A couple of months ago we contacted Syed Bashar who is living now in Slovenia as a marketing consultant and director. Syed was born in Bangladesh and grew up in India, Hawaii and New York. During EMTM he was a programme representative and took an internship in Trivago. Syed, tells us about his experience of EMTM and has a clear attitude in life: ‘It’s never too difficult to find a job’. A note: Syed, started the programme in 2012. EMTM grows and evolves fast. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about his specific comments or experience about the programme. EMTM Student: Syed, please describe your present function and responsibilities.
Syed: Currently, I work for two different companies. My primary and full-time job is as chief marketing officer in TravelStarter (www.travelstarter.com). Travel Starter is a global crowdfunding platform for big and small ideas in tourism. I take care off the marketing aspects, both online and offline. Furthermore, I am working as a part-time marketing consultant for ‘ABC Accelerator’, the biggest accelerator in Slovenia. Recently, we also created a new start-up called ‘CampeIT’ and hope to go main stream around April (www.camperit.com). Another thing, I have on the side, is Urban Adventures, which is one of the biggest tour guide providers in the world. Here, I take care of marketing and operations in Ljubljana. All in all, I’m really enjoying myself, which doesn’t make it feel too much as work, but more a part of my social life. EMTM Student: Was it difficult to find a job after graduation? Syed: Well, during EMTM, I always tried to be more active outside the studies, which is possible because tourism is not rocket science, but social science. I was always trying other stuff and would take every opportunity on my way to teach and learn myself new things. For example, I would be working on small consultancy jobs on Fiverr. So, I tested out the waters and see if I would be a good consultant (now, I still work for Fiverr, when I don’t sleep). I learned things, made mistakes, but at least I put myself out there. Furthermore, I attended conferences and tried to do much networking, because this really takes you somewhere in life. Someone connects you with someone else and so you keep going. After that, I had an internship with Trivago, which was perfect since I also wrote my thesis on ‘reviews and ratings’. During my internship, I came in contact with the digital world, which is basically the new world right now and understood that this was the thing I wanted to do in the future. I kept an eye on TravelStarter and when a spot opened up in the marketing department I took it. In TravelStarter I did quite well and many people took notice of me in Slovenia, since I was also in the news paper and on TV. After that I started receiving jobs to the point I had to say ‘no’ to some of the offers. But, very honestly, in my life I never experienced problems finding jobs (so far, I’ve been lucky). Before EMTM; I worked for Disney, afterwards I went to New York and started working for Starwood Hotels, and after that I was a consultant and managed a restaurant. I finished my thesis and internship, and got the TravelStarter job. Finding a job is not difficult! If you don’t find a job, then it means you’re not thinking along your strengths. EMTM Student: What were the three most important things that EMTM has given you for your career development? Syed: One of the first things I learned is that you don’t always have to rush. You can take a scientific approach to things; research, analyse and progress. So, I learned to observe things better and was more aware of my surroundings. It’s about thinking on your feet, because it thought me how to deal with bureaucracy, how to interact with locals, how to find the best things in people and how to live life in your own way. I was always comfortable anywhere I lived, and learned form each country something new. You arrive in Denmark and learn to budget. After that, you go to Ljubljana and realise everything is cheap, but than you learn to restrain yourself. In Spain, you have the best of both worlds; cheap food and laid back studies, but than you realize that you have to prepare for the next thing and plan your future. So in the end, EMTM teaches you (or at least me); to learn to pace yourself, to take a scientific approach, to broaden your horizons and just take things nice and easy. I was a very different person before EMTM. I did my work and that’s it, but now I learned to be accepting and flexible towards others and myself. These are the kind of life lessons that are important! EMTM Student: Do you incorporate values that EMTM teaches, such as sustainability, responsibility in your job functions? Syed: It doesn’t matter. Those are just things in books. Personally, I care about sustainability, but in your job it’s your boss’ decision. Perhaps, you can change, but most work places have their own work standards. EMTM Student: Would you enrol again in the EMTM programme, in relation to career development, and why or why not? Syed: I definitely would enrol again in EMTM. I believe the values are very good and the programme opens you up and helps you understand the world a bit better. However, this is intrinsic, because you need to be the person that wants to understand the world better and you have to be the person that wants to take the advantage of the programme and network. Basically, you have all doors open and you have always a possibility to say “I’m a master student at EMTM, what can I do for you? Can I be part of your company, do something for you and learn from you?”. What I really believe, is that you should make the best out of what you receive. EMTM was a great programme. I loved it! I don’t think I would have an opportunity to live in so many different countries and study together with so many diverse students from so many different nationalities. Even, if I studied at Harvard it wouldn’t change my life dramatically. I have enough jobs and money, so I can’t complain and I’m happy. EMTM, perhaps didn’t, directly influence my jobs, but I don’t think that any programme leads you directly to success or happiness. EMTM Student: Did you ever benefit from the EMTM network for your career? Does the EMTM network or ‘family’ as we call it really help? Syed: I guess yes, because I had to know somebody who had to talk to somebody for me. You need to have some form of credibility when you start to work! For example, I wrote my thesis with Dr. Mihalic and received a good grade. Now, basically, she vows for me in a certain way, because when I see a job offer I will need a recommendation letter and Tanja Mihalic has a lot of credibility in Ljubljana and Slovenia. So, when you have a recommendation letter from her it definitely helps. She is part of the EMTM family and family always helps you out. Another practical example, when I went to China I got a letter from Jaume (Dr. Guia) to get the visa and received it very quickly. Furthermore, Dr. Liburd is always sending us offers for Phd’s and not many professors do this. Therefore, she cares and is part of our family. I don’t expect our professors or EMTM family to do anything more than this for me. I actually remember, before starting to work at Trivago that I was sending e-mails for job offers and someone replied me who was part of EMTM, so we shared a story without knowing each other. What we need to understand is that the EMTM family is still very young. In ten to fifteen years we will be a strong family, having good positions and possibly be even CEO’s and be in positions to create opportunities for other EMTM students. In the end, yes, the family network always helps and I’m a strong believer of this. Even in normal life; if you don’t have the support from your family you cannot function. Perhaps, in a business world as well, when you have a family it helps, maybe not directly, but for sure some day. EMTM Student: Are there things that could improve in the programme? Syed: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. We have many reviews and feedback forms that we fill out, in which I mentioned also the following. We need to change some parts of the structure of the programme. There are really some things that our out dated. For example, in Spain we have some sort of marketing class, but I think our time could have been used better, because this is not how marketing is done today. Today, it’s very virtual. It needs to be more hands on and we need to do something that matters and not look at presentations. The world has changed and we need to be more up to date. To illustrate, there could be a course that teaches how technologies affect tourism, because it does in a significant way. Furthermore, we need to learn in EMTM how we can market ourselves better, because you can’t even be a successful tour guide when you don’t have a good website or you don’t know how to market yourself. Perhaps we need to learn that! Overall, we could spend little time to learn about those things instead of learning statistical methods. I brought this up also as a programme representative, but learned that change has to be approved by the boards of education in each country and than be approved by the EU delegates. So, it’s quite difficult to change the programme. However, we don’t need to change the whole programme, instead we could add different elements that are not part of the curriculum and change the approach of teaching. For example, once a month we should have a workshop on how to create our own brand, because each of us is our own brand. Many people don’t know how to do this and take everything that comes along their way, not looking for bigger or better (if they want to). I also believe that we need different types of educators. You don’t need Phd’s to teach. I could come to teach a class and talk about marketing. You need sometimes young energetic people to talk about the new stuff, to tell about their story and inspire the students. That’s how the world progresses. Academia is always behind, because you need data. The world needs innovators. A note: Syed, started the programme in 2012. EMTM grows and evolves fast. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about his specific comments or experience about the programme. EMTM Student: Describe the most memorable moment that happened in the programme. Syed: That’s a difficult question. I have a lot of great memories. Fore example, I remember the Thanks Giving Dinner in Denmark (I love Thanks Giving, because I lived in the US). Together, with my roommate Johan we rented a whole party hall and everyone shared food. After that, we continued this tradition in Slovenia and Spain. I miss these kind of moments. EMTM Student: Any advice for students looking for a job? Syed: Look outside your comfort zone! Your jobs don’t have to be in tourism. Search for the right key words and maybe you will find something outside of tourism. What I mean is that, don’t limit yourself to a certain field and don’t take just any job that comes along. Find your strength, look outside your comfort zone and go for it. Whatever you want, it’s possible! Syed, thank you so much for sharing your experiences and thoughts!
2 Comments
Eh Nuntanut
2/21/2016 08:38:34 am
Thank you Syed for sharing your experience. It is very inspiring. :)
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2/21/2016 11:41:47 am
Hi Eh,
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