Working in a company that is only a few years old can be both challenging and enlightening. Here is all you need to make a flying start professionally.

OYO Rooms has made its presence felt in the hotel industry in just three years of existence. The Gurugrambased start-up, which is present in more than 170 cities across the country, prefers employees who can keep up with the fast pace of the company’s development. More importantly, says Dinesh R, chief human resources officer of OYO Rooms, they look for “an entrepreneurial streak” in a candidate.

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“Innovation is coded into the OYO DNA, so we look for problem-solvers,” he says. “Most importantly, we believe passion drives one to be more proactive. Therefore, we hire people passionate about joining us. This can be gauged from their body language and words. Our hiring processes are conservative and mature – we spend enough time with a candidate to study his behaviour closely.”

He adds, “We seek hustle and high energy in potential employees. The drive and conviction to make things happen is also important while working in a hyper-competitive environment such as ours. As a start-up, we also pay attention to people with cross-functional collaboration skills. Intellectual ability, rigour and a sense of ownership are other prerequisites.”

In this day and age, the hiring process is also aided by social media. As Dinesh R says, “Social media plays a significant role in identifying the right mix of people. A significantly large proportion of our hiring happens through social media and referrals. Social media plays an instrumental role in identifying and reaching out to a vibrant mix of people.”

Out of that vibrant mix of people, fresh graduates are perhaps the ones most anxious but also the ones with the newest of ideas about a particular field. The chief human resources officer of OYO Rooms has a few pointers for such potential employees: “Most graduates possess a vague idea about the industry and other practical applications. Thinking beyond academic knowledge and researching well before coming for an interview give recruits an edge.”