All of us have wondered, at one time or another, what route to take after graduating university. Although the majority has decided to work within a company, there are some students who are willing to take the road to entrepreneurship.
For those who haven’t yet decided what to do after university, I took an interview with an employee and one with an entrepreneur in order to share two different perspectives.
Teodora Lungu, HR Assistant, Bigstep Cloud
Could you tell us more about the company you work for?
„The company offers cloud computing services for the big data companies.”
Why did you choose Bigstep?
„It was related with the subjects studied during university. The size of the company was another criterion. Within a large company you aren’t able to make the same impact as in a smaller one. Here, your contribution matters more.”
Why being an employee and not a freelancer or an entrepreneur?
„Because, first of all, I want to know more about the challenges that a company faces. I want to learn from the mistakes of others because no matter how well-organized the company that you work for is, the mistakes can still be made.”
Please tell me some things that you like regarding your employee status.
„As I told you before, within a company you have the opportunity to learn from the ones around you. And even more, you have the chance to come across a mentor, a person who can help you grow not only professionally, but also personally. Another advantage is the sense of stability. Also, working within a company gives you the opportunity to interact with many people, therefore you can easily extend your interpersonal network.”
Could you tell us some things that you don’t like?
„Of couse. Working as an employee gives you less freedom regarding the development of your own vision. You must follow the rules. Another disadvantage is that you can’t choose your collegues and your boss.”
What piece of advice would you give to someone who has recently graduated and wants to work within a company?
„To know what he really likes to do. In Romania the labor market gives you many opportunities. Volunteering is also very important.”
Adrian Balcan, 27 years, Founder of TheWebMiner and FeedCheck
Could you tell us more about your products?
„The Web Miner Geo is a search engine for geographic data that indicates on the map the points of interest for the companies that are willing to open new locations. FeedCheck is a product that collects the reviews from different online stores. It saves them on a database in order to be analyzed by the companies and help them improve their products.”
What it is really like to be an entrepreneur?
„It is very interesting! You are facing challenges every single day, you come across different situations and you must find the right solutions. There are also a lot of opportunities because being an entrepreneur gives you the chance to interact with people from the same networks.”
How did you decide to take this road less traveled, the road of entreprenuership?
„I wanted to become an entrepreneur from an early age. I discovered the benefits of entrepreneurship based on software products. The ideea is that you make a product once, and you can sell it as many times as you want. I fell in love with this concept.”
Can you tell me more about the benefits of entrepreneurship?
„Sure. As an entrepreneur you have the opportunity to make a lot of money. Another advantage is the ability to start something from scratch. You can turn your vision into reality. Last but not least, you can choose the people you want to work with.”
Could you tell me some negative aspects?
„Yes. The instability is one of them. You don’t know when or if you receive the money. You can lose or you can make profit . Often, the entrepreneurship is associated with a financial distress. The beginning is very challenging because you work alone, you can’t count on your colleagues. At first, I didn’t have an office. I used to work from my campus room.”
We hope that these interviews were useful if you haven’t decided yet what career path to choose. You must discover which road suits you most based on your personality traits.
Author Mihai Cireasa
Image source: http://fi.co/system/upload/8.__entrepreneurfail_A_Day_in_the_Life_Corporate_vs_Startup_-_Founder_Institute.png