Back in Bangalore
I am done with my long trip to IITK/Delhi. The campus recruitment got done and Yahoo offered 9 people a good career with Yahoo. It was a very eventual and tiring trip. Some key incidents include mock-hijack-drills, start-up discussions, stripping-searching-shoes-at-airport, and working till 3.30 to get things done.
I am more than glad to have Dennis, Mahesh, Deepanshu, Rishi, Zulfi, Prashant, Maneesh and Yogendra on this trip with me. They were a fantastic bunch, fun-loving and very mature to be on a trip like this. We also had to make some key decisions in making the final selection list and these guys all contributed to their best.
The selection process was simple - one written test, one personal interview, a programming test and voila - you are done. Each round was eliminating a bunch of the applicants. We started off, I believe, with about 100 and ended up with 9 selections.
We selected a bunch of those upfront and rejected a lot of them. But the key decision making always comes down to the border-line guys. You can't decide. Any candidate was evaluated by at least two guys and one written test.
But sometimes, even with all that data, you can't decide whether to pick or drop them. One 3 guys in such a list, the whole bunch of recruiting team sat down from 10 PM in the night to 1.30 AM to make the key decision. We ended up favoring of them and rejecting one of them.
Incidentally, that one candidate came up to me and asked what was the reason he didn't get selected. I spent a good 15-20 minutes chatting up with him, explaining what the process was and how we had to do all this brainstorming to arrive at this decision. I also gave him some candid feedback about where things might have gone wrong with him. It happens that you have good profile but have a bad day. It happens that having to select among so many people, you come up with a criteria where some guys get dropped. It Happens... Eventually, I wished him all the very best and I really hope he gets through some other companies offer in a day or two.
After all this, the Student Placement Office (SPO) wanted some feedback and we offered them feedback on how many of the candidates were lacking in specific skills and how they can be better prepared. More on that later.
There is so much more to write about this trip that I am gonna split it into a bunch of posts and hopefully finish off this week.... :-)
Update: "Start Ups Galore" and "On a Hijack High" links have been updated.
I am more than glad to have Dennis, Mahesh, Deepanshu, Rishi, Zulfi, Prashant, Maneesh and Yogendra on this trip with me. They were a fantastic bunch, fun-loving and very mature to be on a trip like this. We also had to make some key decisions in making the final selection list and these guys all contributed to their best.
The selection process was simple - one written test, one personal interview, a programming test and voila - you are done. Each round was eliminating a bunch of the applicants. We started off, I believe, with about 100 and ended up with 9 selections.
We selected a bunch of those upfront and rejected a lot of them. But the key decision making always comes down to the border-line guys. You can't decide. Any candidate was evaluated by at least two guys and one written test.
But sometimes, even with all that data, you can't decide whether to pick or drop them. One 3 guys in such a list, the whole bunch of recruiting team sat down from 10 PM in the night to 1.30 AM to make the key decision. We ended up favoring of them and rejecting one of them.
Incidentally, that one candidate came up to me and asked what was the reason he didn't get selected. I spent a good 15-20 minutes chatting up with him, explaining what the process was and how we had to do all this brainstorming to arrive at this decision. I also gave him some candid feedback about where things might have gone wrong with him. It happens that you have good profile but have a bad day. It happens that having to select among so many people, you come up with a criteria where some guys get dropped. It Happens... Eventually, I wished him all the very best and I really hope he gets through some other companies offer in a day or two.
After all this, the Student Placement Office (SPO) wanted some feedback and we offered them feedback on how many of the candidates were lacking in specific skills and how they can be better prepared. More on that later.
There is so much more to write about this trip that I am gonna split it into a bunch of posts and hopefully finish off this week.... :-)
Update: "Start Ups Galore" and "On a Hijack High" links have been updated.
