Do You Have What It Takes to Work For a Start-up?

Over the last 15 years as a technology headhunter, I’ve placed many people at a highly diverse set of start-ups and over that period. During that time, I've developed a checklist of what makes a successful candidate in such a high-risk venture.  There is no "perfect" candidate, but there ARE certain traits I look for during a search process.  Here are points to think about when considering leaving that easy job at IBM or a more established company:

          One the most important traits is the willingness to work with very few resources and work on building many things from scratch.  What I’ve found out with the candidates from the established companies is their propensity to insist on resources. They need people to set-up conferences, assist them in sales tasks, make telemarketing calls for them, bring them leads, etc.  Start-ups don’t have that luxury and most people going into a start-up have no clue what’s in-store for them.  The perfect candidate has been an entrepreneur before and knows how a start-up works.  They shouldn’t depend on anyone except themselves and also should be willing to take-charge when needed.

·         Large company candidates also expect lots of perks and big packages that the start-up can’t provide.  They are so used to getting such perks at the bigger companies, and will get frustrated and not stick around if they don’t get what they want.

·         Start-up candidates are not used to structure at the beginning.  They understand it will take some time to get things moving and not everything is set in stone.  There are no books written about their company/space!  Here is an example:

I was working on a project with a group of the most well-known Internet professionals and hiring someone to run their new company.  The candidate was well-liked and was close to getting hired.  There was a problem though.  Every time I spoke with the candidate, he kept on asking me, “ If the space changes based on xyz in  the industry, what would the founders do?”  I kept telling him that was not the correct question.  It should be, “What would YOU do”.  I then went on to tell him that this is all new territory and he is going to be the one in-charge.  He has to make these decisions and not rely on the company to give him direction since they might not know themselves.  As I told him, “ There are no ‘play-books’ on the space and nothing to follow.  You have to be the one that’s the ‘game changer’ if the market changes.  He just didn’t comprehend that concept since he came from a larger company with lots of infrastructure.

·         You need to have patience!  So many people go into a start-up thinking they are going to be successful day-one and that never happens.  Setting expectations with the company and the candidate is so important.  I usually throw the “worst case” scenario to both sides and see how they react.  A potential employee needs to be prepared for anything that might happen,(better or worse) and understand they have to hold-on for ‘dear life’ if things don’t go their way.  It’s the people who have a clear understanding of the full risk/reward that end up being the most successful.  Jumping ship too early means they overlooked what the inherent risk was.  If you don’t like high risk, go to IBM!

A start-up is not for those that don’t like to gamble.  The majority of start-ups fail and people only like to remember the successes (Google, Facebook, Salesforce.com, etc.).  You have to be willing to take the risks and be patient, if you want to give a start-up a try.  Most candidates don’t understand, do you?

Why are Candidates Embellishing Salaries when Interviewing?

As one of the top recruiters in the country, I always tell people to be honest about their backgrounds at all times. I think people who get into the habit of increasing their salaries do it only because they believe the hiring company, simply uses a formula when deciding what you pay and they're right.  (It’s usually 5-15% higher than what the candidate was making at their previous employer).  The better way to avoid inflating salaries is for both sides is to make sure expectations are set at the beginning of the interview process.  What a candidate needs to do is be up-front with their salary requirements from the start.  If they were making $40,000 at their last job, but believe they were underpaid, that needs to come out during the interview.  They need to say, “ I’m making $40,000 at ABC company and I believe I’m underpaid, which is why I’m looking now.” "Someone with my background and experience should be making $65,000, according to my research and talking to many of my peers in the industry."It comes down to what you believe you are worth, not what you made at your last job. 

Companies need to understand salary issues, when handing out offers.  If the person is too expensive, the candidate needs to know that early on, so they can make a decision to go forward with the rest of the interviews. They need to make sure the candidate feels important and not make the salary offer an afterthought.  They also need to understand that an offer shouldn't just be based on a 5-15% increase in salary but what the candidate is worth to the company and also understand why the candidate is asking for a specific salary, even if it's much higher than their last job.  Remember, that might be why they're looking in the first place!

If both sides are open and up-front, salary embellishing would be less prominent.  Tell the employer what you believe you are worth, and make sure they know, it has nothing to do with what they were making at their last job.

Are IBM and Other Large Companies Capable of Hiring the Best People?

I've been an Executive Recruiter for over 14 years now, and it simply amazes me how ‘out of touch', many of the larger technology companies can get, when it comes to recruiting the best people to work for them.  Over the years, many are so focused on letting HR do all the hiring, ‘missing the boat’ with complex or inefficient hiring practices, designed to save costs, rather than hire the best people.  All this, while some of their smaller or mid-sized competition are swooping in and hiring top talent, beating them to the punch.  Can a company as large at IBM compete for the best talent in the industry?  What will it take for them and other large companies to compete for that top 10% of the talent pool?
In many ways, the answer to my question is quite rhetorical in nature.  The simple answer is IBM has a hiring model that is not focused on hiring top people but, just hiring people that can deal with large company bureaucracy.  How can this be?  By letting HR and Internal Recruiting dictate the hiring policies, they make it impossible for any hiring manager to bring the top people in, unless they're prepared to fight for a specific candidate and deal with countless political squabbles.  This is a great example of HR running the company, rather than the line managers who know what they want.  So, let's use a specific example with IBM.  As soon as you are granted the opportunity to work with IBM as an outside recruiting organization, you receive a call from HR, detailing the IBM recruiting policy.  The first thing they tell you is that you are not allowed to talk to any hiring manager at IBM and if you do, you will have your contract canceled.  Well, there's a great start right?  They then go on to say how you will obtain access to the IBM Hiring Portal and you must submit candidates specifically for a req. and nothing else.  So, what they're telling you is read the req., find a candidate based on the req. and take a guess if those candidates can fit the profile, without any direct input from the hiring manager.  The major problem, with this system is as a recruiter, you can't use your professional experience to guide both the candidate and hiring manger to a perfect fit, and you are simply forced to guess.  Another example using IBM, is how many calls we get from IBM managers, frustrated that their internal recruiters are so inept and a waste of time, yet, they can’t do anything about it. This goes back to IBM’s policy of keeping the external recruiters and hiring managers at a distance so HR can retain control of the process.  It seems IBM and other companies with this type of policy want to retain so much control, creativity and strategic hiring are thrown out the window.  If a top performer happens to pop-up, without a req. attached, the recruiter can’t submit that person because, well, there is no req. attached.  Seems kind of funny, if you think about it.  In my experience, sometimes the top candidates don’t show up when you have the req. but when they make a choice to move to another company.  The best organizations need to be prepared to hire those individuals at anytime, or their competition will hire them away instead.  IBM’s policy is so rigid, it won’t allow for candidates outside the policy and that’s the worst hiring strategy.
Now, there are large companies that treat hiring differently from IBM, with an understanding of how to hire the best people.  Let’s take Oracle for example. While Oracle’s HR department works on lowering recruiting costs, they allow all hiring managers to choose which recruiters they work with, and allow the managers direct access to any hiring method.  This gives the actual line manager the opportunity to work on a hiring strategy with both internal and external recruiters, making sure they can hire the best people.  They are also allowed a certain override if they come across a top candidate, with no actual req. open.  This is why Oracle has consistently been able to attract top people, even though they are also a very large organization. So, why is IBM different from Oracle?  It has to do with who’s running the business.  At IBM, HR runs the business and at Oracle, the managers run the business.
So, what is the perfect balance to both cut costs and hire the best people?  Allowing hiring managers direct contact with all recruiting sources, and include HR to guide and become part of the process not control it, the company ends up with direct input from hiring managers who know exactly what they want, recruiters that are able to plan a strategy with the organization and candidates that are well-informed throughout the process. It’s seems so logical and easy, yet organizations like IBM’s HR department and others like them, won’t give up any control.

Locking-Up ‘The Cloud’— A Short Article on Cloud and Cloud Security

Where is the Cloud? Is there security in The Cloud?? These are two of the questions for which SSR has been trying to find answers. As Technologists who are also Executive Recruiters, we try not only to place people at the best companies, but also evaluate newer and emerging technologies. Cloud has been the "buzz” for quite some time. Simply put, Cloud Computing is off-loading your physical computing resources to a service provider which reduces your cost exposure to fees for only the time and capacity you utilize. In other words, a totally elastic method of billing, so you only pay for what you use over the period that actually you use it.


In order to take full advantage of the cost benefits, organizations must have applications and data infrastructure that have been architected for Cloud environments. For the enterprise, virtualization and service oriented architecture (SOA) are the first steps. But for many Independent Software Vendors (ISV's) who are grappling with how to manage their clients as-well-as security of their client's information in The Cloud, a true SaaS delivery model becomes essential. We’ve been working with industry luminaries to find solutions to these questions, and have some initial comments.

For the ISV, as the migration to the Cloud and SaaS is initialized, it is essential find a partner that can take the existing applications and "re-architect" them to be "SaaS Compatible" in a cost effective, secure and safe manner. Be certain to insure that the firm you hire is not connected to a dedicated hosting provider, or you may be stuck with an application that is either bound to proprietary technology or can’t be moved or both. ISV's will want the option to host their application anywhere, and if a SaaS is truly the goal, multi tenancy offers the lowest total cost of delivery and many security advantages.

As Cloud Security becomes a greater concern, it’s extremely important to conduct a full security audit on your implementation, once the applications are running in the Cloud environment. This should be done at least twice a year, but ideally, once a quarter. Cyber-threats are becoming commonplace and Cloud Providers, including Force.com and Amazon Web Services have already been hit. While there are no standards for Cloud Security, there are many recommendations. We believe in the next six months, some specific standards for Cloud Security will be adopted. SSR sees this space as "hot" to watch in 2010.

Interviewing is a Mindset

One of the biggest frustrations we hear about is simply getting through an interview.  How do you get past the stress of the job search and master the face-to-face interview? Here are some easy tips:

1).  Treat the interview as you would a sales call. Pretend the Interviewer is a possible client.  How would you approach the meeting now?  Try to {politely}, take control of the interview.  Ask how much time you have, and what the interviewer has set-up for their agenda. Ask if you may give them your agenda so both of you will have time to ask questions and to show you are well prepared for the interview.

2).  Think of the interviewer as a client that just had five other vendors in for a sales call.  What would you ask them now? What do you have to sell them?  How would you sell yourself?

3).  Ask them the questions, "So, what did you like about the other candidates you've interviewed so far?" "What are some things you didn't like about some of the candidates?" "What were they missing?" These questions give you the best in-sight on what the interviewer is looking for and will help you mold yourself to their, 'Hot Buttons'.

4). Always stay on the offensive and not the defensive while in an interview.  Don't just sit there while you're being barraged with questions.  Have many of your questions prepared and ask them throughout the interview.  Many of our clients tell us what they hate most is when they interview someone and the candidate doesn’t have any questions!  It shows you either weren't prepared for the interview or don't care enough to ask anything.

5).  Ask the question, " So, what did you like about my resume/phone interview to bring me in?"  "Why am I here?"  This gives you even more insight as to what they liked about you to bring you in.  Focus on those positive traits and mold the interview to your best strengths.

6).  PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO CLOSE THE PERSON INTERVIEWING YOU!  I hear this all day long from clients after they interviewed candidates.  They are very surprised how many people forget to go for the close at the end of the interview and clients have not hired many people simply because they forgot to close them and ask for the job.  Even the best sales people sometime forget to close.  Be VERY direct and say something like this; " I like what I hear so far and I'm very impressed with your company and the position.  I definitely want the job or I wouldn't be here. Can you tell me the next steps and what I need to do to get the job?"

7).  After the interview, PLEASE remember to send a 'Thank You' message within one day following the interview.  Make sure you close the interviewer in the message and ask for a follow-up in a few days.  If you're working with a recruiter, debrief them on the interview and ask for follow-up tips to close the deal.

The critical thing about any interview is to take and retain control of the interview.  Remember, your time is just as important, and many people forget this when they go into an interview. Keep a positive attitude and you will win that next job!

Ellia Kassoff is President and CEO of one of top Executive Recruiting firms in the country, Strategic Software Resources, Inc., specializing in high technology.  His 14 years of insight and technology experience have garnered him one of the top spots in technology; as an industry analyst, recruiter and advisor.  Ellia has advised more than 400 companies on product pricing, positioning, employment development and hiring.  He has also given many seminars on hiring the right people and how to find that next job.  His insights on the recruiting process have been used by thousands of people around the world by both candidates and clients.