Struggling to Transition from Entrepreneur to Employee: How Can I Overcome This Career Hurdle?

I have 5 years of diverse work experience. Of these, the last 2.5 years were spent as a consultant through my own start-up HR firm. I then enrolled in a 2-year full-time MBA. The problem is that until now, I always believed I had pretty strong work experience and would not have trouble finding a job after completing my MBA. However, things are turning out to be quite different than what I had anticipated. In fact, it's the exact opposite.

The 2.5 years of entrepreneurial work experience are not being recognized as work experience by most organizations; instead, it is seen as a gap. This leaves me with only 2.5 years of prior experience, which encompass diverse roles and not solely focused on HRM. I am absolutely clueless about what I should do now. I am seeking a role in recruitment (non-consultant) or a generalist profile.

Please advise.

I have 5 years of diverse work experience. Of these, the last 2.5 years were spent as a consultant through my own start-up HR firm. I then enrolled in a 2-year full-time MBA.

The problem arises now as, until this point, I always believed I had a pretty strong work experience and would not have trouble finding a position post-MBA. However, things are turning out to be quite different than I had anticipated, almost the exact opposite.

The 2.5 years of entrepreneurial work experience are not being recognized as such by most organizations; instead, they are seen as a gap. This situation leaves me with only 2.5 years of prior experience, which encompass diverse roles and not solely HRM-related.

I am at a loss regarding what steps to take next. I am seeking a role in recruitment (non-consultant) or a generalist profile.

Please advise.

I beg to differ with what you have concluded. Not that what has been told to you stands inaccurate. I believe it needs to be set in the right perspective.

Industry, per se, adheres to the right-fit model for any talent acquisition. Hence, you received the feedback. However, to land a job that is best suited to your competencies, you may need to focus on what you are applying for.

There are firms that hire entrepreneurs for internal ventures. An experience to start and run your own firm has groomed you in a very wide range of competencies. In case you consider us to refine them for you, please share what your venture was, what you managed through it, and what roles you are applying for.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,
Cite Contribution

Yes, this is a typical response from well-established companies or routine recruitment consultants. I have also heard that the lack of an MBA is another common reason, which in your case is not true. An entrepreneur typically has to wear many hats in their venture, but well-established companies are looking for professionals with specialized skills, so they tend to avoid candidates with prior entrepreneurial experience.

I would suggest you target small but growing companies with extremely good management (in short, successful entrepreneurial ventures) or look for recommendations from your seniors, friends, relatives, or even B-school professors. Applying through routine job portals will be a huge disappointment as they have no clue about this.

(Cite Contribution), do you offer some kind of professional service or consulting for polishing the profiles of entrepreneurs and making them job-ready? One of my friends is looking for that. Also, it'll help if you can provide some routes or ideas to get to "firms which hire entrepreneurs for internal ventures."

Regards,

Understanding Your HR Consulting Experience

I need to understand, first and foremost, in detail about each year of your work experience as an HR Consultant. Specifically, I would like to know the details of the functional or conceptual areas on which you were advising your clients.

Were your clients drawn from SMEs, MSMEs, Large Corporates, or MNCs? How many clients did you manage to attract in those 2.5 years, especially considering that at that time you did not have knowledge, skills, or hands-on experience in various functional areas of HR?

The fact that you enrolled thereafter in a regular two-year full-time MBA HR program suggests that your clients demanded "more" from you professionally, and you felt the need to upgrade/update yourself in HR. However, did you not participate in the Campus placement program at your institute?

Your "entrepreneurial" stint of 2.5 years is perhaps not being accepted as "work experience" because during that phase, you did not possess either the formal education in the area you were practicing as a Consultant or the competencies required by prospective employers.

You have also not explained your complete profile. I understand that you have been connected with the profession for around seven years (2.5 years as an "own start-up," plus 2.5 years "in diverse roles and not in pure HRM," plus 2.00 years for your full-time MBA-HR). Nowhere in your email do you explain what these "diverse roles and not in pure HRM" were.

No wonder you are clueless about what to do, but you are also honest, and therefore, the help will be efficiently utilized by you!

Advice for Building a Transparent Profile

1. Your chronology should be spelled out unambiguously for easy comprehension by potential employers.
2. Your work experience should be explained elaborately where necessary so that potential employers are not tempted to perceive "fake experience."
3. Attach documentary evidence where possible.
4. Provide references that are credible, known, and respected in the field. These could be your teachers, clients, or agencies that you may have successfully dealt with.
5. Do not forget to state what you are looking for in life—professionally and personally.

If you develop such a transparent, persuasive profile and approach, you will elicit many positive responses. Let your compensation expectations, however genuine, reasonable, or legitimate in your mind, not make it easy for the recruiter to leave your resume untouched.

All this may appear rather harsh, but move on in life; your first steps have to be modest, honest, credible, transparent, and inspiring confidence in people who have never met you in person. Therefore, kindly take all this in a positive spirit. If you do not like what I am saying, simply ignore this post, but please remember it is loaded with the best of intentions for your own good!

Cheer up!

Regards,

samvedan

January 30, 2012

Thank you very much for your response. My venture was into staffing and training services. I rendered recruitment services to 9 MNCs (including the previous employer) during this period and provided vocational training services to underprivileged graduates (over 400) free of cost (the initiative was recognized by the Government of Karnataka).

As a part of my MBA, I have worked on several live projects in the areas of Organization Development, Training and Development, and Emotional Intelligence with large organizations, most reputed in their sectors.

Over the past two months, I have applied with many companies/consultancies, including startup ventures, for roles in Recruitment, T&D, and Generalist. This was through portals, professional contacts, and consultancies. But the response I received was the same as I mentioned earlier. Now, with the course soon coming to an end and facing a challenging campus placement scenario for opportunities in HRM, I am apprehensive...

Regards

Hi Samvedan, I fully agree with all your suggestions and points in the post. However, I would like to make a point that no HR consultant has an idea on how to handle the profiles of ex-entrepreneurs hitting the job market. They simply do a Ctrl + F search on some keyword and consider you as one probable candidate. Being an entrepreneur, you have to do a lot of tasks which you were never taught. I doubt there is any person in this world who has all the skills or education before starting a venture.

Regards,

Thank you very much for responding. I truly appreciate your suggestions and advice. I am enclosing my profile, including details about my venture, prior work experience, and other achievements for your perusal. Kindly assist.

Thanks and Regards,

Dear Cite Contribution, Enclosed is my profile and a brief about my venture. Kindly advise.

Thanks and regards,

[QUOTE=Entrepreneur;1771986]Dear Cite Contribution and inquizzitive, Thank you very much for your response. My venture was into staffing and training services. I provided recruitment services to 9 MNCs (including my previous employer) during this period and offered vocational training services to over 400 underprivileged graduates free of cost (the initiative was recognized by the Government of Karnataka). As a part of my MBA, I have worked on several live projects in the areas of Organization Development, Training and Development, and Emotional Intelligence with large organizations, most reputed in their sectors.

You have mentioned the experience with silver bullets. Here's my request:

- Please include the data on what exactly you delivered and at what scale. For example, if you provided process training for risk management attended by X number of new hires, mention the training cost of the program during the interview and how you optimized returns for the client.

- Recruitment projects require mentioning the skill sets managed, the number of hires closed, and the duration within which this was achieved.

- During interviews, share the escalations you have managed with specific data. Mention the names of the leaders for further clarification if required.

- Please mention any process improvements made or suggested by you. For instance, if the turnout in referral programs improved through better usage of social media or your professional network. Did you offer any post-assessment support for the red-flagged attendees in your training programs?

- Finally, please keep in mind that the employer may take your words with a pinch of salt. Your entrepreneurial spirit may still remain alive, causing a perennial threat. Hence, make sure you frame your intention toward employment, sealing every chance for entrepreneurship. If you ever consider returning, please offer legal support such as signing a Non-disclosure Agreement or as applicable for the role.

Are you still in Bangalore?

I am in my final semester, which ends by mid-March. I'm pursuing it from a college in Hyderabad. I have lived most of my life in Bangalore and do not have any preferences with job location. Thank you for the suggestions. I will make these changes and update my resume. But will this alone address the concern? What other things can I do to strengthen my profile and make it more relevant?

Can you please share with me the details you shared with inquisitive and the ways to get to firms which hire entrepreneurs for internal ventures?

Regards,