Why fresh graduates are keen to work in startups
Startups offer diverse job profiles related to technology, product management, operations and support to candidates who aspire to take the road less travelled, writes Neeraj Sharma
17.02.2020
A large number of educated, tech-savvy youngsters are adopting an entrepreneurial mindset. In the process, they are looking at the opportunity to work in startups. Many are ready to ignore lucrative salaries offered by the MNCs to be part of startups that give them fast-paced and lean environments. Engineering graduates are increasingly looking at job roles where they get to solve crucial problems and develop products and solutions for millions of users.
New roles
Startups offer technology (engineering), product management, operations and support roles to students who aspire to take the road less travelled. Sharp problem-solving and analytical thinking are directly proportional to eclectic academic backgrounds. The millennials want to refrain from offering repetitive solutions that one would find in a larger organisation. The ability to grasp in an ever-transforming technology landscape (learn and unlearn) requires one to be tech-savvy.
Startups are flat in a hierarchy and frugal in resources — this opens a whole bunch of possibilities and one gets to work on primarily their roles and wear hats of other additional roles, thereby seeding the entrepreneur inside each one. An extension of the frugality in resources demands one to demonstrate a huge sense of ownership apart from independent thinking, quick adaptability to rapidly changing business environment and ability to take intellectual actions. This maps to the level of self-awareness and confidence that today’s generation of young turks demonstrate in professional life.
Robust internship
One of the key hiring strategies by startups includes a robust internship programme where they encourage a good percentage of college graduates to take up a sixmonth internship at their companies. Such initiatives allow students to undergo a rigorous bootcamp where they are exposed to the basics of the technical environment and then transform into shadow resources to ultimately take up independent tasks and fulfil the delivery of those with a fair degree of proficiency.
While interning, a student learns about the technical and business challenges, work ethics, problems faced by an employer, competition among peer colleagues and also the overall culture of the organisation.
Post a successful internship, the employer also tends to extend pre-placement offers to these interns and derisk the quality and relevance of resources. For startups, one’s lateral thinking, fast learning ability, humility and a never-give-up mindset are more significant. In a startup scenario, mid-level professionals contribute to design elements of the solutions while senior-level ones demonstrate the ability to collaborate, own and deliver solutions.
Campus selection
Often candidates who perform well in assessments fail in the interview or slow down at the workplace. This proves why startups generally avoid hiring from an open pool of candidates, and prefer making preplacement offers to interns. Students excelling at global hackathons conducted by leading firms also get decent deals during placements. Offline hackathons and meet up groups help students network with budding entrepreneurs and know the startup setup. Online communities also allow students to learn technical content [The author is vice president (Human Resources) of FourKites India, Chennai]
Startups offer diverse job profiles related to technology, product management, operations and support to candidates who aspire to take the road less travelled, writes Neeraj Sharma
17.02.2020
A large number of educated, tech-savvy youngsters are adopting an entrepreneurial mindset. In the process, they are looking at the opportunity to work in startups. Many are ready to ignore lucrative salaries offered by the MNCs to be part of startups that give them fast-paced and lean environments. Engineering graduates are increasingly looking at job roles where they get to solve crucial problems and develop products and solutions for millions of users.
New roles
Startups offer technology (engineering), product management, operations and support roles to students who aspire to take the road less travelled. Sharp problem-solving and analytical thinking are directly proportional to eclectic academic backgrounds. The millennials want to refrain from offering repetitive solutions that one would find in a larger organisation. The ability to grasp in an ever-transforming technology landscape (learn and unlearn) requires one to be tech-savvy.
Startups are flat in a hierarchy and frugal in resources — this opens a whole bunch of possibilities and one gets to work on primarily their roles and wear hats of other additional roles, thereby seeding the entrepreneur inside each one. An extension of the frugality in resources demands one to demonstrate a huge sense of ownership apart from independent thinking, quick adaptability to rapidly changing business environment and ability to take intellectual actions. This maps to the level of self-awareness and confidence that today’s generation of young turks demonstrate in professional life.
Robust internship
One of the key hiring strategies by startups includes a robust internship programme where they encourage a good percentage of college graduates to take up a sixmonth internship at their companies. Such initiatives allow students to undergo a rigorous bootcamp where they are exposed to the basics of the technical environment and then transform into shadow resources to ultimately take up independent tasks and fulfil the delivery of those with a fair degree of proficiency.
While interning, a student learns about the technical and business challenges, work ethics, problems faced by an employer, competition among peer colleagues and also the overall culture of the organisation.
Post a successful internship, the employer also tends to extend pre-placement offers to these interns and derisk the quality and relevance of resources. For startups, one’s lateral thinking, fast learning ability, humility and a never-give-up mindset are more significant. In a startup scenario, mid-level professionals contribute to design elements of the solutions while senior-level ones demonstrate the ability to collaborate, own and deliver solutions.
Campus selection
Often candidates who perform well in assessments fail in the interview or slow down at the workplace. This proves why startups generally avoid hiring from an open pool of candidates, and prefer making preplacement offers to interns. Students excelling at global hackathons conducted by leading firms also get decent deals during placements. Offline hackathons and meet up groups help students network with budding entrepreneurs and know the startup setup. Online communities also allow students to learn technical content [The author is vice president (Human Resources) of FourKites India, Chennai]