Just Graduated: What to do after School?

Written By: Ms. Deena Osman

Reporting and Publications Committee Volunteer, IEEE AlexSB

Edited By: HR Revolution Team

“In a few years, I’ll be proud to see someone standing in my place talking about his or her success story…”

Mostafa Khalil

IEEE AlexSB Chairman

Graduating is not the end of the road; it’s the start of a new one. The most challenging obstacle graduates meet on the way is figuring out the next step. Just Graduated is annual conference organized by IEEE Alexandria Student Branch aiming to help students and fresh graduates be prepared for any challenges they may face and keep pace with today’s labor market. This year, Just Graduated’17 took place at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on the 6th and 7th of July.

The conference was kicked off with Engineer Ahmad Ragab’s marvelous keynote speech. Engineer Ahmad Ragab worked as a researcher assistant in radio frequency integrated circuit lab in Utah University and in ANM University. He gave the graduates some valuable advice about life after graduation from his experiences, “When putting goals for yourself, put a smart goal. A smart goal has to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bounded.”

This was followed by a session about ‘Freelancing’ by Engineer Youssef Al-Akari . The aim of the talk was to introduce the attendees to the world of freelancing; the myths, truths and how-to-s from someone who has seen it all. He also added, “Banana Tag is one of the mail tracking tools. It’s good to know whether your mail has been already checked or not.”

            Next, there was a session by Mr. Mostafa Bakr on how to write a proper CV and some tips and tricks on how recruiters handle and filter the CVs they receive. As a tip we are quoting from Mr. Mostafa, “When you decide to apply in a foreign country, you should take the EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) into consideration while writing your CV.”

 This was followed by a session by Mr. Mahmoud Mansi – Author, HR Consultant & Entrepreneur – titled “How to Pass an Interview” which the attendees interacted with very intensively. Mr. Mahmoud made it simple by asking the attendees to imagine themselves in the shoes of recruiters, this would help much in avoiding cliché answers and providing creative and honest ones.

Most people care about their educational degree, and get shocked after their graduation, because of the huge differences between the educational life and professional life. That’s why, it was important in such a conference to have a talk on how to “Work like a Pro!” as they say. This was given by Mr. Hassan Ragab who now is the Head of HRIS department at AASTMT and who also holds a MBA in human resources.

On the first day also, Eng. Bassam Tarek, who is the co-founder of “Creiden LLC”; a company specialized in web-development,  and mobile applications, gave a very important talk titled “Student Life vs. Professional Life” introducing topics like whether or not college is enough and what exactly it is that one is expected to develop on their own.

We ended the day with a talk by Ms. Sherin Ewase – Freelancer & HR Professional – introducing valuable Career Advice for Women. “You can occupy any job you want regardless of your grades,” she said.

Day two of Just Graduated’17 was no less enlightening. It started off with a talk on how to start your dream job through LinkedIn by Mr. Mohamed Shouman. Shouman is now a Senior HR Generalist in an international organization, and one of the co-founders of HR Revolution magazine. The session was about how to use LinkedIn to make a Professional profile and how to adjust your profile to make yourself a good catch for recruiters.
Then, and since JG’17 really tries to open up the attendees’ eyes to all different possibilities, there was a session about “Travelling Abroad” by Eng. Mohamed ElAskary who is vice-president of AIESEC. He told us about his adventures and learnings in different countries and the possibility of going on an exchange program, which could also be a paid internship which is related to your field.

Then, there was a talk by Dr. Ahmed Shalabi about “Research”. Of course research is a very important part of this whole post-graduate conversation. Research is not about grades; it is no longer an A+ restricted path. You should ask yourself what exactly it is that you want to accomplish in your field, whether fieldwork achievements or research aspirations. About the latter, Dr. Shalabi gave golden advice on where to start and how to even choose your topic.

And because we all know that Email is the primary means of communication in the professional world, a talk about that by Mr. Youssef El-Akkari had to be part of JG’17. Everything regarding emails was discussed in this session; all the way from how to reach anyone’s E-mail to the top tips and tricks on how to make this exchange most efficient.

On day two, there was also a session by Mr. Ahmed El-Dabaa, who is the co-founder of “Spark” company that trains people, and “Step up”. He also currently works for “P&G”.  He gave an interesting talk on Communication and Leadership which the attendees loved very much.

Afterwards, Ms. Aya El Dighady who talked about “Career Shifting”; why it is a hard decision and the steps to career decision. She also spoke about why millennials job-hopping? Here are seven examples of what she has said:

-They want more money
-Lack of career growth
-Ability to change locations
-The negative stigma is nearly gone
-Culture fit
-They can’t use their best skills
-They want their hard work isn’t being recognized”

This was followed by a very informative talk by Mr. Ahmed Mostafa about Self-learning and how to find the proper self-discipline in your heart to achieve the things that you want to achieve. What are coupons? And how to get all the 1000$ courses for free in a legal way. He listed the five steps for online studying: 1)Registration, 2)Needs and Desire, 3)Mindset filtration, 4)Courses search & collection, 5)Courses filtration. 

Last but not least, there was a very realistic motivational talk by Engineer Mohamed El-Dallal; founder of Innovideas, about goals, dreams and why we do things in the first place.

Throughout the two days of JG’17, there were on-going Mock Interviews with HR specialists for all the attendees. The HR specialists would conduct real interviews with the attendee, take notes and give them feedback by the end, which is something the attendees benefited a lot from.