A short story of amazement
A young Bangladeshi computer engineer has gotten his dream job at a global tech giant at one of its German offices. Instead of being elated at such success, he is restless.
He had his passport mailed at his address in Germany from his previous workplace in Poland; however, due to mismanagement, his passport had been sent as an unregistered mail, and now could not be found.
Postal service in Poland is not well known for its efficiency, and he had only one day to apply for a visa.
His journey has been mired with hurdles. He has not become eligible for the Blue Card, a residence permit for qualified highly skilled non-EU foreign nationals to travel freely and get employed in any company in an EU country, for a mere three months; and his educational degree was not recognised in Germany.
He has no knowledge of German, and due to the long and rigorous German bureaucracy, this language barrier is barring him from joining.
Being accustomed to the Bangladeshi way of corporate culture, the worst scenario comes to his mind – “There goes my new job!”
In Bangladesh, most of the companies, both large and small, do not usually have the best reputation when it comes to going through bureaucratic hassle for a new employee, nor do they have the utmost urge to provide support for them.
However, to his surprise, the young engineer found his employer to be quite supportive. All the bureaucratic formalities were done by the lawyer provided by the employer, who had conducted all the necessary tasks.
When the German authorities had not recognised the man’s degree, the employer itself processed his visa by registering him for the company. Going to such length for a new employee made him quite surprised.
Getting into the Amazon
That surprised young engineer is Shahad Ishraq, a Bangladeshi engineer currently working in one of the most influential economic and cultural forces and the second largest retailer in the world - Amazon.com, Inc.
He has been the System Development Engineer in the Leipzig branch office, Amazon Germany since January, 2022.
In an informal gossip with the Financial Express, Shahad Ishraq talked about his journey to Amazon and its commitment to its employees and customers.
After graduation, Shahad Ishraq joined the Bangladeshi start-up Welcome Careers. Then his new job took him to Krakow, Poland, where he worked in the Motorola Corporation. After his twenty-one months’ stint there, he decided to strive for a better option, and Amazon and Google were in his mind.
“I knew that getting into Google would be tough for me, as I had no references. After that, I would be pitted against thousands of other aspirants with no head start.”
“Google prefers aspirants with references to skim the best ones off in the first round. So, Amazon became my primary goal,” he said while sitting in his warmly lit house in Leipzig, Germany.
“And I started to make preparations accordingly. I was expecting to crack the exam after a year, as I was busy with my full-time job in Motorola, and my schedule was tightly packed.”
Amazon has a well-known online assessment test, and having knowledge about competitive programming and coding helps many a mile in this regard.
After cracking the automated online coding test, Shahad Ishraq was selected for the primary interview, where he was asked various technical, managerial and behavioural questions.
Then came the famed final interview, where he was interviewed on various topics regarding the Leadership Principles of Amazon, which is driven by the philosophy of service, creativity, leadership, risk-taking attitude, innovation, thinking independently and unleashing the full potential of an employee.
“Amazon takes its Leadership Principles very seriously,” Shahad said, “in fact, the whole corporation is run by these principles. The goal of this interview is to see if the candidate is compatible with the corporate culture of Amazon. It was tough, but it really showed the commitment of the corporation.”
Stark difference in interview culture
The interviewers in Amazon are calming and empathetic towards the candidates.
Shahad Ishraq shared one such story, where one of his friends, while waiting to be interviewed in-person during the pre-pandemic days, was having a panic attack. He was approached by an interviewer who sat beside him, took him to the cafeteria and treated him to coffee and snacks.
“Take it easy, man,” said the interviewer, “and relax, I will be on the interview board, and you do not have to worry.”
“Amazon prefers talented individuals. They say, anyone can be nervous before such an important interview; and it is our duty to make him calm and relaxed, so that we may draw the best out of him,” Shahad Ishraq drew the stark contrast between the mindset of the interviewers in Amazon and their Bangladeshi counterparts, who have gained quite the name for grilling the interviewee during their meeting.
Leipzig feels like a posh, more diverse version of Krakow to Shahad Ishraq, who had grown quite attached to the Polish city during his lockdown period.
Germany felt a bit complicated and alien to him at first glance, but Amazon was quite helpful to get him accustomed to the new place. Due to ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic restrictions, he is currently working from home.
Employee rights are the priority
“Much has been written about Amazon’s US offices, and the issues that persist there,” Shahad focused on employee rights, “However, the scenario is quite different in the European branches. I think the existing labour laws are at play here, keeping the corporation at its bounds. Here, the employees enjoy full rights and all other facilities provided by the law.”
He recalled one such incident when he forgot to log out after his daily 10-hours work time, and after a while, the Human Resource Officer called him, asking if he was being subjected to overwork by his manager.
If that was the case, the officer would see to it and talk to the authorities about the manager’s behaviour!
However, in Bangladesh, over-working without any additional payment is widely regarded as a sign of an employee’s dedication towards his firm; creating an unhealthy standard for the young employees.
Creative freedom all the way
Another of Amazon’s important aspects is its professionalism and creative freedom. In Amazon, everyone gets the same respect as a team member, so there is no hierarchy between the directors and employees.
“It may sound cheesy, but the whole team is like a family, where the manager is the guardian. You are not entitled to respect or privilege just because you have a higher position, and we are given full freedom to express our differences.”
“All that matters is efficiency, so we can work with our self-respect. Everyone is working hard and getting paid for it, so nothing else binds them,” Shahad Ishraq said while talking about his friends’ experiences in Bangladeshi companies, where junior employees are sometimes bound to certain mannerisms and etiquette.
It is not unknown that there remains a widespread attitude in Bangladeshi corporate culture that the job providers are doing a favour by giving employment, therefore a sense of gratefulness and docility is expected from the new employees.
Amazon may have various issues regarding its cutthroat approach towards business and driving its competitors away by taking aggressive business policies that may lie on the fringe of ethics.
However, the way it nurtures the employees to draw the best out of them is indeed remarkable, and it should be adopted in our country as well.
There are numerous firms where such good practises are seen, and that is highly commendable.
Nevertheless, it is still a bit far from being the norm here. Pressurising employees may give short-term gains, but in turn create employees with hypertension, cardiac risks and depression, which is not the way the country wants its precious youth force to be when they reach their 50s.
shadique.mahbub.islam@gmail.com