Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) Career Club held its flagship event 'BUP Career and Education Fest 2018' on September 12, 13 and 15 on the campus of Bangladesh University of Professionals. The objective was to provide a platform to help the new graduates expose themselves to the lucrative internship and placement scopes in a more effective manner.
This year the festival turned into a much bigger and better event as BUP Career Club managed to affiliate with 27 well-established organisations. Besides, they reached out to distinguished figures from across the country who provided valuable career advice to the students.
Day 1: The vibrant career
carnival
The Vice-Chancellor of BUP, Major General MD Emdad-Ul-Bari, along with Michael Foley, CEO of Grameenphone and others inaugurated the opening ceremony. The guests visited the stalls represented by companies' executives. All the executives engaged with the interested visitors and collected resumes from the job seekers.
'BUP Career and Education Fest 2018' powered by Pathao and in association with bKash Limited, targeted to open doors to numerous untapped employment possibilities for not only the graduating batch but also the batches that follow. Many to-be graduates were seen dropping their CVs especially in a few of the notable organisations like- Banglalink, Grameenphone, bKash Limited, Daraaz, Apex, and so on with the hope of bagging an internship.
Later on that day, the second phase started with an intense, inspiring and interactive session by Mr Foley. It was followed by an insightful talk about the journey of the booming ride-sharing app-Pathao by the CEO of Pathao, Hussain Md Elius himself. The day was enhanced more by the inspiring session by Sayeed Nasir, General Manager, Organisational Development, HR, bKash Limited.
Also, bKash conducted an inhouse aptitude test for the position of Territory Officer for the final year BBA and MBA students of BUP which witnessed a huge response from the students.
Day 2: Business case competition and sessions
Pathao arranged a business case competition for the final year students. In the first case, the students were asked to design a 360-degree marketing campaign for PathaoPay. The second case demanded an expansion strategy to make people use more than one sub-brand of Pathao. The responses from the students were overwhelming, and after a thorough evaluation, only four teams made it to the final round. The qualified teams had to present their solutions in the final round based on the case they earlier solved. In the end, two judges from Pathao determined one worthy holder of the internship opportunity in Pathao along with the prize money of Tk 10,000.
After lunch, the second stage started where the BUP auditorium was packed with its students from almost all the departments. The students learned various vital insights from renowned speakers, like Kamruzzaman Sabir - CIMA, Asif Ahmed Tonmoy, consultant- IFC World Bank Group, Md Ehsanul Karim, head of Data Science-Pathao and others. It was an instrumental session for the students as they learned about different dimensions of career building and the corporate world. Mr Karim, for instance, said, "The art of transforming every mistake into a life lesson is a master skill." He tried to encourage the students not to be afraid about challenges and struggles.
Day 3: The gala night
The most awaited phase of the fest commenced with the arrival of the chief guest along with higher officials of BUP, company executives and the speakers mentioned above. The main attraction of this phase was the cultural show conducted by BUP students. They managed to wow the audience with the soothing songs, graceful dances and magical sand artworks. The prize giving ceremony started with awarding the deserving team of the business competition, followed by the exchange of crests and speech by the chief guest.
To mark the ending on a high note, Mourin Mostafiz, club president, stated, "I believe every small step lead to bigger changes, no work is insignificant. Every work deserves respect, and hence we should do what we love and shouldn't fear to make our passion our career."
The writer is a student of Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP). She can be reached at samiha.siddique98@gmail.com