I read an article in HT today.
Students who opt out of placements can opt in for two years after they graduate. This may encourage more students to chase their dreams. There is also an option at IIM-A to get a lot of course credits by doing a course of independent study in the second year. A student who wants to be an entrepreneur thus has a lot of support.
The institute feels that the ability to opt in to placements will ease societal pressures on students from parents to get a dream job right away.
Kudos to IIM-A for taking the lead and I hope other engineering and management institutes follow.
A suggestion to students is to form your team carefully. Just because you are friends it does not mean you are the right team. Students should be open to forming teams with the right people wherever they may be and also considering joining startups. Not everyone can be a lead entrepreneur or cofounder. You can make it big by being an early employee as well.
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Thanks for your comments Sanjay. I agree making 5 crore may be the “making it big” for many of us.I agree financial sucess is important. But we become entrepreneurs for lot many reason.I want to be a entrepreneur for self-acctualisation becoz I find I potential is under-utilise , I observe lots of inefficiency in systems,while find Internet as revolutionary as wheel.Other want to be entrepreneurs becoz they want freedom, indepedence,want to realise a idea they have in there mind.So we all have different reasons to be what we are doing.
How many times we get same opportunity while working for another employeer? While any employeer be ready to take same degree risk what I am ready for? Will I be rewarded in proportion to risk I am taking while working for start-up?
I would like to know what kind of early employee start-up in India seeking for ? In most cases they are looking for some 30+ MBA or IITain with experience in elite MNC.
I am tallking about 25 something graduate who has much to prove about himself.And here they miss people with energy, creativity, and fire in the belly to prove themself. I have enough example of exellent programmers,thinkers,doers who are wasting time in large Indian MNCs.
Why?
Becoz they are working within the limiting framework of false job security, hyped MBA, google engineering diguised as R & D.
I dont think I need to be a hot-shot marketing guy,PHD in same vague technology or financail wizard to prove my worth as start-up emplyee.
I remember an interview in which Narayan murthy saya he deals financial matters in Infosys.He is no MBA from top college.in fact he must have learned all skilss very late in company.If I know who I am , What I want , I amready do what it take to get it , i guess that is more then enough.I may sound silly but this is what I beleive.Rest is all about learing, unlearning and relearning.
I am not at all refusing your views. They are right in there on way.may work for many of us but definetly not for all.
Dont you agree that “founder” think way “early-employee thinks”?
Sanjay,
Is that really such a great idea, this safety valve concept ?
I think it is a bit counter productive in that you don’t let go off yourself completely. It’s like saying `you’ve to run a marathon …if you feel tired midway, get into the car’. You can never give your best when you know failure doesn’t cost much. I would advise them to take up that juicy job offer early on than going after it later. Such people are never going to make it on their own anyways.
Success visits people who realize that they can’t fail too often. This inspires them to get back up on their feet quickly and pursue their ambition with stronger vigor and a true sense of purpose. That “extra dose” of energy is vital and it normally oozes out only when you sense that you are truly up against a wall and there’s no turning back.
Precisely the reason why Alexander ordered burning the boats.
Satpal,
You make some good points. The comments below may be helpful.
If you do not have a sterling academic track record you need to have something else that you can show. If you claim to say being a great marketing person can you put together a paper saying if you were marketing director of say “Make my trip” what would you differently. In the absence of a person being able to convince a potential employer with something else, employers will default to academic credentials.
On making it big as an early employee lets say making over 4.5 crores ( $1 million) is making it big if you are less than 35. Shannon Hermes was an Office Manager at You tube with 2577 shares and 0.06% of the company. She made $1MM +. Hong J Q was a User Interface Designer with 6013 shares and made $2.3 MM. Director of Product Development Mayrose Dunton had 8590 shares and made $3.3 MM. The principal founders made $295 million each.
If you do a startup that fails you make zero. If your startup that gets acquired for say 30 crores you may make less than 5 crores .
It is not at all clear whether you will be better or worse off doing or joining a startup.
At IITD, we tried the same during my tenure as placement coordinator but couldnt get it done.
Sanjay, Alok: I heard you recently visited IITD for a talk. Such suggestions when coming from industry have much greater impact on administration so would be great if you could voice them for the benefit of budding entrepreneurs. Prof. Kushal Sen is the faculty-incharge for placements these days and would definitely welcome such suggestions.
I do read this today and I really appreciate IIMA to encourge inspiring entrepreneurs.
Sanjay your comment on team creation is quite relevent.The reason we ask our friends to join as is that entrepreneurnial ecosystem for in India is still not very supportive. Its very difficult to persuade middle mangers and technology experts to join a start-up.Foundering members must trust each other. We seek members who share our dreams, inspirations and have risk taking capability.Four years in engineering and two year in MBA gives us ample time student to understand each other.they know each other inside-out.Bonding, trust and understanding we create in college help us when we face criss in our ventures.
“Not everyone can be a lead entrepreneur or cofounder. You can make it big by being an early employee as well”
I beg to differ here.How many times will founder of a compnay like to take freshly minted MBA or engineer as early emplyee? This could be a possibility in non-tech start-up with unclear market or idea where joining could be as good as starting up our own compnay.Most of good tech start-ups are highly baised towards experienced toppers from IIT and IIMS as if they are the only BRAIN left in the world.We are stiill trapped in mindset where prefered employee are toppers with start As or 70% from top college.Surprisingly
best companies and start-ups in USA are run buy college drop-outs who followed their passion,hobbies,interests.
I hope angels and inspiring entrepreneurs will understand that what matte rmost in a entrepreneurs/foundering memeber/earlyemployee is self-belief,determination,perseverance,desire to create weath and to thing big.