Early career guidebook — When you don’t know what you want
July 9, 2014:
“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” — Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Rejecting a campus placement without any job at hand
EXL was the first non-tech company at campus (came in the second week of final year) for 2010–2014 batch at Delhi College of Engineering (DTU). I got placed as an Analyst. That was the first and only job I applied for at campus. I applied mainly out of FOMO and as an obligation to my parents. After all they knew that placement season had begun and were expecting their son to get placed as soon as possible.
I was supposed to join EXL in June 2014, but I postponed it by 1 month because I was attending Innovate Delhi bootcamp, held in June 2014 at IIIT D.
As shown above in the mail I sent to EXL HR (check screenshot), I decided to not join the company after the 1 month wait period too was over. I had no job at hand, no idea what my “passion” was, but I just felt that something was missing.
But how did you get the confidence to leave a campus placement without any backup?
Well, read on for that.
I am not writing this post just for the recent graduates. Of course, they will benefit the most. But I am writing this post for everyone, irrespective of their career stage, and I wish this story will work as an anecdote to motivate them and to assure them there is always a way forward.
Let’s start from that point where I posted the Facebook status as an official update confirming the placement.
August 28, 2013:
Let’s open the bottles.
If you have ever studied at an engineering college, I don’t need to explain what happened next. After 4–5 days of back-to-back binge drinking with different social groups I hung out with during college, it was time for me to think about this soberly.
What does all this even mean? Is this an achievement?
As per wikipedia, EXL Service is an operations management and analytics company, headquartered in New York. EXL hires 100s of new engineering grads as analysts for its India office and these hires support their global teams with data research and analytics. Getting into EXL from DCE was not a big deal by any means. But you know what would have been worst? Applying for EXL and not getting selected!
Hence, I won’t deny I was relieved.
But, that was the full extent of my emotion. Just “relieved”.
This meant I had 10 more months to do whatever shit I wanted to pull off…
Wait a minute! What did I want to do again?
This is a strange hustle story. I would have loved to hustle, but I didn’t know what to hustle for!!
Okay. Breathe. Let’s start from what we know.
Things I didn’t want in 2013 -
- Job as a Mechanical Engineer (important since I did B.Tech in Mech Engg)
- Job as a Software Developer (I wish I wanted this 😞. Life would have been so much easier and straightforward)
- Job as any kind of engineer
- Staying at home doing nothing (aka asking parents for money)
- More engineering degrees
That made things a little bit clearer.
Time for spray and pray
“Try 10 new things, leave the 9 which are not promising enough and move to the next level“— the formula that worked for me.
Things that didn’t work out:
- Opportunities with high impact non-profits in India
- Opportunities with the startups working at co-working spaces in Delhi
- High-caliber youth fellowships
- Angel investment for an appointment scheduling product I had come up with
- Opportunities with alumni in top management consultancies and investment banks
- Many more that I don’t remember now. But I do remember that I was exploring more than 10–12 things. I was talking to 25+ people online and offline, exploring whatever they had to offer and then comparing opportunities
“The doors will be opened to those bold enough to knock“ — Tony Gaskins
Thing #1 that worked out: Applying to ICICI Trinity again in 2013
As mentioned in a previous post — “Connecting the dots to Product Management”, I applied for ICICI Trinity again in 2013. I was the national winner for 2012 edition and our team of 3 had won INR 1 million. In 2013, I applied alone and managed to clear stage 1 in Oct 2013. I got INR 50k to build a prototype of the game I had proposed for stage 2.
Hello money!!
From previous year’s INR 1million, I got INR 230k (after 30% gift tax and splitting the remaining 700k three-ways with my partners). From new competition I got INR 35k after gift tax. So in towards the end of 2014, I had INR 265k in bank. That was topped up by winning B-plan competitions at multiple colleges in New Delhi.
Obviously if you have runway, you can try out more things.
Thing #2 that worked out: E-summits on steroids
Since I was the President of Entrepreneurship Cell at DCE in 2013, I had fairly decent connections at E-Cells of other Tier 1 engineering colleges in India. So I started from there. No aim. Just exploration with an open mind.
I met a few startup founders at the business plan competitions at these e-summits. But one that particularly stood out from the rest was Zostel.
I met 4 cofounders of Zostel at IIT Bombay E-summit where they were pitching as a contestant. Zostel eventually won the 1st prize at the competition. At that time, Zostel had just 1 property in Jodhpur and was mostly building the brand name. Winning business plan competitions was a strategy for the same. Plus the money didn’t hurt.
My meeting with the team was very spontaneous. I was sitting in the cafeteria at a table and the Zostel team, wearing their Zostel t-shirts, were eating a few tables ahead. I had never heard their name before. I don’t know why I got up from my table and went to them, just to ask what are they upto. I realised that 2 of the 7 cofounders were from DCE.
Zostel team asked me to help them in promoting their forthcoming campaign “Best Internship” in Delhi colleges. I agreed. Best internship turned out to be a huge success. It won some prize for most innovative marketing campaign in India, got MTV as partner and accumulated some 70k+ likes on Zostel Facebook page.
Obviously I was just a cog in the wheel. But that is how I came to know the Zostel team and they came to know me. This single meeting had a big impact on my early career decisions.
After working part time with Zostel, I realised how this could be much more fun than a job at any management consultancy or investment bank.
Time to update things I didn’t want by mid 2014:
- Job as an analyst
- Jobs in management consultancies and investment banks
Thing #3 that worked out: Innovate Delhi Bootcamp at IIIT D
I attended a 3 week bootcamp by Stanford professors at IIIT Delhi — Innovate Delhi Bootcamp. Although the above selection mail screenshot is from Jan 24, 2014, the actual bootcamp happened in June 2014.
I met 2 product managers from Google, Mountain View HQ, and some other amazing product people. In those 3 weeks we learnt about some basic steps to generate ideas for product and then give it a shape so that you can communicate it to others and discuss.
Since I was on the lookout for opportunities anyway, I started learning more about all the entrepreneurs who visited as speaker at Innovate. I really liked Akosha, and its CEO Ankur Singla.
If you remember, I mentioned at the beginning of this post that I had already taken a 1 month joining deferral from EXL around June. It was to attend this Innovate Delhi bootcamp. And I knew that once this bootcamp was over, I will have to face the harsh reality of choosing EXL or being unemployed. So after the event, I mailed Ankur showing my interest in a generalist position on Akosha’s career page.
In the meantime, I had applied for another generalist position — an EA to Rishabh Gupta, CEO at Let’s Intern.
I had said no to the EXL job even before I had any other offer. I just knew in my heart that EXL was not the right thing for me, and I was willing to be unemployed for some time if that is what it took.
Rishabh gave me some tests. I aced them. He offered me the role of Executive Assistant and asked me to join him in Pune.
After passing the basic written tests, I gave the worst interview of my life at Akosha with 1 cofounder. I don’t think they would have selected me. But I kept mailing them for more interviews. Eventually they gave me the chance. The interviews with other 3 cofounders went well. Akosha too offered me the role. Later I found out that the cofounder who had interviewed me first was notorious for his social behaviour. He was known to send candidates crying out of the interview room (for that matter, hired employees too).
While Rishabh was a great guy, I preferred Akosha more. It was in Delhi too. I had to say no to the Let’s Intern offer.
I joined Akosha on 17th July 2014 — my first job ever. And just in the nick of time, as I rejected EXL offer on 9th July 2014.
If you want to check the reading course for new hires, then you can check it here as it was public anyway.
Keep moving forward
Akosha was like a bootcamp in itself.
It was the perfect way to immerse myself into the world of startups. There were certain aspects of Akosha culture that I didn’t like, but 80% of it was really awesome. Specially for those who wanted to learn about how startups work. That kind of information flowed freely within the company. Anybody could ask anybody for a gyaan session.
I took a flat in Jasola, near the Akosha office (although my parents too lived in New Delhi), because I didn’t want to waste time in commute. This is how a normal day in my life looked:
5am-5:30am: Wake up and get fresh
5:30am-8:30am: Read books on management, business & entrepreneurship
8:30am-9:30am: Bath, breakfast and get ready for office
Before 10 am: Reach office by bike
Max 8pm: Reach home by bike
8pm-9:30pm: Eat dinner and watch some shows
9:30pm: Sleep
I did this for 4 months.
I didn’t go out. I didn’t meet any people. It was self-inflicted discipline. I ended up reading quite a lot of books and articles. I also ended up completing the startup resource list for Akosha freshers that I shared above. The more I read, the more I got convinced that this is the best way forward.
Honestly, I think I got lucky because I took the road less travelled. This seclusion from my peers helped. A lot.
Always choose growth
During the time that I was cut off from the world, Zostel had raised seed fund of $1M. They were planning to enter the standardised hotel rooms space with a new venture — ZO Rooms.
I got a call.
Initially I didn’t know what to say about the offer. Akosha had raised Series A of $5M in July 2014 and were thinking of expanding themselves. I was involved with their B2B unit OneDirect and I had just started learning so much.
I said NO.
In the 4 months that I worked for Akosha, I got to work with 3–4 mid-level organisations who were our first clients. I was the first Key Account Manager for OneDirect and we were hiring more senior account people. I was asked to move to Mumbai with the AVP of Sales, and build base for OneDirect in Mumbai. The idea was that the AVP will close deals and then I will keep nurturing the relationship. We both were supposed to manage the Akosha Mumbai office, and I was supposed to search for a house that we can use as a home-cum-office in Mumbai.
My flights were booked for 15th Nov. And I had a 3 stay at a hotel in Andheri. That was the deadline before which we had to find a home-cum-office in Mumbai. Trust me, that is not an easy task if you know about the housing condition in Mumbai.
Anyway, I had my convocation on Nov 14, 2014 (that is the reason I requested for the flight on 15th). And on 14th everything changed.
I got another call in November from Siddharth Janghu, DCE alum and Zostel cofounder. When he heard I was leaving Delhi, he asked me to meet the Zostel team again once. I scheduled that meeting for 14th Nov, after my convocation.
On 14th Nov, after the convocation, I met Zostel team. I loved their vision and told them I will get back to them.
I did go to Mumbai on 15th Nov and found a 2BHK in Bandra West. And then I put down my papers. Vishrut, my manager and cofounder of Akosha, came to Mumbai and tried to talk me out of it. I liked Vishrut. He had been like an elder brother to me. But I saw a faster growth track for me at Zostel and explained the same to him. He eventually agreed.
I also chose Zostel because I liked their “friends” culture more than that of Akosha. And since I was joining the core team that would launch ZO Rooms, I thought it would be the natural progression for me into the world of startups.
I joined Zostel on December 3, 2014.
I will discuss about my experiences at Zostel (and later Trustio) in another post. For now, I hope this post will give you a good visual of my own journey into the world of startups. While writing this post, seeing all the Facebook statuses I wrote 4 years back and the emails I sent/received, I went back in the past myself. It helped me connect to my “why” even more deeply. After all, our “why” is the very foundation of our lives, and the reason behind the kind of person we become in life.
In the end, I would say 2 things —
- Don’t compromise in life. If it feels like something is missing, it is. Search for that something until you find it. But don’t wait for things to happen. Create lots of opportunities for yourself by going outside your comfort zone.
“Seek and you shall find”. - The universe will give signals. When you see a tiny ray of sunshine, start digging aggressively. There is light at the end of the tunnel, but reaching it will require a lot of hustle.
“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”
If you have read this far, I am assuming you found this article helpful. Hit that clap👏 button to help others discover it. Follow me on Medium to read more such long form content related to product, business, life hacks and hustling in early stage startups.
