IEEE Computer Society Brac University Student Branch Chapter has successfully managed to organize their first ever Software Industry tour this year. The visit was conducted in two phases at two of the leading software companies of our country, Therap (BD) Ltd on November 28th and Kona Software Lab on December 2nd. The registration for the visit was open for all the members of IEEE Brac University and then they were selected according to their eligibility for the visit because of the limited availability of the seats. The visitors got to know about how the industry functions through the eyes of the mentioned companies as well as how fresh graduates can prepare themselves for the industry. 

Industrial tours are often offered by different institutions to enhance students’ practical knowledge and hands-on skills. Such visits help them get an idea of real-world working schemes and their implementation. Besides, these help them to go beyond academics and give them first-hand knowledge of the functioning of an industry. These industrial visits show the students the practical implementation of their academic knowledge. Moreover, through these visits, they get the chance to meet the current employee and employer. They can have an insight into the recruiting process by interacting with them. By exposing them to current working practices, these tours help them to furnish their future goals. 

On 28th November 2022, IEEE CS Brac University Student Branch Chapter members had their visit to Therap BD LTD. Therap BD LTD is a US-based software company. Their Bangladesh headquarter is in Banani. After a warm welcome on arrival, they were taken to the conference room. The main program consisted of a presentation session with the Human Resources (HR) representatives of the company where they gave an overview of their industry, talked about their work, mission, and vision. Furthermore, they talked about the way they treat their employees as well as the indoor and outdoor facilities given to their employees. Therap has fifteen (15) departments. All non-technical departments are located from the first to the third floor and the main working area for the company, the technical department, which includes the software development department, QA, android and IOS application department, machine learning department, and others, was located on the fourth and above floors. The participants got to explore all the floors as a part of their visit and see all their working processes. After some light refreshments, there was a question-answer session with some of the team leads and senior developers of Therap BD. They answered questions from the students and encouraged them to be passionate about the subject they chose to apply for. Besides, they encouraged them to develop their analytical and problem-solving skills. Finally, after some exchange of gratitude and a photo session, this part of the industry visit came to an end.

The next part of the industrial visit was at KONA Software Lab LTD. It is a Korea based company having their Bangladesh office in Police Plaza, Hatirjheel. KONA SL has a great contribution to the banking system of Bangladesh and is considered one of the pioneers of fintech in our country. It is the end-to-end solution provider of Nagad, the fastest-growing DFS in Bangladesh. Also, Nexus, the digital wallet of the Dutch Bangla Bank was developed by this software company. On 2nd December 2022, the team from IEEE CS BracU Student Branch Chapter arrived at the Brac University campus around 9 am and the bus left for the venue at 9:30 am. After a 40-minute journey, we reached the KONA SL premises at Hatirjheel. After their cordial reception, the participants were taken to the conference room. The speaker for the session was Mr. Aflatun Kaisar, Chef of the People Care department of Kona SL. After giving his brief introduction he started discussing the company and the functioning of this industry. The discussion also included the current situation of our education system and how a student can prepare for the software industry on their own regardless of the flaws in the curriculum.  After a short refreshment break and a tour of the premises, he gave his precious advice on developing different skills. He mentioned briefly the recruiting process at Kona SL. Lastly, the visit was concluded with a very interactive question-answer session that cleared a lot of the confusions of the attendees. 

Through these industrial visits, the students got the chance to meet the recruiters directly as well as got to learn a lot about the software industry situation of our country. Both visits demonstrated the technical and managerial sides of these software industries and what they seek from a fresh graduate when they look for new recruits. This advice gave them the insights to plan for their future jobs and they got a glimpse of a practical work environment inside the software industry.