I remember having had a discussion with batchmates triggered by an online article in 2005 when i was in my final year at college. The article predicted that big MNCs in India would find it more and more difficult to recruit and/or retain top talent in years to come. This, because of attractive offers from startups which MNCs would not be able to match in terms of one or more of: salary, work, scope, mentoring, growth curve etc. I and my batchmates (Integrated CS Btech+Mtech, IITD) did believe a bit of it then. One year down the line, we know it for sure. Half of us are now in startups as founding members or early employees, and most of the rest are looking for a switch soon.

Saw this today:
“27 graduates out of the 35-student electrical engineering batch at IIT Mumbai have opted for jobs with start-ups rather than top-tier companies.” extracted from http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1637763.cms

However, it is rather disapointing that for most, the sole motivation is a bigger salary packet. The inability to appreciate the other larger benefits of working in a startup still remain unappreciated, primarily because of lack of information on that front. I was having a talk with one senior faculty member at IITD on how there should atleast be one serious course offering on entrepreneurship so that students be able to take a more informed decision. His response indicated a lack of participation from industry. Incubators such as the one at IITD cannot be effective if they are to work in isolation. Would be great to have some triggering from the Investor/Entrepreneur Community on this front.

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