The Job Market: Preparation and Prospects from Student Life

Voice of Business organized a webinar on how the students should prepare themselves from their student life for the job market on 18th May 2020. The speaker of the webinar was Shahnila Rehnooma Ahmed who has been working as the HR Business Partner - Corporate at British American Tobacco Bangladesh.

Steering and Preparing

• Try to bridge the divide between classroom and workplace
• 70-20-10 learning model: 70% of our learning comes from experience. 20% comes from working with each other. 10% comes from the classroom
• Managing people is the most important thing we should learn
• Learning and gaining from experiences during the undergrad period helps a lot. Sign up for case competitions, work part time and avail any other opportunity
• Innovative minds who can challenge the situation are important. Energy, curiosity and innovative mindset give an edge to succeed
• In preparation for the first job, getting real life lessons and interpersonal skills should be focused on rather than relying only on the classroom lessons. Joining different clubs and organizations can help regarding this matter
• CGPA and ECAs are necessary and useful for the first job. But after that, it matters what an individual has learned
• Doing a SWOT on thyself helps to work on one's weakness
• Besides focusing on your major, if you want to learn any other field, learn through case competition and other platforms

Skills Are Important

Classroom lessons give you a strong foundation on a specific sector to make students functionally sound in that sector of concentration. But the lessons can’t teach the students interpersonal skills which is why ECAs and other opportunities are necessary. Pick the ECAs which will help to learn necessary skills.

• Communication: You need to have a good network with the people you’re working with. When there’s something emergency, try always negotiating face to face or via call. Only 10% of everything that is communicated, is through words. Body language conforms 50% of communication. 30% is tone of voice
• Creative Thinking: Idea generation, energetic solution, other creative skills play a vital role in any matter and situation
• Analytical Thinking: Now these days, crunching data and coming up with a solution or insights - that’s very important
• Empathy: Emotional Intelligence and Empathy matters a lot. If you are Emotionally intelligent, you’ll be able to connect to more people to get your job done. Practice empathizing with people and try to understand where a person comes from

5 Practical Business Learning

• Getting a good CGPA is important for the first job
• Upgrading skills alongside CGPA by doing business competitions, debate, part time job, internship, joining clubs, voluntary jobs
• Building the foundation through different mediums and platforms such as books/audio books, online courses and videos, on the job learning etc
• Diversifying knowledge and skill rather than just specializing in a few
• Focusing on the bigger picture by trying to understand what you love to do

Know About the Company

• Find out the duties and responsibilities of the position you are applying for
• Keeping contact with respective alumni working in an organization or anyone you know there will help learn about the organization, its culture and all
• Doing a bit of research on the organization before joining is essential. Take help from the organization website, mission statements, achievements, recent press releases, products, clients, services, social media tools

Things Not to Miss out on Your CV

• Presentation of yourself in a professional way rather than a personal way
• Focus should be given on the future goals compared to past goals
• Exemplary accomplishments are more promising than duties
• An organized listing of the skills you enjoy and things you love to do

Interview Session

• Recruiters intend to understand behaviours of the candidates and seek for the skills they need for the firm through an interview. The interviewers will ask for what you have done in the past. The process is designed in a way that it will help employers to understand how well you are demonstrating the behaviour that is linked to intended leadership
• Behaving and making a good impression can be done by choosing an appropriate outfit, taking the control during viva, understanding the commonly asked questions and knowing your do’s and don’ts
• Preparations should be taken for a digital interview by knowing the common platforms (Meet, Zoom, Team, Google), confirming the platform for call, getting ready before time and checking the connections

The New Chapter

After getting recruited, it is important to get acquainted with the organization culture and the people. The priority should be learning as much as possible during the first 5 years of the job. The growth and development has to be mutual, for both the employer and employee

• Professional behaviour has to be maintained
• Asking for help in any situation rather than keeping quiet out of shyness is the appropriate thing to do
• Keeping your long term and short term expectations in mind and trying to achieve them will lead you towards progress
• Assess and evaluate your own work from time to time in order to do things efficiently
• Asking others for their opinion and suggestions drives your competency and acceptance of your work

Contributor(s):
K.M. Najib Hayder
Faysal Mahamud Tuhin
Ishrat Jahan