Acumen Fellowship is not an award

By Bishwamitra Chowdhury, Co-Founder, CareerKi, Acumen Fellow 2020

At least not in the sense if you want to get it for recognition or fame or another bullet point in CV. Nor is it any skill providing program that will provide immediate results when you brandish the certificate. So if your idea of applying for this fellowship is any of those I think you will be thoroughly disappointed. Acumen fellowship is hard to describe as it doesn’t really make you a member of some elite society, nor does it provide hefty cash rewards. Based on which current member of the 2020 cohort you are asking, the answer can be vastly different. But if there is any way to describe the journey, it will be — Acumen Fellowship is a challenge.

I will not lie, I applied for it without knowing what it stands for. Their website was extremely vague about it. The selection process in my time was pretty straight forward. In a series of online applications they asked different questions about our needs and aspirations. In my personal opinion this long vetting process was more to check who actually wanted to be in it rather than the content of the screening. So if you are applying I will advise you to not be overly worried about this stage.

Also pro tip, try to be genuine in your answers. The examiners are professionals, they will easily notice the sanitized and feel good answers.

After the screening they call for a day long Selection Conference, I will not reveal the activities there as I am not sure if I am supposed to talk about it. Also I am sure you will enjoy it more if it is a surprise. Rest assured they will give very clear guidelines if you are invited for it. During my selection in this round I met really smart people with astonishing achievements from all backgrounds of life. There was no fixed “Type’ of people. So do not hesitate thinking maybe you are not the right person for application.

From this event they decide and offer you a place in the cohort. I met many amazing people who are doing amazing work, whom I felt could have been better suitable for the cohort than I do. I cannot claim to know what the criteria of someone making it or not are. But it is the Acumen Academy authority and specialists from different fields, who decide who is going to be in or out. For me I found the day sunny, cheerful with lots of good food and good friends in making.

Getting selected for the fellowship is one thing but to utilize it and claim to be a Fellow is another. If Acumen Academy had another name, it would be commitment. It is a team sport with very much focus on individual performance. Kind of like the Olympics, one is expected to hold up their end of the bargain and in this case their commitment to the program and fellows. Acumen Academy will be very direct and in some cases overbearing for their demand of time. In our case we originally promised to give uninterrupted 4 weeks of physical presence at seminars. Trust me, we ended up giving much more from our own conviction. If you can not commit time and will, then perhaps this program is not for you.

I will not get into details of activities we did, but they are demanding emotionally, ethically and intellectually. There will be online and offline modules of learning. But the lessons are unlike what most of us experienced before. The knowledge is not on the text or video but inside us. It is recognizing ourselves through different methods and aspiring to overcome the difficulties. It is to share the emotional burdens of your fellow cohort members without judgement. It is to have courage to forego one’s own natural state and step up for a better version.

It is not easy and it will be extremely taxing. Prepared to have breakdowns and self doubt. In fact I wanted to run away the first week. But I didn’t and that I believe is the core common quality all my cohort members share with each other.

Not giving up even when none of these makes any sense. Like our host for the first session said “Trust the system” and there will be results.

Now, the Acumen fellowship is not all sad and gloomy. In fact, opposite. You will get a new bunch of best friends. Trust me I have, in fact as I am the youngest I get doted upon a lot. You will meet really cool and capable people from diverse backgrounds. All will have baggage and you will learn to accept them as they will do to yours. The Acumen Academy Bangladesh team consists of three really capable team members who will go extreme length to accommodate your need.

Due to the present Covid situation our 2020 cohort couldn’t follow up with original plan of 4 weeks of physical seminars. So I cannot say what happens if someone completes all of them. But we are holding up to our commitment. We are giving time to complete assignments and conducting virtual seminars and being for each other.

So if you are up for a challenge to change yourself, ready to make a commitment and have a blast of a time, fire up your PC and apply.

Acumen Academy is currently accepting applications for Acumen Fellowship in Bangladesh, learn more and apply here.