June 2, 2008:
Place : My college
Time :1.30 PM
I had cleared the Apti round of SoftSys on-campus recruitment drive and was waiting for my HR round. Since it was on-campus,
we didn’t have to go through a technical round. Though I had attended quite a many mock
interviews, it was to be my first official interview and I was indeed nervous.
After waiting for a long time outside the interview room, I was summoned in by the HR. Post
the formal introductions, the interviewer asked me to sign in my resume.
“Is this signature really needed or is it
just to check if I am nervous?” I should have asked , but instead I
blatantly signed it with a visibly, terribly shivering hand. My God! She knew I was nervous.
She
smiled and shot her question,
“So, you being
an ECE engineer, why an IT job?”
[Damn, that was
such a simple question. All of my class mates had a ready-made answer prepared
for that . Me, being the typical me, was so stubborn on answering the questions on the go, without preparations, for the thrill of it, and was sitting like a fool]
“Why an IT
industry?” she asked again.
“Because yours
is the first company which has come for recruitment to my college and I didn’t
wanna miss it” No I didn’t tell this answer. I just had it in the back of my
mind :)
“Because its
blooming well now… and I have a good scope” I blurted
“Like what?” she gave a piercing look.
“Like… you know,
mother board.. processors..” I was losing it.
“That’s hardware.
I asked about software”
“Oh.. yeah.. Can I pass this question? “ my
sheepish smile sent her the message.
That was followed by so many other questions with me
giving stupid answers for each and everyone of them. I was really making a mess
of it.
I was trying to
bring her to my comfort zone, while she was trying the other way around and
finally losing her cool, she asked in a stern voice.
“Are
you even satisfied with the answers you are giving me?”
“NO” I
shook my head like a loser.
“With all that
you have mentioned in your resume, I expect more from you”
“Oh, am a good
story teller you know” [Do you think I would have said that ?]
She gave me one final chance to talk about
anything I liked and I chose to talk about Dan Brown and Angels and Demon. I
confused her further. The interview came to an end.
“All the best” she wished me as I left.
“You mean for the next company? “ I really wanted
to ask.
I was
dejected as I walked out.
I was in the waiting room, when I was called
again for another interview. Come on..
how many of us get a second chance for a Softsys interview ?
I was much
confident this time or pretended to act so.
“Do you read
magazines?” the interviewer asked
“Oh!
Yeah, every week” I was enthusiastic.
“Do you read Electronics for you or any
other such technical magazines regularly?” he rephrased the question.
“Oh, those type of magazines. i thought like Kumudham and Kunkumam, that will be a
no”
“Hmmm fine. You are an electronics
engineer, tell me how would you calculate the distance between Delhi and
Chennai?”
“Catch a flight, travel the distance and with
the time taken find the distance” I answered proudly.
“Any
other way?”
“Transformers? Signals ?” I said in a pleading
tone.
“Well.. how do you update yourself with modern
technology?” he asked the next question.
“By
reading novels” I gave the dumbest answer ever possible.
“Novels ??!!” I can never ever forget the
reaction on his face on hearing that.
“I mean
like.. yeah.. Angels and Demons.. LHC, Anti matter, today fiction, tomorrow
reality thing”
“Oh man!”
And yes, your guess is correct. I walked out
sadly and was made to sit in the waiting room.
Half An hour Later:
I was called again for a third interview. Seriously,
who would get such a chance ? But I, was frustrated and irritated to the core.
My Placement
Officer saw me waiting outside the interview room and wished me good luck.
“Thanks sir and
its the third time I’m being interviewed” I should have said with a sad face.
“What ?” his face
turned pale.
I just smiled.
“Just be yourself.. Express what you are , alright? All the best” saying, he left.
The third interview was more of a composed
and calm one, but I was in no mood to answer. I wanted to walk out already.
“Whats your greatest plus point?” he asked me.
[Making the world believe that i dont exist.. no wait, Putting up a brave face even after all
these shambles] That’s my mind voice
“Learning from mistakes.
I just analysed why I‘m here for a third interview and I know now where I went
wrong” No people, I didn’t tell this answer, I never would, come on, keep up
with my character. As usual I blurted out some non sense.
“You
have any questions for me?” he asked finally.
“No sir” saying, I left the room.
Outside the room, I burst out to my friend
“Why the hell they do this to me? If they don’t want me, cant they just leave
me in the first interview? Why troubling me thrice?"
“No
Dan, they don’t wanna leave.. that’s the point” she was trying hard to console
me.
“I
am not gonna make it anyway!” I gave a dejected smile.
June 9,2008:
Time : 3.00 PM
This time it was
Cognizant. As is the usual case, I had cleared the Apti round and was waiting
for the HR interview.
“Introduce
yourself” as always, that was the first question.
I took a deep breath and orated those
familiar lines which I had memorized well.
“You have got
nice marks back in school and why has your percentage gone down in college?”
“Coz in school I
was mugging up things, but here I understand the concept and learn” I blurted the biggest lie of my life, understanding
engineering and learning ??
“Your favorite
subject?”
“Antennas and
wave guides”
“Any other?”
“Control system”
“Any other, how
about Micro Processor?”
“No I don’t!”
“Ok then tell me
the uses of Micro Processor”
“What?
Uses… well…” That was such a
simple question and I was blinking hard and looking all around.
“You told you
understand concepts and learn?”
“Yeah, can I take back what I said?”
He took a breath and asked, “what is DSP?”
“It is the process of Digitizing a signal.. so
that..”
He interrupted me
and asked, “what is DSP?”
“You mean, as in
Digital Signal Processing?”
“Correct”
“Thank you, I
always knew I was a genius !” I smiled.
The interview was
over. It lasted not more than three minutes. It cast some serious doubt waves
again.
We were sitting
in the waiting room after my interview was over, when one of my friends came with that
authentic information.
“Your panel was
the rejection panel” he gave me the shock.
“Are you serious?”
“They were talking so and that’s why you were
interviewed in such a quick time. I had a half an hour interview”. He said
proudly.
”Oh no” I was heart -broken.
June 10,2008:
Time 11.30 AM :
It was the day
the results of the interviews were to be announced. I was sitting with bated breath, along with my other friends in that large auditorium. Our placement officer was having the results in his hands.
He took out the
list in his hand and was reading out the names aloud, one by one - the Softsys recruits
first. And my name was not in the list as expected. How in the world will it be there?
He took out second list and was reading out the names. Most of my friends’ names were read out
and to my greatest dismay, mine was not. I was half dead. My friends were
consoling me.
Our placement
officer then came up with a third list. A list of students who got placed in
both the companies and I sharpened my ears to listen keenly.
Bless my soul.. I
heard my name.. Or was that my name? Yes… I was relieved !
Till date I am
not sure how both the companies selected me , it’s a mystery and here I am,
completing 7 years with Cognizant after deciding to choose Cognizant over Softsys.
Here I am, pursuing my ambition to write and here I am.
SCOOP News : The
guy who underwent the 30 minutes interview didn’t get selected !!
Image courtesy :Google
Image courtesy :Google
