The time between graduation from university and starting a job is one of the most trying and confusing moments of our lives, and in today’s world with so many choices, and so many decisions, it is harder than ever. This is why the term “quarter life crisis” was coined, which is not really a thing, but a convenient excuse we give ourselves. Because our story is so incomplete at this stage in our lives, and it can end either way, it can be tremendously overwhelming. As a university student, one of the main ways we can tackle this confusion is by finding the right balance between the priority we give our CGPA and extra-curricular activies. We can either find this balance and ride the wave or sink under it.
International Association of Business Communicator’s (IABC) local chapter at BRAC University hosted a workshop programme on July 17, conducted by well-known facilitator and trainer G Don Sumdany – CGPA Vs Extra-Curricular Activities: Reality of the Bangladeshi Job Market – about this particular phenomenon.
The workshop was split into two parts, and highlighted the importance of CGPAs and the power of extra-curricular activities, and the fact that they are not mutually exclusive but rather, complementary. The workshop focused on providing attendants with a clear understanding of the reality of the local job market, based on G Sumdany’s insight, through a number of visual aides such as photos, infographs, videos and direct audience participation.
G Sumdany Don, who is the chief inspirational officer at Don Sumdany Facilitation & Consultancy, derives his acute insight from his time working at Philip Morris Interantional, a Fortune 500 Company, representing one of the top 10 global brands in the world. He completed “Facilitation and Training Skills” with certified Master-trainer Sarah Krasker at the Master Trainer Institute (France) and also trained under global facilitator and brand-marketing guru Trini Amador from BHS Consulting (USA).
G Sumdany has experience training people communicate effectively with customers, build great teams, and inspire strong leadership among managers at different tiers.
The first part of the workshop programme, titled Practical Career Development was further split into four units – understanding of the Bangladeshi market, which provided an overview of the job market with current statistics of fresh graduates every year and number of available jobs; importance of CGPA in this market, which revealed the common recruitment practice of setting CGPA cut-off points for positions; the power of extra-curricular activities and part-time jobs, which explained what sets individuals apart in a sea of fresh graduates, and why and how to create the balance between the two.
The second part of the workshop focused on individual motivation – through an exercise built around audience participation, G Sumdany proved the overwhelming time students face receiving advises from every single person in their lives, discussed the fact that our problems are nothing compared to the problems of countless other individuals in the world, and how we keep giving ourselves excuses to not reach our full potential in life.
The session ended with a Q&A session, where audience members shared a number of their problems which G Sumdany provided professional advice for.
Additionally, unlike most other workshops, he also invited every participant to come to him after the workshop with their problem, if anyone had a problem they do not wish to share. The registration fee collected for the workshop will be donated to Physically-challenged Development Foundation (PDF).
