eurekapd Chapter 338 Easy Entry, Strict Exit
Chapter 338 Easy Entry, Strict Exit
The interviews started at nine in the morning.
Lu Ran didn't join the first round of interviews. Instead, he sat in his office and looked through the blinds at the students waiting for their interviews in the corridor.
Some people paced back and forth, some silently recited their self-introductions to the wall, and some repeatedly adjusted their ties—they felt too tight when tied, and too loose when loosened, and after four or five attempts, they finally tied them back to their original state.
The nervousness of the first interview and the naivety of someone fresh out of school were both evident.
"Mr. Lu, aren't you going to take a look?" Shen Yuege walked in with a cup of tea, and followed his gaze to the window. "There are so many people waiting."
"I'm not going." Lu Ran turned around and sat back behind his desk. "Let the business department screen them first. If I go, they won't be relaxed, and the students will be even more nervous. Let the professionals do what they're good at in the first round."
Shen Yuege placed the teacup on the table and sat down opposite him: "You're really that at ease?"
"What's there to worry about? Old Wang is in charge of technology, Xiao Yang is in charge of operations, and Old Zhao is in charge of the market. They know better than me how to pick people." Lu Ran picked up his teacup and took a sip. "I just need to wait to pick up the bargains."
Despite saying that, he couldn't help but turn on the surveillance footage in the interview room.
In the interview room of the technical department, Lao Wang was sitting in the main seat with a resume spread out in front of him.
Across from him sat a bespectacled boy in a plaid shirt with messy hair, who looked like he had just been dragged out of a laboratory.
"Your project description says 'Game AI Behavior Tree Optimization Based on Deep Learning'," Old Wang pushed up his glasses. "Could you explain it to me in plain language? What exactly did you do?"
The boy paused for a moment, then said, "Well... I made the computer in the game smarter. The original AI would just follow a fixed pattern, and players could figure out the rules after a few rounds. I added a learning module to the AI, so it adjusts its behavior based on the player's operating habits, making the player feel that each opponent is different."
Old Wang's eyes lit up: "How do you plan to solve the computing resource problem? AI learning is very performance-intensive; ordinary gamers' computers can't handle it."
"I'm using cloud computing," the boy's voice became more confident. "The player's computer is only responsible for executing the AI's actions; the learning and decision-making are handled by the cloud server. This ensures the AI's intelligence without affecting the player's gaming experience."
Old Wang jotted down a few notes in his notebook, then asked, "How effective was your project in actual application?"
"We conducted a comparative test." The boy took out his phone from his bag and showed a chart. "For the same game difficulty, the completion rate of players using the fixed AI was 68%, while the completion rate of players using the adaptive AI was only 41%. It's not that the adaptive AI is too difficult, but that players find each game fresh and are willing to challenge themselves repeatedly."
After listening, Old Wang hesitated for a few seconds, then said something that almost made Lu Ran spit out her tea: "When can you start working?"
The boy was caught off guard by the question: "I...I haven't graduated yet, until next June."
"Let's sign a letter of intent first, and you can come directly after graduation." Old Wang drew a big circle on the resume, pushed it aside, and said, "Next."
Lu Ran looked at the surveillance footage, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
Old Wang is a man of few words at the company. He avoids speaking during meetings if possible, and his messages in the group chat are always just "Received," "Okay," and "In progress."
I didn't expect them to be so aggressive during the interview; they skipped all the formalities and asked about my start date.
However, Lu Ran was also very satisfied with this guy, and their company didn't have that many rules and regulations. Although there would be many problems, it would also make many processes much simpler.
He switched to the operations department's interview room.
Xiao Yang is interviewing a girl with a round face and a ponytail. She likes to gesture with her hands when she speaks.
"You mentioned you've worked on campus community operations. What exactly did you do?"
The girl counted on her fingers: "First, I increased the daily active users of our school forum from 300 to 2,000. Second, I organized a 'Campus Cutest Pet Contest,' which attracted over 5,000 participants. Third, I created a postgraduate entrance exam preparation group, which now has over 1,200 members and receives more messages daily than the official group."
Xiao Yang became interested: "How did you create the campus forum?"
"The old forum was so difficult to use," the girl said bluntly. "It took half an hour to get a post approved, the interface looked like a product from ten years ago, and the administrators would delete posts and ban accounts all the time. I applied to the school for moderator privileges, first shortening the approval time to less than five minutes, then redesigning the interface, adding a few trending topics sections, and organizing a few online events. In two months, the daily active users increased from 300 to 2,000."
"Did the school approve your interface changes?"
"I disagree," the woman said firmly. "So I wrote my own front-end page and plugged it into the forum's data interface. On the surface, it still looks like the same forum, but the user experience is completely different. The teachers at the school don't understand technology and haven't noticed it yet."
Xiao Yang couldn't help but laugh: "Aren't you afraid of getting caught and punished?"
"What's there to be afraid of?" The girl tossed her ponytail. "I'm graduating soon, and disciplinary action won't catch up with me."
Lu Ran was watching the surveillance footage in his office when he laughed so hard his right leg trembled a few times.
This girl is bold, quick-witted, and speaks very directly.
He wanted it just for those three things.
But he held back and didn't rush into the interview room to disrupt it.
We agreed that the business department should screen first, so we can't interfere.
He switched to the marketing department's interview room.
Old Zhao was interviewing a young man who was dressed in a suit and tie, with his hair slicked back and shiny, looking like he was going to a wedding.
"Your resume states that you worked in the external relations department of the student union. What's the largest sponsorship you've secured?"
"Fifty thousand." The boy puffed out his chest. "It's the biggest sponsorship our school's external relations department has ever secured."
Old Zhao asked expressionlessly, "How did you poop?"
The boy cleared his throat, as if giving a report: "First, I analyzed the business resources around the school and screened out target customers. Then I customized cooperation plans for each customer, not the kind of generic sponsorship requests, but personalized benefit packages designed according to the characteristics and needs of the businesses. Finally, I took the plans and talked to them one by one. I talked to thirteen businesses and closed three deals."
"What did you say during the negotiations?"
"I told them that sponsoring student activities is not charity, it's an investment. By spending five thousand yuan, you can gain exposure to five thousand potential customers on campus. The cost of acquiring each potential customer is only one yuan, which is much cheaper than handing out flyers or doing door-to-door promotions. Moreover, once students develop a spending habit, they become lifelong customers, and their subsequent value is immeasurable."
Old Zhao's expression finally changed slightly: "What did you study?"
"philosophy."
"Philosophy?" Old Zhao rarely showed a surprised expression.
"Yes," the boy said. "Philosophy taught me two things. First, you have to see the essence of a problem. Businesses don't want to sponsor student activities; they want to acquire customers. Second, you have to speak logically. If you explain your reasoning clearly, the other person will believe you."
Old Zhao wrote a line on the resume and then said, "Go back and wait for our notification."
Lu Ran turned off the monitor, leaned back in his chair, and let out a long breath.
The quality of this group of students was much higher than he had expected.
They are not the kind of bookworms who are good students, but young people who have ideas, the ability to execute, and the courage to think and act.
He recalled his university days in his previous life, where he spent his days attending classes, playing games, and sleeping, occasionally skipping classes to go to internet cafes, and never even participating in the student council.
Compared to these people, he was simply wasting his life.
But then he thought about it again, and realized that if he hadn't had those experiences in his past life, he wouldn't be sitting here interviewing people now.
Everyone has their own path. Whether you walk fast or slow doesn't matter; what matters is not stopping.
Shen Yuege walked in from outside, holding a stack of resumes: "These are the first batch selected by the Human Resources Department. Would you like to take a look?"
Lu Ran took the resumes and flipped through several of them.
The first one was from a male student in the computer science department. His resume stated that he participated in an open-source project at the university and ranked third among all contributors in terms of code contribution.
Lu Ran knew that being ranked in the top three among open-source projects meant one's skill level was quite high.
The second one was from a journalism student. Her resume included data on her operation of the campus WeChat official account—in three months, her followers grew from zero to 20,000, with an average readership of 15,000.
Lu Ran calculated that this open rate was higher than that of many professional new media companies.
The third one was from the psychology student. His resume stated that he had conducted research on "game player behavior analysis" and published a paper.
Lu Ran didn't know much about psychology, but he thought it wasn't a bad thing for game developers to know a little about psychology.
The fourth one was from a Chinese literature major, whose resume included links to her novels.
Lu Ran clicked in and took a look. It was a fantasy story with smooth writing, a tight plot, and a complete world-building.
There were still a bunch of people in the comments section urging for more updates, which made Lu Ran, who was also an author who had stopped updating, blush with embarrassment.
After reviewing the four resumes, Lu Ran placed them on the table, feeling both pleased and conflicted.
"What's wrong?" Shen Yuege asked.
"I'm thinking," Lu Ran said, "about how to arrange things after we recruit these people."
"Didn't you already have an idea?"
Lu Ran nodded: "I do have an idea. TUTU needs people, League of Legends needs people, and Three Kingdoms Kill needs people. But I don't want to scatter the people too much. Newcomers are like blank slates. If they are assigned to different project teams, everyone will learn different things and grow at different speeds. I want to bring them together for a period of training first, and then distribute them further once they have acquired basic skills."
Shen Yuege thought for a moment: "So how do you plan to train them?"
"We'll divide them into four categories." Lu Ran held up a finger. "The first category is TUTU. These people will learn community operations, content moderation, user growth, and data analysis. TUTU is our core business, and we can't afford any problems there, so the people we send there need to be reliable."
"The second category is League of Legends. These people will learn game operations, tournament organization, streamer management, and community maintenance. League of Legends is our flagship product, and we need the most driven people to do it."
"The third category is Three Kingdoms Kill. This game is about to be released for public beta, and we need manpower for operations, events, and user feedback. Although it's not as big as League of Legends, it's still an important product line and shouldn't be underestimated."
"The fourth category is the reserve team." Lu Ran put down his finger. "These people will first rotate through different departments, staying in each department for a month to familiarize themselves with the company's business processes. Once they have a holistic view, I will assign them specific positions based on their strengths and interests."
After listening, Shen Yuege nodded: "This arrangement is quite reasonable. But have you considered one thing?"
"What's the problem?"
Who will provide the training?
Lu Ran laughed: "Me? Who else could it be? I don't trust anyone else to talk to me."
Shen Yuege looked at him, hesitant to speak.
She wanted to tell you not to overwork yourself, your leg isn't fully healed yet, and you're managing both company affairs and training.
But she knew Lu Ran; once he made up his mind, she couldn't persuade him otherwise.
"So when do you plan to start?"
"Once this group of people is finalized," Lu Ran picked up the calendar on the table and looked at it, "it will probably be around New Year's Day. By then, the data for League of Legends should be stable, and Three Kingdoms Kill will be in open beta. I'll be able to find the time then."
Shen Yuege didn't say anything more. She stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the gray sky outside.
Winters in Shanghai are always like this: the sky is gray and hazy, as if veiled by a layer of gauze. The sunlight can't penetrate, the air is cold, and pedestrians on the street are wrapped in thick down jackets, walking with their necks hunched.
"Lu Ran," Shen Yuege suddenly spoke, "how many of these people do you think will stay?"
Lu Ran thought for a moment and said, "It's hard to say. No matter how outstanding you are during the interview, it's a different story when it comes to actually doing the work. Some people talk a lot during the interview, but it turns out they don't know anything after they get the job. Some people stutter during the interview, but are more reliable than anyone else when it comes to doing the work. An interview can only tell if a person can talk, not if they can do it."
He paused, then continued, "So my principle is: easy entry, strict exit. Lower the bar during the interview process to let more people try. During the probationary period, be strict with everyone; keep those who can stay, and let those who can't leave amicably. This is fair to everyone."
Shen Yuege turned around and looked at him: "Aren't you afraid of being gossiped about? You hired so many people, and then you let them go in the end. It won't sound good if word gets out."
"What's there to be afraid of?" Lu Ran leaned back in his chair. "I'm not running a charity. For a company to grow, it needs capable people. What's the point of keeping those who can't do the work? Let them drink tea and scroll through their phones all day? That would be harming them, not helping them. They've been here for a year and haven't learned any skills, so they'll have even less chance of finding a job after they leave. Rather than that, it's better to let them go sooner and find a place that's truly suitable for them."
...