AUC Career Center Prepares US Scholars for their Careers

On February 5 and 6, The American University in Cairo's (AUC) Career Center welcomed around 120 students from various universities around Egypt as part of the USAID Scholars Activity Project. AUC Career Center provided training as part of this project consisting of two modules: the Self-Assessment Module and the Job Search Module, with each module taking place on a separate day. Both days of training included interactive sessions in which students performed many activities, such as testing their knowledge of good resumes on the Resume Genius website.

Students who attended the two-day training were from eight universities in Egypt, including AUC, Cairo University, Ain Shams University, Assiut University, and Mansoura University. The self-assessment module given on the first day of the training had one main objective, which was to help students understand more about themselves to be able to make informed career decisions. In this module, students were taught how to identify their career interests and skills. They were also given a self-assessment to determine their personal social style. On the second day, the job search module was provided, as well as creating a good resume and a session on managing job interviews.

During the session on resume writing, Caroline Nassar, career advising and scholarship engagement assistant director at AUC's Career Center, emphasized, “An employer looks at your resume and can tell from how it looks whether or not you are someone professional who can write a resume.” During the interviewing session, Dalia Awad, executive director, of AUC Career Center, accentuated an important aspect that employers take into consideration when screening applicants for their interviews, and that is “Three words: equity, diversity, inclusion. Three words that you can find in any company or organization.”

Students benefited from the sessions provided across the span of two days in many ways. “All sessions were extremely professional, and I was really fascinated by everything that I learned today,” said Hana El Sharkawy, a US scholar who attended the job search module. Aseel Mohamed, another US scholar, also commented, “I have been writing resumes for a long time, but today I learned that there were things I did wrong. I now know how to enhance my resume significantly.”

The two-day training sessions were a success. US scholars left AUC with more confidence after they learned how to manage their own career paths. AUC Career Center was honored to take part in helping ambitious US scholars forge their own way into the world.