The first time nearbuy went to hire from ISB, we had to find a way of creating buzz on the campus.
Positive buzz.

We weren't a well known brand.
We weren't paying top salaries.
Competition for talent was intense

So during the pre-placement talk, we told students...

...two things

1. Your resume SHOULD NOT be in the ISB resume template.
"Add color to it"

2. On the resume, name someone else from the batch who you think is better than you, for the role you are applying for

It was super interesting to see the reactions this generated.

1.
Students were curious as to "what does color mean?"
Do you mean actual color?
Or do you mean "add color" figuratively?

This led to the most joyful submissions
PDFs
Comic books
Highlights

We sensed liberation

2.
We collated the frequently recurring names, and if they hadn't applied reached out to them, while the submissions were on.
"7 students who have applied think you will be better than them at this role. Do you wish to consider applying?"

Very few will be able to say no to this!

In a batch of 770 people, we had 380 students applying!

Imagine
380 representations of 380 unique identities

It made our job of shortlisting a lot harder, but we weren't complaining. This is what we signed up for!
We eventually hired 4 product managers.

The lesson I realized?

The world doesn’t need one more format.
It needs one more rebel.