He joined Rocket as an intern. Now he’s a co-founder at one of its hottest startups

From Russia with hustle: Nikita Semenov. Photo credit: Zenrooms.

A senior role at a Rocket Internet startup is a highly coveted job.

The German venture builder has a stated preference for hiring people with prior experience in management consulting or banking, along with degrees from top-tier universities.

It manages to entice candidates away from places like Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank by offering them even higher salaries, fancy job titles, and sweeping powers to hire, execute, and grow companies quickly.

Such hires will learn a lot as they’re pitched into cutthroat environments where meeting ambitious targets is an absolute priority.

It’s certainly not everyone’s cup of tea, but Rocket’s immense reach and formidable brand equity are without doubt.

That’s what Nikita Semenov banked on when he applied for a position at Lamudi, Rocket Internet’s property portal.

He graduated with a Masters from the prestigious HEC Paris in 2014, starting work at an investment bank in Luxembourg shortly after. But he was having second thoughts only six months into his banker life.

“I realized I wasn’t learning anything substantial about building businesses – I was just wasting my time in an office working on spreadsheets,” Nik says about his time at Nordea Investment Funds in Luxembourg. “I wanted to acquire real skills.”

I had never been to Asia before.

Nik then did what he feels many others wouldn’t dare do – leave one of the hubs of global finance for the relative backwaters of Asia.

“HEC graduates are obsessed about finding highly-paid jobs in London or other parts of Europe,” he explains. “You waste the entire year just applying places and not developing your business acumen – it’s completely a CV game.”

The Russian native wanted none of that. He had his first interview with HR just a day after submitting his application to Lamudi. His second interview was with the global co-founder, where Nik outlined his career plans in detail and expressed a desire to get out of his comfort zone and get his hands dirty.

The next day he was offered a sales internship based out of Jakarta, which he accepted without a second thought. Nik flew into the Indonesian capital two days later.

Diving in

Absorbing pressure

No micromanaging