Identify Your Interests

Take the Strong Interest Inventory (SII)

The SII is one of the world’s most widely used career planning tools. It helps current students, fresh graduates, and alumni to make career-related choices such as choosing the right major and exploring potential careers by identifying their interest in a broad range of occupations, work activities, leisure activities, and school subjects. 

Contact the Career Development Services on your campus to book an appointment and take the assessment.

Career Tips from the Experts 

Career in Consultancy 

What you can do to prepare for a career in consultancy, courtesy of National Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Michael Abi Semaan (BA ’11):

• Leadership: Choose extracurriculars and internships that invite you to work closely and passionately with other people. Don’t be afraid to leave your comfort zone. Read about leadership and identify the type of leader you aspire to become.
• Business acumen: Try to develop a  deep understanding of the industry and the region where you’re planning to work.
• Interpersonal skills: Learn how to interact with others, develop relationships and build your communication skills. Practice articulating your thoughts into words; reading will help expand your vocabulary. 
• Global acumen: Engage with multicultural people and try as much as possible to understand the trends and events happening around you. Try to gain experience in traveling and dealing with people who are culturally different. Embrace differences and always keep an open mind.
• Technical capabilities: This is about how you understand a problem and go about resolving it. Check online resources for solving a business case or challenge and practice as much as you can. Ask smart questions, show your reasoning process, tell people you need time to take a step back and recalibrate your thoughts if you reach a dead end. Be attentive to detail and manage your time effectively.

Career in Retail

Looking to start a retail business? Check out what Brands For Less Group CEO Toufic Kreidieh (BS ’93) describes as keys to success:

• Understand that change is the only constant, and that to remain relevant and competitive in retail, you need to keep improving your skills.
• Adapt quickly and be open to improvement. Flexibility, resilience and problem-solving skills can make you a top asset.
• Look to gather knowledge about the industry. While as a fresh graduate you may not have on-the-job experience, your fresh ideas may help improve products and services, and enhance the overall brand image.
• Develop a retail model that integrates unique merchandise purchasing and inventory turnover. In other words, find a differentiator.
• Maintain a low cash-burn rate so that your company can adapt to any eventuality (such as the COVID-19 pandemic). Instead of needlessly spending resources to compete with others, maximize the potential of available assets, as well as operations.
• Take calculated risks if you want to aim higher. Only experiment depending on your risk appetite and safety net.

Career in Translation

Where can future translators work?

Translation graduates can work in house with national and international companies, sworn translators, language service providers, publishing houses, local and international NGOs and academic institutions, among many more. They can also open and manage their own translation company.

As freelance translators, the market is diverse. Freelancers can work either for senior translators, translation houses, or companies that might require outsourcing the translation of their documents. When a project is too demanding, freelancers can also be project managers and delegate the work to other translators and ensure the completion of the work.

Despite the economic crisis, translators are in great demand since there is no shortage of material needing translation.

What posts can translation graduates apply for?

Translators can choose to work as senior translators, reviewers, editors, proofreaders, copywriters, language instructors, terminologists, researchers, and/or interpreters. They can also work as content creators in Arabic and English.

Read more about careers in translation. 

Career in Financial Consultancy

Preparing for a career in financial consultancy? Check out these guidelines, courtesy of CEO of Advisory and Business Company, Alaa Ghanem:

• Gain hard skills. Those include financial statement analysis, equity research, analysis of economic data and developing financial models.
• Gain soft skills. Those include punctuality, time management, teamwork, critical thinking, adaptation and flexibility.
• Dismiss stereotypes, such as the one that claims that investing in securities – such as the stock market – is a game or a form of gambling. Institutional investors study a set of data and analyze macro and micro factors to be able to take an informed decision and reduce risks.
• Keep learning, even after you graduate. Continuing education courses and trainings that are offered by professionals in the industry can help you become leaders in your field.
• Develop different scenarios and do not be afraid to take immediate actions.