I was recently a guest at the Insead “India Business Dialogue” event
at Bangalore. The event aimed to provide Insead grads – who are
naturally mostly employed at large corporations – on starting up,
attracting venture capital and, if the entrepreneurial plunge is too
much of a risky leap, getting hired by a startup.
If
the grads thought getting hired by a startup sounded safer, they had
anothing think coming. The last session (on joining a startup) had one
representative each from a VC firm, a HR Services firm and a veteran
entrepreneur. And here’s a sample of what they had to say about startup
hiring techniques:
The Entrepreneur: One of my friends
makes sure to pour coffee on the candidate and takes a call based on how
the candidate reacts.
The HR Person: We offer to send a
cab for picking up the candidate. And we generally don’t bother to. We –
and out clients – like to see whether the candidate turns up late and
cribs about the taxi or figures out an alternative to reach on time –
including, if required, to hop into an autorickshaw.
The VC: The founder of one our investee companies does hiring interviews only between 1 am and 2 am.
The
Bottom Line: If the candidate needs too much structure and cannot deal
with ambiguity and uncertainity, he’s not a good fit for a startup.
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