An invitation to social entrepreneurs, system thinkers

Dave Wallack, Senior Vice President, People, IFMR Trust, addresses some queries of people seeking opportunities to join our team:

What kind of people is IFMR Trust looking out for now?
Above all, we are looking for people with deep passion for our mission of universal financial inclusion. The work we are doing is exciting and it is a privilege to have a seat at the IFMR Trust to do it. When we give someone a place at the Trust, we want them to increase the level of passion for social change in the building.

We are looking for social entrepreneurs. People who want to solve social problems, and who want to use entrepreneurial means to solve those problems. Specifically, we are looking for social entrepreneurs with a market orientation.

We want people who agree with us that access to finance and markets is part of the answer to overcoming India's challenges. In addition, we are looking for people with the entrepreneurial confidence to believe that they have the ability to change the world.

We are looking for systems thinkers. Our orientation is to take a look at entire systems and to take action to fix entire systems rather than just to solve a local issue. We want people who share that way of looking at situations.

Working at a systems level requires the flexibility of mind to recognize and question unchallenged assumptions embedded in systems that aren't working.

We are looking for proactive people. If you are the type of person that sees a situation and asks yourself, "is that part of my job?" then you should consider working somewhere else. If you ask yourself, "how can I act to make that better?" then we would be eager to talk with you.

Finally, we are looking for people who are committed to making an impact at a pan-India scale. Taking action on a pan-India scale requires building and cultivating networks so that your impact is felt beyond what you can immediately impact. It also means getting on a train or plane and building those networks. It takes tenacity and patience.

We are looking for people who are in it for the long haul and who have the internal fire to carry them through long hard days.

For specific roles, look at our Openings.

What is the recruitment process?
We are launching a worldwide recruiting campaign in the coming weeks. Interested applicants should look at Openings and apply.

Our interview policy has just changed. Qualified applicants for each job will be interviewed by various people within the IFMR Trust.

To get a seat at the IFMR Trust requires that someone on the team take personal responsibility for you. If you succeed, then it financially helps the team member who vouched for you. If you don't succeed, then it hurts that person financially.

The idea is that we only want to take new people that we need enough for someone on the team to be willing to take a risk.

Are you also looking at graduates without work experience? Are you conducting campus interviews?
We are interviewing on a few campuses, but the campus placement process is set up in a manner that makes it difficult for us to really get to know people before we hire them. In my opinion this process is a huge disservice to Indian students on an individual level.

If you are on a campus and you want a career with us, then you should Contact us so we can make arrangements to get to know who you are outside the placement process.

If you are a graduate without experience, you need to be able to demonstrate a deep interest in microfinance.

IFMR Trust and its ventures are relatively new entities, without exact precedents in the country. Some mid-career professionals might see a lot of risk joining such an organisation. What would you say to such people?
If someone is terrified about the risk of a venture like ours, I would say "don't come".

We are at the cutting-edge. It is both risky and exciting out here. We only want those people who are confident enough in their ability to change the world that they are not worried about an exit strategy. When we succeed the rewards will have been worth the risk.

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