Venture firms favor experience over ideas

"Teamwork and wealth of experience rather than flashes of bright ideas."

The hiring standard of venture businesses is in a flux.

For some time, venture businesses favored those with flashes of ideas and uniqueness over academic achievements and experience. However, recently, companies seeking safer types of binsuesses have been on the rise.

When the external factors worsen, the hiring pattern of companies enter what is called a negative phase as a means of crisis management. Many have come to realize that at such times, a mis-step by a single employee could throw the company into a crisis.

Many chief executive officers of the venture companies are guarding themselves from those with frequent job changes, lack of team spirit and adaptation, extreme selfishness and overstatement of personal achievements. Those with frequent job changes have greater possibility of quitting and might not help toward the growth of the company, so goes the rationale.

A company that selected 15 new employees recently sifted through the applicants and crossed out those with three job changes within one year.

"The foreign companies or others with greater financial security shy away from hiring those with greater previous employment history," Lee Kyung-Hoo, head of public relations at the Internet human resource company Incruit, said.

However, even among the venture company CEO's, there are those with frequent job changes. As such, the president of the company Lee Yoo-Jae said, "In case of those with history of changes of good jobs, the negative standard is adopted."

The new trend favoring organizational experience and proven adaptability is gaining ground. In order to overcome crisis and foster continued growth, many are coming to realize that nothing is better than organizational skill and experience.

"I prefer an individual who could help toward the organizational harmony of the company rather than someone with personality or even talent," a president of company, Kim Sang-Woo, still in his 20s, said. "As each have limited responsibility, although someone might be highly skilled, if he cannot fit with the organization, he is ineffective."

For new recruits from the graduating classes of colleges, many companies have become interested in records pertaining to volunteer services and club activities. For management recruits, many companies have become interested in those with history of running self-owned businesses.

An Internet shopping-mall company MyGrocery prefers those with long experience in the off-line distribution industry.

"In the case of venture companies with limited resources, there isn't much availability to train the newly hired," The president of MyGrocery said. "In addition, as the experience the newly hired brings into the business becomes an asset, many with experience in major companies are being favored."

Responsibility toward duty and originality are the given in case of venture businesses. Companies looking to expand abroad prefer those with the ability to speak foreign languages.

"The hiring practices of venture businesses have become like those of major conglomerates," the president of one venture business said. "With many companies folding, the viable venture businesses have applied stricter standard in its hiring of necessary human resource."

Jung Wi-Yong viyonz@donga.com