Retrospection of Present Recruitment Problems – PART I

Off late, we are observing humongous problems in recruitment. Getting resources, make them work, retain them, get them motivated. Let it be start-up, larger organization, situations are same everywhere. In this blog I will try to search answers and retrospect the root cause. All cannot be written in single blog. Hence, I will try to document it through few episodes.

No respect to work:

We have a gardener at home who comes in morning and feeds water to plants in the garden every day with a monthly contract. He takes weekly off on Friday.  One of the week recently, he took a leave on Thursday for a medical checkup of his wife and was reluctant to adjust it with his weekly off on Friday (which was just the next day). But he continued to be absconding on the following Saturday and Sunday as well. Suddenly he appeared on Sunday afternoon to inform that tomm onwards he would continue as usual in the morning. The answer as justification of his absence during Saturday took my blood off. He said he did not turn up for the reason that he was not feeling to work on a Bengali new year’s day ( yes, the Saturday 15th April, 2017 was the kick off of Bengali new year 1424) in order to prevent  his hard work during every day of the proceedings days of the year.

2nd incident was also took place today. Two aspiring drivers came to meet me today as was searching for a new regular driver. He expressed all his expectations like he needs INR 12K as monthly salary on 12hrs working for 6 days a week, more than 12hrs, per hrs overtime charge INR 40, in case some Sunday he needs to work, he will work on extra money as per prevailing Driver Center charges, He will be charging for Rs.3 per km for outstation travel where lodging/boarding etc will be extra on actual. His bonus will be one month’s salary during Puja. In final notes he concluded that the driving job is very tedious job where he has been on the field, staying all the day with the cab, very tiring for out stations, as he has to drive so long. What he tried to mean was even after so many troubles he was favoring myself by charging so little, rather he had accepted the hardworking, suffering for me only to help me.

There are enough examples like this and I can write several books now on similar real life examples ( I am actually  documenting this in “Fools’ Walk” series of books along with my coauthor Pritam).

Both the examples above clearly indicates the vision of a job aspirant or an employee/worker towards a job which feeds him/her money for the survival. Unless you love it, think it is priority, feels from the heart it is important for your family, the result can never be best. The outcome will be percentage output; there will be always distance/unhappy feeling with the employer and in effect most of the times wicket falls.

lollipop Generation

The headline is being qued from one the senior fellow Entrepreneur. This is more applicable for the present generation youth. In present era, there is one or two kids in a nuclear family. Parents have always been protective, possessive and primitive. The social economic standing enforces for best schooling, branded cloth, gadgets, gaming console, and loads of extracurricular activities to have a bight future for the kids. But the too protective pampered environment makes them relaxed, less hard-working, less competent to handle real life situations, inclined towards struggle free life.

There were situations where people declined to visit Arunachal ( north-eastern state of india) since their parents did not approve them going that far and in a disturbed terrain like this ( I really do not know why and how Arunachal  becomes a disturbed terrain). Even there have been instances where people preferred to resign instead of opting an out location travel to Baharampur (in the district of Murshidabad, West Bengal.).

You might have seen latest “Parle” advertisements where teacher called mother to complain about the child behavior in class. The mother was questioned incase if she was about the same and surprisingly she countered that even sir is unaware about the biscuits for parents and kid are manufactured by same biscuit company. Useless advertisement, but reveals true retrospection of the society where teacher can be further questioned in front of the student. That is reason even a teacher slaps a student in class for wrong behaviour,  the same may lead to a police case, media story and personal life threat for the teacher outside school territory.

This philosophy getting started from grassroots stage, will surely impact future professional  life as well.

Entrepreneurship :

Now a days buzz of Entrepreneurship is flowing almost everywhere. All colleges, universities, associations, government, even corporations are floating schemes, facilities,  mentoring, funding, incubation to manufacture entrepreneurs to have self-sufficient independent youth to stand on their feet without any job. But unfortunately that does not happen.  Entrepreneurship does not only about just popping out an idea, but to execute the idea, build teams, sell the product/services to customers and earn money, manage funds, handle statutory, legal etc. More precisely entrepreneurship is not about riding on someone else’s money without any struggle, hard work. Rather the reverse rosy picture is being hallucinated that entrepreneurship is about free-flowing life where you can earn a lot of glories, lime light, fame, name etc without much of struggle.  And most of the people finally fail, but the mindset gets injected of a free-flowing, non-obligatory, hassle free, non-accountable lifestyle and in effect the youth do not get comfort to a job where they are answerable or bound by Kra/appraisal system.

That is also applicable for experienced ones. People are losing jobs every now and then. Few people are leaving jobs for bosses, salaries, exploitation by employers, adjustment with the culture, locational problems, office timings, salary disbursements delays and so many other things.  But the very interesting things most of them, first leave jobs and then search for options (those who had not lost job). Then after some time when they fail to get any suitable jobs, these people jumps into business in a “Me Too” model. Finally, most of them either fail or spoil the market by low pricing, desperation of orders, quoting without understanding and so on.

Finally, market dynamics gradually get evolved and in effect expectations from the aspiring job seekers change, which does not fit in to industry needs. In effect, the gap gets prolonged between employer and employee expectations.  And yes, end result yields retrenchment, resignation, leaving absconding etc disrupts business dynamics.

Choosing Job Options

In seven years of my business,  I did not find much of people interested in field jobs be it technical or sales. Everyone expressed inability of hard work in hot humid sunny days, rainy season, out location travel etc.

In a campus interview, we had selected 7 diploma engineers, 3 in technical and 4 in sales. All of them joined and that time we had tried to implement full HR process. Initial 15 days were full in-house training, before they will be placed for production. But after induction process of 15 days, Once the field visits started, 4 Sales guy disappeared by 7 days.  Out of 3 service guys 2 also vanished in 15 days for the reason of out-location travel (someone had to catch morning 6.30am train for a 4 hours journey on a site survey).

I have plenty full of incidents to explain the situation.  During interview for experienced ones, I found the latest trend to leave jobs first and then search for jobs. In effect almost any aspiring job seekers having 3 to 6 months break in career graph.

One of my friends referred me to Prakash two months back. Prakash’s mother works as a cook in my friend’s home. Prakash born and brought up in Bihar, but stays now in kolkata.  He comes with a very needy family background.  During face-to-face discussions, I liked him and decided to offer him the job. I continued discussion with him about his notice period in the present job (he was working in a domestic call canter for last 8months). Interestingly it was revealed that he could join immediately as his notice period was about to be over by next couple of days. I was wondering why he left a job without getting a suitable change. However, he kept me further surprised by the fact that he was rather having a job in his bucket and he was about to join there by coming week. My curiosity took an interrogative tone “Why you are further evaluating a job with us then?”. He said he did not find the culture, atmosphere of that organization very fitting for him, rather the organization was seemed to him as very fishy (that he discovered from few of his friends who were already working there).  “But why you resigned from your present job with this dilemma?” my curiosity continued. His answer was mind-boggling “Sir, I worked for so many days, thought of taking a break!”. My reply was instantaneous” What? You are working here only for 8 months, before that you took a 4 months break for your ear operation, Why you need a break again?”. He answered, “Sir, actually next month is my birthday. Thought of having party and other enjoyment in this month and then again search for a suitable job again”. I was speechless and please note neither a single line of discussion is cultivated nor a single iteration in the dialogue.

This section, I will finish with one more story, very latest (garden fresh).

After so many issues with work force, thought of discarding B Tech, diploma, MBA kind of resources and pursued a campus in government youth training where they teach very basics of computers for the people who could not succeed much in terms in their traditional career. Anyway after one such campus interview, selected one candidate for sales. He was good in communication, body language, attitude and approach. He had not problem in field visits. After selection in campus, we asked him to office next day for the final discussion. We further discussed about job scope, opportunities and off course explanations on field visits. But he was extremely positive and excited to join from the very next day. More interestingly, he posted a Facebook update post leaving office about excitement of getting a first job. But unfortunately he did neither join not intimated next day. Once we investigated through the Institute, we have been apprised that his parents did not approve a job for him where he had to spent time in field jobs in hot humid summer.

THIS IS NOT THE END OF IT, SO MANY OTHER FACTORS. WILL WRITE IN THE NEXT DAY.

(To be continued…..)

 

Employer transformed to employee

Sunday morning is bit relaxed compared busy weekdays. During morning bazar, I met the Sweet Shop owner in his shop. His mood was terribly down. He was quiet upset and angry at the same time. Once I finished shopping Sweets, I waited for a while for the shop to be vacant. Once other customers left, I took the opportunity to ask him about his setback. I was shocked with the responses as found immense similarities with my experience.

One of his workers came to him at 7am in the morning with fully dressed along with baggage stating that he is going to his home. The reason is that his health is not well. The shop owner offered him to take to the local doctor as his home is in different territory (5-6hrs journey). But the worker was reluctant as he must visit the doctor at his home town only. Without giving any further chance of argument, he left. The shop owner added “he will not come back again”. Similar instances took place to him several times where people leave without notice, all of a sudden and majorly without any valid reasons. Then he expressed the golden words” I am no more employer, rather an employee. I am always being driven by my workers and helplessly not only I have to adjust to the situations, but also cover up their shortfalls myself”.

I became speechless. Same had happened to me several times. But I was under the impression, it happens to my industry (IT) only. But this incident revealed the truth that even the un-organized Sector is affected with the prevailing social trauma.

Recently we had hired a guy called “Samit Bhadra”. Intentionally, I am not changing his name as I want my community to spot him if identify sometimes. He had been hired 4/5 months back as his skill/knowledge/communication was good. My partner had taken him to a customer place, introduced him with customer and explained him the support modalities. Next day he was supposed to carry out some activities. He did not come in normal office joining time. After waiting for one hour people started calling him and as usual calls remained unanswered. Finally, a SMS arrived to the HR person stating that he met an accident and he is under bed rest for few days. He never returned back. Now two, three weeks back, the same guy applied again on one of our opening against our online job advertisement. I was reluctant to consider him due to past irresponsible behavior. But my partner taken a call to explore him further as other alternatives were extremely poor in knowledge wrt him. But before re-hiring him, HR had a long discussion and taken a commitment of non-repeating similar disappearing behavior. Finally he joined and was doing activities sincerely. On his 4th day of joining, we had given him some task to test some tools in office and also to co-ordinate some activities with vendors. Me and my partner went together for a meeting for two hours. On return, we found him not available in office and phones are not reachable. Story continued as earlier and finally we sent someone to his home to verify and at least collect company belongings. He refused to return even the corporate cug SIM even and advised to block it. Now we had not major loss due to this kind of whimsical behavior except the customer commitment. Some activities planned and delegated surrounding him. This disappearing behavior enforced company owners to stretch their legs and fulfil customer commitment.

So finally “Employer transformed to employee”.

This is happening so frequently due to lack of ownership, accountability, sincerity. People leaving all of a sudden, coming late, becoming absent without notice, communication gap are few behavioral patterns which puts employers back to the wall.

What do you think?

Career Guidance Workshop

Career Guidance is one of major elements for students who are completing the educational life and aspiring to achieve greater heights in professional career. The present situation is unlike the era of 1970s where the objective of the employer was to accept the candidature, whereas the present time is more towards rejections. The no of aspirants are many times more than the available posts.

But myth about job is not true. It is being float to the market that there is almost no Job. But situation is reverse. There are enough jobs to offer, but very less matching candidate to fit in. The employability for the students are poor and in effect the employers are also suffering with vacant positions. An off course students are landing towards frustrations, grow low in confidence.

The learning is not about domain skills, but applying the same properly during execution. The interviewer is not looking at your right answer only, but the approach towards the situations. The body language, communications, dress code, confidence, attitude etc are some of the sample parameters which are being evaluated by the HR person of the organization than the technical skills.

But students generally keep low attention to this segment. We had worked with several institutions on this area to “Bridge the Gap of Employability” through our master classes.

The recent was Rajiv Gandhi Government Polytechnic, Itanagar, Arunachal. Our intention was to make youth employable even beyond metro City. The students in metro City still gets some exposure, but not in tier II or tier III cities.

The workshop was for three days with a time tested and structured process, which focuses on making INDUSTRY READY professionals.

The workshop covered the below enhancement areas:

• Communicate assertively, confidently and convincingly
• Develop competencies to face interviews confidently
• Develop a  “Never Say Die” attitude
• Inculcate the habit of focusing on the Controllable and thus making a positive impact

The training methodology of the workshop was experiential and participative based on “Real Life” case studies, simulated role plays with debrief, relevant AV clips to internalize the learning , games and activities to add Fun with Learning.

The students were extremely enthusiastic and participative with an eye opener of their thoughts towards life.

However, the workshop was covering behavioral changes in life and the same cannot be done overnight. The students need to undergo and adopt changes gradually in life and achieve success.

All the best.

Below are few snapshots of the program.

  

More pictures can be reviewed here

Want to be an Entrepreneur?

I have been hearing the buzz on Entrepreneurship during my journey so far.

There are colleges who taught entrepreneurship and mentor people to start their own. Government, Institutions declare policies, schemes to promote entrepreneurship. There are seminars to encourage entrepreneurs.

I was being asked by lot of my friends if I am able to earn the same salary what I used to earn during my job (they felt me “mad” as my answer was “no” always, though no one told me the same on the face).

Majority of them appreciated me for being courageous to leave job and start a business. They also expressed their aspirations/ willingness to become an entrepreneur. But they could not do it due to lot of their liabilities and commitment/dependencies towards family (as if I do not have!).

Few of the aspirants wished to adapt a safe approach to explore the business parallel till the time he / she could earn the same/Decent monthly amount.

I met, I know people stated business once they lost job or had problems in job. Even I found people went back to job (or searching job) after spending (or exploring) few days in business.

This blog is not to criticize people. But I have narrated above facts to establish “Entrepreneurship” is being treated as an “Option”, not “Choice” at least in India. Success is measured in terms of figures. I had been asked several times by several people “what is the turnover”, “How many people works in my organization”, “Where is my office” etc. I had faced questions by jobseekers if my company holds “PF/Gratuity/ESI”. The socio economic condition is not in favor of entrepreneurship. The bride/groom will have better mileage if he/she is working in Big4 instead of running a startup.

Entrepreneurship cannot taught. It is not easy, it is not rosy as always projected. It is never safe and secure.

It is not only by heart or mind. It is a combination of the same. If you do not have risk taking appetite, you should not be in business. You will be at the edge of steep mountain slopes even if you are utmost prepared. But your best performance will reveal only when you are at gun point.

Entrepreneurship is not magic. Nothing can happen overnight even if you have best technology, service or product. Hence patience is important. Holding the fort, sticking to the vision are essentials for the balls to roll at right time.

Entrepreneurs are the king of his/her kingdom (even if it is a single person enterprise). It needs courage, big heart, fighting spirit, sixth sense, team building capabilities, adaptability, flexibility, manageability and so on.

These come from inside. The power/spark is within. It is inborn. It cannot be created, taught, trained, and polished.

Friends, take decisions carefully. Ask yourself “Why you want be an entrepreneur?”. If your soul responds back “you have nothing else to do”, please hold yourself. Entrepreneurship is not meant for you.

Dudes, do not think me negative as I am discouraging. But trust me this is the truth as I have learned through my journey in a hard way.

Would love to know fellow entrepreneurs feedback.

Let relish entrepreneurship! This is a journey for life.

Why do people leave Job?

Job and Attrition are very interlinked subject at this moment. SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) is a common buzz across the globe. But people in India and especially in Bengal not interested to work in SME, Start-up, New Organizations even though learning opportunities are immense. People prefer working in big companies where they might be seating in the bench for long duration due to non-availability of work. There is a popular myth that there is job scarcity in the market. But that is not true. There are enough jobs available for the right candidate with right skills and attitude. Hence aspiring students/job seekers does not get suitable job or even after getting job they remain unhappy and prefer leaving it behind. On the contrary, employers become disappointed due to the skill mismatch, gap with expectations and in effect fail to retain and mentor him/her for growth. This becomes a chicken and egg story and a perennial problem exists in the society.

In my entrepreneurial journey I have seen several instances which are clueless. I have learned lot of stories from my fellow friends as well. And all of the instances having a story behind. In this section today I will try to list down few of the instances which are experiences by me or my friends. The stories of few of the points will be explained in separate blog in the same series (hope you remember the 1^st blog in this series “Why Pradip Left the Job”. Here goes few samples:

1. The engineer had to leave office at 6.45pm instead of 6pm and he missed the train which he is used to board. Did not turn up next day onward (even though he was having lot of liability and was not having any alternate job)
2. One guy taken leave for “Liver Related Problem” (after working six months) and did not comeback.
3. The fresher engineer (who spent more than a lakh amount in training in almost all domain like linux, windows, networking, php, maya etc) and we were trying to mentor and groom him. But within three months he started complaining to customers (instead of sharing his discomfort to us , he started pitching to the customers) that he has not been given Linux oriented jobs and finally left without giving us opportunity to train him in Linux domain before live projects.
4. Fresher “Muslim” guy left job since he had been told to support onsite customer support (FMS) during durgapuja and adjust the leave during Maharam (which was immediately after durgapuja that year). Instanly he rejected since it will disturb his enjoyment during puja with friends and did not turn up next day onwards.
5. The candidate had a seat beside bathroom hence he left the job.
6. Boss asked the candidate to find out his driver (his mobile was not reachable) at nearby pan-shop and hence he left the job.
7. Boss asked him to stay till 8 pm for a specific reason and he left the job immediately without informing anyone.
8. Customer shouted heavily as he attended a call after 2 hours and delay was due to traffic problem / train late. In effect he left the job.
9. The candidate was sent to a remote customer where there is no office of his organization. Left the job on return.
10. Candidate was playing games and caught by a co-worker and he in turn threatened him to complain to the authority. And he left the job
11. Within 4 hrs notice he was asked to visit a customer at Jharkhand. He left office for home to prepare himself. But finally did not go and vanished afterwards.
12. Candidate was having slight stammering. A female co-worker laughed at him and while stammering and he left the job.
13. The engineer was deputed to a CCTV Surveillance Project to learn along with senior person. There was contractor to lay, drill etc and the other senior engineer was there to configure, test and train customer, Engineer felt the work is below standard and a HS Passed Engineer can do this. Hence he left.
14. At the time of interview he was informed that he will work as a network engineer but he was asked to visit a customer for support purpose and he left the job.
15. Senior asked him to bring tea from cafeteria and in effect he left the job.
16. She was asked to stay one hour more in the evening and her father came office and took her home saying she won’t do the job any more.
17. Candidate was late in attendance for few days and he was asked to be on time to avoid deduction from salary. He did not come next day onwards.
18. Candidate was asked to carry a switch and some cables to customer place and he left the job. He even hold company’s laptop for a few days.
19. Recruiter imposed a financial bond for one year (like he cannot leave the job before one year and if he does so he will be liable to payback some amount to the organization).He did not join.
20. Engineer acted very casual at customer place (Customer link went down and they incurred business loss due to wrong command given in the router) and he was questioned by his senior. He left the job.
21. A CCNA candidate thought he had excellent knowledge in router. But the gap in knowledge was identified in the first day of his joining and he had been asked to study to mediate the gap. He left.
22. The first day was very hectic and the engineer could not have lunch on time. His mother told her not to continue.
23. She was good at sales/ marketing co-ordination and was performing well and was earning handsome salary. Her boyfriend (jobless) did not want her to do a job and in effect she left.
24. Candidate was asked to manage the customer who is in firing mood. Left
25. And so on.

Stay Tuned on my later posts on this series for stories on each and every aspects.

Supreme Lord can only save us, our society, our youth, our next generations. Lets pray for them.

Why Pradip Left the Job?

It is a true story, not fiction. But in order to hide identity, the name. Address etc. has been changed.

It was early days of our start-up, end of 2010. Our office was at Park Street (near Mallick Bazar).

Pradip was one of our few initial employees (most probably 4^th employee). He was taken into our organization for strengthening Linux vertical. We were happy with his skills. Initial days, we had lot of dreams, visions to work on Linux based open sources and Pradip was one of the key member to those initiative. I still remember we were doing a POC (proof of concept) on packet fencer (network access control tool) and we were on the verge of completion.

It was Thursday evening around 5pm and I was at a customer place for an important discussions. I received a call around 5.15pm from one of our existing customer at Saltlake and he was at extreme urgency to have a router on immediate effect. I was trying to convince him about sending the same at his office next day morning since it was already late. But he did not agree. Rather he suggested to come over to our office himself and collect the router that evening itself by paying cash ( he was not willing to waste time even by issuing a cheque after passing several stages of approval). I sniffed the urgency and planned to support him even though the router was not in stock in our office. I had requested him to come over and in parallel asked the office boy to go the manufacturer warehouse for collecting the router (meantime backend co-ordination was done with the manufacturer and distributor). This stage got completed in 15minutes and customer had already started from Saltlake to Park Street by a Taxi.

It was 5.30pm in the evening. I suddenly realized no one else is available at office that time other than Pradip.

Hence I called up Pradip and briefed him the situation. I told him to greet customer on his arrival and request him to relax and wait at office. Once the office boy comes back, he needs to handover the router to the customer and collect the cash in lieu of the money receipt. Once everything completed he may lock the office and leave for the day.

Pradip was very unhappy with this and was instantaneous in his reply, apprehending delay in work and late arrival to home. Rather he started arguing with lot of justification like he might miss the scheduled train, more than 9 hours no one can force employees etc. I smelled some problem and was in a request mode to execute this. Moreover I promised him to seat face to face next day morning to resolve his grievances (if any).

However the transaction was very smooth. Customer arrival, router collection, handing over the router to customer, payment collection – all synchronized well and got completed 6.30pm with great customer satisfaction.

Pradip kept the cash in office and handed over the key to the building caretaker and left around 6.45pm.

Everything was very well co-ordinated and I felt relived.

But it was just the beginning, surprise was waiting for me next day.

Pradip did not come to the office and his mobile was switched off. I was anxious since that was the day to complete the POC at customer place.

We got his resignation at 11.30am over mail and he never turned back to office. He did to neither completed handover formalities, nor passed any knowledge did transfer and in effect we landed into deep problems. But nothing is indispensable in this world and eventually we recovered from all issues.

But I was in a mode of introspection – Why Pradip left the Job?

My logic was there could be two reasons:

1. Option I: He was unhappy with our organization (may be culture, our words etc) and was not in need of money. May be he was from a rich family and Job was only a time-pass activity and he did not hold any liabilities.

Or

1. Option II: He was already having a Job and he immediately switched due to the grievances with our organization.

(Though I was clue less why he could be unhappy us. We did not use any foul languages last day, rather was in an appealing note. That was the time we used to disburse salary last day of every month instead of waiting next month to come. Being an early stage of start-up we used to have lot of liberty, enthusiasm and he was with us around six months).

I was immediately jumped into investigation. The documents (which was collected during his joining in the organizations) were scrutinized and following facts were identified:

• He was from a middle class Bengali family at Barasat.
• He was the only earning member in the family with his aged parents, wife and child.
• He had his baby girl (only child) two months back only.
• He was earning INR 15000/- from us monthly.
• He got a flat in Barasat one year back and was holding EMI of INR 8000/- per month.

In nutshell, he was having enough liabilities and in effect it was literally impossible for someone to leave job. Hence option I became null and void. So the option left out is the second one.

I was keeping eye on the market and found him searching jobs next two months (as he was getting interviewed in my known circles and my friends called me for reference check seeing my organization as his last employer).

Till date I am clueless. Why Pradip Left the Job?

Readers having any clue? If yes I will be delighted to know from you.

God Bless Pradip!

Campus Interview – April 2014

Manpower is everlasting problem since we started our venture. It’s about four years now we are running our startup and no sign of getting the same resolved. This is different line of thought which I will write in a different blog. But this financial year we are trying to find out the resolution.

The first step, we thought of investing in fresh young minds instead of experienced one. Moreover we have constructed a proper HR process so that basic hygiene can be assessed.

The outcome of all these was a Pool Campus. We had planned it jointly with Nicco Ventures.

Nicco Ventures had been given the responsibility of organizing & coordinating a “Campus Recruitment Drive (Pooled)” by & for Prime Infoserv LLP for the 2014 batch passing out Diploma Engineering candidates from few selected & reputed colleges in the region.

The flow planned like below:

Step 01: Arithmetic + Logical Reasoning Test + English Proficiency [Elimination round]

Step 02: Company Presentation

Step 03: Group Discussion

Step 04: F2F Technical & HR Interview

Finally the pool campus was hosted in Technique Polytechnic Institute situated at Panchrokhi, Sugandhya , Hooghly last week (25^th and 26^th April, 2014).

  

I was not aware about this college. We started in early morning. Our HR head Manas came from Hyderabad and the full team (me, Manas, Krishnendu and Sailen from Prime and Soham from Nicco) started from Airport towards the destination at around 8.30 am on 26^th April. It was almost like a weekend trip since it was around 1.30 hours journey and due course we all were apprehensive about the college conditions, locations and students since it was very remote.

  

But we were amazed the moment we reached. Excellent ambience, fantastic infrastructure and a well-planned facilities.

Step 01 (Arithmetic + Logical Reasoning Test + English Proficiency) was conducted by Nicco on 25^th and they had selected around 38 candidates out of 97 total candidates. It was a pool campus. Hence apart from TPI, other participating colleges were Elite Polytechnic Institute, Saroj Mohan Institute of Technology and JIS School of Polytechnic

Initially we had presented Prime Company snapshots in front of last day shortlisted 38 candidates, followed by Q&A.

  

Then we broke all candidates into two different pools (one for technical and other for sales – based on their interest and communication skill grade from yesterday exam). Then they had been sub divided into multiple sub groups to handle a situation. It was like a group activity to solve a problem collectively (technical) or pitch a product/service in front of customer team (Sales). Based on the analysis we shortlisted final pool and approached for face to face interview post lunch.

Lunch was arranged by the college in their Guest House. It was in the campus itself. The hospitality was awesome. We were in dilemma that we came to some ceremony or a campus interview. The menu was Rice, Dal, Aloo Bhujia, Dhokar Dalna, Fish , Chicken, Chatni, Papad, Rasogolla and Sweet Curd.

  

Face to face round revealed different areas for the candidates. We found extremely good candidates with knowledge, attitude, and seriousness. On contrary there were lazy, impatient, confused kind of Personnel as well.

We found majority of them did not get exposer for proper industrial training. Mostly they went BSNL, Prasar Bharati & NSIC. But finally did not gain anything even after they spent some money for the project as well. We found this is an area where we can work to groom the students in future through our training vertica l(we have done some programs like this earlier, but not in a systematic continuous way). I will highlight this section in some of my other upcoming blogs.

We found people got tensed, nervous and felt they need more grooming for attending interviews (which is not available for most of the colleges now a days) in terms of dress code, approach, mental conditioning etc.

However we got sparks in few candidates and finally selected 8 of them and 5 candidates put in standby for further evaluation.

Overall a good experience and expect we can groom the selected candidates for the big leap and fulfill our ultimate objective of creating trustworthy, accountable, hardworking, obedient, skilled soldiers in the Prime Army. This should not be only a Job for them. It will be a journey to life where they will be mentally strong, patient and analytical towards any problems.

I met Mr.JS Dhar & Mr.Suman Sikder who were heading campus interview process from TPI side. They had stitched the entire day for us with excellent human touch. We got to know the entrepreneurial story of TPI. 5 friends form Hoogly Institute of Technology aspired to be entrepreneur instead of a traditional job way back in 1981. During their journey in real estate landscape, they felt about education space and started TPI in 2008. We had been given a nicely crafted internal magazine named “Prajuktika”.

           

Overall planning by Nicco Ventures was superb, truly professional, systematic and result oriented.

Will look forward working with Nicco and TPI in upcoming sessions as well.

All the best for the selected candidates. Looking forward to see in the Prime Team in the month of June 2014.