 Mustafa employed Qandil with a salary of 15 Egyptian pounds and initially tasked him with writing the horoscope and a column that responded to letters from readers.Qandil was asked by Amin to serve as an editor for "Akher Sa'a" in 1961.That year Qandil also attended the International Union of Students in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he met Yasser Arafat, then the head of the General Union of Palestinian Students.