Mediocrity and BCS craze: Two flowers, one stem | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Friday
June 13, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2025
Mediocrity and BCS craze: Two flowers, one stem

Thoughts

Masum Billah
25 March, 2021, 10:40 am
Last modified: 25 March, 2021, 10:46 am

Related News

  • PSC announces roadmap to resolve BCS exam backlog
  • Revisiting Chittagong Port: Welcoming changes and looking to the future
  • 48th special BCS circular published; 3,000 doctors to be appointed
  • Unemployment rate hits historic high, rises to 4.63% as 27.4 lakh now jobless
  • Between Progress and Pitfalls: Fixing Bangladesh’s Urban Health Crisis

Mediocrity and BCS craze: Two flowers, one stem

BCS frenzy is impairing our generation. Stop this madness.

Masum Billah
25 March, 2021, 10:40 am
Last modified: 25 March, 2021, 10:46 am
Illustration: TBS
Illustration: TBS

Half a decade ago, when I graduated, my father advised me to prepare for BCS so seriously as if 'my life depended on it. He was speaking metaphorically, but deep down, I knew he meant every word of it. Those of my generation raised in suburban middle-class families should relate how our parents crave their children to become BCS cadres. 

I did not take my father's advice seriously. And my father believes that I have made a serious mistake. 

But tens of thousands have taken this advice very seriously. 

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

One of them is my friend Riad Hossain. After completing his MBA from Dhaka University, one of the few things he has been doing is memorising lines from some sixteenth-century English poets that he never heard of before, and he will vomit it out of his brain after he is 30 years old (BCS age limit). And yes, some other things he has been doing include memorising archaic Charyapada stanzas from the eighth century, names of the middle Asian capitals, etc. However, I am not risking my friendship with Riad Hossain; and hence I am not telling his real name. 

Now, I do not have a problem if some MBA holders learn about George Gascoigne, John Skelton, or Edmund Spenser; love their poetry and memorise them. Knowledge is a precious commodity, after all, and you will find it in rare places. But what our generation is doing – for the sake of identifying the correct option out of four in MCQ exams – has nothing to do with knowledge. It is a terrible waste of a young man's precious hours. 

On the other hand, I also have friends who developed startups from scratch, who turned out excellent professionals ready to lead the next generation of big enterprises, writing thought-provoking pieces for respected international newspapers and magazines, and who turned out successful entrepreneurs. Sadly, in comparison to the BCS friends, this number is quite low.  And only a few of them (BCS friends) will be successful because, on average, the PSC employs around 2,000 cadres a year while the number of candidates is more than four lac and increasing every year. 

Besides, imagine what happens when tens of thousands of these young people pass their age limits and fail to get the BCS job?  I have met plenty of such people who turned 30 with no work experiences and skills – broken, shattered, hopeless, depressed, humiliated – roaming around seeking a fresher's job that they should have begun some seven to eight years ago once they graduated. 

Why this craze? This madness for a government job? We all know what is propelling this crowd to BCS – job security, social recognition, the scope of power exercise, private sector's unattractive job packages and wretched salary packages in the beginning, parents' pressure, peer pressure, etc. So, it is indeed a weird time that no matter what you studied – engineering, medical, or philosophy – your aim in life is to become a police officer, a magistrate, or a tax officer. 

I am not saying the pressures are not valid. I recognise these legit pressures since I endure them myself more as a nonconformist in my father's eyes who chose journalism as a career and "made a big mistake" in society's eyes. I also do not believe BCS is an unnecessary job and people should stay away from it. My contention here is this profession alone should not be the reason for so many young people's bane. And beyond these pressures, I find mediocrity as a driving force. 

Mediocrity is a vital driver often overlooked in diagnosing our BCS craze. With all the facilities combined a BCS cadre can legally enjoy in his career, this line of career could not have created this frenzy unless we are a mediocre generation. You will nowhere find smart people worshipping government employees like demigods the way we do here in Bangladesh. An excellent force of people will embrace the ceiling breaking entrepreneurs, change-makers in real life and the thought leaders as their champions, as their idols. 

It is easy to blame our overall system (education, employment, public and private sector disparities, peer pressure, parents pressure etc. as already discussed) for the current BCS frenzy. But as an insider of the generation who are into the final storm of this banal fever, I believe this craze was indeed made easy thanks to our mediocrity – our desires to live an indolent life of social recognition and lethargy to achieve ceiling breaking achievements in life. 

A hardworking and talented generation would not give in to such conventionally effortless means of consummating power and an average monthly salary when they got the talents to grow the next generation economic hub, thought school and potentials to spearhead a technological revolution in this digital world. 

If we weren't mediocre, we would rather fight for what we deserve. Once again, I have nothing against government jobs. This repeated disclaimer because I am aware of our youth's most popular argument – age chancee peye dekhan (First, pass the exam, huh)? I am troubled with a generation's indulgence in the laziness of embracing unchallenging salaried jobs instead of improving their skills and dreaming big to earn their rightful places. 

And my final question to the readers, are you one of the people who often decries how top executive positions at our big corporations are full of foreigners? And here's my answer to you, "is it not the most reasonable consequence when a nation cannot dream big?" 


Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard

Top News

BCS Exam / Unemployment / Thoughts

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Yunus-Tarique meeting: Jamaat says outcome positive for democracy, IAB says dispelled uncertainty from politics
    Yunus-Tarique meeting: Jamaat says outcome positive for democracy, IAB says dispelled uncertainty from politics
  • Taskeen Ahmed, DCCI president. Illustration: TBS
    'Will boost business confidence': DCCI welcomes agreement between Yunus-Tarique on election
  • Sketches: TBS
    How an escalating Iran-Israel conflict could impact Bangladesh

MOST VIEWED

  • Wreckage of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner showing part of its registration "VT-ANB" in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Amit Dave
    Air India Dreamliner crashes into Ahmedabad college hostel, kills over 290
  • File Photo of Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus: UNB
    Prof Yunus to receive Harmony Award from King Charles today
  • Energy adviser Fouzul Kabir Khan with other government officials during a visit to Sylhet gas field on 13 June 2025. Photo: TBS
    I would disconnect gas supply to every home in Dhaka if I could: Energy adviser
  • Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur. TBS Sketch
    Bangladesh mulls settlements with tycoons over offshore wealth: BB governor tells FT
  • UCB declares no dividend for 2024 to comply with regulatory requirement
    UCB declares no dividend for 2024 to comply with regulatory requirement
  • UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus
    Disclosure of unconfirmed Yunus-Starmer meeting shows ‘diplomatic imprudence’: Analysts

Related News

  • PSC announces roadmap to resolve BCS exam backlog
  • Revisiting Chittagong Port: Welcoming changes and looking to the future
  • 48th special BCS circular published; 3,000 doctors to be appointed
  • Unemployment rate hits historic high, rises to 4.63% as 27.4 lakh now jobless
  • Between Progress and Pitfalls: Fixing Bangladesh’s Urban Health Crisis

Features

Photos: Collected

Kurtis that make a great office wear

5h | Mode
Among pet birds in the country, lovebirds are the most common, and they are also the most numerous in the haat. Photo: Junayet Rashel

Where feathers meet fortune: How a small pigeon stall became Dhaka’s premiere bird market

2d | Panorama
Illustration: Duniya Jahan/ TBS

Forget Katy Perry, here’s Bangladesh’s Ruthba Yasmin shooting for the moon

3d | Features
File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar

Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do

4d | Features

More Videos from TBS

Iran-Israel military power; who is ahead?

Iran-Israel military power; who is ahead?

1h | TBS World
Did the possibility of an Iran nuclear deal set back after the attack?

Did the possibility of an Iran nuclear deal set back after the attack?

2h | TBS World
IRGC chief Major General Hossein Salami killed in Israeli strike

IRGC chief Major General Hossein Salami killed in Israeli strike

4h | TBS World
'Historic' meeting between Yunus and Tarique underway in London

'Historic' meeting between Yunus and Tarique underway in London

6h | TBS Today
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net