Do Extra-Curricular Activities matter?

You may have heard of the term ECA or Extra-Curricular activities, but what are they precisely? How to find them and how are they a huge stepping stone to build your career?
Whether you are a private, public, or even a foreign university student, ECA’s are available for all.
ECA’s are the experience or knowledge you accumulate apart from pursuing your studies, academic degree. Getting enrolled in a university can be one of the biggest cornerstones for a student to navigate, explore different fields of activities since university brings a plethora of new and exciting opportunities for an individual.
There can be a lot of lucrative jobs, volunteering opportunities. As a first-year business student myself, I came across a lot of options. This is from my experience and the set of skills I have acquired.

Ambassadorship: Campus Ambassador or Event Ambassador or even Brand Ambassador are particular terms we may have heard before. But what are they, and what are the responsibilities?
As we may know, Ambassadorship is primarily about promoting or marketing for a particular brand, company. It is all about reaching out to your network. For example, a company or club is launching an event or competition, in order to generate more responses or simply for the advertisement, they hire an Event Ambassador whose job is to advertise the event and refer amongst their network to get more applicants and gain more attention. A startup or company employs a Campus Ambassador to promote their company and activities amongst the campus students. It can be daunting for an outsider to launch an event, workshop on a particular campus. That’s where campus ambassadors come into play to efficiently process or gain easy access to it. A Brand Ambassador is someone who promotes a particular brand. In the end, these three can be quite similar and for the same purposes but depend on the tenure and permanence. Keep an eye on the social media pages, websites of various companies and youth organizations to find ambassador recruitment posts.

Internship: As a student, you will often find many paid or unpaid internship opportunities that last up to 4 to 5 months for different companies. It can be a marvelous way to work with corporates and seniors to acquire job experience. A certificate can be advantageous and will facilitate your CV. You can also get a promotion and earn a paid job in that same company, organization.

Clubbing: There are many undergraduate clubs in every university, such as a business club, earth club, engineering club. You can always find a club with your background or subject. It is one of the best places to build a network amongst like-minded peers and or corporates. If you can earn a promotion to the Executive Board (EB) or Sub-Executive Board (Sub EB), you will have the upper hand in landing yourself a job or getting better recognition on your campus. Getting a promotion takes diligence and dedication, and with that comes accountability. Working for an event can get you a real-life experience of how an event works. Clubbing is a hub to acquire different skills and grow yourself as an individual. Clubbing can be one of the essential ECA’s in your CV. Follow your university club pages to find recruitment posts. Each club hosts recruitment once or twice a year. Nowadays clubbing is also available in schools and colleges.

Competitions: Competitions are a great way to enhance your analytical and case solving skills. There are different types of competition, such as writing, MUN, business competitions, and debate competitions. Numerous competitions or events are held every year at different universities or organizations. This can be very daunting, but the winnings can be superb, and winning a competition will earn you recognition and copious rewards. Follow club pages from different universities and organizations that host such competitions to know exactly when there is one near you.

Volunteering: “Volunteers don’t get paid, not because they’re worthless, but because they’re priceless.” ― Sherry Anderson. You can always volunteer for a humanitarian or charitable cause. Although all the jobs mentioned above are mostly voluntary, a volunteer is hired in most NGOs. The charitable organization or any organization may employ such student volunteers to help and work for their events and endeavors.

Part-time jobs: If you are lucky or skilled enough, you can always land yourself a paid part-time job. This can be a remarkable opportunity for you to get an earning and to fend for yourself. One of the most common and widely performed jobs is being a tutor or teacher. You can also get a job at any corporate office, and this can be proved vital for your career because you are already getting first-hand experience of the corporate world. You will get real-life work experience even as a student. Although they aren’t widely recognized in Bangladesh, you can always work as a cashier or a waiter or waitress in a hotel or restaurant. Every hard-earned money is respectable no matter what.

Starting your own business: You can always create a business of your own. But it requires prolific time, patience, and dedication. Primarily, you will need an ingenious, strategic game plan and some investment to execute it. Most big companies or startups are started by university-going students. Everyone wants to be their own boss, but you need tremendous effort and dedication for this. If you think you ticked all these boxes, then go ahead; sky’s the limit.
Apart from this, there can be many other activities which can gather your knowledge but, in this article, I have stated the ones which are stand out and common or can be easily attached or showcased on a CV.

Getting a proper balance between your CGPA and ECA can be tough. But a great CGPA can always land you a great job but remember ECA’s are equally essential and looked upon these days. Suppose if you have a lower CGPA but have a laudable ECA who knows, you may get the upper hand more than someone who has a better CGPA. Bookish knowledge can get you through your university, but real-life experience will get you through your whole life. It is great to be the “Jack of all trades, master of none”. But it would be best if you always had an area of expertise because later on in your career, you may need to narrow it down according to your job or profession.

ECA’s can be proved priceless on your CV and later on in your career. But make sure to choose the best field for yourself and don’t get involved in a multitude of things because that may jeopardize your academics. Remember, a CV should not consist of quantity but quality. Choose one path and try to make a mark there. All of this can be a learning curve for you and bring you a realistic approach to the real or corporate world. Be it big or small or good or bad, every experience will teach you a lesson that will help you flourish in life.