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Monday, January 14, 2008

Where labours are created

What’s the use of your MBA if you are sitting in the customer care unit of a Telco, pacing up and down the whole day providing your company’s valued-loyal-trustworthy-devoted customers with priceless information about how to activate GPRS service or may be answering how to send an MMS? Again, all those efforts of yours in FBS, DU – where are you using them now? Did you actually take any course relating to customer care service in your BBA? I bet, you didn’t take one even in your MBA. So, why do you sit as a customer care executive and say, “I am really proud to be a member of a winning team!” I find no words afterwards.

I went to a leading Telco’s customer care office, where I found that guy who seems very happy working in an MNC. I can’t think, what’s the use of my BBA from here? Am I heading forward to be in those chairs I have never wanted? I can’t see where the tunnel, I am passing through, ends; I don’t even have any knowledge what’s waiting for me at the end of it? I am in a total despair. If I tell how much blood I shed to get admitted here you won’t possibly believe. But am I striving to be someone like him? Why am I thinking so much? Why my friend from IBA smirk whenever he sees me and say, “. . . too close, still so far . . .” [I apprehend, he is may be saying, your building is too close to us, but your career is still so far from ours.]

However, I have also encountered people from our faculty with some dynamic designations. But one thing is very common in them. They either have a 3.80/4.00 CGPA in BBA/MBA or they had some unusual ways to ticket through the HR depts. of the companies. I admit, I have none of these two. I find it almost evident that I won’t be bossing around in future. I don’t really understand those debits and credits, so my profit & loss account after the exams get serious health hazards!

Being obsessed, I talked to some friends from private universities to find if they are getting benefited or not. But before I move on let me state that, when I took the admission test at the NSU, I passed getting the opportunity to select any subject I’d prefer to study. At the time I went to start my course, I was advised to do some preliminary courses before starting my regular studies just to brush up recently lost memories of English and maths at a cost of around Tk. 36K! With due respect I told my advisor that, ”Sir, since I’ve passed the admission test, and I passed it well, I’d better like to start my regular studies. Besides, I’m really good, very very good at English and maths, so I would like to take an exemption from them.” But I was not exempted. By chance I managed to escape the loss of my valuable money getting admitted at the FBS, DU.

As I was saying. My friends, in NSU, are very much satisfied with the environment they stay in. World class faculties, state-of-the-art features, alluring study mates, tones of exams, and so on. But when applying for a job, “either find a jack-ass or get lost, baby”, says some of the NSUers. Those who are in BracUni are doing well either with similar problems when placements are being made. Some of the AIUB-dudes told me of very unfamiliar circumstances they’ve confronted. One of my mates studying business at Stamford, not the Stanford of the US, told me of unsatisfactory business education system. You won’t believe, just a few days ago I’ve met a guy passed MBA from the AsianUni, and working at a MNC, was trying to get admitted into a Diploma course (!) at an Australian University. Pathetic, isn’t it?

I wish I were the Boss

If I were the boss controlling the educational system in Bangladesh, I would bring all reputed business personnel, business educators, employers in a table to develop a unique business course that’d certainly mean business. May be then, an IBA would not grin at a Bishwa Bishwa-Biddalaya of BD [World-Uni-of-BD, I meant] anymore. What do you say? Hmm?


Disclaimer:
Please note that all names appearing in this article are completely imaginary. If, by any means, a name match up with a real one, that’d be a co-incident only. This article is only for general use. Please do not make any decision based on this work. The author is not liable for any loss occurred by making decisions based on this work.

6 comments:

Asif Anwar (AsifAnwar.com) said...

Hi Sayeed Vai,

I can understand your grief, because I have also faced the frustration.

But, our education system is much Research oriented, not development oriented. I mean, we all are fed with bookish knowledge. But, BBA+MBA is a new discipline of the current business world that incorporates real business people with successful business strategies. BBA+MBA was meant for learning the business secrets from the real business people. That's why, BBA+MBA teachers are the costliest teachers in the west, as real & successful business people are teaching their business secrecy. I hope you know that BBA+MBA is offered as BS+MS in the west. But, our education system is not like that. We still are being graduated in traditional process. Again, we have a culture of getting an MBA degree before getting any working experience.

Everyone has the dream to become the boss. Believe me, that is not an easy task. As competitions are rising, you always have to be smarter than the crowd. You too have to know all the success factors that works in the development process from Low Level to Top Level. To get to the top, you have to go through the low levels and understand all the success factors. Because, I hope by now you have learned that your bookish knowledge has nothing to do with the current working status. Your learning process in your working environment is more important than any BBA+MBA. However, in a certain position of your career, your bookish knowledge will become quite handy. That's why I think that would be the perfect time for getting an MBA.

Anonymous said...

You have a nice openning for your article. I appreciate you for that. But you served the same old wine though in a complete new context. The same accusation that 'Bangladeshi university studies are not job oriented' is served against a relatively new but quite demanding subject. The accusations that Engineers or other technical people are not the right type of job are shared by croons like BBAs. Holy Cow where the country is forthing!
The reason that our education system is not job oriented are many. It can be for our syllabus in universities are not tailor made to our country's need. It is not always possible as most often the forign universities sponsors for it. Again not too much of research are done by the faculty members.
The second accusation is that our graduates are not placed in right type of posts falls flat when we consider the job focus of BBAs, MBAs. They mostly cater to the needs of relatively tiny industrial or business sector while the 80% agriculture sector is completely overlooked. Have you ever seen a BBA or MBA is working for marketing of agricultural products in our country.
Finally the question of saturation mostly owes to the private UV's. At first their appearance was for the upmarket customers but ended up lowering the price as these universities are run by some people like the MBA's of this time. The rat-race among the private UV's has led a government subsidised entity DU to savour some profit.
A solution should never be proposed as solution will also get saturated. But as we have to export our skilled manpower, we have to invite foreign UV's in a guided manner and there should be a complete change in mindframe that only labourers can be exported.

Anonymous said...

By the way, what's FBS? Faculty of Bullshit?
Psychological experiments have shown that on average, people have above-avarage opinion about themselves.
May be your admission tests were not that great and that's why you were asked to take the English and Math courses.
And Sooner or later you will get tired of the great inishtractors at FBS :)

Anonymous said...

Faculty of Business Studies is no match for IBA. I wonder how could the author find solace in being a FBS student ;) ....

Anonymous said...

PPl: Before enter into the job life I joined a workshop on career development where it was told that anyone with a bachelor degree & intermediate level proficiency in english language can become a job holder anywhere (except for the posts like doctors and engineers where very special skills and longterm schooling is required). I have been experiencing the same everyday. What we have learned so many things in out BBA or MBA life? To be a customer care or front desk executive of an MNC? Don't you think that we were being trained to become enterprenures? Sometimes I wonder.....

Anonymous said...

Couldn't agree with you more on the subject. Every job regardless of department, has got the same requirement 'BBA/MBA from a reputed university'. And that is why after working in Google and other businesses globally, I still can't get my foot on any HR door in Bangladesh.

I think my resume is usually used as a recycle paper by the HR executive (who also has a BBA), simply because I have neither a BBA or MBA. So after about 6 months, I decided to make use of personal connection & got a job, which has no relevance to my academic background.

I think Bangladesh has got the highest number of BBA/MBA graduates and also has the highest number of inefficiency and job dissatisfaction.

If I only knew earlier I would have started my BBA right after my nursery classes.