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.

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.

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.

Why Companies Win in 21st Century?

Not a big deal, but this presentation gave me a job!

Why Companies Win

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.

Spam in the Name of Allah!

I got an email to one of my group adds:

Send these 5 names to 11 muslims, believe me ur biggest problem will be solved Insha Allah.
Ya ALLAH
Ya KARIM
Ya AWWAL
Ya AAKH ER
Ya MUJEEB
Don't delete it. Try it even if u don't believe it.

Hmmm, I usually ignore this kind of messages. Or, if I know the sender personally, I dare to send him/her a reply warning him not to contribute in spamming.

Shamim from 38D batch of IBA posted a nice reply. I liked it so much that I couldn’t resist to share it to my blog:

Before forwarding this type of mail please think about some very basic things.

1. What is the reference of this speech. Is it supported by Quran or Hadith?

2. The Names of Allah is no doubt very good. But this way "5 names to 11 muslims", from where one has found this number?

3. "your biggest problem will be solved" encourages to use the names of Allah for the benefit of dunia, not for akherat.

4. You are assuring by "believe me". How can you assure that?

I suppose this is one type of Fitna. We usually receive this type of mail in several group mails also.

There are some assurances of financial improvement, official promotion, problem solving etc. So one with little knowledge about Islam sent the message to 11 muslims and didn't get any problem solved can make an ill comment to the name of Allah and lose his Iman easily.

Before circulate any mail relating Islam please be sure that it is supported by Quran or Hadith or both. because the responsibility imposes upon you.

May Allah help us to prevent ourselves from any Fitna.

 

I think this explains a lot.

Politicians are Bad

On the other day one of my relatives was saying our politicians are this, our politicians are that. He was nagging about incompetency of our politicians. Well, that’s not something new. That’s the usual and most favorite time pass of Bangladeshis.

In a BBC Songlap Motia Chowdhury quoted “A country gets the leader it deserves.” Truly said. Similar promise is made by Allah. In hadith it is mentioned, if a Muslim nation does not kayem salaat, Allah will provide tyrant leader for that nation. Well, what is the logical relationship between salaat and leadership – that’s another story.

If you think you would be a better politician, why don’t you run for one? If you are chicken enough not to do so, please keep your sorry mouth shut. Focus to some productive work.

You can’t probably make a difference to the whole nation, but you can for sure to a couple of persons’ lives or to families.

Ask not what Bangladesh has done for you, ask what you have done for Bangladesh (adaptation from JFK).