Spotlight

Kazi Ahmed Farhan

The 9th batch students of the Department of Marketing, Dhaka University organised a Job Fair in the Faculty premises on July 07-09. When I entered the fair venue, I found the premises to be full to the brim by the youth from all around. The entire area wore a festive look. This was the second initiative taken by the students of Department of Marketing to arrange such a big event. The students of BBA 8th batch of the department did the first one and it was a flamboyant success. The outcome of the previous Job Fair & Career Development is that 26 students got lucrative jobs in esteemed companies including Maersk Bangladesh Limited, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Unilever Bangladesh Limited even before completing their BBA degrees.

The Job Fair not only helped the students to get their jobs but it also was a huge source of getting internship for a lot of students of different departments of DU. At present there are several universities who provide graduates to the job market regularly. With the number of qualified graduates increasing every year the importance of a Job Fair cannot be denied. The ultimate goal of a student is to get a quality job. It is the motivation that helps the students to work hard during student life.

Only academic excellence is not enough to ensure a quality job. There are certainly other qualities that one needs to master to impress the employer. In a job fair, a job seeker gets to know about various key factors like: how to face an interview; how to prepare a convincing CV; how to plan for career in a proper way; what are the requirements of a leading corporate house etc. In a developing country, corporate houses are on the look of talented individuals and job seekers tend to look for high salary jobs. So a Job Fair bridges the gap and strengthens the communication between the two.

An event called 'Maersk Corporate Bridge' was also held the slogan of which was “Beyond the Boundary.” The colourful event featured the participation of eleven corporate houses including: ACI Ltd, Citycell, Commercial Bank of Ceylon, Elit Cosmetica, Holcim Cement, Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Maersk Bangladesh Limited, Mirpur Ceramic Works Limited, Nestlé Bangladesh Limited, Roxy Paints and Unilever Bangladesh Limited. Participation by these corporate houses attracted an overwhelming crowd of business graduates, job seekers and students of all disciplines of DU.

For the two days the stalls remained intensely crowded and thousands of CVs were dropped. Not only the graduates, but would be graduates of several disciplines also dropped their CVs. This was the opportunity for them to try their luck in the job sector.

For example, Adnan, an MBA student of DU came to the fair and submitted his CV to all the 11 corporate houses. He commented, "I want to develop my career in the corporate house. Several organisations came here to collect CVs of the students. Many students were submitting their CVs in the boxes and I have also dropped my CV in all the boxes". Simi is a BBA graduate and she said, "I actually came to the fair to know about the job facilities given by the corporate houses and I think I have succeeded in doing that. I think this job fair will certainly play a significant role in building my career." She looked very happy indeed! "The fair offers me a rare chance of getting valuable information on several things which will help a fresh graduate to architect his/her own career," said another student named Anwar. "Through the fair one comes to know about certain important aspects which are very important for the students who will become potential executives", he added. "The most important thing about this fair is that it gives us a rare chance to attend discussion sessions held on CV drafting, skill development, preparation for viva voce etc. These are really helpful for the students," said Farzana Islam a DU MBA student. Similar opinions were offered by many other students. Now let us see what happened these three days.

On Day 1, The inauguration session was attended by Professor Dr. SMA Faiz, Vice Chancellor of DU, Mr. Mir Nasir Hossain, FBCCI President, Professor Dr. Md. Serajul Islam, Dean, Faculty of Business studies, Professor Dr. Haripada Bhattacharjee, Chairman & Placement Director, Department of Marketing, Dr. Samir Kumar Sheel, Associate Professor & Student Advisor, Department of Marketing, Professor Dr. Kazi Shariful Alam and Mr. Razib Alam, Mr. Md. Rafiuddin Ahmed Lecturer Department of Marketing.

After the inauguration ceremony there was a seminar addressed by Mr. Kamran Rezwanul Hakim, MISE Trainee 2006, Maersk Bangladesh Limited. He talked about Maersk and it's recruitment process. Then Mr. Ravi Chandra Bekal, Human Resource Director, Nestlé Bangladesh Limited presented a paper on “How to prepare a striking cover letter and resume”.

On Day 2, Mr. QM Shahed, HR Head of British American Tobacco talked on “Leadership; standout oneself as a leader among a crowd”. Then Mr. Sanzid Alvi Ahmed, HR Manager Talent & Resourcing of British American Tobacco had also talked on that occasion. Then Unilever's Mr. Tasfin Islam, HR Business Partner highlighted on the criteria behind choosing an employee. Next, Mr. Riajul Haque Chowdhury, Customer Management Director of Unilever Bangladesh Limited spoke on the occasion and answered several questions asked by the audiences. It was followed by a presentation on Managing Career: On the track and off the track by Mr. Mustafa Anwar Sohel, Head of HR Commercial Bank of Ceylon. Next, Mrs. Seema Abed Rahman, Director Corporate Affairs of ACI spoke on “Team Orientation vs. Individualism in an organization”.

On Day 3, the students of BBA 9th batch Department of Marketing had celebrated their BBA Completion Ceremony. It was followed by a rocking DJ Party.

Students sang and danced and later shared their beautiful moments with everyone. There was an arrangement of a Gala Dinner after that. Executives of several leading corporate houses, faculty members of Department of Marketing, Dean of Faculty of Business Studies and several other high officials of DU were present on that occasion.

Professor Dr. Md. Serajul Islam, Dean of the Faculty of Business Studies commented on the program “The course curriculum that Faculty of Business Studies always follows is in accordance with the market trends. Our market oriented nature helps the corporate houses to recruit many students from our department. This kind of job fair will add a special flavour on that note. We highly appreciate the encouragement of the students to step forward to arrange such programme in a large scale. We have appreciated the enthusiasm which the corporate houses showed to us. They have come here and interacted with our students. It was a channel to exchange ideas and views to know each other and also know the requirements of the corporate houses.”

Professor Dr. Haripada Bhattacharjee, Chairman and Placement Director, Department of Marketing: “I am very happy that the programme was a successful one. I do believe the programme will strengthen the relationship between the students of the department and the corporate houses. We want to make an association in this regard. I hope that the corporate houses will always extend their helping hand whenever we need their assistance.”

The following students played the key role in making the programme a success though they did not have any prior experience in undertaking such a big programme: Md. Nazrul Islam, Md. Awlad Hossain, Mirza Ishtiaque Alom Beg, Chinmoy Das, Sharif Al Shajib, Ritesh Ranjon Barua, Md. Shawkat Islam, Sabbir Ahmed, Subod Deb Nath, Md. Moniruzzaman Sarker, Md. Abu Ibrahim, Shawn Barua, Md. Readul Islam, Md. Arifuzzaman, Iban Jamal Ahmed and Morshed Nizam.

It may be mentioned that Maersk Bangladesh Limited was the title sponsor, Commercial Bank Of Ceylon the co-sponsor and Mojo was the official drinks partner of the programme. The Daily Star, Radio Today and Bangla Vision were the media partners.

BBA 8th batch, Department of Marketing, DU