My First, Second, Third and Fourth Interviews

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 !!

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