At one recent recruitment event in London, a large consulting firm failed to recruit a single MBA for its fast-track scheme. McKinsey and Co responded by starting a programme that allows junior consultants to work with small client companies on the IPO track. The trainees have all the excitement of working with a startup while at the same time receiving world-class training from senior partners. KPMG's chief operating officer Roger Siboni and Andersen Consulting's long-time chief executive George Shaheen have both joined startups. In the UK, Safeway's Mike Winch is the latest in a long line of IT directors to leave corporate life behind.
Startups are keen to acquire disillusioned corporate workers.
Josefsberg, a former Coca-Cola executive, says these employees offer valuable experience. This is very important to a dot com when you need to build the company very fast. We need to offer stock to these people because we expect so much from them. These employees are willing to sacrifice short-term job security and remuneration for the IPO dream, according to Joshua Sparks, head of IT recruitment at Robert Walters. There is one salary level for the dot com and another very different level for everyone else.