Part time and voluntary jobs in Bangladesh: Can bdjobs.com help?

Why doesn't bdjobs.com have a special section only for part time jobs in Bangladesh? Or for voluntary jobs? Its obvious that bdjobs.com focuses mostly on the full time job market openings as that is from where they make their revenue from, from the employers that is but I am sure a huge number of people, mostly students are eagerly looking for part time jobs around Bangladesh.

When you read the experience and skills requirements for job openings in Bangladeshi companies, you sometimes wonder if even Superman or Spiderman would have dared to drop their CVs through bdjobs.com. It would have been better if those job adverts would have also included the minimum bidding (or the bribing) amount for buying that post, if knowing a high-rank insider would have helped or not and facts like that. If job seekers, students don't even get easy information and access to part time jobs first, if they don't get part time exposure to management and business establishments, then how on earth would they even come close to the fancy wishlist employers fabricate and advertise through bdjobs.com? Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a lucky 'boro bhai' in a telecom or a bank to bag eventually an internship or some sort of a part time work, with the hope of turning it to a full time bread-earning source eventually. Still a large number of students and first time entrants to the already saturated Bangladeshi job market rely on neutral platforms of available information, of which bdjobs.com is the pioneer. This unpriveleged segment also includes those who live outside urban cities and hope to get concrete, reliable employment information either in their district towns or in Dhaka city. But how many of them actually end up getting any part time job, let alone a full time one?

In a country where you have Abdul to do your grocery shopping, Quddus Mia to drive your car, Morjina Bua to do your cooking and Soniar Maa to do your landury, its very unlikely that you will need someone else to do part time jobs for you. I am sure Fahim Bhai would argue that in a country where even full time jobs are saturated, how can you seek a market for part time jobs? This is what bdjobs.com also replied to a query related to part time jobs. However entrepreneurs seek and find opportunities during crisis. bdjobs.com was never a game changing player in the job search market in Bangladesh, as they were the first mover in this case and they still hold the market leading position and they established the rules of the game. Those who followed suit in the forms of jobsA1.com, jobsbd.com etc. are mere look-alikes and don't offer any true value in comparison to bdjobs.com. If bdjobs.com does not think seriously about how to promote and publicise part time jobs more, then it will be just a matter of time that someone with the brand say partimebdjobs.com or voluntarybdjobs.com could catch them napping in their complacency. The pretext that 'the concept of part time jobs is not popular in Bangladesh' is not convincing enough any more and we want bdjobs.com to change the rules of the game now.

Four things to consider particularly.

1. Can bdjobs.com redesign their website to have special sections on part time jobs only? Interestingly they have an article on this topic but that is pretty much about it.

2. Can bdjobs.com come to any agreements with its clients (employers) that they would publish adverts for part time jobs with special discounts to encourage employers to think seriously about publicising part time jobs beyond company notice boards, emails/memos and word of mouth?

3. Can bdjobs.com focus on voluntary jobs in Bangladesh? As we are a land of NGOs, I am sure many students, job seekers with a stronger social sense would love to be part of any social development company, for experience's sake. Voluntary jobs hold great value when mentioned in CV, as experience counts, not the fact that one worked for free. Many non-resident Bangladeshis also are interested to work in a voluntary role when they spend their vacations, term-breaks in Bangladesh. They mostly rely on information from friends, family. bdjobs.com can play a good role here by being the reliable provider of information even before those Bangladeshis head back home to seek the voluntary role.

4. bdjobs.com needs to look beyond Bangladesh too. Can it play any role in the job hunting of non-resident Bangladeshis? Certainly ethnic origins play little role in the global platform while getting a job, but there is no harm in making sure that I, as a Bangladeshi living abroad, get and give information to fellow Bangladeshis around me first and foremost...about job openings around me which might fit their profile. Community building is essential for Bangladeshis living abroad and this needs to be beyond political and religious affinities. The new bond should be based on economic terms, on jobs and opportunities.

It is agreed that creating more part time jobs is something that bdjobs.com does not control as it depends solely on the employers and unless they have enough reasons, incentives to create part time jobs, bdjobs.com can hardly do anything. Its just that they are in an influencing position as they interact with nearly all leading employers in Bangladesh. So they have enough ground under their feet to make a case for the part time and voluntary job seekers of Bangladesh. Hope they will do it before someone else does.

Are you Worried? Bharti-Airtel says not to worry!

Are you worried? Do you subscribe to Worried? As finally the Indian mobile behemoth has arrived in Bangladesh with a visa costing them a mere Rupees 45 lakh only and with the promise of juicy hanging mulas worth $300 million (Mula is Bangla term for radish, when we say ‘mula jholano’ it means hanging a radish to imply ‘alluring’, ‘promising big hollow things ahead’ etc.).


Its no wonder that Bangladesh is the ripest place on planet earth for mobile phone industry. Where else on earth would you get 150 million people crammed inside the largest delta of the world with naturally one of the highest population density per square mile? Where else on earth can you find such a monotonous landscape which is plain and where setting up one BTS (Base Tower Station) would suffice to serve to a greater number of mobile customers, as they literally are living next to, on top of, each other. Forget about voice quality at present and let alone Value Added Services, this market and the consumers are premature enough and would be happy enough to be subscribing to Airtel, so feed them according to their appetite isn’t it?


Warid always seemed Worried right from the word go in Bangladesh. Rumour has it that their entry into the market was questionable and BTRC blessings were bought through speed and cheap money. Other than slashing down air time charges, playing with their logo, encouraging love-birds to talk for cheap or free all night long and distributing branded blankets under the guise of CSR to the distressed, they seemed pretty worried all the way through.So I guess they were happy to have been relieved to be sold off to big brothers across the border where their media is also terming this as a 'distress sale'. Speculations are already underway about this due to the origin of the source country of take over and our bitter-sweet relations with them from time to time ranging from politics, water, sports, immigrants, religion, onions, eggs, sarees, criminals, militants, movies, cable television etc. Some of the speculations include:


--What does this hold for ordinary Bangladeshi mobile users? Reduced tariffs? Value added services? Better voice quality? (a CNG wala who uses mobile during traffic jams in Dhaka)
--Is it a threat to our sovereignty? What if Bharti-Airtel alliance tap sensitive phone conversations from our beloved politicians and export it across borders? (from an Indi-allergic person who loves Bollywood films and TV serials though, watches secretly and usually doesn’t admit it)
--If it were a ‘tata-byebye’ to Tata then why is it a ‘yaya’ to Bharti Airtel? And why now? (from a person who loves to bash the Gov no matter what)
--Will they create more jobs for Bangladeshi graduates? (from a student eager to get into telecom industry)
--Will they make sure that locals represent a significant important number of management positions? (a manager in Aktel thinking of a leap once the take over is complete)
--Will they help ease the Indian visa application processes? (from a frustrated frequent traveller to India)
--Will Airtel fly in Bollywood stars to promote their events in Dhaka? (from an event management executive)


Irrespective of their seriousness or funny-ness, the fact remains that Bangladesh is a mobile cow which everyone had been milking and Bharti-Airtel can also milk for years to come, until the delta vanishes under the sea due to global warming, climate change etc. Foreign Direct Investment of this scale is always welcome, its just that we as consumers are still not sure about the strength of balls of BTRC. Also the lack of any proper implementation of consumer protection rights only keeps us as vulnerable as we had always been. Also, GrameenPhone and Banglalink have been pioneering patriotic marketing thoroughly in their marketing campaigns to gain the mind share of the Bangladeshi youth mobile-sumers who are becoming more and more conscious of their national identity. Wonder what marketing approach Bharti-Airtel would adopt in this case. Also, how would they name their new born? War-tel? Bharid? Its just such a nice example of Indo-Pak management working together to tap the odd man's market (its us :) ). Ab dono milke maarenge!

An Excellent Opportunity for the Zealots of Branding

Many of you are probably aware of the fact that we are looking for ways to uplift our country image to the other nationals. Because when other nations think of Bangladesh they think of a poor, corrupted. racist country, which in fact we are not. Fortunately some people have understood the downside of having a bad image, and they stood up to depict a different side of Bangladesh to the world. Brandzeal, a leading brand consultancy firm of the country is quite vocal in this matter. I have personally worked for Brandzeal for the first Bangladesh Brand Forum as a student. And I attended the 2^nd Bangladesh Brand Forum as a professional. And I have actually witnessed the zeal of branding this country and uphold the positive images of this country in those seminars. Besides Brandzeal is working a full-fledged brand consultancy firm which provides consultancy to several renowned firm in our country. The monthly publication of Brandzeal has become the HBR for the brand enthusiasts and professionals in Bangladesh. And recently Brandzeal ahs taken the commanding role by introducing Brand Award for the first time in Bangladesh, and so I can tell you strongly that in Bangladesh, Nokia is the best brand and Coca-cola is not even in top 20 list.

Now Brandzeal is offering a great opportunity to be part of its team and its endeavor to young, bright and energetic people like you, who have passion in branding and brand marketing. This is a good opportunity for those like to be the part of Bangladesh branding and numerous other projects Brandzeal is taking. I am sure many of you will be interested in this career, so I am posting it here. Click on the image on the right for details: