Most people tells us that the current economy is bad and people are graduating right now.  I hear all the time that it’s going to be easy picking someone out of that pool, but I totally disagree. It seems like there’s more noise from people that won’t fit in our company. We were discussing about it one day and was told by one of the new guys  that we were picky and we had to be realistic. “Who starts work the same day they finish their exams?”, he asked. The entire team raised our hands.

People

I learned that most fresh graduates look forward to that so-called graduation trip.  Most of us  in the company graduated twice from a polytechnic then college, and both times we dive straight into work. Perhaps we were a little different, perhaps we are weird. We all agreed that it takes someone a little different to work in a start up. Someone who wants to do something to leave behind a legacy. I started thinking about it and noticed a few things about us.
Insanely optimistic

We have to be. We gave up cushy job offers, Ivy league school offers, inheritance and other more certain opportunities to be here knowing we can get more.  Can we finish 3 projects in a week. Yep sure. Can we do something better than the bigger boys. We’ll beat them. Of course, there’s a thin line to thread between being optimistic and being delusional and we make sure we don’t cross that line.

“next working day”
Where “next working day” is literally the next day. Our social and work lives becomes intertwined and colleagues become friends and vice versa. Even without overtime pay or big bonuses, we get people here on Sundays. The average sleeping time of the team is probably 6 hours. I figured it’s the waking up to something bigger than ourselves that gives us that boost.  Also, hanging out together so often gives us time to bond and plan for crazy stuff like booking fifty tickets for Wolverine opening night where we got all our friends together. Nothing beats having a mass movie hang out for one of the best 2009 movie.

Penchant for DIY
When we first got our office, every one started playing music and very soon it becomes a cacophony of songs and discussions. We wrote a jukebox with an unbiased(sometimes i doubt it) queuing system tied to the main speakers. We are engineers at heart and we like to solve problems, big or small. Visit t.wits.sg and you might get some of our gems and great products we use in the office. We wrote it, we use it and we will made sure it’s good.

Guns, guitars and wolverine

Before we moved into our office, we knew that this will be our second home, and we rightfully made it so. Big screens, big tables, comfortable chairs and the lot. We started bringing stuff from home to the office. Piano, guitars, weights and personal mugs. Stuff that makes a place a home. Stuff that gives us  a little fun once in a while. That said, every one in the office gets a nerf air gun when they join.  It’s just not safe without one when there is a gun rack and the occasional all-out nerf gun war. Perhaps a little work culture is forming, a culture that will give us that energy and drive to strive for more than we should and to challenge the status quo.  One of the reasons why we want to work in our own start-up is so we can have the opportunity to work with smart, excited and motivated people. The people that will constantly challenge us to make things that we are proud to use and potentially make a positive difference. With that in mind, we told our new guy, we will continue to be very selective about who gets on board.

peek