We are Focused on Both Lateral Hiring and Bringing More Freshers on Board: Guru Bhat

In an exclusive interaction with Dataquest, Guru Bhat, GM Technology & Head of Engineering– PayPal, talks about how the company is planning to hire new talent, and what is their business model for the Indian market. Excerpts:

Q. Recently, PayPal has announced to hire 600 techies by the end of this year. So, how are you planning to hire them? Are you looking for some specific skill sets?

Our current headcount is 1700 and we have consistently invested in the market and view India as a key growth market. Some of the roles that we plan to recruit for include- application developers- Java, Node JS, full stack, back-end developers, data engineers, data experts, pega experts, product managers among others.

Our understanding of the value of partnerships is one of the key reasons for our position as the global leader in digital payments. We have partnered with several platforms and startups to enable our talent acquisition processes to be more efficient.

We are using ready platforms like Github and StackOverflow as well as partnering with startups such as Belong & Hackerearth for our recruitment processes. Apart from this, we are introducing great referral programs for our employees along with engaging with universities as part of our efforts.

Q. Would you be hiring freshers?  

We are focused on both lateral hiring and bringing more freshers on board. We are committed to developing and supporting quality technology craftsmen through their journey at PayPal and have a number of career development initiatives across levels. This is right from the Recent College Graduates (RCGs) who join our company to the senior level management who are responsible for driving PayPal’s strategy. In fact, we have an in-depth training program for RCGs, which focuses on nurturing a creative work environment and brings out the innovative talent in our employees right from their first day at PayPal.

Q. What is your business model for the Indian market? Where do you see your company in India in the next 5 years?

As a technology leader and one of the world’s largest start-ups, PayPal is invested in the community and is taking consistent efforts to strengthen the technology ecosystem in markets across the region. For us, India is still an untapped opportunity with about 85% of transactions still being conducted in cash. We believe we have made a timely entry because we have numerous factors supporting us at the moment such as government policies, increased consumer awareness and most importantly, the established acceptance for digital payments.

The Indian market requires very high levels of customization. We aim to bring our global expertise with local customization and ensure that our entry marks the beginning of a new era of digital payments. PayPal is now available for all merchants and consumers- offering a single account of their domestic and international transactions while constantly altering and augmenting our offerings to address the market needs.

In the coming years, our focus worldwide, and in India, is that of becoming a Customer Champion.  We have localized the product for India and will focus on educating consumers, understanding their needs and in the process, empowering them with our world-class digital payment solutions.

Q. What challenges did your company faced while deploying GDPR? Is there any solution for the same?

At PayPal, data privacy and data protection are central to the trusted relationship we have with our customers. Regulations give us another opportunity to become even more sensitive towards a customer’s privacy and security needs from a data perspective.  Our approach to data privacy and protection is closely aligned with the principles of GDPR. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our customer experience, so we are using this opportunity to introduce more transparency and additional controls for our European customers.