How to hire creative talent in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has a large and fast-growing pool of digital creative freelancers, concentrated in Dhaka and built substantially on international freelance marketplaces rather than on a domestic agency industry.
What the creative pool in Bangladesh actually looks like.
Graphic design, photo retouching and video editing have the deepest supply. Motion design is growing. Because much of the pool learned through marketplace work, portfolios lean towards production tasks rather than concept-led work.
- Graphic design
- Video editing
- Photo retouching
- Motion design
Language, hours, contracts and getting paid.
- Bengali, with English widely used in professional and educational settings.
- Six hours ahead of London.
- Payoneer is the dominant route for receiving international payment.
- Most agencies engage people here as independent contractors on a monthly retainer, which does not require a local entity. The contractor invoices you and handles their own tax locally.
The boards people in Bangladesh actually use.
Job hunting is local. The global boards you already know have almost no audience here, and the sites that do are not in English and mostly will not take a posting from a company without a local presence.
The dominant employment platform in Bangladesh.
Secondary general board with strong entry-level reach.
What catches foreign agencies out.
Marketplace-shaped portfolios can look repetitive. A short paid test brief tells you more than the portfolio does.
Rates are low enough that price is a poor filter. Judge on the work.
Or skip all of it and post once.
Everything above is doable on your own. It takes a local number, a local entity on some boards, a translated description and somebody to read applications in Bengali. Elsewhere does that part for you. You write the role once in English, pick your markets, and upload examples of the work you want. We translate it, post it to the local boards, pay the posting fees, and score every applicant’s portfolio against your references before you see them.
- One job description in English, plus examples of the work you are looking for.
- Translation into Bengali, posting to the local boards, and the fees they charge.
- Applicants ranked by how closely their portfolio matches the work you uploaded.
Do I need a local entity to hire someone in Bangladesh?
Not to engage a contractor. Most agencies engage people here as independent contractors on a monthly retainer, which does not require a local entity. The contractor invoices you and handles their own tax locally. Employing someone on a local payroll is a different question and does normally require an entity or an employer of record.
What language should I write the job description in?
Bengali, with English widely used in professional and educational settings. Elsewhere translates your English description into the local language automatically, so you write it once.
Which job boards should I post on in Bangladesh?
The boards that matter locally are Bdjobs, Chakri.com. Elsewhere posts to them for you and covers the posting fees.
How much overlap will I get with my working day?
Six hours ahead of London.
How do I pay someone in Bangladesh?
Payoneer is the dominant route for receiving international payment.