From Worx to Voda

Clearly things change, how you see, evaluate and choose them. A year ago, development was my chosen career path, it was a natural step for a computer science graduate, microsoft would form the end of that thousand miles road, i started riding a cycle(my first job was at a translation office), then a bike(second job was at a shipping company), then naturally a car(last job was at a software house). But seems I couldn't get along well with development, I found myself moved between four teams in only 11 months, i made lots of friends and had nice time. Just a little more than a month ago, I was told that our dear american client has randomly chosen about 10 people from the team to lay off, the company though won't lay me off they will just put me in another team. It was hard for me to accept the fact that I had over 9 months of experience in that team and that other newbies of less than 3 months experience were to stay, maybe I was a low performer? I asked about it but they said the choice was random. Random? I hardly find that a respectful reason. Since then, I hurried to prepare my alternative career paths and future plans, it started with finding myself a lawyer and applying for immigration. Once filed, I started looking for a better career at a better employer. It was a change of title, career, employer and later on would be country. From Basement to Sixth Horizon, that was where i was sitting at my last employers and that is where I am about to go by the end of this month as voda has made me an offer. It was a very long process to get accepted at voda, a total of two technical interviews in sixth october city, one HR interview, one english exam, one application to fill, and about 5 medical examinations at their accredited lab and hospital. The Sixth Horizon Building, a very nice place, it has a mini-mall inside, with alpha market, bon appetit and some cafes. As for the title change, I will start acting as a systems analyst at voda datacenter by the end of this month, i will as well make use of this year to study for three exams IELTS, TEF and GMAT (two required by immigration and the last by MBA admission). A month ago I never thought I would want to study or do masters of any kind, now it is one of my top priorities to do the MBA next year, I haven't decided yet at which school but a lot suggested AUC, GUC and Arab Academy. I think i will let go of those choices as they are so expensive (about 80,000 egyptian pounds to 45,000 egyptian pounds) and go for the RITI choice (heard it would be around 30,000 egyptian pounds or less). That would dramatically change my career from software developer to business analyst/developer. I couldn't afford the AUC or GUC MBA as I decided in that last month as well to buy a car and VW Pointer 2005 was the choice.
I believe Voda is one of the greatest companies or giants that constantly serve the globe, as an employer there you feel you are serving every second a normal person who might be using the service to get to know new friends, ensure his family is alright, or get back home safe, or even just saying good night to his loved ones.
Mobiles allow people to have self independence, such a totaly personalized service that provides better chances to communicate at all times with anyone, anywhere without any kind of restrictions. About the car, it is a good choice, not so expensive, with a good 1600 cc motor and a smooth design. I trust VW, their cars last so long and I hope this one will as well.

Win-Lose-Win strategy

We are all in a race. The catch is how to keep up without losing strength nor losing sight. Staying with the pack garantees a share of the sun, wind and clouds. You could trade your immediate rest and happiness for a later one, but that Lose-Win strategy doesn't work most of the time, it will wear you out before having the chance to celebrate that winning. And with the other Win-Win strategy, you and those who win end up losing as well as you will end up alone, materialistic and with no memories or values legacy. Averaging it, is the Win-Lose-Win, you could choose to win only a portion of what you could completely win for the short term, saving away that little part would be together with what you would lose on the mid term for that winning be your ultimate key and asset for a long term success and happiness. Beginning with the end in mind, distributing and sharing success partially and wisely with others, choosing and picking your resources and tools carefully, taking a risk and penetrating chances you have no solid grounds whatsoever every now and then, consolidates the solidarity of a win-lose-win life pass.

Canadian Immigration Process from Egypt

It has been a few months since I last blogged. I ran into some mail from a faculty egroup that was about some C++ and ASP opening in Microsoft Egypt, the poster himself was accepted to work at microsoft redmond, don't know yet if he went or not. To know i visited his blog, then went on from blog to another and though what the heck it is time to blog all over again.
I decided to immigrate to canada since 1998, the first time i visited it, my visit to Edmonton at Alberta Province impacted and influenced my life and ways ever since. I came to know a developed world, where you really make use of your time, nothing stops your way, in fact everything is out there to help you do what you want only if you know how to communicate and use things right. It was a visit to my brother and it lasted two months only, later on i was hashed in the egyptian high school degree (thanawiyya amma), it was a hard time, from total developed lifestyle to complete mess, i then entered the what-so called university, for four years there i hope i would find something interesting, motivating or hopeful, it passed as well. After graduation i hurried to the CIC self assessment site, i hardly got the required points as i didn't have the minimum threshold of 67 points, the only way to get past that was to work fulltime for one year. I looked for an employer, i started with a localization house, then a shipment company then a software house. All three were totally different in management, size, environment, growth and learning curves.
The moment I realized that next month i will collectively have completed the required one year, i started looking for experiences and people who started the process and succeeded and others who are still in the process, i tried as well to do it in a group manner. I already knew that a friend of mine in saudia had applied and that he applied with the help of a lawyer whom his friend used as well. I started a short survey over the web to see how far is using a lawyer important and whether or not that lawyer is the right choice. Encouraged by the fact that many who applied without the use of a lawyer or a representative had the request rejected after waiting 10 months or more and how most those who passed and got their PR card applied through lawyers I decided to contract them.
At first the main lawyer who owns the office was my contact then after paying the first installment (about 500 dollars) i was assigned another contact to followup my papers and progress. i was mailed the sweet checklist and the most miserable mission i ever had to carry out started. The mission to collect, notarize and translate my governmental papers. I faced the hell of the egyptian red tape, employees who do not want to talk, help or even refer you to others. As i said earlier i tried to make this a group process, and indeed a friend of mine who works with me at my current employer decided to immigrate with me and we did both our papers together, that really helped. It took us more than a month to get an official translation/transcripts of our high school degreees, university degrees and birth certicate. I found an error in my mother's name, it took me three days to try to report that error and request its change and when i nearly reached the right person they told me sorry your national id record is currently locked, try again later. I told my lawyer about the mistake and he said we can live with it :)
One of the tasks would be the bank draft, we chose nova scotia bank to issue the bank draft to the receiver general of canada, the employee there was asleep it seems, he issued us a 550 canadian dollars bank draft for only 500, we had to go back to him after we knew and we gave him the extra money he didn't take and as we assumed he was going to freeze the transaction till we come back and pay the rest. The fact that time is considered useless among all those whom we dealt during the process is sad. Starting by the lawyer assigned assistant and how we receive replies on our email questions 3 or more days later to my own univesity admission office that made my transcripts in 2 weeks, 2 complete weeks claiming that the current dean is leaving and a new dean is coming, why on earth would i care who is where, all i need is their useless notarization, which happily was rejected later on from ministry of foreign affairs. They said well we don't recognize this stamp or khetm, please go back and make another one over it from the university 'amin' office. I went there, kept asking and kept being refered till i found some employee playing cards and others reading newspapers, it was still early in the morning. I told him my humble request to have his precious notarization. He then without even knowing or seeing my papers or thinking, told me to come 3 days later, it would be done by then. I flamed and started arguing but realized i won't reach any result with such a kind of people whose job was nothing but stop others progress.
I have no car and had to do all the tasks, paperwork and stuff using the sweet egyptian transport system under the sweet egyptian sun. I had some colour before initiating that paper collection campaign but now i am a total 'fa7ma', whenever anyone sees me asks if i was having a vacation at a beach or something, i reply saying well it was much more interesting than that :)
At last i sent my papers using fedex, they reached my lawyer just yesterday, now starts the long waiting time. They say that 80% of those who apply for a skilled worker Permanent Residence from cairo have their application finalized in about 35 months, which i think by its end i would be a very old man :P
If you need any help with your immigration plans don't hesitate to contact me and i will try to tell you what i know or refer you to who knows.