Advice to Freshers from the Founder of Naukri.com “Look for meaning and not money in your life.”

Sanjeev Bikhchandani’ s story is an inspiration to freshers and professional jobseekers alike. Sir is a living example of the fact that passion and foresight can drive one to achieve their deepest desires. He launched Naukri.com (currently Asia’s no. 1 brand and India’s no. 1 job portal) about 20 years back from a humble servant’s quarter at his father’s house in Delhi. As of date, his portal adds a whopping 14,000 CVs into the system every single day.

Today Sanjeev Bikhchandani is the executive vice chairman of Info Edge (parent company of Naukri.com) and Sir is also the co-founder of Ashoka University. Becoming India’s most prominent businessman was not a cakewalk as nothing comes easy in life.

Sanjeev Bikhchandani attended St. Columba’s School, Delhi and passed out in 1981. Soon, sir went on to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University in 1984. Later, he completed his MBA from IIM – A in 1989.

After his PG, Sanjeev Bikhchandani quit a plush marketing job at Horlicks (a GlaxoSmithKline product) in 1990 to set up two companies namely Indmark and Info Edge with a partner. While the first company was into pharmaceutical trademarks, the second churned out salary surveys and reports.

In 1993, he split with his business partner and Sanjeev Bikhchandani got Info Edge. In 1997, sir set up Naukri.com, a job portal, on a server in the US, and later founded Quadrangle, an offline executive search business.

Image source: Outlook

In 2005, Naukri.com became India’s largest web-based employment site. Soon afterwards in October 1998, Sanjeev Bikhchandani launched a matrimonial website and its services were free during the initial years. This website was sold to Amit and Rohit Tandon, and Sanjeev Bikhchandani remained 35% stake holder.

In an interview to India Today, Sanjeev Bikhchandani shared some valuable insights for all the youngsters out there. These lines have been curated below for your reference:

“Look for meaning and not money in your life. I passed out of college in 1984. Looking back at life 30 years later, I can come to just one conclusion. We have only one life, there’s no point wasting it living someone else’s dream. One should manage risks, get experience and make transitions when necessary. But stay focused on your dreams and passion.”

“If you do what you love then you will always be happy even if you are making no money. That is another valuable lesson that I have learnt in life. One should look for meaning not money. Money is a happy outcome if you are really good at what you do. It should not replace your dreams and become your sole motivator.”

“I follow no particular philosophy. I believe that one should keep improving on the past. You should be happy with what you do. What motivates me in particular is serving our customers and helping people find jobs.”

“Working with the right people is important. I also believe in the whole virtuous circle of action, achievement and self-esteem. If you take action, you will achieve something. Once you achieve a goal, it will reinforce your self-esteem and vice versa. But I learned this philosophy only in hindsight.”

“I grew up in a regular middle-class Indian home. My dad was a doctor at a government hospital and mom was a homemaker. I was always told that one should study hard in order to achieve success. And that’s what I did. I studied hard and went to IIM-Ahmedabad. Then I found a job in marketing at a leading multinational based in Delhi.”

“But I wasn’t satisfied with just monetary success. I kept wondering what it was that I was looking to achieve at the end of my career. Did I study so hard just to sell one product? So, I decided to stop working for others and start something on my own in 1990. Looking back, I realize that I was lucky that my wife, Surbhi was working at the time. We had been classmates at IIM Ahmedabad. She had a decent salary which helped us scrape through the hard times.”

“The first 10 years of running the business was the most difficult. The biggest problem we had was money – we were always falling short. I went without a salary for months and worked twice as hard. I bought second-hand computers, furniture and set up my business headquarters in a servant quarter in my father’s house.”

And then as they say, the rest is history…

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