Event

A Step Forward:
“Unilever in your campus: Internship recruitment”

ATM Omor Faruq
Photo : Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo

Leaders are those who think creatively, act differently and come up with innovative ideas consistently. Every year thousands of students graduating from both private and public universities look for internships as part of their degree. Working in renowned multinational companies like Unilever, BAT, R & B etc. is a dream for the graduates. Limitation in capacity,lack of formal internship policy, communication gap between educational institutions and corporate firms are some of the reasons why it is tough for students to arrange an internship in the most preferred organisations.

Realising the difficulties faced by students, Unilever Bangladesh had introduced a creative campaign named 'Unilever in your campus: internship recruitment'.

On June 11, 2011 the programme was officially launched at the Department of Marketing, Dhaka University. At the conference hall of Faculty of Business Studies (FBS), enthusiastic students were eagerly registering, taking the first step to fulfilling their dreams to become the future leaders.

The session started with an inspirational speech from Dr Sadia Sharmeen, Associate Professor and student convener of the Department of Marketing. The students were then asked a very simple question-What are you expecting to be? Hundreds of students replied spontaneously about their future plans. Some wanted to be entrepreneurs, some hoped to be a CEO of an MNC, while others focused on advertising firms. Students were then given an idea of the early history, corporate culture, business growth, and the recruitment process of Unilever Bangladesh.

After that, the assessment session began. Students were divided into groups of ten. Each group was given a case concerning the issues faced by Unilever brands like Kohinoor, Sunsilk, Lux and much more. A judge was assigned for each group who observed the discussion and marked the members based on their group participation. Every member tried to provide the best possible solution to the problem in hand. In the second phase of the assessment, the candidates who made it through the first phase went through a five minute long interview session. They spoke about their strengths, weaknesses, challenges, achievements etc in the interview. Five lucky candidates were chosen among them, who were given the opportunity to have a three month long internship at Unilever Bangladesh.

Events like these are a means of exchanging information between students and corporations, which help in reducing communication gaps and prepare students for upcoming challenges.

(The author is from the 13th batch of the Department of Marketing, Dhaka University.)

DID YOU KNOW?

Elvis Aron Presley

Before the rock n' roll image, Elvis Aron Presley was a very shy kid at school. Moving from Tupelo where he knew all the kids to Memphis Hume High School was difficult for him. His father said, “He got shy. He was afraid the other kids would laugh at him.”

The boy who had sung out happily whenever someone would listen became reluctant to raise his voice. At the age of ten Presley got his first guitar after which he had his first taste of musical success when he won a talent show at school. After graduating in 1953, he worked in a number of places while pursuing his musical dream. He cut his first demo record at what later came to be known as 'Sun Studio' ,and before long, Sam Phillips, the record label owner, decided to take the young performer under his wing. "That's All Right" was Presley's first single in 1954 at just 19 years of age! Presley then began touring and recording, trying to get his first big break.

Information source: Internet.