Venture capital entry level job applications are fucked

I’ve been seeing a lot of LinkedIn posts recently about VC firms hiring investment analysts, and honestly, the entire application process pisses me off.

I applied to quite some, and this is where I realised how fucked this is.

Gatekeepers:

Almost every single one of these firms wants candidates with only three types of backgrounds:

1. Investment Banking
2. Consulting
3. Another VC firm

Oh, and they want you to have 2-3 years of experience from one of these fields, with a tier-1 pedigree (like IITs, DU). Some even demand sectoral expertise as if that’s a basic thing right out of college.

I get that some VC funds specifically hire engineers for tech or operational roles (I’m not an engineer, so "not my expertise"). But having worked in a bank and have a lot of friends in IB, they say that they usually never see the really "high-quality" deals.

These “ideal” candidates are already making ₹14-30L+ a year. Why would they even consider an entry-level VC role that likely just matches or maybe pays less? VC firms can’t match that unless they stretch their budget which eventually leads you to hire tier-1/2 MBAs for just a bit more money.

The Sourcing Scam (disguised by interviews):

"Give us a list of 10 startups you would invest in", "Which startups do you like from our portfolio (confirmation bias?)", “extra points if they're undiscovered.” Just admit it — you’re crowd-sourcing potential investment ideas from job seekers for free.

This is market research masquerading as a recruitment question. If you want a pipeline of interesting startups, hire a consultant, have a LinkedIn content creation game, and pay for the work. Don’t dangle a potential interview as bait for people doing the job you’re too lazy to pay for upfront.

"Send us a Loom", "Record a 5 min video answering our 4 questions", "Video pitch us a startup idea"

Some of them have the audacity to ask for a "5-minute" video . Why? If you like someone’s written application, call them for an interview. The right to privacy is a joke.

I’m a guy, and even I’m not really keen with sending a recorded video of myself to strangers. I can only imagine how much worse this feels for women applying to these roles.

The Mandatory (Numbers only) Current and Expected Salary

What happened to the open-minded approach VCs expect founders to have? You know where you stand in terms of competitiveness. Price yourselves accordingly instead of forcing candidates to disclose their numbers upfront. Pay for talent. But I guess that's a thing everywhere at this point to be very honest.

"Pre-MBA"

Glad to know you admit that it takes an MBA to be seen seriously in Finance. VC firms want candidates with 2 years of experience in consulting, VC, or IB for fixed-term (typically 2 years), pre-MBA roles. These firms only hire from tier-1 schools, which makes the talent pool hyper-narrow.

Basically:

You want specific backgrounds from an elite talent pool.

You want people to work for just 2 years before coming to you, work 2 years more before heading to B-school (4+ years of work ex)

And your "videos", "free startup names", which gives you access to 100s of unique names for hiring 1 candidate.

I've already started applying cautiously. Make it a long tedious 2 hour exam with a ghost video interview and I'm not applying. Maybe that's a shared sentiment with those guys you are actually looking to hire.

Good luck.