intention whatsoever to point finger or to complain from specific skill-link.com employees.

I look forward to comments and feedback.

A. A. E. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Mr. E.

Thank you for your kind wishes and your detailed message. We are happy to respond to it since it includes several points periodically raised by other skill-link.com users.

The following reply reflects input from several members of the skill-link.com team; you will also find some of the issues addressed by our own staff in the interview Who's Who in skill-link.com.

1. We have on our home page a link to communicate with skill-link.com staff, whether it is feedback, suggestions, complaints or other…
The home page provides the highest visibility in most people's opinion. From the nearly 2,000 daily visits we get, those that elect to communicate with us send us feedback messages regularly.

2. We agree with out that old Job Vacancy announcements are annoying, however you picked a very special case. This is because sometimes, consulting firms are looking for the best talent available; they are not in a hurry to recruit until they hire the right person. So if our client (subscriber) wants to keep it open for a long time, we cannot deny him the right to do so. However, we agree with you it is better to update the date, to show it was not forgotten.

3. Our biggest problem with employers (subscribing clients to skill-link.com) is that some of them delay providing any sort of feedback! They do not say Yes and do not say No, despite our repeat follow up by phone and email, we cannot answer on their behalf when they do not give us an answer…. That is the first wish all of the skill-link.com Recruitment Officers have (actually second, the first is to marry a rich, tall, entertaining and handsome young man). Unless corporate cultures change, we can do very little. However, we should seriously consider a rule of setting a maximum period of time after which it is a No answer. Point well taken.

4. In the case of Andersen, we all know what happened, the firm collapsed and various national practices were acquired by competitors. However, business did not close down, they still have clients and projects being served under a new firm (the acquirer) so we could not assume they were declining to proceed with that vacancy. On a broader issue, skill-link.com sets two to three thousand interviews every year, providing feedback to each and every candidate becomes a monumental task (in the case of a decline of course) as long as the employers (subscribers to skill-link.com) do not cooperate by having the professional courtesy to communicate their decisions to those they have interviewed. Even outside the online recruitment word, it is an unfortunate post interview corporate practice in Egypt and many Arab countries ! On the other hand, the skill-link.com Recruitment Officer handing a particular corporate account will never fail to return a call or respond to an email from any candidate inquiring about the status of a certain vacancy he / she has been interviewed for.

Again thank you for your message and for allowing us to clarify key issues to our tens of thousands of registered candidates.

Good Luck

Q3: Should I consider a job offer from the Stock Exchange?

I am a 30-year-old Egyptian graduate with a BSc. in Accounting. I started my career working in a big 5 audit firm until I received my accounting certification. I then moved to Dubai joining the credit department of a medium sized commercial bank. I returned to Egypt after several years in the United Arab Emirates for family reasons.

I am currently offered a job to join the Surveillance Department of the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchange. I am not sure what they really do, and if I should be interested in a government position after the experience I have.

A. H. (Cairo).

Replying:

Dear Mr. H

While the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchange (CASE) is not obviously a private sector entity, you should not look at it as your typical government or public sector organization. It is more dynamic, self-autonomous and pays reasonable salaries compared to the Capital Market sector. CASE generates its own funds from brokers membership fees and commissions levied on each trading transaction that takes place through the stock exchange. Thus it is not relying on the State to finance it.

You should also consider that CASE provides an interesting insight into the workings, operations and regulations in the capital market (shares trading, public offerings, corporate actions etc…). Some people may find this valuable experience. We know for a fact that CASE sends staff abroad for training and to visit other stock exchanges around the world. It also receives international experts and guests that would add knowledge and experience to someone working there.

With regards to the "surveillance" function in the Stock Exchange, it performs the following:

• It ensures compliance with various trading and company listing regulations, detects violations / breaches of conduct of brokers or listed companies (of prevailing laws, regulations and rules), oversees rule enforcement and supports disciplinary actions in relation to securities trading.
• It also closely watches trading activities on the exchange to detect unjustified market movements and subsequently propose the necessary measures to maintain an orderly securities market and preempt serious market disturbances.

As per the above role, surveillance officers occasionally cooperate with law enforcement agencies with respect to investigations related to securities trading in CASE (eg. frauds, insider trading etc.).

So in summary, it is a job offer worth considering.

Good Luck

Q4: What salary should a mechanical engineer with 4 years of experience expect?

I am a 26-year-old mechanical engineer, a graduate of Alexandria University's Faculty of Engineering. I worked for four years in a joint venture industrial company, performing a number of production and quality control related roles. As I am considering to make a career move, what salary should I expect for someone with my background and experience.

Y. L. (Alexandria).

Replying:

Dear Mr. L.

You did not provide us with detailed information on what specific skills and experience you acquired during your four years of employment. However, the following are average salaries in Egypt for mechanical engineers with 3 to 5 years of experience. This information should be of use to you. Please bear in mind, that Alexandria pays lower salary than Greater Cairo; our survey is heavily influenced by companies based in Giza, Cairo and the new industrial cities: 6th of October, 10th of Ramadan, Badr etc…

Mechanical engineers salaries vary depending on their role, ie. what they do: manufacturing, sales (of machinery), maintenance (e.g. of central air conditions or equipment), design (in engineering consulting firms) or project management (e.g. installing elevators and escalators in construction projects). The following are average salaries from a recent skill-link.com survey for mechanical engineers with 3 to 5 years of work experience:

Please note that the above are averages, there are variances. Also, for sales there is usually the added sales commissions/incentives.

The highest 5 paid in this category earned an average salary of LE 3,000.

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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