Recently, a football clip has been circulating on social media. At the 2022 Finalissima, Angel Di Maria received a high pass. The ball came fast and at an awkward height. He let it land on his forehead, spread his arms for balance, and while the ball was still spinning, he started sweeping his eyes across the pitch to read the opponents' positions and decide what to do next. He hadn't secured the ball yet, but was already planning past it. The clip went viral because of this rare scenario of composure under pressure.
That composure is exactly what the current Bangladeshi job market seeks, and most candidates are failing to provide it. We are constantly competing with others for everything: for a job, a place in university, and even for a seat on a local bus. The most competitive situation we are facing right now is in the labour market. According to the Labour Force Survey 2024 of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, of the 2,620,000 unemployed in Bangladesh, around 8,85,000 are graduates. Graduate unemployment has more than doubled in the past decade. Among the 15-29 age group, around 17% remain unemployed for an average of 2 years. The overall unemployment rate has held relatively stable, which means the problem isn't a shrinking economy absorbing fewer people, but rather a growing pool of graduates whose qualifications no longer distinguish them from one another.
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Now we arrive at the crucial question: what skills does a fresh graduate or a to-be graduate need to stay in the competition?
Two decades ago, knowing Word and Excel placed someone in the top half of most applicant pools. Today, those tools are the floor, not the ceiling. In this era of AI, knowing just the basics of Word and Excel is not sufficient to label anyone as skilled. Nowadays, the tasks that Word and Excel used to represent are handled by AI. Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini will produce a formatted report, a summarised dataset, or a structured proposal faster than any graduate typing from scratch. The question now isn't whether a candidate can produce the document. It's whether the candidate understands the document well enough to direct the tool, verify the output, and take responsibility for what it says. That is different from anything a university curriculum currently teaches.
The window for building that skill set is narrower than most people realise. According to research conducted by scientists of Leiden University, the best time to learn new skills is between the ages of 17 and 20. They found that adolescence is the best time for social cognition, brain development, and feedback learning. In Bangladesh, that window falls during college and the early years of university, the precise period when the brain is most receptive to learning through doing, through failure, and through working alongside others. Yet most students spend this period attending class, preparing for exams, and waiting for the degree that is supposed to solve the employment problem. The science says the window is open; most students aren't walking through it.
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The best way to learn new skills is to get involved with various voluntary activities and organisations. The students who leave with something beyond a certificate tend to have this in common. For a fresher in Bangladesh's current market, voluntary organisations, student clubs, and internships are the primary sites of skill acquisition that employers can actually assess. The specific skills developed there are the ones that separate candidates from the others. A student who spent a year as general secretary of a debate club and can describe what they changed, what failed, and what they'd do differently gives an interviewer something to work with.
Networking is another asset that most graduates underestimate until they need it. In Bangladesh's corporate market, whether in Dhaka's RMG sector, its growing fintech space, or the NGO ecosystem, a significant share of positions are filled through referrals before they are ever publicly advertised. Becoming known to the right people before graduation is not about opportunism; it is about being present in professional spaces early enough that your name is already familiar when a vacancy opens. LinkedIn, alumni associations, industry seminars, and even well-run student club events are all entry points. The graduates who find jobs quickly are the ones who were already in those rooms before they needed to be.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, digital fluency is no longer optional in a highly competitive labour market. Graduates entering the workforce are now expected to demonstrate competency in a broad ecosystem of digital tools. Proficiency in document preparation, spreadsheet analysis, presentation development, online communication, cloud-based collaboration, and workflow coordination has become a fundamental professional requirement across most sectors. Candidates who lack familiarity with these core digital work systems will be noticed immediately, but for the wrong reason.
In the Bangladeshi corporate and development sectors, data visualisation and business intelligence platforms are now widely used for reporting, monitoring, and support functions. Proficiency in visual communication and digital content development tools has become important for careers in every sector. Basic familiarity with website content management systems is also continuously expected in communication-oriented roles. At the same time, the rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence into professional workflows is fundamentally reshaping expectations. The issue is no longer whether graduates are aware of AI tools, but whether they can apply them responsibly and productively within professional settings. Organizations are increasingly expecting entry-level employees to contribute productively from the beginning, and graduates who can do so definitely possess a competitive advantage.
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So, how does the story of Di Maria fit into all this?
When the ball came flying, Di Maria wasn't standing still, waiting until he had secured possession before thinking about what to do next. He was already scanning, mapping the options, deciding the next move while the ball was still in the air.
The graduates entering Bangladesh's job market in 2025 are doing so with a degree that no longer clears the bar it was supposed to clear. Thus, there is no time to sit around waiting to obtain the degree, and then think about what to do next. The candidates who scan the available options, identify what they don't know yet, and start working on it before they need it, are the ones who will reach their goals faster.
The ball is still in the air. Whatever happens next will depend on how you move before it lands.
Author: Md. Saifullah Al Taheri, a Junior Associate in the Business Development and Communications team at Innovision Consulting
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