I dream to build a school like this here in Bangladesh.
Anyone to join hands?
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
I am frustrated
I am frustrated to know so much I am endowed with and so little I give back.
I am probably among the top 5% gifted people in Bangladesh. Probably among the top 10% among the world. Well, that’s what is my guesstimate. But, that’s a scarily huge responsibility!
I don’t deserve this if I can’t give back enough. Many of us don’t deserve this.
We are the creme de la creme of Bangladesh at the point of building a prosperous country. And still we are, or at least I am yet to fix the goal, determine the duties.
Even frustration is not an excuse.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Which Private University is Good for Business Schooling in Bangladesh?
One of friends wanted to admit his ‘near and dear’ one to a private university and asked my suggestion. And I replied as below:
Apart from IBA, DU, JU, KU, NSU, Brac University, IUB, AIUB and East West studying in any other universities is sheer wastage of time, energy and money.
I would grade Presidency, Asian, World, SouthEast, Stamford etc. as 'C' category business schools. There are people who already have a good job and want to buy a certificate to add an MBA degree in their CVs to justify their promotion. The 'C' category degree only makes sense to them.
In the 'C' category universities, it is actually possible to get a degree with good standing without learning anything (figuratively). You get 'suggestions' before exams and you can cheat in your exams.
This does not imply all 'C' category university graduates are incompetent. There are some, who are competent business professionals, but that is not because they studied in those universities. They are good by their own experience and interest to learn.
Those universities don't guarantee any standard at all.
This is my opinion based on my perception. I didn't check all the graduates from all the private universities, but in my career I came across a few. And I am afraid most of the employers share similar perception as I do.
So, ask your near and dear one to aim for East West or better ones.
And if s/he thinks s/he can't do that. Ask her to try something else. Not everyone needs to be business graduate. There is BA in advertising offered in AIUB for example. There are graphics designing, fashion designing, web designing, bank management, personnel management, development studies... offered by many institutions. So many new things are coming and we need more of them. We don't need another dumb 'business graduate' from a C category university. Ask her to be a big fish in a small pond instead.
Apart from IBA, DU, JU, KU, NSU, Brac University, IUB, AIUB and East West studying in any other universities is sheer wastage of time, energy and money.
I would grade Presidency, Asian, World, SouthEast, Stamford etc. as 'C' category business schools. There are people who already have a good job and want to buy a certificate to add an MBA degree in their CVs to justify their promotion. The 'C' category degree only makes sense to them.
In the 'C' category universities, it is actually possible to get a degree with good standing without learning anything (figuratively). You get 'suggestions' before exams and you can cheat in your exams.
This does not imply all 'C' category university graduates are incompetent. There are some, who are competent business professionals, but that is not because they studied in those universities. They are good by their own experience and interest to learn.
Those universities don't guarantee any standard at all.
This is my opinion based on my perception. I didn't check all the graduates from all the private universities, but in my career I came across a few. And I am afraid most of the employers share similar perception as I do.
So, ask your near and dear one to aim for East West or better ones.
And if s/he thinks s/he can't do that. Ask her to try something else. Not everyone needs to be business graduate. There is BA in advertising offered in AIUB for example. There are graphics designing, fashion designing, web designing, bank management, personnel management, development studies... offered by many institutions. So many new things are coming and we need more of them. We don't need another dumb 'business graduate' from a C category university. Ask her to be a big fish in a small pond instead.
Monday, March 22, 2010
How Important are References for Getting a Job in Bangladesh?
There is a myth, in Bangladesh you won’t get a job without references.
I strongly disagree with this. Professional qualification and achievement come first, reference is checked at the very end. Everyone has that kind of reference if she is not lying on her CV.
Only reference isn't going to give you a good job.
There are exceptions. For unskilled labor i.e. for very unimportant roles, where anyone can do the job and not much is expected from the position - reference play an important role. Entry level govt. job, clerical job in banks, entry level programmer maybe who is expected to do coding without any tentative succession plan in place - are this kind of jobs.
It's very simple. If I have a company of my own, I won't hire my brother in the position of Business Development Manager or CTO if he doesn't have any experience or track record of success. Business needs success, and I will only hire someone who has the most probability to bring me that.
Well, If my aunt request me a lot, I will probably consider hiring my cousin as an Assistant Administrative
Officer. Low risk, low expectation and low pay, too.
So, if you want to break the vicious circle of references, be a high achiever, be visible. You can do that right from your own position. Internet, for example, is a wonderful tool to make yourself visible in the corporate radar. Make your own reference.
Recently one of my colleagues got a high paying job recently. The employer found him in the internet; read his blog. There are numerous examples of this kind.
I have a hypothesis. After five years, say from 2015 the employers will not ask for your CV, they will ask for relevant URLs. URLs of your LinkedIn address, blog address, published CV, published projects, contribution to the communities, personal websites etc. Employers will search on google to check your background. If you are not visible in www, you are nobody.
Sill a hypothesis, though :)
P.S.: Last 12 years, I worked for four companies of varying sizes ranged from 17 persons to 5000. References didn't work for me.
I strongly disagree with this. Professional qualification and achievement come first, reference is checked at the very end. Everyone has that kind of reference if she is not lying on her CV.
Only reference isn't going to give you a good job.
There are exceptions. For unskilled labor i.e. for very unimportant roles, where anyone can do the job and not much is expected from the position - reference play an important role. Entry level govt. job, clerical job in banks, entry level programmer maybe who is expected to do coding without any tentative succession plan in place - are this kind of jobs.
It's very simple. If I have a company of my own, I won't hire my brother in the position of Business Development Manager or CTO if he doesn't have any experience or track record of success. Business needs success, and I will only hire someone who has the most probability to bring me that.
Well, If my aunt request me a lot, I will probably consider hiring my cousin as an Assistant Administrative
Officer. Low risk, low expectation and low pay, too.
So, if you want to break the vicious circle of references, be a high achiever, be visible. You can do that right from your own position. Internet, for example, is a wonderful tool to make yourself visible in the corporate radar. Make your own reference.
Recently one of my colleagues got a high paying job recently. The employer found him in the internet; read his blog. There are numerous examples of this kind.
I have a hypothesis. After five years, say from 2015 the employers will not ask for your CV, they will ask for relevant URLs. URLs of your LinkedIn address, blog address, published CV, published projects, contribution to the communities, personal websites etc. Employers will search on google to check your background. If you are not visible in www, you are nobody.
Sill a hypothesis, though :)
P.S.: Last 12 years, I worked for four companies of varying sizes ranged from 17 persons to 5000. References didn't work for me.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Passion Versus Patience
Love at the first sight. Propose your girl, by telling that you love her. Feel that you can give your life for her. Keep awake a night of a year for something you care, for someone like your offspring, fiends, or for the almighty creator (on Shab-e-Qadr, if you are Muslim, for example). Do great in your class or your profession in the first few months of your joining when you really need to prove yourself. All these are great. You really need to have passion inside you. So, they are great. Are they?
What about dedicate love and care of your whole life for someone? Endure and enjoy seeing the same face everyday when you wake up and every night when you go to sleep. Spend your precious time, offer your helping hands and brighten her day with your smile on each day of her life. Offer prayer 5 times a day without any failure, for your whole life. Be persistent with your integrity, hard work and sincerity for each day of your long career. What do you call them? Patience? endurance? Consistence? Perseverance? Are they great?
So, which one is great? Which one is greater? Passion or patience? Charisma or persistent sincerity? One time star performer or regular consistent player?
Success needs discipline, perseverance and focus. Unforgiving focus in good time and bad time, in easy days and hard days. And sacrifice everything else. If you don’t practice those in you life, don’t expect success. You really need to love the game, play good, and play as many games as it is possible for a human being, to be a Sachin Tendulkar in cricket.
I think passion is common, patience is rare. You need both to be successful, but second one is the most cherished one among two, and deciding factor for most as well.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Beautiful Life
A rather inspiring video from bdipo. For those who don’t know about bdipo, it is a site to help people with IPO application. They would fill up your forms for you, and give you an interface to search IPO lottery results. There could be more, I don’t know yet.
Good SaaS model apparently.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
This is from Steve Jobs, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of the world. I can’t control my temptation to affix it to my blog.
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