My experiments with youth
My entrepreneurship journey is full of adventures and one of the interesting and successful adventure is experimenting with youth , around 18 years .
I have employed over 250 people since 15 years of entrepreneurship, 80% were graduates and 10% post graduates in engineering and computer science . 10% were non graduates . Now let me reveal the truth, it takes 3-6 months to bring a fresh graduate on board on live project and same is the time it takes for undergraduates too.
I started a software consulting firm in Ahmedabad in 2007, my city is not very known for quality resources for tech companies so we always have to create resources for us. But this is not about creating , it's about nurturing a hidden and unexplored talent.
Let me describe few out of many cases in my journey those who went above and beyond my expectations.
( Names of people are changed due to privacy )
Case #1 : Jasmin, I met her when she shifted to ahmedabad with her family , she is cousin of my wife. Very ambitious 12th pass girl, out spoken and intelligent. I got to know this all in first meeting and offered her an internship while she would continue her studies for BA. She started as admin, in 6 months she was looking after marketing of my education business and 12 months later she was helping in marketing , coordination, customer care and after 24 months she was head of my education business . This business had over 100 students per year with year on year growth of 25%. It was 2015 when we decided to wind-up this business due to declining margins .
During these 6 years of journey Jasmin not only excelled professionally but personally also, completed her BA, took care of her parents, married and started further training herself for public service exams .
Case #2 : Sunit, his father knew me since childhood, he failed in SSC so his father wanted him to join my company as office boy, so he did. While doing admin work, He also learned SEO, worked with me for 2 years , unfortunately didn't continue studies but he went above and beyond his father's expectations and kept work ing as a white collar employee.
Case #3 : Sandi , He was relative of my wife. Got introduced to me by his father , I suggested to start learning photoshop after SSC exams, so he did. Kept coming to my office on and off to learn web design . After 12th he started full time as junior designer and learned lot many tools of design, worked with me for 3 years till his graduation. By that time he was earning 2x more than the designers of same age, 21 yrs. He is now a very successful professional.
Case # 4: Ashi, He came after his 10th exams, he is my relative . He didn't want to continue studies , so opted to learn and work full time at my office, he was 16 and by the time he was 18, he was a trained UI designer, worked on Matrubharti and many other apps UI. He moved on to build his career but 3 years of work with me was a good journey .
Case # 5: Deep , he is a son of my known person. Came to me after 10th , he wanted to study only if be earns , so he started part time job with me , he learned photoshop and web design , post 12th he came full time after the morning collage, next 3 years he studied and worked and apart of paying his fees, he helped his family . He is a successful professional too.
Few more such enthusiast candidates have started with me last year , one is learning design , one is learning coding and third is just starting to learn computers first. Looking forward for anotner interesting journey with them too.
The journey with above all and few more is important and a case study because all started with me when they were under 18.
Such candidates have one thing common, dedication to learn early and learn fast.
Since at their age they have not seen the world enough , that's why the bias of learning new is less. The fear of failure is less.
My experiments with people under 18 have been mostly successful except few very different cases but that too due to family reasons . Such resources worked with me for 3 to 5 years at very low cost, that helps me to keep cost under control while advantage to these resources is learning , earning and living a challenging life.
My experiments will continue to create best ever young resources for us and industry .
- Mahendra Sharma
- 6Feb2022
