Sunday, April 5, 2009

Finally Getting Placed...


Finally..           The night on the day of my first interview challenge was very much interesting. I neither had a sound sleep nor did I spend a sleepless night. I had dreams all night long and congratulated everyone who had been behind me in the dreams. Met everyone I admired. And more importantly I started admiring myself and I congratulated myself. But the job was not done I still had one more round of interview left which would be a telephonic round. But the problem was that the interview was scheduled on Tuesday. And I had another company coming on Monday. Our training and placement officer allowed us to sit for the interview just because I was not officially placed (Actually we as we were three, Tanmay and Rahul, who were sailing in the same boat). Hence I got up early in the morning so that I could prepare myself for another exam. But something had happened and I was feeling more and more confident. Bring It on was the only feeling I had.

          The pre-placement talk (PPT) before the placement started and I had started feeling hungry but something drove me to concentrate more keenly. The more the time I heard about the company I found myself that I would be more and more fortunate about the company as it worked in finance domain and more importantly offered a good pay.  And then after appearing for the test and looking at the results I was pleased to see that all three of us were selected for the second round. The second round of interviews started. There were in all 21 students to be sort listed. Tanmay was first to be called. His technical interview was followed by the HR interview. Same was the case of Rahul. Mine name was not called. In the queue 5 students went one after the other. But after that only their Technical interview was conducted. They were NOT called for the HR round. I realized that their quota which they had fixed before coming here was full and didn’t have a chance.

           I told to myself you can’t back down from here now. If Rahul and Tanmay go through and I am left alone I won’t think I have a chance for the earlier company through as the HR had already told us that their company would only select 2/3. As my chances were growing slimmer, the time and the day’s heat was setting down. As I looked out of the window I realized this is going to be one of the most challenging evenings for me in my entire life.

               I went through the procedure of talking to myself and settling my nerves so that there would be no mistake on my side. Now there were only 2 students left in the waiting room, one was from some other college and the other one was me waiting anxiously. The coordinator from the company walked into the room and called the other person out. As he walked by me I just put my head up and said All the Best to him. (I know as I look back at this it may sound stupid to wish one of your competitor good luck but may be that were my pure instincts.) He casually walked he gave me a pleasing smile.

            As he left the coordinator stayed back and started talking to me. He was just curious to know about my progress and my personal details but that helped me a lot. First, as I was quite for almost couple of hours, voice was not coming out of mouth. Talking to him made me feel more relax. Second it just made me feel good. And then I was finally called for the interview.

The Interview

               As I entered the room I was welcomed by the interviewers. I greeted them. As the interview progress I became more and more comfortable. I started answering more and more questions. My confidence was growing. But then suddenly something changed. The mood of interviewers changed and they suddenly asked me about the type of technology I was more interested in. I could get what was going on, but I answered what I felt was right. One of them got up and went outside the room. The other continued asking me more and more technical stuff that would really test my fundamentals. Then a couple of minutes later the first interviewer entered the room. As he took his seat he said that look Mr. Subodh you are technically very good but the problem is that you field of interest does not match with the one in which our company deals. So thank you.

Finally..
Well Done
                For a moment I just could realized what had just happened. But as they put their hand forward for a hand shake I realized that, that was it. I was done with the interview and almost all my dreams were being shattered in front of my own eyes in a split second. As I returned my way down from the interview room I met Tanmay and Rahul. They asked me how it was but I just couldn’t answer. I just shook my head and looked at them. They didn’t realize what I said and asked me the same thing again. So I had to answer and tell them what had happened. As I told them they realized and I was about to leave when Tanmay hold my hand and said let’s wait for the result at least. I thought that there was no loss in waiting.

                 As we three entered the waiting room, someone called out my name and I looked back. It was the coordinator of the interview procedure. He said that the HR wanted to meet you and requested you upstairs. I was so excited that I ran almost 2 floors. As I entered the room I saw 3 – 4 people sitting in the room. One welcomed me in and asked me to sit. I was breathing hard. First question came my way was. Are you comfortable? I wanted to speak but could speak. One of the persons just smiled at me and just asked to get me comfortable and said we are ready to wait for sometime so that you get nice and relax. First I thought he was good but second thought came to my mind as if he was making me ready to get assaulted like a cow which is prepared for sacrifice on account of some religious functions. They waited patiently for me. Then finally the interview started.

                 It took them nearly about 20 minutes to complete the formal interview procedure. Just I thought that I was done with the interview, the head HR asked the other gentlemen in the room to leave us alone. We talked about my thoughts about further studies. Then she asked me some of the real life scenarios which I thought were the toughest to answer for me. This conversation lasted nearly 10 minutes. It was nearly 8 O’clock in the evening and I was feeling hungry and tired. But the conversation I was in made me feel refreshing. I think that was the first time I had talked one on one with a person I didn’t know, for so long. Finally she said thank you and smiled back. Then as I was about to leave the room she said Subodh, I turned back she smiled and said All the Best.
And Guess what, I was hired.

4 comments:

  1. hi!

    Good writing! And congrats for the job! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not sure that this is true:), but thanks for a post.
    Elcorin

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tis Gaurav from S1.. read it after your resignation,.... is really good 1... :-) .. All the best man.. for future :-)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for you comments and suggestions.