Vijay Basrur

Hiring

Hiring good people is probably the most toughest task for any organization, especially a startup. Ironically folks are still weary about coming on board startups even if the startup is well funded.

We have been trying to hire folks over the past 3-4 months and its been tough. We’ve tried quite a few options (LinkedIn, consultants, job sites, databases, friends, networks and the works). while we have made some progress on some of these fronts, the overall progress has been slow.

I’ve spoken to a few folks in Tier 1 IT firms and I get a general feeling that most folks in these firms have totally de-risked their careers. No appetite or hunger to take on a challenge. The only factor most care about is the money.

While its a personal choice of being a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond, it is proven that startups teach you much more than conventional large organizations, atleast I’ve experienced it first hand and can vouch for it.

As far as job security goes, I don’t think large firms offer very high security. After all don’t the Oracle’s, Yahoo’s of the world handout pink slips when the going gets tough. Yeah sure even if they do, they usually dole out decent severance packages but that’s another story. So I guess it boils down to the fear of unknown. There is little unknown in large firms. Everything is standardised and you just get down to doing your well defined job.

In startups it is a different story. There are very thin lines about job descriptions and if the situation so demands you gotta be ready to do whatever it takes. Right from lifting furniture to pitching in for a high level presentation. I have a nudging feeling that job satisfaction levels are higher at startups than large firms.

So what do you prefer, job satisfaction or a role predictability?