On 18th
April, I was sitting in a big auditorium, clapping and smiling for
people who were part of 5 years of IIT journey. It was a farewell award
ceremony at IIT Kharagpur. Just few minutes ago I gave a two minute speech from
the stage. People loved it; at least the reception voice meant so.Yes the
speech has 700 views on Youtube (P.S. That’s too much for IIT anyway).
Two minutes
later I was cross checking my mail. Roadrunnr, now Runnr has delayed my date of
joining to 5th December. For a moment I felt it’s a birthday present
as the date approximately coincides with the same.
An hour later I was working on my cv, designing it
again as a literal winter was coming. A day later I had an account with iimjobs.com,
my linkedin tagline felt the metamorphosis. A fear of insecurity hovers over
the fear of delay.
This is not my
story. This is the story of 15+ people hired by Runnr from IIT Kharagpur, and a
similar figure hired from IIT Rorkee and other colleges. Except for a few, joining
dates were deferred to September or December. It was a date so late that romance
might suffer.
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| Image Source: Internet |
Career Development Committee brings companies to
campus, make their arrangements, and decide their slots of interview. Big
thumbs up. Yet the chase for statistics sometimes backfires. With an objective to
place maximum number of students in minimum number of days, with an objective to
break all past records, firms like Runnr with not a single year balance sheet
gets a day three slot. So is the case with Hopscotch and Stayzilla which
managed to get early slots just because they promised a significant statistics
in hiring. AIPC needs to revise its priorities while bringing companies. IIT
Kharagpur placed 1000 students in 10 days. This reminds me of a quote
from a wall street book: “99 percent of all statistics only
tell 49 percent of the story”(Gents with No Cents).
Having said that, I
must mention however, not everything is wrong with a chase for statistics.
There is an alternative and solid perspective. The purpose of campus placement
is just not to place a candidate skilled and strong, but also one lagging and
slow. A chase for statistics is boon for them. As the firms defaulting with
joining dates are mostly all early slot startups, hiring people having an edge
over the rest, these people have enough potential to switch over under stressed
conditions. I am one of them and I believe in the same. So it’s better to place
1000 in 10 days with an expected default of 30, than to prioritize the
companies on the basis of their stabilities and balance sheets, thus placing
700 in 10 days. This is a boon for those 300 people who got placed on day 8, 9
and 10th. As it is very obvious that the firms like Runnr are going
to take large intakes only if they come early.
The question is why
these start-ups intend to hire in chunks without a rock solid backup on the
balance sheet? Is it the chase for valuation and branding? Just give me a minute
and I will build a curious case. Yesterday, 25th May 2016, I got a
call from Runnr, the one which delayed my joining to December. The HR on call
wanted me to join as soon as possible, by 1st June. In next few
minutes an email invitation for telephonic discussion was framed and the next day
I was explained the work details. The work was to take care of revenue and
profit details of firm, business finance(not analytical finance), something a
CA can do efficiently. If a CA can do the same work more efficiently and more
precise, then why me ? Why an IIT graduate? Why pay more when just a little can
rock the floor. This is certainly a chase for valuation and branding. I took a
tough call, rejected the offer. When will IIT and AIPC learn to take tough
call?
When I am writing this
story, Helpchat is busy firing 150 people and shutting down its chat-wing business, Tinyowl is getting tinier to adjust itself in the wings of Runnr,
Rahul Yadav’s AI version is failing to make a point, Peepertap and Amber
Business are drawing their shutters down. Is something wrong with the script?
It is, it certainly is and blaming sluggish global demand and melting Yuan can’t
camouflage this wrongly written script. Stagnancy in funding is because of
script, not because of a melting down market finance.
Startup to solve a
problem not just to take benefit of an idea driven un-utilitarian arbitrage available
in market. Because when market slumps, when return distribution skews down to
negativity, when recession strikes nobody is going to order food via an app, un-utilitarian
arbitrage will die overnight.
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