The PaGaLGuY.com Slog Blog

We are fanatical about hiring great people. It is one of the areas we seem to put in phenomenal effort and don’t always seem to strike gold. For example in the last 2/3 months we have interviewed in excess of a 1000 folks for multiple positions we’ve been looking to hire for. We hired two and asked one to leave. Now that is a staggering statistic – We just hired one person from over 1000 people we interviewed.

We floated this new statistic around at office and well, I expected to see surprised faces, but for some reason everyone seemed to know this rather well. With a knowing sigh, everyone got back to their work and then back to hiring. For a lot of people who we interact with – they find the statistics to be damning. At some point they don’t hesitate to tell us that we are nuts and no company should spend so much time hiring. We disagree .

Contrary to the way regular companies operate – i.e. of having a few great people at the top and then driving work to the below hierarchies, we are focussed on making sure people who work with us are capable of achieving phenomenal things on their own and we are obsessed about it. If you don’t want to do something great in your life and solve complex problems – we don’t see how you would enjoy your stay with us. As a motley bunch of people we realize there are infinite problems to solve and as you continue to keep solving them you start realizing the need to continue to work with awesome people. The ‘best workplace’ doesn’t exist and not are we sure we can create it. But we are keen on solving some parts of the problem – how do you create an organizational structure that works for such driven, talented people – how do you create systems and processes that are absolutely non-intrusive so that you focus on things you want to do.

Although the problems might sound alarmingly simple, the truth is they are extremely complex and tough to crack. Some changes might need major changes in the way the company operates at this point. To ensure we don’t shy away from doing what we need to – we keep asking ourselves tough questions. Heck, obsession is not a bad thing after all

As for the patience – it does get on your nerves when you do the 500th interview and realize this person is not the ‘one’. But well, do we really want to work with people we are not terribly sure about – that is a HUGE ‘NO’. I do hope we grow fast enough to hit the tipping point where we are able to work with more awesome people as we continue along. Until then, we will just get by admitting just over 0.1% of the folks who apply to us. Statistics be damned.