Start-up Recruitment : getting the right guy in.

Start-up Recruitment

How you must deal with recruiting in the very start and in in-coming years.

 I am not a follower of many things, but i always keep on seeking new learning's. With a zeal in me to have have mine own start-up and working previously in 2 start-ups i.e. Thinvent Technologies and Silverline Design Inc, and consulting Yuktix technologies, i have came across a small bit of experience in start-up recruitment which i want to share as recently i came across a telephonic call followed by a email conversation which make me feel , what the hell is this?

I don't want to mention the name of company as i understand what it means, but it was defiantly a bad attitude from their side. After a bit of emails and follow-up, i got a online test request which i wasn't able to take for 2 time and for the same, i had dropped them a apology mail. I was a bit curious as that was a start-up from my field of interest. The very next day, i got a call from their HR and he said that "Are you able to take the test because i have a long list of people in queue and i cannot wait". Well that sound a bit rude and absurd and following that i said, please carry on with the queue. May be i am wrong in showing attitude, but at the same time, what impression they had left on me, i cannot forgot. It was just like saying some one "Dude we are the one big start-up that is booming up and we don't give a shit for people like you", well that is welcomed and that show that you are a booming company and heading towards great height, but just think, with that attitude where are you heading towards? On LinkedIn i came across a great article "Don't fuck up the culture". That is a good article to read. Culture is one of the major part of any start-up and it is the thing that is going to help you out in the future. In my previous company, Saurabh Jain(Director/Founder) said "It is the culture prevailing here that make us different.". It might sound like i am a bit disturb with the way that start-up company treated me, so answer is "Yes" i am. But at the same point, it let me think, what will be the guidelines should i make during recruitment. 

Start-up recruitment is a long-time process. Some time it may decide the future of the company. If you get the right guys, you can achieve you aim with the common focused energy of your colleagues, but if not, you will end up splitting in too many broken parts. 

During my last meet-up visit, i heard from a start-up founder Mrs. Sugandha Dubey (www.Stockimagebank.com), that start-up hiring is  long and important process. You need to find the right guy and your search must continue till the time you find a time with synergy with you . 

So as per me , we must continue with the culture of company , till the very last end. I may not say that we must follow the same guidelines every-time, but yes, thing will revolve around these points and will change according to situation. 

1.  Refer the social networking web-sites like linkedIn and facebook.
2. Work out on the referals. 
3. Job portals are good source.
4. Initial conversation will be just like introducing your company and asking for the very next conversation .
5. Getting them for a telephonic interview, rather then a on-line test. It make people a bit absurd. 
6. Follow-up with their availability. No one around you is free and keep in mind that you are dealing with one of the probable employee of the company, who is always going to help out in your venture. 
7. If that guys meet your requirement , call for the next F-F round. 
8. Have technical round/management question round.
9. Set a threshold, if qualified, ok, if not, talk to him in person. Now the talking person may be head _HR(if any or founder itself, if they have time. Keep in mind, talent and employee acquisition is a important part. ) 
10. Personal conversation must be to find out the personal interest of the candidate in what you are doing, how much interested they are in your venture, how much they can give and what they expect in return.
11. Get the aggregation of points and find out if he qualifies or not. 
12. If he/she is missing by some points, neglect technical/management round and go withe personal interaction result. 
13. And the most important point is "Dont  make the guy feel that he is just another shit candidate for you, but he is a probable employee"

 It is what i feel for the recruitment. There are experts sitting around me, who can tell us better what need to be done, but some time, it's your personal interaction with the probable employee or employee which make him/her feel that it's the right company in which they want to work and they can put their enthu and commitment for the company. For me, my co-founders, my employee are the one who are running my start-up and if i can make them happy , i am very sure, they will take care of others things in a better way.

Its' not being different by nature, its your passion towards a goal which make you different.

Young Entrepreneur

What does it take to be a be passionate about what you think?

Well its a big question to be asked and i think i might not be the best person to answer that of my experience, but lets me try. When you say you are passionate, that means you love the thing which you want to do, some people say that you are becoming "romantic" with what you want to do and not becoming realistic. I find them to be true upto some extent. Now upto some extent means, being in romance with what you want to do give you more confidence in what you are doing and you don't see  other things that are going to be effected by your romance, and that make you different from others. "A beautiful mind" a movie on Nobel prize winner JOHN NASH, describe the what it take to be in love with what you want to do in your life. It always have it pros and cons. Although till the very last stage you might not get the pros of loving what you do, but you will always face cons from the very starting but what you get in the last make you different. Not much people are able to do that and of-course there are conditions around you which not let you do so. There is no body to blame around. 

Now question is why the hell is my post heading is YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR and what is the necessity of all that philosophy which i had written above and what is the relationship between the 2. Well there is a relationship between two. Well everybody around here cannot become John Nash or Albert Einstein  or Bill Gates or Steve Jobs as there need to be diversity in the society( well it can be said as bloody excuse though ). "October Sky" a inspirational movie  which show how much struggle you need to put to do things differently from the very early stage. So here is where my article topic is justified. Being a young entrepreneur means a lot of trouble in the early stage of life. Lets take a example around you and ofcourse i am not talking about "nerds", i am just taking a example of a common boy having a average IQ and what will make him different will be his passion. 

Now take a example, you are a very common person, belonging to a average grade group in college or even not in college. You had a family around you and you got all the expectations roaming around you which are continually stopping you to fly, fly high in the sky , chasing a dream of doing something different. You don't have anyone around you to guide you what to do and what to not, you just want to do be different. Now this point of being different make you choose a option infront of you. You choose that option and then being in that field you develop a idea  and that is nature of your's and start working to achieve you goal, not thinking where it will lead you, not thinking what it is giving you in return. Now those person who will follow this path will definitely reach a point where they will feel themselves to be different. Well ofcourse in the meantime you might have missed many things, your girlfriend might have left you , your parents expectation might have been broken. That will take a lot of courage to do the same and that is what i missed. 

Looking back in my past, i become greedy. I wanted to take everything with me and that's not possible in reality and that is why i said it is difficult to be romantic with what you want to do until and unless all the others things around you are being taken care of  or unless you are not a born nerd. 

So my advice to my fellow "YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR" is that , the path you had taken might be a bit difficult, you might have to face a lot of people and their sayings, you might not be that lucky that your girlfriend will support you, you might have to listen too much scarce comments from your parent's like you cannot do that, it's not that easy to do so (yes ofcourse it's not that easy to be a YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR, but it's what i want to do, let me take a decision for my life and i will take care of the rest), you might have to face your inner dignity many time that what the hell you are doing, you had got some responsibilities towards your parents, but believe me my friend, just give a try and not try, just give your full for the one time and you will see the result , you will feel that you are different from others. There is a possibility that people around you might not identify you as a different person and you might fail, but the confidence you will fell will be immense and beyond description. 

Again there are lots of pros and cons related to this action of being in romance with what you are doing and becoming "romanceliastic". The later will make you feel safe while taking risk, but what will be the meaning and benifit of taking a risk when you are being safe on the other hand.