Sujit and Amit co-founders were quite happy that their company, IM had been selected for a Microsoft Accelerator program. What added to their happiness was an angel investment by a German friend of 100,000 USD. But with the investment came pressure of delivering revenue growth. They called in an external consultant to answer some questions that were gnawing their mind – the most important of that being: What does IM stand for?

6 of the 10 people in the startup took part in a brainstorming session. Participants were made to sit in groups of 2 to 5. Each group is asked to come up with a statement on what they thought is IM all about. Most of the replies concentrated on what IM does – skill testing. There was talk related to filtering, technology based testing, fast testing, quality tests, ready to use tests, save time for everyone, prevent bad hires etc.

The external consultant made a point that the Why is more important than the What. He hypothesized that ‘Getting good people for you’ is what IM should stand for: 

This is the Why for IM’s existence, not the What. If they accepted and internalised this as a team, it could change their relationships with our clients. ‘This is what is called ‘Inside Out’ communication. It is always easy to convince people about your beliefs, not your features.’

The discussion continued on what does ‘Good’ in the good people mean. The traditional points were: Knowledge, experience, teamwork. Doing some lateral thinking, three points were noted about Goodness.

1. Performance

2. Passion

3. Cultural Fit

How do we measure a candidate on these criteria? Following ways were suggested:

1. Performance: A good way would be to get a person to work on a simulation. 

2. Passion: Ask people to answer these 2 questions. What are you great at? What do you want to do in life?

3. Cultural Fit: Understand the organisational culture. Do a psychometric test and understand whether there is a ‘fit’.

There were some alternate perspectives on passion. A conventional way is to start with hobbies. If there is depth, then we can say that the candidate has passion. In an interview if we find answers that are not rehearsed on that field, then there is passion. Sujit gave an example of a candidate who applied for a testing role. When asked why testing, he mentioned that I am a disruptive person, and I use that disruption in testing. He was asked to give 3 examples of the same – which he gave. The guy was  hired immediately by IM – and is doing a great job in testing.

Some of the participants felt that they should look at learn-ability and focus in order to understand if they are passionate. Also are candidates up-to-date on the field that they are passionate about. One school of thought was that if they can answer challenging questions, then they have to be passionate. 

Mention was made by one of the participants about an interesting company in the US – ‘hired.com‘ You can log in to their site and post your resume along with a list of 5 companies that you dream of joining. This is evaluated by flesh and blood people, who then go on to interview you. If you pass, then hired.com approaches one or two of these companies – and gets an interview fixed for you.

The consultant liked their model – and thought it would be a good idea to imitate some of the stuff they do. IM team was given an assignment to work on meeting select customers in Pune and understanding:

1. Their culture. This could include on a sliding scale where the company stands on – Teamwork Vs Lead by Example, Analytical Vs Aggressive, Processes vs Disruptive etc. We can identify major strands that define company culture – and we could try to see a fit when we recommend candidates.

2. The job descriptions – and what are practical challenges the candidates would face in their role. These would be used for creating application based tests.