Would David Rowe get a job in Bangladesh?

Some claimed that economic recession was the best time for innovation, to have a fresh look at things, new ways of doing old stuff. Now that included the way you used to hunt for jobs too. With so many people losing jobs everyday across the western world, many still thought to be innovative in the way they go about looking for a suitable career in these times of uncertainty. David Rowe, a graduate of University of Kent, pulled out a publicity stunt for himself by posing as a mobile billboard seeking a job in the busy streets of London. He was even offering would be employers free employment for the first month so that they could ‘try’ him before paying or firing him. Times are hard and so are getting jobs.

However, his stunt seemed to have paid off finally as he has recently been landed a job at JCDecaux, one of the largest outdoor ad companies of the world, after the Managing Director of the company spotted him in the street ‘self-advertising’ for a job. The angelic MD thought that the way David had promoted and branded himself against all odds, taking advantage of the right context and right times (recession) was unique and innovative. He believes that David could be a good asset for his company as he has innovative advertising skills. So far so good for David.

Remember warning signs in some stunt related TV serials which says ‘Don’t try this at home!!’? I wonder if any desperate souls ever try this at Mohakhali flyover or in the busy streets of Motijheel, what the reaction would be? We are a curious nation by birth…we gather around any gathering even if all might be gazing at vaccum, or a Sony TV showroom or anything unusual in the streets of Dhaka. So if someone ever attempts similar stunts in the quest to look for a job, rest assured there would be a good number of curious onlookers, passersby, sympathisers around him (or her?). Who knows such an act might incite the likes of Munni Saha and gang to show up for a spot interview or some media frenzy. So if a suit wearing job hunter ever does this in Dhaka, what are the chances that he actually might end up getting a dream job (forget about dreams, any job would do under those circumstances)? I don’t know really, it can go either way, given the Hujug Nation as we are, he might become the next best thing in Bangladeshi media for a while. However, for a female jobhunter, I don’t think this stunt might be useful in the context of Bangladesh. Since we are also a nation of Google Memory when it comes to tracing back the ins and outs of every women in limelight, such a stunt by a jobhuntress would have detrimental effects for her in society (for future marriage proposals etc.). Pun intended.

In the end of the day, I hope we don’t even have to think about going to such extremes. So much of time, money from parents have been dedicated to get ourselves education, all for the sake of earning a decent bread and butter and for living with dignity. However, the take away from David Rowe’s stunt remains…that even during crisis, don’t let go your sense of creativity, innovation, uniqueness, determination and self-branding. Good luck always with your job hunts. Hope we don't have to do a David Rowe in the streets of Dhaka.

Recession: blessing in disguise for some employers

Not a new post about 'recession'. You must have known quite a lot already what this is, how this is effecting the businesses worldwide and how even the Bangladeshi economy might get (or already is) hit by this global financial meltdown. While the gurus keep crunching theories of finance and attempt post-mortem of the disaster and formulate revival strategies, some employers are surely making the most out of this opportunity in the guise of 'recession'.

It is argued that thanks to internet and the speed of news transfer, recession has hit our minds faster than it has hit the economy. What else can you think of when the first thing you see in the morning newspaper is big headings of how many thousand employees are laid off almost every other day in big companies around the world, how big high street shops are right-sizing their employee base to tackle the crisis etc. Its everywhere, in the internet, print media, electronic media, everyone is talking about it and it has become like an epidemic from which the world economy seems to be suffering from.

Employers are not sitting idle to make merry in this 'recession', they say 'recession' is the best time to do something innovative and turn the business around. So what are they doing? What is their knee-jerk reaction to the financial tsunami? Simple and the easy way...fire people. Now the natural excuse is out there. You don't have to cook up any office story, any project failure, behavioral problem, whatever...just say 'due to global financial crisis, we are trying to remain competitive in the market', so the following phrases have become so popular among employers now.

--do double or triple of your job responsibilities

--don't expect any salary raise in foreseeable future, as the 'whole world' is in recession, we are no exception

--don't bother to have complains about management, we are trying our best, if you don't like the job, leave it...people are losing jobs like falling leaves from trees in winter...and thousands are up and ready for your post...so you know what you would do best.

--forget about bonuses, paid holidays, overtimes etc. we cannot afford to spend in useless sectors anymore

The bottomline is that there are many companies still out there who are not affected by the recession disease. Nevertheless, they are pretending that they do have caught the disease or might catch it in near future, so under this pretext they are cutting cost by all means. Just imagine what a great opportunity has arisen for these companies to boost profit figures thanks to reduced salary figures but getting nearly same or more work outputs with fewer employees.

I wonder in a saturated job market like Bangladesh, where getting a job is extremely difficult, how it would be to lose a job under the pretext of 'global recession'. We are quick dancers to the hujoog tunes (downloadable from iTunes?!), so who knows how many bosses of Bangladeshi companies are plotting this evil plan to get rid of some unwanted souls around.