Students Face Difficulties Finding Jobs at AUC’s Employment Fair

By: Khaled Morshedy

Despite the large booths, suits and gifts at AUC’s 2013 Employment Fair, some students did not think the fair was beneficial for finding jobs.

The employment fair aims at offering job opportunities to AUC seniors and alumni, but some students believe that it only represented the needs of the job market.

The fair displayed booths of multinational corporations like Mondelez International (the company that makes Oreo), Procter & Gamble, Mobinil, advertising agencies’ booths that offered fun games, and fancy LCD screens. At the back, in a small corridor between booths, there were tiny booths for Reuters and the Red Cross.

After years of studying Political Science at AUC, and about one month away from graduating, Ahmed Yehia had a stack of CVs in one hand, determined to find a job at the Employment Fair. After hours of looking, he found none.

Ahmed El Ahwal, an AUC alumnus who was worried about being overdressed, applied for four positions but he got zero replies.

“As a History student who faced trouble finding a job after graduating, I placed very high hopes on the Employment Fair,” said El Ahwal, adding, “I found that my hopes were misplaced; I discovered that the Egyptian job market caters only to traditional degrees such business and engineering, and holds little place for social sciences and arts.”

Mostafa Bashat, a Sociology graduating senior, didn’t even go to the fair. “I went to last year’s Employment Fair, I didn’t find anything for my major, and so I decided not to go to this one,” he said.

Reuters, the only booth that was journalism-related, offered a translator job position. The job, as well as an internship, required good Arabic skills, which might be uncommon among AUC students who study in English. They also required fast Arabic typing skills, which is probably a rare skill within the English-speaking AUC community.

Miriam Amir, Communications Manager at the Career Center at AUC, said that employment depends on the dynamics of the market and that due to political and economic instability, a lot of companies are not hiring.

There used to be 120 companies participating at the Employment Fair, but this year only 71 companies registered, added Amir. She also said that some companies are AUC’s “friends;” they participate in most of the Career Center’s events throughout the academic year and they appreciate AUC’s caliber. Other companies recruit from public universities and do not include AUC in their recruitment list.

In addition, according to Amir, some companies do not have the money to pay for the fair’s registration fees, so they don’t participate. The Employment Fair is handling this issue by offering discounts for non-governmental organizations, which would encourage them to participate, she added.

“I came for the gifts,” one student said. “I got all the juices from Juhayna except one flavor. I wanted a memory stick.”

Given the huge complex where the fair was held, it was not easy for everyone to find what they were looking for, so the Employment Fair offered an information desk. They provided a list of job opportunities related to one’s major.

After getting the list of jobs and determined to get one, a journalism student could not find any. “Sorry, but we don’t have any jobs for journalism,” said the Mobinil employer. Another employer also told him, “This is not Al-Ahram paper, this is Al Ahram Beverages.” It was clear that jobs were not offered for everyone at the Employment Fair.