Me, Myself & Money Mountain
“Tim, we need to talk.” Tim’s heart sinks but at the same time he feels a small vibration on his left arm. He looks down at the watch that is part of his augmented skin. “Oh crap, it’s already 8:25! Sorry, Liebling, I have to go or I will miss my train. Maybe tonight?” He says as he is gulping down his coffee and grabs his bag. Anna sighs. “Sure. Dinner’s at 6:00 p.m..” Tim hurries to the subway station and just manages to hop onto the oncoming train. He finds a seat and squeezes in between an old lady with five shopping bags and a muscular man. However, he is too absorbed in thought to care. Anna’s words at breakfast come back to him and he starts wondering what she wanted to say. What else could they imply other than a breakup? Was it because he had cancelled their last vacation just for an opportunity to interview a potential employee? Even the ‘BMW wants you to vote for CSU’ advertisement, which usually makes him puff with anger over the politicization of the big Bavarian corporations, can’t distract him today. But when the lady to his left takes a little robot kitten out of one of her bags and starts babbling about the good old times, he is torn from his worrisome daydream. “Focus, Tim, focus”, he thinks to himself. It’s not even 9:00 a.m. and his day is already crazy. He has a recruiting meeting scheduled early this morning, and after that lunch with one of his old classmates, Paul. Then, there is the usual office business and maybe, if he is lucky, he can make it home in time for dinner at 6:00 p.m.. That sounds like a solid plan. Fairly optimistic, Tim gets off the subway and quickly walks to the Nesco office building. As he starts the day and boots up all the virtual screens, he feels a little anxious about the recruiting interview which is about to start. Only one candidate, Leon, has responded to his advertisement for a job at Nesco and Tim is hoping he takes the job. Leon just graduated from university and doesn’t have good grades or the relevant experience, but Tim desperately needs someone for a marketing position here. So he was glad to submit his job proposal documents to Leon. Due to the massive scarcity of human resources for startups, employees now have the upper hand on them and this very frequently results in unqualified employees joining the startups. Leon was supposed to be here at 9:30 am, but he seems to be late. Tim cannot even complain about it because he knows that it might push Leon away. So he just sighs and starts putting the slide deck together for his next investor meeting. He is unfocused and keeps on thinking about the candidate but it doesn’t really matter, he knows the slide deck is just a
formality. He will get the investment anyway as long as he has a half decent business model and shows up at the investor’s office. This also makes him realize the stark contrast of his situation. Just a decade ago, he would have been much more concerned about the investor instead of the candidate. Getting investment capital was a lot harder back then and finding highly qualified and motivated people was almost a piece of cake. But it didn’t stay that way for long. After completing the slide deck, Tim wanders around the empty office to grab a coffee. It’s almost 30 minutes past the appointment time, but there is still no sign of Leon. He gets back to his desk. While drinking his coffee, he contemplates again
what Anna wanted to tell him. Should he call her? Just then, a few minutes past ten, Leon casually strolls up to the office door. Tim is agitated by his casual demeanor, but he forces a smile and asks him to have a seat. Leon starts questioning Tim right away. “So why should I work for you? Can you tell me? Which benefits apart from the salary can you offer?” Tim is struggling to explain, desperately trying to convince Leon to accept the job.
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“What guarantee do you have for me if your company fails?” Leon asks. Tim is ready for this. “We guarantee you an extra 6 months of salary which will give you enough time to find a new job.” Tim then shows Leon around the office. They have excellent computers, a nice kitchen, free food all day and 4D foosball. They’re trying hard to make people want to work here, yet it doesn’t always work out. Leon doesn’t seem to be impressed. It’s standard, all the big corporates provide this kind of working environment nowadays. When leaving, Leon says, “Thank you, we’ll stay in contact. I’ll let you know about my decision by the end of next week.” When Leon leaves, Tim is already running late for his lunch appointment with Paul. “Paul is going to kill me,” he thinks. He rushes out of office to catch the next train. Paul is an old friend of Tim whom he got to know at an entrepreneurial education program they both attended in university. From time to time, they have lunch together to catch up. Since some years, the frequency of their meetings has dropped as they are not the same people they used to be. These days, they mostly argue about the differences in their careers as Paul has a corporate job where he works for the innovation department. He sees Paul, a tall and athletic looking guy, already sitting at his favorite table in the Vietnamese restaurant they always meet. “You look awful, Tim. What’s up?” Paul greets him. “Charming as always. Did you get a raise again?” he responds. Honesty has always been Paul’s biggest strength and weakness. “Actually, it’s a bonus. But don’t divert from our topic. Is it Anna? Or the startup?” “Let’s see. Anna wants ‘to talk’”, Tim mused out loud. “Whatever that is supposed to mean. Startup is alright I guess.” “And what about the combination?” Paul asks with an ironic smile. Tim slowly feels the anger of the last discussions coming up again. Why does it always have to be the same? It is too obvious where this is going. “I’m not going to work in intrapreneurship. Look, Paul, I know my job seems unfairly paid, exhausting and I also get that self-employed is close to unemployed for most of you people. But I like it and I am not afraid of failure. End of discussion.” Surprised by Tim’s emotional reaction, Paul takes a step back: “I am sorry. I just feel like you are backing the wrong horse at the moment. For example, Siemens just published a job
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