Hi Richard, I had actually moved to India after raising money from an Indian HNI to start a mobile based real-time location-based ultra-personalised retail/loyalty system :)
In my experience, remote interviews are like the lottery... probably a one in a 10 billion chance you'll strike it lucky (resume's are usually quite *dishonest*, and communication is very poor... don't be surprised if someone "similar looking" actually "does the interview" for his friend... and then, how will you handle the situation of "her mother came along to the interview to make sure her 22 year old daughter was okay" (yes, i've had mothers sit in on interviews i've done - but after a few for curiosity, people who came with their "mummies" were quickly turned away :) India is a very peculiar place.... you'll no doubt thoroughly love it as an experience, but if you want particular results, there is certain processes and structures you'll need to put in place (again, very much depends on what level of person you are hiring). Where is your office going to be (near electronics city?), diamond district? indiranagar? or one of the other hubs? My questions to you would be: * what is your motive for hiring/establishing in india? (if it's stuff like - you want to cater to the market there, expand your "business" (not just dev) there, innovate for there, etc... totally understandable... if it's cost, i would say - still might be worth it, but think twice, and research more before you do that :) * do you have someone on the ground there who understands the local nuances? * what is your recruitment strategy and who are you hiring? (top down? poach?, ???) * what is your retention strategy? (and yes, getting the lemming to take around the coffee twice a day for all employees is seen as almost mandatory for many good companies :) * what is your "brand/image" strategy (location, office type/space/signage/etc) * who is your legal advisor/partner? (for example, did you know it takes at least 6 weeks to just get incorporated (and that's a very quick case) - and you have to pay (apart from bribes), a lot of taxes based on your incorporation "value", you'll get things like "company seals" and memorandums (hundreds of companies from your lawyer) because every time you want to do something significant (even open a bank account, these have to be submitted to the bank, etc)... (another one for legals... did you know that even many *big western companies* have HR policies whereby if an employee takes a friday/monday off, it's considered 4 days off annual leave because "just in case the employee was needed on saturday/sunday and was not available, it should be considered a day of leave") - personally i think it's draconian, but many do it because they say the gazillions of "public holidays" that come up more than make up for such rules... :) * what are your "community connections" there? (i can certainly put you in touch with the founders of the Amazon, Null/Security and startup (HeadStart) communities" (even helped found a few of them) :) Having said the above, i think it can be a very rewarding experience and profitable as well... the vibrancy/colour, constant battle for survival, etc, does provide a fertile ground for certain types of innovation and implementation... Happy to chat over a coffee if you want :) simran. On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 2:57 PM, Richard Buggy <r...@buggy.id.au> wrote: > Hi simran, > > Thanks for the feedback. The hiring experience you've described mirrors my > odesk experience. We had to develop a strong process to weed out 80% of > developers in less than 30 seconds without an interview. > > When you were starting out did you need to go to Bangalore for interviews > or were you able to interview the first few hires through Skype? We're > still in the process of establishing an office in Bangalore but I don't > want to delay the hiring process. > > Rich > > > On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 2:10 PM, simran <sim...@dn.gs> wrote: > >> Having built teams there, here's my 2cents worth :) >> >> ** what worked: image! people look for security - you need a good office, >> branding on your front door (you won't believe how important this is!), the >> image of a "big" company that isn't going anywhere, and of course benefits >> like "provident fund" (superannuation), medical benefits, etc... Also, >> depending on the level of people you are hiring, streamline your hiring >> process and automate much of it... you will get a LOT of junk applying... >> >> ** what didn't work: "indian salaries" - people think it's *much* cheaper >> there... true, if you are looking for JUNK! A good person will cost you >> between a 1/3 and a 1/2 of an Australia salary norm. What also does not >> work is looser structure - people are used to hierarchy, and you need to >> give them hierarchy and structure - then build in a culture of openness... >> (starting with something too open scares them). >> >> ** what would i do different: really work out the value of what you are >> doing and whether you should be hiring there... it's NOT necessarily >> cheaper if you are still looking for the same quality result - although if >> you decide that you need it for other reasons, then hire only the absolute >> guns... there is not much "mid level" there... they are either stars, or >> absolute duds (which is the 99%)! >> >> >> ** events, head hunters, yes ads on naukri (same as seek here) as well, >> but hire your top talent first (absolute guns) and get them to poach... >> >> >> ** 3 interview process : very dependant on level.. but say you're hiring >> a programmer, because of the amount of junk you get, after 2 minutes, i >> used to give them a "practical" in front of a computer... most of them >> didn't know where the enter key was! interview was terminated 30 seconds >> later! :) >> >> >> If you want to bounce your thoughts off someone, feel free to call me >> (0422 543 742)... if your rationale is much more than just "cheaper >> developers" - i can certainly help you (still have many contacts on the >> ground in bangalore in particular :) >> >> >> On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 11:26 AM, Joshua Partogi < >> joshua.part...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> I think it would be best if you can share it with us. I am interested to >>> know other people's experiences on setting up teams in India too. >>> >>> >>> On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 8:11 AM, Nikhil Singh >>> <hi.nikhil....@gmail.com>wrote: >>> >>>> Hey Rich, >>>> >>>> I have experience in setting up/building team in Bangalore, you can >>>> message me and am happy to help. >>>> >>>> Best of luck, >>>> Nikhil >>>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilsingh >>>> >>>> On 28/09/2012, at 10:56 AM, Rich Buggy <richard.bu...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> Hi >>>> >>>> Our company is setting up a new office in India (Bangalore) and I need >>>> to hire developers/operations staff there. Does anyone on this list have >>>> experience setting up an overseas office in India? Would you be willing to >>>> share your experience? I'd like to find out >>>> - What worked? >>>> - What didn't work? >>>> - What you would do different? >>>> - How you found developers, operations staff and managers? >>>> - How your hiring process worked? >>>> >>>> Thanks, >>>> Rich >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon >>>> Beach Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.orgfor more >>>> >>>> Forum rules >>>> 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. >>>> 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs >>>> >>>> >>>> To post to this group, send email to >>>> silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com >>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>> silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com >>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>> http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon >>>> Beach Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.orgfor more >>>> >>>> Forum rules >>>> 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. >>>> 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs >>>> >>>> >>>> To post to this group, send email to >>>> silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com >>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>> silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com >>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>> http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> @jpartogi >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon >>> Beach Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for >>> more >>> >>> Forum rules >>> 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. >>> 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs >>> >>> >>> To post to this group, send email to >>> silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en >>> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach >> Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more >> >> Forum rules >> 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. >> 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs >> >> >> To post to this group, send email to >> silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en >> > > > > -- > -- > Rich Buggy > r...@buggy.id.au > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more > > Forum rules > 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs > > > To post to this group, send email to > silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more Forum rules 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. 2) No jobs postings. You can use http://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en
