The first time nearbuy went to hire from ISB, we had to find a way of creating a buzz on the campus. 

We weren’t a well known brand. And competition for talent was intense.

So during the pre-placement talk, we told students three things.

1. Your resume SHOULD NOT be in the ISB resume template.
2. Add color to your resume.
3. On the resume, name someone else from the batch who you think is better than you, for the role you are applying for.

It was super interesting to see the reactions.

1. While some students were relieved that they did not have to follow the template, some were jittery. Because now there was no standard way of doing the task!
2. Almost everyone was curious as to “what does color mean?” This led to the most joyful submissions: PDFs. Comic books. Highlights.
We sensed liberation!

3. We collated the frequently recurring names, and if they hadn’t applied reached out to them, while the submissions were on.

“7 students who have applied think you will be better than them at this role. Do you wish to consider applying?”
In a batch of 770 people, we had 380 students applying!
It made our job of shortlisting a lot harder, but we weren’t complaining.
This is what we signed up for!

We eventually hired 4 product managers. And all 4 of them stayed with us for 3+ years!

There is a thing about templates.
They are very seductive.
They give an illusion of safety.
They give an illusion of low risk.

So a lot of us fall for them.

Not just in our resumes.
In our lives.

Think about it.
How many of us are living our life like a template?

If Class tenth marks > 90%, then science
If parents = engineers, then engineering
If parents = business, then study commerce
If engineer = yes, then MBA
If age > 25, get married jaldi jaldi
If married > 2 years, sunao khushkhabri to the world

All of these are nothing but templates.

And whenever I think of templates, I am reminded of a powerful thing that Steve Jobs once said during an interview.

“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.”

But most of us do not change the rules.

We play a game designed and rules laid out by someone else.
And thus the rules laid out by someone else.

The world does not need another template.
The world needs a rebel.