Let me take you through my career till date and its progression and at the end would suggest what I have learned so far.
My work life started right after I completed my SSC from St. Joseph High School. I started teaching school students to earn pocket money. It felt great to find initial independence. After I completed HSC from Notrdedame College, I went to the United States to pursue higher education and I found opportunities to work within the college campus and I took it as a means to earn some extra cash. I learned the initial traits of professionalism from my work in the computer lab where I was in-charge till I graduated.
After graduation, I planned to return home to work in the family business but out of curiosity as well as college requirement, I submitted my resume to the university placement centre and surprisingly I was called for an interview. I appeared for the interview for a company named Electronic Data Center (EDS) and I had no idea about them (Google and Wikipedia were not there then). I do not know what my exact responses were during the interview, but every answer that I gave I was honest, coherent and confident. Surprisingly, I was selected for my job and joined shortly. I just realised going through my joining letter that it was a Fortune 500 company. I would say I was very fortunate because my next four years and my career were greatly shaped through the training provided by my company.
After four years with EDS, I quitted my job to finish my MBA and came home. It was choice I made because I always wanted to return to Bangladesh because it was my gut feeling that Bangladesh would be on a brink of major growth. Since childhood, I had a passion for reading literally anything and everything and built my own hypothesis that I shared with like-minded people, usually with my peers who encouraged listening my thoughts and that gave me confidence, which I later realised how useful it could be. And I can conclude that my gut feeling was absolutely correct and my choice to return to Bangladesh was a good one.
Anyhow, I returned to Bangladesh in 2004 and joined family business as well as a private university within three days of my return after eight years of stay in abroad. While teaching at American International University Bangladesh and working along in the family business, I somehow met this gentleman in the strangest place (at a toilet) and somehow started a conservation. He was representing a Middle Eastern company and asked me if I was interested in joining the telecom industry for no apparent reason (till date I do not know why)! That was in 2004, and his eagerness made me interested to join corporate industry of Bangladesh to see how it looks like. With no interview or knowledge about telecom, I joined a company named Warid as their Project Manager because that person thought I was very affirmative and they were unable to find someone in that role who matched certain personality trait. Somehow under the guidance of a fascinating Project Director (now my mentor, named Faisal Nasim), Warid Bangladesh got launched in a record time and I was asked to join the Dhabi Group in 2005, the parent company of Warid; I probably was the first Bangladeshi to work in group level of a telecom company where I delivered three other greenfield projects in African continent as the project manager (Uganda, Congo, Ivory Coast). While delivering green field project, I sat for a project certification exam, named Project Management Professional, not knowing I became the Certified Project Manager (PMP) in Bangladesh.
In later part of 2009, I returned to Bangladesh and joined Banglalink and it is still going good. My professional career is now on its 15th year apart from the work I had done before graduation. Things that I have learned are:
1. One should always remain positive (never say no to your boss).
2. One should always remain open to knowledge (always try to learn a new thing, even if it is the ingredient of a shampoo written in the back of the bottle).
3. One should always be pragmatic (one must have a realistic goal and one must know one's ability and limitation so that the person may overcome the limitation).
4. One should always use time properly (do not lay idle ever and day dream).
5. One should never wait for an opportunity rather take what it comes (remember everyone you meet and everything you do build the person you are).
6. One should always have a courtship with the work they do.
7. One should remember you are not married to your company but married to your job, so be responsible.
8. Be honest to yourself, and therefore to your work.
9. Work hard, enjoy life and work harder.
10. Find a mentor.
11. Your colleagues are not your friends but peers. Respect them and learn from them but when it comes to information sharing use discretion.
12. One should know politics in work is an integral part; therefore understand it but DON'T be part of it.
13. One should know how to prioritise; time for family is equally important as time for work and time for friends.
14. Always have a plan B in life.
15. And lastly, one should remember, there is always a
silver lining. Whatever happens, there is a reason for it.
To conclude, success in life is a combination of two
factors--- your effort and your timing.
The writer is Certified Project Manager and telecom
professional with 15 years of professional experience in North America, Africa, Middle East and Bangladesh, mashid76@gmail.com
Fifteen things helped me to learn and grow
Mashid Rahman | Published: March 26, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
Mashid Rahman, telecom expert
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