Career Considerations

Let me tell you a story. I won't name my friend — he's very close to me. When we graduated from CUET, he finished alongside us. Yes, he's a computer engineer. There's a technology called VoIP, and using that, he did quite a bit of work back then, becoming financially quite successful through it. I'm not particularly endorsing this. VoIP has many legal complexities, quite a few legal hurdles as well. But he used it! He put it to good use where it belonged. What's done is done — there's really nothing to say about that now. We can talk about what the future might hold.

He did the work and earned a lot of money through it. A lot, I mean really a lot! I won't say more than that — you can read between the lines. Later, the government took notice and legal proceedings followed. So he had to suffer quite a bit. Gradually, he sorted things out. He realized his mistake and moved away from all that. But that's not the point. The point is this: whatever my friend did during that time, whatever money he earned — the process of earning that money might be temporary, but money in this world is never temporary! When money enters your pocket, it's there to stay, and you can use it then; you can even use it ten years later. In other words, you can use it. So money can never be temporary. The process of accumulating money can be temporary.

That's why I'm saying this: those of you who use IT for various kinds of work and earn money from it — I salute you. If it's through legitimate means, then no one has anything to say about it. The other day I was talking about what you might gain if you close your Facebook account, what positive changes might come to your life. There I saw a comment from one gentleman. He said, "Brother, I earn thirty to thirty-five thousand taka every month just sitting on Facebook. Should I give up Facebooking too?" That was his question, asked somewhat playfully. Even if I told him to quit, would he ever actually do it?

Now look, those who do freelancing, those who do outsourcing — there aren't many such people. If they use Facebook as an income-generating platform, why would they give up Facebooking? Right? But ordinary people like you and me, who don't really gain much from Facebook — I mean, I write and post on Facebook, but what do you actually do here that's essential for your life? Ask yourself this question! What spiritual development is happening to you from using Facebook? What financial development? Always keep these two kinds of development in mind. One is spiritual development, the other is financial development. If something brings you neither financial nor spiritual development, then it's your responsibility to move away from it.

So I have a certain respect for those who earn money through outsourcing or freelancing. They're doing good work, and however temporary this work might be, the money they're earning through it is not temporary! Let me break it down: if they had applied for a job and gotten it, they would have had to spend the same amount of time there to earn that money, right? It's the same thing!

Through my work, I've had the opportunity to be involved in several recruitment processes. That's why I know how this works. We know how we hire people. Or with those who hold top positions in various companies — through our service-providing processes, we get to talk with them at different times. Since we're government employees and serve them, we end up discussing various topics with them. In the course of conversation, it turns out many of them become like friends, I develop good relationships with many of them. I get to know about their family matters, their personal affairs. Not only that, I get to know about their professional matters too.

This way, I've had the opportunity to speak with countless company owners — what we call managing directors of various large companies (I won't name them). I've asked them: when you recruit someone, what aspects do you look at? What do you seek in them? I've discussed these things too. They actually look at many things, which I talk about at various times, often write about, and mention in career discussions when I get the chance. Those who don't match these criteria, I give them reminders. I say, brother or sister, the work you're doing won't take you very far. Move away from it. Some people get quite angry when they hear this. That's fine — anger is good. If you think you don't need that job or that business, there's no problem with you getting angry. It's even better if you leave my wall.

But those of you who get angry seeing their anger — before you look at Facebook comments, look at your parents at home, look at the condition of your house, look at the wallet in your pocket. Comment after you've looked at these things. Because you make a comment on Facebook and get lots of likes and comments, you get haha reactions, you get love reactions! But this won't bring you money, you can't buy rice for your home with this. So you're alive just to complain about rising rice prices. What good will that do? A rickshaw driver is in a better position than you — that rickshaw driver who earns some money. Keep this in mind. It's necessary to remember these things.

Any work we can do temporarily to earn some money or support our family — I view that very positively. If it's something legitimate, then I certainly applaud it. And those who are doing this work — I mean, those who are freelancing — they don't think they'll keep freelancing their whole lives. If they get a better opportunity, they'll move to that. And if they feel they can run their life this way, then they'll do just that. I even know freelancers who at some point earned so much money, made so much that now they don't need to work. They can spend the rest of their lives on world tours, traveling to different countries, enjoying their lives. What better career plan could there be than this? Is working a job my whole life any kind of career plan? If it's such that you're doing something, after which you can at some point retire from work and go on world tours, see the world, travel around with people from around the world — then it is very cool!