Career Tip: Ashraf Chaudhry, Pakistan’s Number 1 Sales Trainer and Author of “The Craft of Selling Yourself”
Networking is Key to Job-hunting
If you want to be prosperous for a year, grow grain.
If you want to be prosperous for ten years, grow trees.
If you want to be prosperous for a lifetime, grow people.
–CHINESE PROVERB
Networking is about growing and cultivating people…..relationships, friendships, synergies, and trusts. Like IQ and EQ, high Networking Quotient (NQ) is a pre-requisite to personal and professional success.
Dr. Stephen Covey says in his epoch making book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that highly effective and successful people are neither dependent nor independent, in fact, they’re interdependent people. They derive strength from others and give strength to others. Successful people are like colonies, they interact with each other, help each other, support each other, integrate with each other, coordinate with each other, synergize with each other for the ultimate and collective good of the entire community. They survive on their mutual strengths; they thrive on their collective resources. Someone has rightly said that T.E.A.M stands for Together Everyone Achieves Miracles.
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Career Uncovered: Asher Noor, CFO of Morgan Stanley, Saudi Arabia
Best career advice I ever got Be positive and focused at work since you will never really win the lotto.
Favorite Job task I ever had to do Two very different stream of regular tasks readily come to mind
(i) Coach, mentor new hires or trainees
(ii) Negotiate with auditors, bankers, lawyers
Most dreaded job task I ever had to do Once when I was asked to represent my ex-employer at a ministerial conference; the meeting was in Arabic while my Arabic vocabulary at that time was barely enough to sustain me.
Interview with Barry Stokes, Senior Recruitment Manager at Al Ghanim, Kuwait
How do you like living and working in Kuwait?
Kuwait is an extremely hospitable and family oriented country with a great sense of history. The diverse and multi-cultural community makes Kuwait a rich and colourful environment to live and work in. The abundance of brand retail outlets and excellent restaurants also makes Kuwait a great place to relax after work.
What is your average day at work like?
At the Alghanim Industries Head Office, the day begins at 08:00am and ends at 5.30pm. Once you walk through reception, you could be in any major company anywhere in the world. With 32 businesses, and offices in more than 40 countries, we definitely have a diverse working community; but best practices, excellent internal communications and shared common goals, create very much a unified atmosphere.
Interview with Zuheir Khalil, General Manager at 360 Degrees Management Consultancies
How do you like living and working in KSA?
In my opinion, I think the living and working conditions in Saudi Arabia are very good. Although there are many things that can be much improved, I can safely say that life here for both the personal and professional sides is pleasant. To benchmark Saudi Arabia with other GCCs, I say that the Kingdom scores quite strongly in these factors: Religion, Economy (in terms of inflation rate, employment, real estate and infrastructure value, commodity prices), Security and Safety.
What is your average day at work like?
As a general manager of a management consultancy firm, an average day for me does not have a typical standard pattern. There are no constants since the business environment is pretty much very dynamic. The only thing that I consider regular in my job is the existence of a new challenge every day.
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Interview with Talal Atassi, Head of Recruitment at Al- Fardan Group Holding Qatar
How would you describe the living & Working in Qatar Experience? Qatar is one of the fastest growing economies in the Middle East. The country maybe small but its richness is unquestionable. With its continuous growth despite the weakening of world’s financial condition, great cultural diversity is taking place. Topographically, the country has generally desert climate. Summer may turn to very sultry and humid place but the country is warm enough to make expatriates from different continents feel at home. Moreover, the country is peaceful and safe. It is an ideal place to raise children as this will not only expose them to a global environment but will also uphold their morals and virtues. Generally, I can say that living in Qatar is a wonderful experience. Given that the economy of Qatar is stable, it is a good place to establish a career. The working time is quite different as the usual 8- hour working time is divided into 2 shifts with usually 4 hours in between shifts. This can be tough for family men and women raising family. Also, most of the private companies are family owned which makes the atmosphere more competitive though sometimes it becomes more subjective. Working with multicultural workforce enhances not only one’s competency but also his/her social and interpersonal skills. Generally, I can say that working in Qatar is rewarding and challenging.
How important is the CV to you? The CV is the first impression I get of a candidate. The passion it has been written with speaks wonders to me, to the Read more
Interview with Sherwett Shafie, HR Manager at WHS Plastics Egypt
What is your average day like?
I spend 40% of my time working towards meeting my quarterly objectives, may it be pertaining to recruitment in the time being or to performance management or training. The remaining 60% are usually spent catering to employees’ requirements (20%), meetings and calls (30%) and follow ups (10%).
What is your biggest professional challenge?
My biggest challenge is to get line managers familiarized with the performance management new methods, and showcase how crucial for them it is to manage their staff performance via such updated methods instead of the old, more or less outdated, performance appraisal method.
Careers UnCovered: Martin Waldenstrom, General Manager, CashU
Best career advice I ever got Think further than your next pay cheque!
Favorite Job task I ever had to do Advice Central Bank of Estonia on EURO implementation
Most dreaded job task I ever had to do A three month summer job in a restaurant kitchen doing dishes
Best career decision ever made To leave the secure environment of a European corporation and join a Dubai based entrepreneurial start up company.
Careers Uncovered: Ashraf Chaudhry, Pakistan’s Number 1 Sales Trainer and Author of “The Craft of Selling Yourself”
1. Best career advice I ever got: I was in 7th grade, when I read the translation of Dale Carnegie’s classic “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. I learnt that throughout our whole life, we are in the ‘selling’ profession. The function of ‘selling’ starts with first cry for milk by the baby and it just goes on. When you opt to roll out your professional career, you are in the ‘selling’ business all the way. You sell your ideas to your colleagues; you sell proposals to your boss; you sell budgets to finance; you sell stumbling blocks to yourself as stepping stones. I am incredibly lucky that I got this career advice in my childhood from no less than Dale Carnegie. When you take yourself as a salesperson rather than as an employee, your approach towards career in particular and towards life in general is very different. You take everybody as your prospect. You remain on auto-networking mode all the time. You look for avenues within the organization as well as outside where you are able to sell your ideas. By selling ideas, you create value-addition possibilities. The more valuable you are to the organization, the bigger price tag you will put on your services. That is how you scale the heights of career.
Careers UnCovered: Nassim Ghrayeb- CEO of YouGov
Best career advice I ever got Ambition is not about getting ahead faster, it’s about doing everything now passionately.
Favorite Job task I ever had to do Paying out bonuses is always fun, there is nothing that gives me more pleasure than rewarding deserving people, it’s less about the money and more about acknowledging their contribution to our business.
Most dreaded job task I ever had to do That’s an easy one, letting someone go, it is never a pleasure, particularly after investing time and effort in a person only not to see it have any impact. In the long term it works out to the best, at the time it doesn’t feel great.
Best career decision ever made Read more
Interview with Joumana Abu-Shaheen from Leo Burnett
1. What is the most important thing you look for in new hires?
Leo Burnett vehemently believes that we are only as good as our people so we look for expertise, curiosity, enthusiasm and cultural fit. And the advertising/communications industry is one that requires a great deal of passion and a spring in ones step, so when you look around, you want to see everyone having fun, generating big ideas and contributing to the creative spirit and purpose of the agency. This is why we look for the before mentioned qualities.
2. What is the biggest challenge you face in hiring talent?
Our industry is becoming increasingly fragmented so the availability of talent that specialize in the different areas of
communication has always been the most challenging aspect of my job. And naturally time is always of essence, but you cannot rush on finding quality because a wrong hire will eventually cause a rift in your operation and you are
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