How to Get Hired Faster Than Everyone Else

The reason most people are not getting jobs is there are too many rums in India that have words in them. The right way to hire is more like the Avengers. Every

single person needs to have one thing that is very hard to find in the market and that puts them at an advantage versus everybody else. Skills fall

lowest on the stack. And I'm telling you this after 13 or 14 years of experience.

Bad employees can cost you months and months in just time, energy, everything.

One more problem with senior level talent in India. There's very high expectations simply because they are older. No company in India cares about

older. No company in India cares about this. In my opinion, burnout only

this. In my opinion, burnout only happens when you do something you don't enjoy. Attitude is greater than skill.

enjoy. Attitude is greater than skill.

Especially in an era where you can learn any skill anytime. If you don't have the attitude to learn, you're finished.

Yes. Silence on the phones. Don't want

ting ting ting in the middle. Cool.

Awesome.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, today we're going to talk about hiring. Uh

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, today we're going to talk about hiring.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, today we're going to talk about hiring. And um you know, just generally I've been hiring people for 14 years. I probably hired a few thousand people in my life. There

are what we like 540 people across all the companies now. Um and I want to run everybody including the pe the audience online and the people offline through everything that has worked for me in

hiring and everything that has not worked for me in hiring. I want to start with a story right like to show you how different companies hire so differently.

Uh the story I want to tell you is of a company called Altya Group. How many of you have heard of AG? Okay, almost some of you haven't heard of AG. Okay,

interesting. But AG is very interesting because uh I was spending time with their team uh couple of weeks ago. I was

with their CMO and he was talking about how you know the current generation of the Biras run the company right which is it's not one company it's 30 40

companies and I was thinking and we run I I mean I run like six seven companies now right but I was thinking about how does Mr. BL now spread his time across so many companies like how do you even

get reports from like 40 companies who does he hire like how does he hire and the CMO told me something interesting he said that uh well there's two types of people one is the people who run the

companies right and these are slightly older people who understand the industry if it's cement they understand cement very well and then separately Mr. BA has

like this team like a few people who are all like very technical analysts.

It's like mostly INS or you know BA owns bits. So uh bunch of people from bits

bits. So uh bunch of people from bits and their job is to go to these businessmen and ask them well how's the cement business doing this week versus last week? How is it doing versus

last week? How is it doing versus competitors? What's the quality of

competitors? What's the quality of product? So it's like this combination

product? So it's like this combination of analyst and like old school businessmen that end up making for good companies, right? Especially like

companies, right? Especially like familyrun companies that are generations long. That's how they stay updated,

long. That's how they stay updated, right? Which is to have these really

right? Which is to have these really smart people combined with uh you know slightly older people who understand the P&L. Well, why am I telling you the

P&L. Well, why am I telling you the story? It's to tell you that every

story? It's to tell you that every company hires differently. If I went to an OpenAI and asked how they hire, uh or a Google, which I understand much better on how they hire, uh it's totally

different. So hiring is not a one-size

different. So hiring is not a one-size all fit solution. My job was to find the one-size all fit solution that works for everybody. But mostly I'm tailoring this

everybody. But mostly I'm tailoring this for AOS and the AOS group of companies because we have a very specific way of doing things. Um I also want to run

doing things. Um I also want to run through every mistake I've made in hiring.

Uh and I also want to show you today for the first time ever, right? And this is the most empathetic we're ever going to be towards the people uh you know who are outside the ecosystem and you know not getting jobs or struggling to find

jobs. What is the situation really like?

jobs. What is the situation really like?

Do you know what the situation of an HR is? Do you know what the situation of a

is? Do you know what the situation of a talent acquisition team is? Do you know how many CVs they're seeing? Do you know what's going on in their head? Today,

I'm going to do a live exercise and show you exactly what's going on in their head so that everybody understands what is the exact situation and how can I, you know, be useful in this situation.

Anyway, let's begin. Uh, today we'll learn how to hire, what to look for and why it matters. Next slide. Awesome.

So, when people grow up, when they're like 20, 21, 22, even when they're younger, they think about having like a large employee base as sort of like this. Have you seen this in like you'll

this. Have you seen this in like you'll see this in Toy Story and GI Joe and all like these small figures, these green figures, but they're fungeible. Do you

know what the meaning of the word funible is? Funible means I can swap one

funible is? Funible means I can swap one for another without any problems. So I hire like you know this is what people assume an Infosys does or you know we do with editors which is just like hire

hundreds of editors and then you know if one person is bad replace the person in my opinion this is the absolute worst way to hire whether you're services or product company is the worst way to hire right the right way to hire is more like

the Avengers which is everyone has their own unique abilities they also have their weaknesses but you hire in such a way that you complement each person's abilities and weaknesses

So someone's really good at something but they're not good at something else.

You hire somebody to complement that and you make a team such that ultimately the team has no weaknesses. Even though

individually people can have weaknesses but what is more important than you know covering for weaknesses is that everybody has a superpower.

Every single person needs to have one thing that is very hard to find in the market and that puts them at an advantage versus everybody else. Right?

You need the superpowers. Without the

superpowers you're essentially hiring this, right? you're actually hiring this

this, right? you're actually hiring this with weaknesses, right? This is the wrong way to hire. Next slide.

And it's like the point I'm coming to with this is something called the fungibility fallacy, which is that in the world, you know, if there's somebody doing something, you can just quickly swap them out with something else with

somebody else. And I don't believe this

somebody else. And I don't believe this is true. I have never seen this to be

is true. I have never seen this to be true even at some of the biggest companies, even at large services companies that hire like, you know, lots of people at low this thing. You know,

more than anything, you're funible at the training stage maybe, but once you're trained and you're slightly even valuable as a business, it's very hard to swap people out. Next slide.

So, I'll tell you some of the criteria for hiring and you know what really makes somebody a superstar. It's usually

not just one technical skill that they're good at. Somebody really good at Photoshop, somebody really good at, you know, Illustrator, somebody really good at, you know, writing code. These are

all skills. But I think skills fall lowest down the stack. And I'm telling you this after 13 or 14 years of experience and having started a company in my you know teenagers called Jobspire

where we helped with recruitment and you know companies hiring people uh that skills actually fall very low on the ladder because you can always learn these skills and I'll also tell you a problem with skills that you've never

really thought of. Okay, I'll come to it. The first one is attitude.

it. The first one is attitude.

Do they want to do this?

Why is this the first one? Anyone? Why

is this the first one? Do they want to do this? Whatever you're hiring them

do this? Whatever you're hiring them for. It's very simple. If you're

for. It's very simple. If you're

fantastic at your job, but you don't want to do it, they're going to quit in two months. Right? If someone hates

two months. Right? If someone hates something, it's it's there's nothing you can do about it. Okay? The second one is cultural fit. Remember, skills is

cultural fit. Remember, skills is somewhere down here, right? The second

one is cultural freedom. Like, why are you asking for cultural fit? Because I

have seen from my experience, people who didn't know how to edit, people who didn't know how to write code pick these things up over time because it doesn't take that long to learn something. Pick

these things over time. But if they were cultural fits, they were open to the idea of picking these things up. They

understood the problem we're going after. And even if they didn't pick up a

after. And even if they didn't pick up a particular skill, they're like, well, this is another way that I can help, right? They became unfable or

right? They became unfable or nonfgeible.

The next thing is learning agility, right? If even if you have the greatest

right? If even if you have the greatest cultural fit and you want to pick up writing code or making videos, but you don't have the ability to learn, then you're gone case. In fact, I would argue

that most companies hire for learning agility more than anything else. If you

can pick up something fast and the reason for this is the world changes very often. We all know this, right?

very often. We all know this, right?

Like 3 years ago, there were no AI tools. But suddenly the one of the

tools. But suddenly the one of the highest paid roles in India right now is can you do your job plus AI? Can you put AI in your job? But you all had to learn that. Everyone here had to learn that.

that. Everyone here had to learn that.

So which means everyone here kind of had the learning agility to pick up AI. But

I guarantee you there are millions of people in India actually what millions billions of people in India who haven't picked up how to use AI in their jobs.

So their learning agility is low. The

next thing is the ability to understand.

You might say Vun everyone understands right like if you give people instructions they can understand. But it

turns out a lot of people cannot understand. It's sometimes like you

understand. It's sometimes like you might give someone explicit instructions about they might do their own thing or the wrong thing uh which is very hard to fix. The next thing is the ability to

fix. The next thing is the ability to implement which is a lot of people are very good in theory but they can't actually produce something. And I'll

tell you the cool thing right producing something is a function of how much time you are willing to invest in the output.

Let me explain that even deeper for you.

Right? If I'm somebody who can give all sorts of gan about how to make an app, but if I can't actually make an app, what is the point of all that gan? But

making an app requires me to spend time making it. Fair requires me to spend a

making it. Fair requires me to spend a few weeks, few months making. I can't

now theory craft, right? I actually have to build it. Um the next thing is leadership ability. Now leadership

leadership ability. Now leadership ability is and we've had this entire like I think cuta 2 or cutter 3 about leadership. So go watch it and you'll

leadership. So go watch it and you'll get a good idea on how you know to think about leadership. But mainly it's the

about leadership. But mainly it's the ability to move the the goals of the company forward right and it it requires a lot of storytelling. It requires a lot of aligning people. Then there's

diligence and a good example I give here is of Ronit right like uh the level of diligence which is just the level of care and ethic he puts up towards every single thing whether it be numbers

whether it be you know the task for today there's nothing that slips but there's lots of talent where you'll tell them something and then they just just forget about it. It just slips. So

diligence is something companies really look for but remember it's lower down the stack. Some of our best talent some

the stack. Some of our best talent some things do slip there this thing but it's okay but it's a nice to have. The next

thing is customer first sells second. If

you do right for the customer you do right for yourself. Trust me on this. If

you do your best work for the customer they pay you better. You'll end up doing well because you'll be responsible for it. The next thing is technical skills.

it. The next thing is technical skills.

so low down the stack because mainly if you have learning agility this is solved for right if you have this this is solved for and the last one is aesthetic or taste which has now become more and

more important in the age of AI which is when an output comes can you tell if it's a good output or a bad output you might say von everyone knows what's a good output bad output but like some people just don't have taste and you all

so many of you are artists in the room you know what I mean by this some people can look at a design and they just think it's good but everybody else is like yuck So bad.

Now one way I test you can test all of this every single thing and I learned this this year is you can just evaluate how you prompt a model. When you're in a hiring interview, just sit with the

person and tell them, "Okay, open ch do give them some task. Just watch them prompt. In that you'll know whether they

prompt. In that you'll know whether they understand the subject. You'll know

whether they want to do this." Right?

The most generic prompt. If somebody

says, "Just give me a story, whatever, whatever you're asking them for." You'll

know immediately whether they want to do this. You'll know from their prompts

this. You'll know from their prompts whether they're collaborative or not.

You'll know from their prompts if they can learn quickly because AI will give you information. And with that

you information. And with that information, you're quickly supposed to make decisions. Uh you'll know whether

make decisions. Uh you'll know whether they have learning agility because AI is giving you new information. You need to learn it, right? You'll know if you have the ability to understand. You'll know

if they have the ability to implement because once AI gives you the things you still need to implement it, right? Like

AI will give you like you have to watch them with AI and then separately with a you know Google Docs or like whatever it is an ID whatever whatever their or or premier pro whatever their tool of

choice is. uh you'll know their

choice is. uh you'll know their leadership ability because the way you prompt is a very good proxy for leadership ability. We've seen this in

leadership ability. We've seen this in Kata 2 or Kata 3, I don't remember which one. The next one is diligence. You'll

one. The next one is diligence. You'll

know whether they see in the prompts if they're able to pick out all the information or they're missing information. Things are slipping through

information. Things are slipping through based on what AI gives them. You'll know

what they think about first or second.

You'll know how much they care about customers. Uh you'll also be able to

customers. Uh you'll also be able to pick up technical skills. And finally,

AI is a lot about taste. You'll know

based on which outputs of like let's say you're asking them to use an image gen you'll know very quickly whether they you know whether they accept something that's low quality right and it's all

just watch somebody prompt it solves like entirety of hiring now everybody on the internet might be thinking it's so simple it's not that hard but I'll tell

you the problem and I want to show you the this problem and I promised you I'll show you the problem live it's the fact that there are too many rums in India The reason most people are

not getting jobs or the jobs they want is there are too many rums in India that have words in them and most recruiters

in companies will probably lose their jobs if they only made decisions on words. Like sometimes

words. Like sometimes I think about people like with digital skills fine you can still have a portfolio but sometimes you think about who's hiring like oil rig survey managers

like what is the criteria to hire an oil rig survey manager like how do you know if somebody's a good oil rig survey manager they put something in the CV and you don't know if they've even done it there's no way to it's not easy to

verify either right so most of that business runs on referrals in fact most businesses outside of technical skills coding is like so open today because if you have a good portfolio, it doesn't

matter where you which college you've gone to. None of that matters. If you

gone to. None of that matters. If you

have a great portfolio, you will get a call, right? So evident with videos,

call, right? So evident with videos, it's so evident. If you're a if you if you say you're good at making videos, I can see from your output on YouTube whether you're good at making videos or not. But with oil rig survey manager,

not. But with oil rig survey manager, it's so hard to tell. With sales, it's so hard to tell because in sales, if you seen anyone's sales CV, they will always put the the company's sales growth and say, "Yeah, I did this."

And there's no wait for you to figure out because you'll call when in during due diligence we call the company and the old company and ask and company's always going to be nice right especially about these things especially if the

guys or the girl was minimally contributive they'll still say good things so it's like almost like you're gambling when you hire a salesperson right but oil rig survey manager is even like harder managers in general are so

hard right because managers just like they take credit for everything and you don't know if they really contributed but I want to show you the problem live like I promised I want to bring here

all of our people in the company who are in talent acquisition. This across all the aos companies whether it be us uh you know AOS gaming uh you know labs

whatever it is whoever is responsible for hiring talent if you've even hired one person who been responsible please come stand here now because I have

questions to ask you everybody this way.

I know I know it's a lot of people just come and it's important because I want the audience to see something very important here right I want you to see their problems our full army is coming

okay are they all in camera can we just pan the camera left and right once to see the span of people involved in hiring can you guys come in closer Hello

K I mean some people are not here Kash Z so many people are not here who are supposed to be in hiring it's okay it's okay you can sit down it's fine there's already too many people here okay are we back on me fantastic

now I want to tell you their problems okay we'll start with Shria Shria you hire for YAS you'll have to come a little bit closer you'll have to come in mic range so Shria at Yas which is one of the AOS

companies how many CVs do you see per week individually how big is your team and how many CVs do they see across?

Uh my team, you have to hold the mic closer.

Okay. My team is uh 10 people. Uh we

have people hiring for separate roles, focusing on separate roles. Depending on

which role we are hiring for, the number of CVs that we look at goes from 10 per day to about 15 to 20 reachouts on a

given day. So in a on a weekly basis

given day. So in a on a weekly basis collectively all of us must be looking at easily about 300 to 350 CVS

or like their Instagram work or their portfolios or just their LinkedIn profiles and in a month easily all of us are looking at about,500

CVs that we have to sort of filter through and evaluate for awesome. So you are hiring for writers,

awesome. So you are hiring for writers, you are hiring for content creators, you're hiring for production assistants, you're hiring for editors.

What else are you hiring for?

IT managers, finance teams, graphic designers.

Okay, amazing. Now I'm I'm going to ask especially you guys a set of questions, right? And anyone can feel free to

right? And anyone can feel free to answer.

What is the biggest problem with CVS right now? Like why aren't people

right now? Like why aren't people getting jobs?

They don't mean anything. A CV doesn't mean anything sadly because uh any like you can go on a chat GPD tell like a basic thing and it'll create a CV for

you which actually doesn't reflect one who you are as a person two doesn't reflect what you actually know uh which is fine to a certain extent but for

somebody for anyone looking at CVS it's still like a phone call away I'll still have to call the person and be like can this person actually talk and when when you actually speak to the person, you find out that hey, this person can't

even put like a sentence together. So

why not?

But the CV is very good.

But the CV is very good cuz words are also like easily like just today I was on a hiring call of a person who's a CD like a creative director at uh like one

of the mainline agencies. The assignment

that he had sent was fully GPT and he was like this is how I do my assignment and I was like I'm so sorry this is not going to work out. So it ranges from

like I think we are soon going to see a lot of experienced people also not having jobs because they are thinking that I'll put it put something through GPT and people won't realize it

okay how especially in the roles you're hiring for how much does a portfolio change your viewpoint of a CV

entirely cuz all of our work all of the work that we hire for is very visible like if you have written something and I can see the views or the likes that it

has got or a video how many comments are there. All of the work that we hire for

there. All of the work that we hire for especially creative roles very visible.

Uh there are exceptions of course but mostly the work is very visible. So CVS

are almost not needed. A proof of work or a portfolio of everyone's work is really important.

Okay. Why do you and maybe somebody else can answer this right? Why do we like hiring from referrals? Let's say an employee gives a referral of another person or somebody else gives a referral. Why do we choose to do

referral. Why do we choose to do referrals? Is it nepotism? No actually

referrals? Is it nepotism? No actually

referral is a in a way that person knows the skill of the friend or any referral they know because anybody who is referring to the company they understand there they the trust they have put in

that referral guy eventually if that doesn't hold the mic close okay if that doesn't work out it'll only you know it will be bad on that person who referred so he'll only refer the person that he

feels his confident he feels confident about that can make an uh you know he can come in and do the work for us.

Awesome. Sid, I have a question for you, right? Which is that um uh now Sid hires

right? Which is that um uh now Sid hires Sid runs a company here, so he hires, you know, people. Sid, when you hire leaders, what is the biggest red flag for you? And what are the three four

for you? And what are the three four things you're looking for?

I'll tell you what I'm looking for. Uh

honestly, I'm just looking for one thing. Intent when it comes to

thing. Intent when it comes to leadership.

So like number one, attitude.

Number one, that's it. Uh I just want to know whether they give a about what they're actually supposed to do. Uh the

second thing would be judgment because leadership involves a lot of judgment.

You have to take a lot of tough decisions. Some some are easy, some are

decisions. Some some are easy, some are tough. Uh so intent and judgment. Uh I'm

tough. Uh so intent and judgment. Uh I'm

okay if they are scrappy with skills. Uh

but I'm not okay if they are scrappy with intent and judgment. Awesome.

Rowan, can you come here for a second?

Now Rowan hires a lot of technical people because you know he he's working on a game and I think for him technical skills are at the bottom I mean are much higher at the top but Rowan what's the

one thing that you look for in terms of hiring and what are some red flags so for games specifically it's a lot about their portfolio we don't look at CVS we don't look at resumes or any of that

it's a very visual medium so we immediately go to art station if it's an artist or an animator or such or we look at their show and within the first 15 to 20 seconds we can tell whether the

portfolio is good or not. And now I think everybody here has a trained eye in when we hire for game specifically.

And what about some red flags?

Uh I would say the biggest red flag especially because I've spoken to a lot of people is weak portfolio but overselling despite a weak portfolio. Um I feel like if

weak portfolio. Um I feel like if there's it feels like they do have potential and in fact I was on a call with an animator recently who who had this problem. It feels like they have

this problem. It feels like they have potential, but they're not, you know, matching that potential by spending that extra time being able to like catch up, you know.

So, they're expecting a salary for a senior role when they probably would do much better at a junior role. So,

they're trying to overreach like two plus years career salary slightly earlier.

Yeah. I I think they could get to where they want to be in maybe a couple of years, but they'll have to spend that time here or another game studio to to actually get there.

Awesome. I have one last question for you guys, and maybe Ronn's the best person to answer this question. Ronnie,

I have a question around um hiring for intangible roles. We understand for

intangible roles. We understand for visual communications roles like editing and stuff, it's easy, but like because you have a portfolio and the minute somebody has a portfolio, they're above everybody else. Um but what about like

everybody else. Um but what about like sales roles? What about roles where it's

sales roles? What about roles where it's like intangible? You don't know like

like intangible? You don't know like from a CV how much they've done. Yeah, I

think main thing there is instead of asking them what main thing there is instead of asking them what work they've done, you ask them at whatever companies they've worked previously, what have been the top few outcomes that they've

been able to create, right? And you ask them to explain it in detail because if you ask them to explain it in detail, they can't you, right? Because

you can, you know, ask them very specific questions and you would know if you know they are just including a lot of fluff, right? So I think that's like one thing that's there. Second in any role like you know the one of the few

roles that you mentioned sales or anything that's important and intangible mainly what you also need is and this also applies to any leadership role is they should not throw back their cognitive load on the person managing

them right as in what does that mean so what that means is let's say if I am working with five people okay let's say five people are reporting to me I don't want them to come to me asking hey this is the problem what should we do right

that defeats the purpose of having them that's like throwing your cognitive load on the person that is managing you instead of thinking through yourself like the problem then recommending but what if they make a mistake

that's fine like I think as companies scale like you have to be okay with that right otherwise you can't concentrate all the decisions to the top otherwise everything will get blocked right like mistakes are fine but indecision is

worse right so there I think there are two things first you ask them not the work that they've done in any of the companies that you leave aside what are the outcomes that they've been able to create right and explain it in detail

because someone who's actually done it would know all the nitty-g gritties of it. They won't you know it the answers

it. They won't you know it the answers won't sound generic. That's one. And

second is they should just think through things themselves instead of throwing their cognitive load back on the person that you know is managing them. And they

need to be okay with you need to be okay with sometimes them making mistakes.

That's fine. I think all companies as they scale they have to be okay with that.

Awesome. Fantastic. Thank you so much guys.

Um just for the audience I mean that's off right? Yeah. just just for the

off right? Yeah. just just for the audience I think it's it's like we have like maybe 20 30 people in hiring across all the companies YAS alone like they said look at like hundreds of CVs per

week across the company we'll be looking at easily 30 40,000 CVs a year and honestly the minute you have a portfolio especially in visual mediums

it puts you ahead of almost everybody else but I feel empathetic and like a little bit confused about what to do about mediums which are intangible like sales or like management where it's very

hard to prove what you've done and it's almost like a catch 22. You need

experience to be able to answer the questions in the interview correctly but like no one's going to take a bet on you without you first having proven it. And

I think the only path there is to like for the first three four years of your career like I have no other solutions for this right the only path is to get into some company accept whatever salary you can maybe an internship whatever it is just to gain that experience because

the minute you have that experience you can answer these questions in interview correctly of what you did in the last company and that puts you ahead of everybody else and let me tell you something right intangible roles are

very associative if you did you know a management role at a very well-known company you're much more likely to be be hired. Whereas with portfolio based

hired. Whereas with portfolio based skills, that matters, but it doesn't matter as much. If you have a great portfolio, no matter which college you're from, which which uh company you worked at in the past, you'll still be given a look. If you if if you make good

videos, who cares where you worked at in your last company? If you write good code, who cares where you worked at in last company? But if you're a

last company? But if you're a salesperson, that really matters because nobody can trust what's on your CV yet, right? And this is mostly because Chad

right? And this is mostly because Chad GPT and AI have like polluted, you know, CVs in general. Uh, but the new method is like we we're all visual creatures.

We just need a portfolio. Um, so if you're asking yourself why I haven't gotten hired, it's probably because if you're in any of these digital skills, you don't have a great portfolio. Or

maybe you should also build a network because like you heard referrals are a very big way to hire. The minute

someone's putting their neck on the line and saying, "I'm referring my friend."

It's not just because they want nepotism and they want their friend to do well.

Maybe that's part of it. But more

importantly, they know that if this person gets hired and he's bad, this person loses some reputation in the company. Anyway, I have a framework that

company. Anyway, I have a framework that I came up with which I couldn't name it any better, so I'm going to name it Champ R, which is C for cultural fit. H

for hard skills, A for attitude. Do they

really want to do this? M for

motivation, which is can they do it?

Like on a day-to-day basis, do you come in with your best selves? Sometimes you

might really want to do something. You

might really be interested about the problem. You might really care about you

problem. You might really care about you know making videos but on a day-to-day basis you might be too lazy to do it. So

are you like high energy? Are you a high agency? Because there are lots of people

agency? Because there are lots of people in India who want to do something but are low agency about it. Then there's

potential which is can you grow into something and I think the biggest risk for a lot of people is to believe they have a lot of potential but be unproven which means it doesn't show up on your portfolio or your CV and you're expecting the salary of somebody who's

already proven their potential. This is

a big risk right? You'll hear of a friend making whatever 20 lakhs anom and you might say you know I am better potential than him but remember and I saw a tweet recently about this

not proving yourself not trying is like a safety blanket right it's like you've worn this comfort that if I tried I would be excellent at this but it's a it's it's fake comfort

because the minute you try you'll go through all the challenges that everybody who's tried and been past goes through and in that there's a lot of learning and companies hire for that.

But if you believe you have a lot of potential and you can prove a little bit of that potential, companies will take a bet on you. But you cannot charge the salary of somebody who has already proven their potential. Once somebody

has proven their potential, it's like it's such a free market in jobs which is that there's some talent here that you know if we don't give them a raise, there's not much they can do about it, right? Although we do give raises, but

right? Although we do give raises, but like there's not much they can do about it. But there's also some talent here.

it. But there's also some talent here.

They're so good, but whatever they ask, we have to give it to them. So it's

still leverage, right? And it depends on whether you've proven your potential or not. If you're if you think you have

not. If you're if you think you have high potential, but you've not proven it, you are still in this goldilock zone. You're you're sort of convinced

zone. You're you're sort of convinced yourself that you're worth more than you are. Just prove it. If you prove it and

are. Just prove it. If you prove it and your portfolio shows it, you'll get what you deserve. If you don't prove it,

you deserve. If you don't prove it, you're always going to be in this place where you feel like you're underpaid.

And last one, which is very important to me, is can this person reassure you?

Like if the person says varun this this idea is not working or you know this campaign is not working or this thing is working very well can I trust the person's words right do they have an

accurate read of the situation and that's sometimes very hard because some people are very optimistic or some people are very pessimistic so they can't accurately read a situation these people make for very bad leaders if they

can't reassure you but there are some people in the company where if they say things are going to be fine and it's going to work it just somehow works and they multip multiple times they've done this so Now I trust their word no matter what. And it's very easy to open up

what. And it's very easy to open up budgets and give this person budgets for whatever they want.

Anyway, moving on. Okay, remember that in entry level people are hired for their potential. At the senior level,

their potential. At the senior level, you're pro you're hired for proven expertise. The biggest mistake you can

expertise. The biggest mistake you can do is be pre- potent or have high potential but be pre-proof and ask for senior level salaries. Like a lot of people are also stuck in that where

they're overestimating where they are.

So if you watched our video on scouters, you'll know how to accurately read yourself.

I'll tell you one more problem with senior level talent in India that has just gotten like it's become a big problem now, right? Which is there's very high expectations simply because

they are older. It's like hey I'm 32 years old or 35 years old. I have a wife and kids and I have to take care of them. Therefore my salary expectation is

them. Therefore my salary expectation is this much. Let me tell you something. No

this much. Let me tell you something. No

company in India cares about this. What

they care about is the value you drive to the company. Right? It's a if you were running the company, it would be the same place. No one's going to give you a salary just because, right? So if

you can bring the proof of whatever, it doesn't matter whether you whether you're 21 or 31, you're going to command the salary that you want, right? If you

can prove what you do. But if you are somebody with no history of performance, you've just kept jumping jobs and you're not like actually done anything eventually that's going to catch up with

you and you'll be stuck in this rut where you think your salary is X but the market will always value it at let's say X by two and you'll always feel like you're being undervalued. This happens a

lot. Um yeah, you need to prove yourself

lot. Um yeah, you need to prove yourself and like we've said many times before and as you've heard from the recruiters as well, attitude is greater than skill, especially in an era where you can learn

any skill anytime, right? The AV cohort is like 3 months long. That's not like it's not like a four-year degree, but in three year 3 months, we've seen people become reasonably good editors. So, you

can pick up skills fast, but if you don't have the attitude to pick up skills, if you don't have the attitude to learn, you're finished.

Now, I'll tell you my mistakes. And the

mistakes I've seen us make as an organization hiring people, right? The

first one and the most important one is rushing the hiring process. You need

this role closed tomorrow. So you're

like, let me hire the first person that I see for this role with a pulse. So

it's almost like let me hire the first person that I see with a pulse that can do the job that I want. I've never done a good job rushing the hiring process.

Usually my first hire for something never does well. My third or fourth hire might do well. So or or at least the third or fourth person I've interviewed.

You can't sample well. You don't have enough of a sample size if you're talking to one person and then you know one person is the one that you have chosen. Uh the next one is not vetting

chosen. Uh the next one is not vetting people. What does vetting mean? What

people. What does vetting mean? What

does due diligence mean? Every company

in India for those of you that don't know will call your past employer and ask how has this person done at their job? They will call some of your old

job? They will call some of your old colleagues, four or five people. If you

don't do this, you're believing everything that's in the CV and nobody does that. No company does that. So,

does that. No company does that. So,

whoever it is, there needs to be thorough vetting of who is this person?

What is in the CV? Have they actually are there is is the story checking out?

Now, of course, people can fake this in India. This is very often where people

India. This is very often where people go to the four of their friends and say, "I'm giving you a number. Say good

things about me." So, it's not like perfect, but it's still something that we have to do. The next one is ignoring culture fit. Every single time I've

culture fit. Every single time I've hired somebody who I've had a bad feeling about in terms of culture, it's always turned out bad. Like not one time has somebody who is not a culture fit

turned out to be good for the company.

Next one is current state versus future potential. You have to be very clear

potential. You have to be very clear when you're hiring somebody. Are they

somebody you can count on today or are they somebody you can count on a year from now? At AOS, we don't mind

from now? At AOS, we don't mind investing in people, right? We don't

mind saying that this person has potential. Let's give him a year. Let's

potential. Let's give him a year. Let's

give her a couple of years and see how they prove themselves. see if they match up to the potential. Um, so you have to know whether you're hiring for current state or future potential. As a company

matures, by the way, they hire more for people in current state which is you already proven yourself. Why? Because

companies like us now can afford more money than when we started in terms of hiring talent. But also we have like

hiring talent. But also we have like work. So like we can't afford that one

work. So like we can't afford that one year gap or two years gap. Next one is unstructured interviews. I don't like

unstructured interviews. I don't like interviews that are very random which is and I'll figure it out. I like

structured interviews. It's good for the talent. It's good for you as well. A

talent. It's good for you as well. A

structured interview gives you a way to reference talent against each other. If

you have structured interviews for everybody and like 15 people have taken it, you're like, "Okay, this person I can grade against this person." But if you're just doing random chats with talent and it's not structured, how do you compare two people against each

other? Right? It's it's tough. Last

other? Right? It's it's tough. Last

couple of things which is very very important is hiring for a maybe role like I have one week of work for this person well then hire a freelancer or get an agency right don't hire a full-time employee for this because a

full-time employee comes with emotional tax which is you're committing a future growth committing a career for talent if you cannot if you don't know if the person's going to be around in a year and you don't know if the role is going

to be around in a year or it's kind of like a role you think might exist in a year do not hire people for a maybe role. role.

role. role.

There are no such thing as maybe roles.

There's no such thing as talent for maybe roles. And I've always seen them

maybe roles. And I've always seen them become disengaged, which is I don't know what to do after, you know, 2 weeks, 3 weeks. And these people like idle mind

weeks. And these people like idle mind is a devil's workshop. So they assume you have a bad company because they don't have clear instructions on what to do. Which brings me to my last point,

do. Which brings me to my last point, right? There needs to be very clear week

right? There needs to be very clear week one instructions. What do they do on

one instructions. What do they do on week one? One of the things I've heard

week one? One of the things I've heard about AOS which is not a very good thing is that AOS throws you in the deep end.

You come in there and you have to figure out what to do with in the first couple of weeks and I'm actively working on changing that so that in your first week you know exactly what to do. Cool.

Always have a pipeline. Remember rushing

talent can be solved by having a good pipeline. You have like 50 people 60

pipeline. You have like 50 people 60 people then you'll make two good hires.

You have two people you're going to make bad hires. Uh always send the story of

bad hires. Uh always send the story of sub. We've been mostly in stealth for

sub. We've been mostly in stealth for the last couple of years. So if you're not sending the story of um you're kind of like doing a disservice to talent

because you are sort of like you're not setting the right expectations of what the company does or what they are going to do and most people just think you know we do just maybe one part of the many things that

we do and again rigorous non not unstructured interviews don't do unstructured interviews um and I'll tell you one more thing okay that I learned from actually Google which is that when you do structured interviews and it's

rigorous like it's a hard interview and you get through people feel a sense of accomplishment for getting through the interview they get a feeling of dopamine that yes I passed like getting into an IIT or getting into Google or whatever there's this sense of accomplishment

right and a sense of I got something that nobody else could get if this is not created candidates will always shop for offers they feel they got it too easy like sometimes even really good talent Google will still put you through

that interview process even if you're damn good because they're like it needs to feel like you've earned it if you if people feel like they're just hand out jobs. Sometimes they do not value it

jobs. Sometimes they do not value it enough and you'll probably find that the talent doesn't join you. They join

somewhere else where there's more rigorous structured interview.

Okay, there is this thing um from Brad Jacobs book that I read a long time ago.

I was trying to find the excerpt. I

couldn't find it. So I asked Chad Gibb to find it. Uh he gives this like really good example of how to work with the best talent. Okay. And this is what's

best talent. Okay. And this is what's worked excellently for me which is there's three kinds of talent. Okay,

there is A, B and C players. And there's a very easy way to know whether you have A, B and C players.

If they are going to quit, let's say the player walks in and decides why don't today I'm going to quit. Depending on

your reaction, they're an A, B or C player. If you feel panic, then they're

player. If you feel panic, then they're an A player.

If you feel Okay, but it'll take me 3 months to replace this person. It's a B player. If

you feel relieved or happy, then they're C players. And there's lots of people

C players. And there's lots of people who are C players who you kind of want to fire, but you've not gotten to it, and then they quit before you. It's like

that breakup story, right? Which is that I don't want to get broken up with. I

want to break up with that person first.

It's kind of like that, right? Cers tend

to do that very often. The organization

goal is not to have only A players, by the way. You can't only build an ag of a

the way. You can't only build an ag of a players. The goal is to create a seaf

players. The goal is to create a seaf free zone.

Don't have anyone that you'd be happy with leaving or like relieved with leaving. There's not a single person in

leaving. There's not a single person in this room, at least the people I've interacted with and the people who work with me, where I would be happy if you guys left.

And you never want that relationship with any company. Okay?

And I'll tell you cool ways to attract and retain a players which is base salaries are kept within industry parameters. Whatever the market is

parameters. Whatever the market is paying, AOS has a rule that we pay above market for any role. Whatever the market is paying, we usually pay above market no matter what that role is. And second

thing is incentive compensation for our best talent. We give bonuses and they

best talent. We give bonuses and they are uncapped bonuses. Whatever it is, whatever way we can incentivize our best talent, you'll know your best talent neos when that conversation starts coming up. If you ask for it, you

coming up. If you ask for it, you probably won't get it. You're probably

not where you think you are. But when we give it, it's because we are afraid you'll leave. That's how all the top

you'll leave. That's how all the top people in AOS who have made money have made money because it's almost like they've done a great job and nobody wants them to leave. So they're like, "Here, take some percentage of whatever we're doing." Right? That's the AOS

we're doing." Right? That's the AOS model. It's worked very very well for

model. It's worked very very well for us. And I'll tell you one cool stat. In

us. And I'll tell you one cool stat. In

the last three and a half years, the top 16 people in the company in AOS across all the companies, not a single person has left for two reasons. One is of course they love the mission and we've grown from like an apartment into this.

But I think the second part is they're also making enough money right from their incentives. So for you to get

their incentives. So for you to get there, first become an A player.

Second, just wait for the company to come to you and tell you we don't want to lose you. Right? And these

conversations I know have happened at Yas. They've happened in the game dev

Yas. They've happened in the game dev team. They've happened in uh you know my

team. They've happened in uh you know my own team in in team VM. They've happened

in labs. Wherever you think you are an A player and you've actually proven it, AOS will come to you. You don't need to go to AOS.

And I'll tell you one cool thing. The

reason we do this, you might think it's silly, right? Like just to prevent your

silly, right? Like just to prevent your best talent from leaving while you give them person. It's very easy. It's very

them person. It's very easy. It's very

simple. When you give your best talent something, they create multiple amounts of what you're giving them in revenue.

So I never feel bad about giving someone something if they are generating that much revenue. And you'll know if you're

much revenue. And you'll know if you're generating revenue, right? You it's

pretty obvious to you if you're generating revenue or not.

Uh one more thing which is more hygiene on the hiring team is how to manage your pipeline. How are you keeping track? We

pipeline. How are you keeping track? We

use something called an ATS, an applicant tracking system. You don't do it in just in the air like, oh, I've spoken to this guy, I've spoken to that guy. You keep an actual track. You keep

guy. You keep an actual track. You keep

track of who's referring. You keep, you know, use our own channels. We have so many Instagram, YouTube channels. Like

people keep ask me what's the use of a channel, you know, in hiring and stuff like that. You put up a story. Like at

like that. You put up a story. Like at

this point, if on all our channels we put up a story, we'll get 10,000 candidates. Just story, not even real.

candidates. Just story, not even real.

You all know this. So use our channels as much as you can. You get good talent.

You can select from those 10,000. If you

have a good sample size, you can select like the best talent. And I feel like AOS has done well mainly because we have access to good talent and because the same distribution that gets you talent also gets you clients, right? So we have

both sides. So it's kind of easy for us

both sides. So it's kind of easy for us to grow. Keep it a smooth structured

to grow. Keep it a smooth structured process and please fire quickly if it if you go wrong. You will at the rate that we're hiring at, we're it's obvious we're going to make mistakes and it's

okay to make mistakes, but please let go of talent if you're wrong. Bad employees

can cost you months and months in just time energy everything.

Okay, I have one last slide on syndromes. Okay, here are the red flag

syndromes. Okay, here are the red flag syndromes for talent that's joined the company. Okay, the first one is victim

company. Okay, the first one is victim syndrome. Very prevalent in India and

syndrome. Very prevalent in India and it's prevalent in India because of people's parents, right? And because we come from colonial mindset, right? is

that someone is trying to dominate us or like you know I am the victim here you know I'm being exploited my resources are being taken away from me blah blah blah guys we live in a free market right

today's market especially in India for digital skills is absolutely free okay like there's the talent that's left us for like 3x 4x salaries there's nothing we could have done about it right it would it would like of course there are

very few companies and mostly international companies that can hire at that rate and they're not hiring as many people, but like there we are the victim. But we never complain,

victim. But we never complain, right? Because we understand how the

right? Because we understand how the free market works. So if you're damn good at your job, you wouldn't have victim syndrome, okay? Because you are in demand. If not

okay? Because you are in demand. If not

here, somewhere else, somewhere else, you'll get what you want. And the reason we pay above market is not because, you know, I I love giving out money or like I'm running a charity. It's mostly

because I don't want to lose good talent. And if talent costs something,

talent. And if talent costs something, you have to pay them that, right? Like

otherwise you can't you'll do subpar work for your clients. So uh victim syndrome is a parental thing because your parents have usually been in that that old generation the last generation

of businesses yeah you didn't have a choice because every CV was a was an intangible CV right most of your parents if you think about what your parents do most of your parents are in sales or

some sales adjacent role correct or not right something sales or something sales adjacent correct your parents are not like it's very rare for any of your parents to be software engineers or

video editors Right? Those are new general roles. So most of them had

general roles. So most of them had intangibles. They were hired because

intangibles. They were hired because they knew somebody at a company or you know somehow they built a relationship and they got into a company. So they

were very scared and they wanted to keep their job no matter what because they knew if they shifted companies the next company wouldn't know how to grade them well. Right? So in my opinion because of

well. Right? So in my opinion because of that they developed a little bit of victim syndrome which is that you know the company has all the cards but I think we're in an era where the company doesn't have all the cards and you

should let go of talent that comes in with this because they just spread it among like it's like a virus they'll just spread among each other right um the next one is messiah syndrome I am

here to save the company I want to tell you a very funny story I have this I have a great story about messiah syndrome there was a editor editor.

Okay, we were laughing. There was an editor in the company. This we were very young. We

the company. This we were very young. We

were like 25 people or something like that. We just moved into this off one

that. We just moved into this off one side of the office. We didn't even have the other side. And the editor, I don't know, they wanted a raise, like a really high raise, and we couldn't afford it.

So, we said, "Hey, you know, we're paying you above market. We can't afford this for now. You don't have the experience."

experience." So the editor went mad and he went and said to all the other editors that he was with, "These people are exploiting

you. I am the messiah." And and the way

you. I am the messiah." And and the way he was doing it was he would make them Maggie every night.

I'm not even kidding. He would literally make people Maggie every night saying, "Look, I'm taking so much good care of you. Your company is not giving you

you. Your company is not giving you Maggie."

Maggie." It's like whatever, right? Like young

people first first corporate job. So

they were all like convinced. So please

don't do this. I think it's like the minute talent starts doing this, we know when talent starts doing this and we're like what are you doing? Because if you objectively market, you're being paid above market, you're you have

incentives, you have a great office, sitting in air conditioning room doing a digital skill that you spend 3 months learning. Uh it's by all means and it's

learning. Uh it's by all means and it's of course the salary bands are just going up. It's a great you know kind of

going up. It's a great you know kind of thing to be in. uh don't do messiah syndrome because uh there's no such thing as like in a free market there are no messiahs like a Jesus Christ wouldn't do very

well today because people be like well you're giving me this but that other corporate company is giving me this right I would rather choose the iPhone over whatever you're g it's it's it's hard I'm not saying it's good or bad but

it's like uh people have options today and in an optional in a world full of optionality there is no messiahs either uh there are no victims there are no messiahs both the next one is ostri

syndrome which is this complete disconnection from reality right I'll bury my head in the sand and I don't care what's happening in reality or

even though market is telling you this is not important like maybe your client asked you for something but you've created something else because you saw a video on it and you're inspired by this and you made this and the client like I don't want this but you buried your head

in the sand you're like I watched this I'm going to make this don't do that the next one is Peter Pan syndrome which is this inability to grow up which is living in La La Land right this

childishness of I'm going to do the childish thing here right companies want professionals because I want to tell you something else and all the leaders in this company know this it is very

exhausting to run a company and deal with children if you are running a company and you're dealing with somebody who's like you know PG work please come solve it for me seriously there are people you know

especially when you started the company we've all I a list laundry list of all the issues we've been through, right?

And of course, you know, the leaders here like where's Pik wherever he is, he's sat and solved all of this nonsense. So, please don't do Peter Pan

nonsense. So, please don't do Peter Pan syndrome. Don't put your cognitive

syndrome. Don't put your cognitive nonsense on the company, especially if it's small childish stuff. Uh, the next one is I know best. It's not like Messiah, which is I'm here to save you.

It's more like I know everything.

Unfortunately, in the real world, nobody knows anything and it's all a process of figuring out. And if you do know

figuring out. And if you do know everything, the answer usually that comes out of your mouth is last time it worked. I don't know if this time it's

worked. I don't know if this time it's going to work. Right? But on the opposite side, like people who are most confident are people who have not been tested. But once you've been tested

tested. But once you've been tested enough times, you're like 50/50 for everything. Maybe it'll work, maybe it

everything. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't work. And the last one is burnout

won't work. And the last one is burnout syndrome, which is somebody works themselves to death. And by the way, in my opinion, burnout only happens when you do something you don't enjoy, which goes back all the way to my first thing

of do they want to do this? If you don't want to do something, if you're doing something you hate doing, you are eventually going to burn out because you're doing something you don't like.

But the minute you enjoy it, have you been have you done some creative stuff or have you gamed or whatever, you can do it for tens of hours because you enjoy it. You're lost in the process.

enjoy it. You're lost in the process.

And the reason I think our company has done well, one reason is because a lot of you who are doing creative work are lost in the process. You enjoy doing you enjoy making a good video. Like I saw some of the work we did for Agility,

right? Like just like I can tell whoever

right? Like just like I can tell whoever made that video loved making it, right?

So it's just like you get lost in the process. It's a very creative art and a

process. It's a very creative art and a lot of filmmakers feel this. That's why

a lot of people, you know, gravitate towards those roles, right? But if you don't enjoy what you do, you're going to burn out. So, you should know if you're

burn out. So, you should know if you're working at labs, you need to be an engineer. If you're working at gamedev,

engineer. If you're working at gamedev, you know, you need to have a bunch of different skills. If you're working at

different skills. If you're working at um uh AV or or YAS, you need to really enjoy editing, right? Or you need to enjoy being a creator. Otherwise,

there's no hope. Anyway, you know, that's the end of this deck. I hope you learned something. Um there are infinite

learned something. Um there are infinite lessons about hiring but mainly it's about hiring superstars looking at that Champar framework that we have and uh making sure the hiring process is good

and enjoyable for the candidate as well and as a candidate knowing really what the recruiters care about. Um we have enough of a sample size across the you know tens of thousands of CVs that we're

looking at. Um and their problems are

looking at. Um and their problems are the same like all of them have relatively the same problems on an everyday basis. The minute you make a

everyday basis. The minute you make a portfolio, you make their lives easier.

And if you make their lives easier, by default, you're ahead of 99% of people.

Like you should just see my DM.

Sometimes people just be like, "Sir, I'll do anything. Give me job." I never give those people a job because I don't know what to hire them for. But the

minute you send a portfolio, it just like puts you ahead of everybody else.

And even when you send a portfolio go through the appropriate channels whatever that channel is because ultimately today for hiring some of those roles a shria thinks about that problem 24/7. So if

you send me the CV might still get lost but you send it to Shria it's a job right. So she will always do the work of

right. So she will always do the work of putting in the effort and seeing is this the right CV or not. Um I don't think any other company at our scale in India has done this where the recruiters have come explicitly said this is what I'm

looking for this is what I'm not looking for. So hopefully it's useful for

for. So hopefully it's useful for everybody watching. Hopefully, it's

everybody watching. Hopefully, it's useful for everybody here when they're hiring because all of you at some point will end up hiring people and hopefully this is this is useful. Um, awesome.

Bye.