Sanjida grew up in Kuwait, but later moved to Bangladesh at the time of her O’ Levels. She had initially wanted to become a doctor, but when she learned about the field of genetic engineering, she immediately decided to switch paths and pursue Biotechnology as a student at Brac University. During her time at University, Sanjida started doing part-time jobs as a content writer. She loved how her work enabled her to meet new people and explore new opportunities. By the time she was set to graduate, Sanjida was working full time at Bangladesh Brand Forum, as Head of Content which became a problem for her as she was also due to start working on her thesis. When it came down to choosing between her accelerating career and her ungraduated degree, she chose to stick with her job, foregoing the opportunity to attain a bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology.
“I went through 4 years of University and then refused to finish it. I suppose that makes me a drop-out,” said Tanny while continuing her story.
A little about YFS:
While Sanjida was still employed in Bangladesh Brand Forum, she got offered a position by the Young Founders’ School(YFS). However, Sanjida was very unsure about taking the job since she had no prior experience in the education sector and had never worked with kids previously. Upon being assured that she didn’t have to worry about fitting in and that she would be allowed the freedom and time to continue her entrepreneurial venture – Contentier – side-by-side, Sanjida promptly joined YFS. She now represents Bangladesh as the Country Lead in the institution.
Billy Naveed founded YFS back in 2016, and since then the school has expanded from Hong Kong to Singapore, China and Bangladesh. According to Sanjida, the journey of working with YFS so far has been quite fun. By putting high-school students aged from 11 to 18 through week-long boot-camps where they learn the latest start-up techniques, YFS mentors its students and teaches them about entrepreneurship. YFS instills in their students the soft-skills that schools generally fail to cover such as communication, presentation, and team-building skills – the kind of skills that are very much necessary in workplaces.
“I think people should stop being stuck up on the idea that grades are everything. Nowadays, big institutions are dropping the requirement of college degrees,” Sanjida elaborated.
Looking into the Future:
The institution’s plan to start operations in India and Indonesia is already in motion. YFS is also looking forward to providing its services in Bengali as well as in English because the view of the institution dictates that people should not be held back due to language barriers. Besides all of that, YFS is also hoping to expand to Chattogram by next year. Moreover, YFS wants to extend the time period for its programs as it believes that doing so would help improve its grooming process.
Challenges Faced and Fought:
Currently, the primary challenge that YFS is facing is the communication barrier with parents – who have yet to fully comprehend the idea of YFS and what it is that they do. Beyond that, YFS is also struggling with a shortage in funding and insufficient staff. However, it hopes to overcome these problems soon by promoting the institution and its mission to garner greater attention.
Building Contentier:
Having been passionate about writing since childhood, Sanjida was overwhelmed with joy when she got the opportunity to build a platform to provide professional institutions with quality content, which was Contentier. While Sanjida plans to keep working for YFS in the future (and grow with it), she also has plans to work on Contentier to help it grow. In the past, Contentier has provided written content for websites and other commercial supplements for companies such as Pran, The Daily Star, Evershine Enterprise and many more. Sanjida hopes to keep working with many more local companies. Additionally, she has ideas of converting Contentier into an educational platform which will help professionals to become more aware of the value of good content.
‘Once a Contentier, always a Contentier’ is what Sanjida keeps repeating to the writers who work for her. “We take our time in hiring the right people and making sure that we deliver the best quality of writing possible,” said Sanjida. Taking lessons from the rise and fall of start-ups that have recently been observed in Bangladesh, Sanjida says that she wants to slowly expand Contentier. She doesn’t want to hurry – not in terms of Contentier, which she considers to be her first-born.
Sandija Tanny whole-heartedly believes in equal rights and is a self-proclaimed feminist. Due to an unfortunate molestation incident back in her childhood, she still suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome(PTSD) and says that she will always stand up for women and their rights. In terms of her career, Sanjida believes that she’s still growing and still has much to achieve.
