“Your Career Advisor” is responding this week to:

• How can I be earning LE 5,000 a month, next year? (e)
• How to select a suitable MBA program? (d)
• Could you tell me about "Process Management" jobs? (g)

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 be earning LE 5,000 a month, next year?

I'm half American and half Egyptian and I still have on more year before I obtain my university degree, majoring in business administration. I already work for a telemarketing company based in Cairo, but selling to clients in the USA (name withheld) and I'm doing quite well earning around LE 2,000 a month.

The question is where do I go from here ? I want to earn close to 5,000 LE within the coming year. I've got fluent English, computer skills and excellent communication skills. Do you think it's possible for me to do so, and what steps do you think I should take to promote myself to such standards.

T. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Mr. T

You are lucky having the opportunity to work and build experience while still studying in university. You also seem to be good at what you are doing, judging from your monthly income. Telesales is not easy, specially if you are targeting an audience living in another continent. So you should be proud of your achievement to date.

Now, with regards to your objective of earning LE 5,000 a month within the coming year (or as we understand it after graduation) here is the real challenge. Since there will be a compromise from your side. Most corporate jobs where you would be really learning and building your professional knowledge base would not be paying such a salary in your first couple of years. However you would be gaining exposure, structured training and the discipline of the work place. Here referring to multinational companies or large joint venture and private sector companies in various sectors: banking, advertising, fast moving consumer goods or other. To get to the figure you mentioned very early in your career, this must be related to a sales incentive, which if you are really good and gifted at you may achieve, however a very challenging task.

Our own advice to you in the first five years of your career would be to seek learning and corporate exposure over financial compensation. The latter will come when you become a true professional with good corporate communication, planning and management skills. These are the real assets you should be seeking when you make your first career steps.

What good employers will be seeking from an individual in his mid to late twenties are: a well rounded professional, ambitious, self motivated, hard working and eager to learn and develop by the day. While you may already have these traits, you need to polish them with some experience and demonstrate the successful beginnings of track record.

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

Q2: How to select a suitable MBA program?

Sounds that millions of institutions offering MBA courses/degrees cliam that it's accredited from different universities. Now I need to join an MBA program, how to evaluate and assess the provided MBA program, and how to check if such program is really accredited world wide and here in Egypt from the Supreme Council of Universities ?

Finally what's is your recommendation for where to find the MBA program that's is really pays back it's money & effort?

O. I. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Ms. I.

Enrolling in an MBA program as we frequently stated is a major time, effort and financial commitment. Therefore one has to really know why s/he wants to go through it and what is expected out of it. Hence, it is not something to do because it is fashionable, one has available time on hand or would drastically improve career opportunities (not in Egypt at least).

Today, there are more than 2,000 MBA programs from more than 1,200 universities, business schools and management colleges in 123 countries worldwide. In the U.S. alone, there are more than 900 degree-granting institutions. As reported by MBA Info, 2002.

There are numerous ways to assess MBA programs, starting from the quality of the institution offering it to the ranking of the program. In the USA, Canada and Europe, leading business magazines/newspapers offer MBA ranking every year, skill-link.com's Interest Zone regularly present such findings. In our opinion, the best test is the "name recognition test", this is what counts with employers or any other audience (including your friends and family). You loose a lot when the name does not ring a bell with your audience… for example, the MBA offered by Tuck School of Business of Dartmouth University in the USA, was ranked #1 this year by the prestigious Wall Street Journal, # 2 by the respected Economist Intelligence Unit; and # 10 by BusinessWeek magazine. These are all very attractive rankings, however 99.9% of managers and professionals in Egypt have never heard about it, compared to the Anderson School of the University of California at Los Angeles - for example - which does not figure in any top ten or fifteen list anywhere. So you key objective in our part of the world should be name recognition, which usually does not come cheap J.

You have not specified in your message if you are seeking MBA programs only offered in Egypt or you would be willing to travel abroad. You will probably have to spend a small fortune if you are considering abroad, unless of course you manage to obtain a scholarship like those offered by the British Council (Chevening) or the Sawiris Foundation or others. These are always published on skill-link.com's Interest Zone.

In Egypt, there is a handful of MBA programs offered, all are second or third (if not fourth) category compared to those offered by top business schools in North America or Europe. Since it is not only the curriculum or books that count, but the professors and class interaction plays a significant role in the quality of an MBA program.

Accreditation is an issue, however you should not be overly concerned with…. What is important is what you get our of your MBA. Specially, that you do not get an MBA to pursue a career in academia (ie. university teaching) and therefore, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Universities' accreditation will be of little value to you. On an international level, and since hundreds, then thousands of MBA programs appeared, the need came for accreditation. The authority on the subject is the AACSB (The Association of Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), it was founded in 1916 and began its accreditation function with the adoption of the first standards in 1919.

AACSB accreditation represents the highest standard of achievement for business schools worldwide. Institutions that earn accreditation confirm their commitment to quality and continuous improvement through a rigorous and comprehensive peer review. AACSB accreditation is considered for all intents and purposes the hallmark of excellence in management education. Through accreditation, business schools provide stakeholders (students, employers, teachers etc…) with the assurance that they:

· Guide educational delivery by a carefully constructed mission
· Select and support students to produce outstanding graduates
· Deliver degree programs with qualified faculty
· Structure learning through relevant curricula
· Contribute to knowledge through research and scholarship

More than 400 AACSB member institutions have affirmed their commitment to educational quality through the achievement of accreditation.

Another accrediting association for business programs is the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs. Relatively newer than the AACSB, it was created to accredit some of the business programs that do not comply with AACSB standards but are still quality programs that emphasize different aspects in teaching. Founded in 1989, ACBSP with its 430 members, 261 of whom have successfully achieved accreditation. A number of Business Colleges in the United Arab Emirates fall within this category.
So to cut a long story short, you could consider this as a B class accreditation; . All the really good business schools would be AACSB accredited.

The Maastricht School of Management MBA, offered in Cairo in association with RITI - for instance - is accredited by the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (AACSB) .

There are also more regional and less known accreditation bodies, for example in Europe, there is the Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation was established in October 1994. FIBAA's aim is to support the maintenance and enhancement of quality standards in teaching and learning in higher education in in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. A parallel objective is to provide sound guidance and information for students, employers and higher education institutions. Its central goal is to provide transparency in the growing market of business and economics related Bachelor and Master level programs, and, in particular, to assure quality in Business Administration courses i.e. BBA and MBA or Bachelor in economics and Master in economics. There are no indications on the quality of its accreditation process.

Another regional one is in the United Kingdom, The Association of MBAs (founded in 1967). However please remember that the top MBA programs in the UK and Europe would have been accredited by the AACSB (The Association of Advance Collegiate Schools of Business); which we have previously presented.

Your safest bet is to stick with AACSB accredited if this is your main objective. If not then program convenience, affordability and name recognition, should be what you ought to go after.

And finally we will leave you with the Wall Street Journal ranking of the top 25 MBA programs in the US for 2002 (which we published last September):

1. Dartmouth College (Tuck)
2. University of Michigan
3. Carnegie Mellon University
4. Northwestern University (Kellogg)
5. University of Pennsylvania
6. University of Chicago
7. University of Texas at Austin
8. Yale University
9. Harvard University
10. Columbia University
11. Purdue University (Krannert)
12. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
13. Michigan State University
14. Indiana University (Kelley)
15. University of California at Berkeley (Haas)
16. University of Maryland (Smith)
17. Emory University (Goizueta)
18. Ohio State University (Fisher)
19. Cornell University (Johnson)
20. University of Virginia (Darden)
21. IMD International (in Switzerland)
22. University of Rochester (Simon)
23. Wake Forest University (Babcock)
24. New York University (Stern)
25. Duke University (Fuqua)

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

Q3: Could you tell me about "Process Management" jobs?

Could you provide me with the job description of Process Coordinator, Process Specialist and Process Supervisor ?

T. E. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Ms. E

You provided us little information about the industry and the functional area to determine exactly which processes you have in mind. Also, please note that Coordinator, Specialist and Supervisor are organizational designations to identify the level of responsibility and/or management supervision. Therefore they do not necessarily indicate a different job description (other than being in charge of more junior professionals). It is the same as saying Accountant, Senior Accountant and Accounting Specialist… these do not mean any particular differences in job descriptions.

As per the above, we will be addressing "Process".

(I) In industrial and chemical manufacturing plants, there is the job of Process Engineer or Process Control Engineer. He / she would usually be responsible for:

• The gathering, design, configuration, integration and implementation of process control solutions for the manufacturing industry including batch software, PLC / DCS systems, HMI packages, SCADA systems, Visual Basic and PC networking technology.
• The design, analysis, troubleshooting, implementation or upgrade of industrial instrumentation and controls such as regulatory controls, advanced controls or batch controls.

The job holder must have knowledge of process manufacturing field instrumentation, technology and batch process manufacturing expertise throughout the following phases of the production life cycle: requirements documentation, detailed design generation, implementation, system integration, testing and on-site startup.

The most common applications and solutions used by Process Control engineers are: various DCS types, PLCs (Honeywell, Foxboro, Fisher-Rosemount, ABB, Siemens, Yokogawa, Bailey etc..) and HMIs ( Allen Bradley, Modicon, Siemens, GE, Wonderware, Intellution, etc..).

(II) In the telecommunication sector (and in call centers for cards issuers, large retailers or others) there is also the job of Process Manager (eg. Process Manager - Billing or Process Manager - CRM). He / she would usually be responsible for:

• Designing business processes; through the analysis of existing tasks and functions; and reviewing international best practices.
• Working with business unit managers to set benchmarks
• Interfacing between IT function and business unit managers to ensure effective and efficient operational solutions are provided and properly implemented.
• Development and improvement of business organization (roles, responsibilities, reporting lines) according to outcome of process analysis.
• Development of training material for operations, customer services staff etc...
• Managing and implementing quality-driven change initiatives.
• Participate in implementing quality initiatives.

The job holder must have knowledge of Re-engineering experience and implementation such using SAP applications, PeopleSoft, Siebel, Kana etc (Model experience/sales force automation design and implementation/new sales strategy design, implementation/new business strategies, implementation/Call Center Design, Implementation/Quality Assurance/Customer/Market Segmentation Strategy).

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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