Munimul Islam Shanto: Excellence in extracurriculars

Munim reminds me of werewolves. When you look at him during the day, you see a serious corporate working for one of the leading telecom operators in this country. But the same individual turns into a party animal when darkness falls – leading and organising the largest and hippest shindigs.

Heading towards the jam packed job market without any extracurricular activities and experiences to include in your CV? Be ready to bury the depression that you are going to face in the job market. To stand out in the crowd you have to have something on your CV and make the interviewer read it with interest. 

“Try a lot of things, and commit only to what's working. Be engaged in as many diverse fields as you can. You need to think out of the box to thrive in this era,” said Shanto. He also added that during the end of his university life, he got heavily involved with event management though he was getting an engineering degree from NSU. 

“I worked part time for Grey and Interspeed which gave me exposure to the marketing, activation and event management industry,” he said. Shanto is currently the Brand and Marketing Communication Officer at Robi Axiata Limited. 

Since his student days he was involved in debating, sports, event management and teaching. He not only participated but also organised events. Furthermore, he used to teach a batch of 40+ students which helped him to be more patient. 

We often end up causing more damage while trying to erase decisions we regret. Shanto got very frustrated when RanksTel shut down temporarily and since no one was hiring engineers then, he was going through a lot of trauma and insecurities. That's when he decided to try something different. “I tried out a different career rather than being stuck, and joined sales which worked out really well for me. I guess RanksTel shutting down might have been a blessing in disguise,” he said. 

His advice to students and fresh graduates is not to get stuck with the traditional mindset. He said, “Explore your wildest and weirdest ideas and do things you are really passionate about. You never know which one will click and your life might change.” Shanto also works as marketing consultant for Star Cineplex, and sometimes for hotels like Westin, Amari, Sayeman Beach Resort.

To me, Shanto is a great example of why people should get involved with a lot of extracurricular activities and other part-time gigs from the university days. You never know, you might lose interest in the subject that you study, or your skill sets might become irrelevant, but in that situation, your part-time “passion projects” may come to your rescue.

G. Sumdany Don is a professional trainer, and wants to inspire the youth of Bangladesh. He has a fascination for radio, TV and media in general and secretly wants to become really famous one day. He can be reached at don@donsumdany.com or www.facebook.com/donsumdany.