Graduate development programme by Deriv demonstrates success

BeSquare a graduate development programme by Deriv is a hands-on, practical  programme with real employment opportunity at the company. Designed to bridge the gap between university and employability, BeSquare is having a profound impact on the lives of its participants.

The programme, carefully curated by members of Deriv’s senior team, ensures each participant gets a solid grounding in multiple aspects of the business; from mobile development, cybersecurity to understanding of finance, marketing, and other skills and concepts which round out their role within any organisation.

48 Malaysian university graduates clocked in at Deriv’s Cyberjaya headquarters on September 2021 as part of BeSquare’s first cohort.

Working  together both as a team and alongside mentors, they solve real problems faced by the business in order to springboard further growth. One such task was to identify and strategise practical improvements to Malaysia’s MySejahtera application; a very solid lesson in product design and implementation. 

“The projects they work on require a good mix of independent problem solving and activation, combined with group-think approaches to ensure no stone is left  unturned. They have the chance to work with their trainers and members of our senior team  too, in order to share, demonstrate, and discuss feedback in depth” said Waqas Awan the Chief Business Development Officer at Deriv.

Shamini  Pillay, Training Manager at BeSquare added that last year most of the session were held remotely due to the pandemic, as they were unable to fly in trainers from their other branch office.

“We hope that for our second cohort in 2022, we  will have these people on the ground working with our Malaysian talent” Shamini said.

Participant Nur Haziqah Alias and Nadiah binti Ahmad Zairee were very positive with their reflections on the programme.

Nur Haziqah Alias said the foundation that BeSquare lay down is a good learning opportunity, an incredible experience for her.

Nadiah binti Ahmad Zairee added that it has helped her develop communication skills and confidence.

“BeSquare has made me able to express [myself] more clearly”. Nadiah said.

Tatiana Joanne Cheah added that “the programme was a lot more diverse and dynamic than I thought”, which made it “exciting to learn, especially as I didn’t originally consider the depth and layers to digital product design”.

With a core mantra being “working alone together; we find new angles to problems, and new ways to solve them”. Ricky Espineli 

Thain added, the “highlight was the collaborative work; individually but together”, encouraging not only collaboration but accountability too.  

“It was initially pretty challenging for our participants, but the trainers and the new learning patterns of engagement made the sessions interesting” noted Goh Choon Yih, Training Manager, BeSquare. 

“Whilst there are still two months left in the programme with this inaugural cohort, the quality of candidates and deliverables is reinforcing the decision to accelerate BeSquare.  The outcomes now speak for themselves, and I firmly believe we have excellent long term candidates in here ready to join Deriv as full time team members. We look forward  to opening up more spaces in our April 2022 cohort, and contributing to the development of even more graduates” added Waqas Awan. 

Besides receiving mentorship and guidance from experienced professionals, BeSquare  participants who perform exceptionally well during the programme will be offered  permanent positions at Deriv. If they accept, they’ll have the opportunity to pursue a tech  career with an industry leader that’s geared for growth. 

Applications are now open for the second cohort of the BeSquare programme. Recent  graduates or final semester students from the science, technology, engineering, and  mathematics (STEM) are encouraged to apply. The applicant must be a Malaysian citizen,  with fluency in English essential for a successful application. 

Further information, and application details are available on the BeSquare website,  https://deriv.com/careers/besquare/.