Interviewer: Esraa Ahmed
- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What was your dream job when you were a child?
Mr. Mohamed Zakaria: Since I was a child, my dream was to become a Mechanical Engineer, because I always felt that I wanted to know everything about cars and their mechanisms and how they move. I always remember when I was a child how I used to destroy all the toy cars that I have in order to see what is inside and what makes them move and how.
- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: When you were a student, what’s were your negative opinions about education?
Mr. Mohamed Zakaria: I always did not like how theories are linked to applications. For instance: In Math, we learn many theories but when it comes to applying these theories, we get lost; we do not know how to benefit from these theories and how to apply them in a more practical way.
- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: How are you setting a better environment for the students at the university where you teach?
Mr. Mohamed Zakaria: I always try to improve the way of teaching, so that I can convey the information to my students as simple as I can. I try to make learning fun during my classes, but in a rational way; for instance, to give them examples from real life so that I can attract their attention.
- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What are the challenges that you faced when you first started teaching? How did you overcome them?
Mr. Mohamed Zakaria: The main challenge was that in one section (class), there could be different levels of mental ability between students, so my problem was that I could not balance the way of delivering the information; I found it difficult to deliver a message in a simple way, so that the students with with lower mental ability can understand without having those with higher mental ability get bored.
- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: From your point of view, what are the personal and technical qualifications of a professional university teacher?
Mr. Mohamed Zakaria: In my opinion, the qualifications needed are:
- To be fluent in English
- Be up-to-date
- Have good command of the content he/she is teaching
- Have sense of humor
- Be able to deliver information in a simple and interesting way
- Be friendly, and to always be close to his/her students
- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: If you were asked to be the dean, how is it going to be like?
Mr. Mohamed Zakaria: My target will be to link anything theoretical to practical life. I will try to focus on scientific research, which has to be related to the local industry and directed to develop the country. In order to develop scientific studies, there has to be a financial partner, from local companies; for instance, a sponsor to resolve the technical problems, which they face.
- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What are the current problems that you face?
Mr. Mohamed Zakaria: My main challenge is to be fluent in English, since I did not graduate from an English language school.
- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What does your job mean to you?
Mr. Mohamed Zakaria: For me, it feels like I am delivering an important message in my life because I pass on my knowledge, information and experience to different generations that can contribute to the development of our society.
- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: Where do you see yourself five years from now?
Mr. Mohamed Zakaria: Hopefully, I will be done with my PHD by then and will be a Professor.
- HR Revolution Middle East Magazine: What is your advice for college students, in order to reach a promising social and professional life?
Mr. Mohamed Zakaria: Try to choose the field of study that you prefer and love the most, do not think of what will provide you better work chance. Just think of what you feel that you are going to find yourself in, surpass the limits of your studies, try to always search for and acquire different information in different fields. Last but not least, try to link between theoretical and practical work.