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BdJobs.com Ltd. is one of the success stories in Bangladeshi ICT sector. It is one of the most popular websites browsed in Bangladesh according to Alexa ranking. Bdjobs came into existence in 2000. At that time, very few people had Internet facility in Bangladesh. The site managed to attract a lot of job seekers and now it is a very good place for both the job seekers and employers. A.K.M Fahim Mashroor is the CEO of BdJobs.com Ltd. He is also the treasurer of BASIS (Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services). A.K.M Fahim Mashroor recently gave an interview to SouthAsiaBiz. Excerpts here:

SouthAsiaBiz:  Can we use international credit cards for online payment in Bangladesh?

Fahim Mashroor: No, we can not use international credit cards in internet in Bangladesh. We from BASIS have written to Bangladesh bank about it and have told that special facility should be given to software and IT companies in this regard. This is something we need badly. I can get international credit cards in Bangladesh, but I can not charge them in internet. The banks do not allow it.

SouthAsiaBiz: a few days ago, there were reports in the newspapers that export earning of Bangladesh has decreased a bit in software sector. What is the reason behind this?

Fahim Mashroor: Actually, the decrease was minimal. There are a few reasons behind this decrease. Firstly, the world market has its ups and downs. You know that there is global economic slow down and therefore it might have affect to our software sector. However, I think that things are improving this year as a lot of projects are coming to our companies from abroad.

SouthAsiaBiz: When was BDjobs set up? Tell use a bit about the background of the company?

Fahim Mashroor: It was set up in 2000. That time some of our friends were eager to do something in internet. That time, there was a craze about internet in the whole world. It was the time of internet boom too. So, we were eager to do something in internet. Some people advised us to go for e-commerce, but we noticed that there was no system of online payment in Bangladesh. We saw that there was demand information among people and most users of internet were young in age. So, we targeted the young generation and you know that young people are interested about finding jobs more than everything else. So, we decided to set up a job website. At that time, no company used to give us job posting. So, we used to post information about jobs after browsing through the newspapers. Slowly, the website became very popular among young people and companies started to pay us for posting job vacancies.

SouthAsiaBiz: How many persons are employed in your company now? How many CVs are posted in your website? How many companies are members of your website?

Fahim Mashroor: at present, there are 30 employees, 150,000 CVs and 3000 companies post jobs in BDjobs.

SouthAsiaBiz: There are some very big and famous job websites in India. How would you rate Bangladeshi job websites compared to Indian job websites?

Fahim Mashroor: I do not see any basic difference among them.  The technology is same. In India, job sites are among the most popular websites. The same is true about Bangladeshi job sites.  

SouthAsiaBiz: When you started BDjobs in 2000, there was a huge craze about computer science and engineering. Many students were crazy to study computer science and engineering that time. However, in the last few years, we have seen just the opposite trend and very few students came to study computer related courses. How has it affected the software industry in Bangladesh?

Fahim Mashroor: Of course, this has created some problems. Now, many projects are coming from abroad and there is a strong demand for skilled IT professionals. Even, the salary has increased significantly. But, there is shortage of skilled IT graduates. Here I’d like to say one thing- a decade ago, many students studied computer science but many of them did not come to this field with the right background and right mind set. Since they did not have good base, many of them could not build career in the ICT field and they became frustrated. Thus, a wrong perception arose in the society that studding computer will not get you any job.  However, I’d like to say that those students who were serious and hard working did not have any problem to get jobs. In fact, many good students have gone abroad and are working in famous technology companies.

 Now, I’d like to see that serious and hard working students come to study in computer science and engineering. Many jobs with high paying salary are really waiting for them.

SouthAsiaBiz: What is your future plan about BDjobs?

Fahim Mashroor: I have basically two goals. Firstly, I’d like to spread BDjobs in the whole country. I’d like to see that there will be more information about jobs and even, SSC pass people can get benefit from our website. Secondly,   I will be very happy if foreign companies visit BDjobs and recruit skilled Bangladeshi workers.