Working in a Tech Firm, Watch Out

Working in a tech firm is considered an alternative to working in Wall Street, fine. Most so-called tech firms make money out of data that they VOLUNTARILY collect (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google etc.). They don't set out to collect data, they just end up collecting it. I have worked at a **** tech firm and I don't want people to go through what I have been through. It was horrible. Before accepting the offer from a tech firm, note the followings;

- People, are they educated? Do they know what they are doing? If they graduated from a third class university (without topping up their qualification with a Master's from a top uni), probably they have no idea what they are doing. There could be people without the good uni qualifications, but they shouldn't be the majority. There should be a lot of MBAs. Doing a MBA demonstrates the continued learning and development, not complacency.

- Avoid subscription-only business. This is not scalable and, as you know from all market research or intelligence gathering firms (or publishers), they are ****ed to begin with and the employees are dumb as **** at those firms! Monkeys are smarter than they are (I mean literally). By the way, the banner pic is a sarcasm. That's the kind of **** they like to say.

- People, do they have good experience prior to this venture? Ideally, I want them to come from top-tire consultancies or M&A groups at BB. DCM and ECM are ok, but not ideal. Also include a few "traditional" types such as ex-accountants/auditors from Big 4. So guys ideally have the banking or consulting background with some industry experience.

- People, are they hard-working? Maybe one genius (with no qualifications) is enough to create a company, but to scale it, you have to work really really hard and he or she needs a lot of support. Are people the top guys or just mediocre guys who don't know how dumb they really are? Look at their lifestyle. What do they value most in life? Women? Cars? Money?

- People, do they want to make money? In the end, the business needs to be driven by this. But what you don't want is a company that doesn't look after those who produce the products (so pay them the minimum wage and pay the sales people top salary - that's the worst management). The company I worked for only paid the sales people and they are suffering now, losing clients right and left. If you don't look after your people who produce the products, you are ****ed. The quality of the product gradually deteriorate, sales people are so dumb that they don't notice the changes (and they have to be, otherwise they wouldn't survive in sales). By the time you realise the deterioration, it's too late. You have already lost most of your customers.

- Is the business scalable? Increasingly, revenues are driven by the vast data they collect, not by selling subscriptions. The latter is small, so small and doesn't pay your salary. If you want money, your company needs data, data that is so precious that threatens all existing "market or industry research firms." Google is getting everything right at the moment.

- Management, do they know how to look after the employees? Human capital management affects the abilities of the company to raise money in the capital markets. A new way of looking at the balance sheets is needed for these companies. At these companies, human capital is everything. The management should not confuse the automaton (automate everything to increase efficiency and looking after the data they collect) with the human capital management (that is necessary).

- There must be no ping pong tables or anything like that in the office. This is detrimental and decreases the productivity. Please don't replicate Facebook. They didn't know how much data they were gathering through the website. It needed some smart guys who came into the company and said "hey, this is pure gold. Why aren't we making money out of this?"

- Tech firms should never be run by sales people. You need really smart guys at the top. Pay the sales people what they deserve, but don't let them run the company.