Sultana Parveen is a mother of two living in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. She is short, soft-spoken, and wears a colorful headscarf. She is also an IT Star Freelancer in Bangladesh.
In 2014, Parveen was nominated as the top Female Freelancer in Bangladesh by the country's IT industry association BASIS. She has worked for over 100 Freelance IT clients around the world who have hired her through websites like ODesk (Now is Upwork) and Fiverr.
For those who didn't know much about computers until 2012, it was a rapid rise. Parvin, 42, was a self-described housewife of 20 years who wanted to earn extra money for her children's education but could not work for her family. She frequently moved away because of her husband's military service.
She read about Freelance IT jobs in newspapers and then enrolled in a short IT course in Chittagong. Twelve days after creating her profile on ODesk, she got her first job; It paid 5. A year later, Pervin earned $ 6,000; A country with a per capita GDP of about $ 1,000 is not a small figure.
Parveen is one of the thousands of IT Freelancers in Bangladesh who are prospering by working with clients in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world.
Bangladesh is well known for its garment industry, which employs millions of people. But it was the third largest source country for Freelancers for California-based website Upwork (formerly known as Elance-ODesk when the two companies merged) according to Kearney reports in 2014.
Freelancing is growing rapidly in Bangladesh. More than 650,000 Freelancers in Bangladesh were registered with Upwork alone, although their skills and track record vary. In 2013, Bangladeshi freelancers at Upwork earned 21 million. That figure has risen since then.
Freelancing is an important source of income for people under the age of 25, who make up half of the country's 160 million population. Freelancers can work from anywhere with reliable internet, so the work is attractive to small towns and city dwellers.
In the crowded capital of Dhaka, freelancers can avoid hours of travel in the infamous traffic jams. And moms like Parvin can work from home with flexible time. Some entrepreneurs have also opened freelance businesses and hired other contractors.
"People are going for income security, not job security. It's more about multiple flows of revenue," said Saidur Khan, a former freelancer who is now Upwork's business development manager in Dhaka. Time. If we take care of freelancers today, they will become entrepreneurs. ”
Highly skilled IT freelancers can earn up to $ 9 per hour for web programming and up to $ 40 per hour for more advanced work. By comparison, a large Bangladeshi mobile phone company pays around $ 2 per hour for a job in an IT call center.
Some freelance jobs are very small and take less than a day. Other agreements can last for several years. Freelance IT work includes data entry, website, and software design, mobile application development, graphic design, search engine optimization, social media marketing, and much more.
Nazmul Hossain, a 26-year-old freelancer in the southern city of Khulna, started freelancing in 2009 when he was a college student. He has taught himself IT skills through online tutorials and websites. Hossain is a genetic engineer, but job opportunities are limited in Khulna. IT freelancing has changed that.
He earns about 500 1,500 a month and does not have to relocate to Dhaka or go abroad to look for work.
Hossain said, “Nowadays I am contributing to the economy and it is better than going abroad.
Yet Hossain acknowledges that Bangladeshi parents are skeptical of freelancing and would prefer their children's traditional occupation. Uninterruptible electricity and the internet can also be a challenge, especially in rural areas. Strong English language and communication skills are required but for many, they may be lacking.
There is a strong demand for learning IT skills, so technical colleges and private institutes are offering more courses and workshops.
Syed Akhter Hossain is the Head of the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Daffodil University, Dhaka. Computer class enrollment has increased in recent years. In 2010, Daffodil had less than 100 students studying computer science and technology. At present 800 to 1,200 students are admitted every year.
But Hossain said some students do not take their studies seriously and drop out because they can earn money by freelancing.
It’s both encouraging and discouraging, he says. "Freelancing is killing the thought process," Hossain added. He stressed the need to strike a balance between earning and learning.
Finally, we can say that the recent scenario of Growth of Freelancing in Bangladesh is improving day by day on a large scale.
If you have any suggestions or questions about our article, you can let us know in the comments section. And if you like the article, don't forget to share it on other social media including Facebook. Thanks for staying with Sazid IT Blog.