IT Jobs in Egypt

A Canadian born fresh university graduate who has Egyptian parents was asking me about career opportunities in the IT filed in Egypt. She lives in Canada and is entertaining the idea of coming to Egypt to work and live here. This idea seems to have come to many Egyptians whose parents have immigrated to Australia, Canada, USA and other countries. I try to give them an idea about the IT job market in Egypt as well as the style of life here which is great switch from style of life in Western countries with all it's positive as well as negative sides. Not everyone is able to adapt, it depends on your personality and on the effort you put into trying to understand a culture you are not used to or have never experienced before. Here is part of my reply to the latest one who asked me this question:

As for life in Egypt and a career in the IT field in Egypt, it's good that you asked me. I work in the software company in Egypt, I've been delivering IT training in Egypt, and I moderate a 6400-member yahoo group called Egypt-IT-Jobs. I also made this site: Egypt IT Jobs.

There are around 1500 IT companies in Egypt (in 2005). You said training in IT is the best match for your personality. But it's good that you got in contact with me to tell you about this. Delivering training in the IT field in Egypt is not financially rewarding (any more). Delivering English language training in Egypt can be anything from 3 to 5 times more rewarding financially.

As for certificating, we've got loads of certified people here, it's not expensive (any more) to get certified and the Egyptian government gives scholarships for around 5000 Egyptians every year to get such IT certificates (not only is the training + certification free for them, but sometimes they even get a small monthly allowance too!). The certifications in abundance here are: MCSE (MCSA), Cisco certificates, also Oracle ones and MCSD (but much less than MCSA). (Also there is one called CIW which is present in so much abundance).

Forget about working with MCSE, or as Network Administrator. Your best bet is to work as a Systems Analyst or better yet a Business Analyst. Your good English and strong communication skills will give you a plus in such valued positions here as well as your Canadian flavored personality. You can also find a good job for J2EE (Java) or C# if you're into programming and like it. Companies like IBM Egypt, ITWorx and others are hiring and they focus on checking English language and aptitude first. It's a strength in a company like ITWorx for instance if you were exposed to the Western culture ('couse that's where they sell sell their software).

As for life in Egypt, you'll need a LOT of adapting. If you stay in Egypt trying to live your life as you lived it in Canada then forget it, you'll just get frustrated and will find every word that your parents have mentioned to you correct. However, if you try to adapt and absorb the style of life here and discover the ties between people and the different way by which they go about living their lives perhaps then you will find out some warm areas in Egypt which some people highly appreciate and give up other luxuries for. (Ex: Before coming to Egypt, try, at least temporarily, to wipe out the word "organization" from your dictionary. You'll notice the disappearance of this concept from all aspects of life here in Egypt. Also places are not clean here. As for the bright side, people here are warm, they'll help you when you need them and they have warm feelings.) The best thing if you have relatives here, that would be a good thing. They will guide you and make the cultural transition a smoother one.