... and Srujan!

“.. .. .. and Srujan!” My heart stopped for 2 seconds. It was a feeling I cannot explain. Tears filled my eyes. My heart skipped beats alternatively. My ears stopped listening. That’s how I felt on hearing my name at the end of the list of students who got through the tedious interview process and had made it into their potential employer, Wipro. Earlier that week, another organization, CTS has made its first grab on the students of our college for campus selections. They selected 52 students across 6 branches our college houses. I was not among those 52.

My fate had brought me and my luck down to the 29^th day of July 2006, the experiences of which I’m destined to share with you.

Come 29 July. I got up early (at 7 am; that’s early for me) and rushed through my morning stuff just to accommodate some extra time for my breakfast as I knew there would be paucity of time for lunch. My well ironed clothes were waiting for me. Never in my life had I realized how important dressing-sense was. The rain since the previous two days had made driving on bike miserable as my clothes would invariably get soiled, considering the kind of roads we have on the way to my college. Pathetic! My white shirt was in deep trouble and my light colored trousers were waiting to turn dark. The 30 minute drive to my college was tactful and maneuvering through the pits and holes and water and mud and boulders and slippery stretches and buffaloes and dogs… ah! Race course 39: through dirty waters and animals! Half of the time, my legs were in air, trying to cheat the brilliantly diffracted water splashes off my bike’s muddy mudguard.The first hurdle

I reached college, just to learn that my friend Sheikh had had a small accident and had, in the process, bruised his leg and arm. His neat blue shirt was soiled! We got him some first-aid while he was crying like a baby when the wounds were being attended to. Our first hurdle was the written aptitude test, which we had to clear in order to get to the interview round. I’ve had the bad experience of not clearing the written round of CTS. That thought was haunting me. I had to do well and clear this first round. I would then be confident of clearing my way through. The test was pretty okay, better then the previous one. The results were announced after an hour, leaving us with moments of tension and hope. The results were announced. I was relieved to hear my name in the list! I had cleared the first hurdle. My friend, Siddharth, appeared shocked. He too had cleared the first hurdle.

The interview round- the fun begins!

As I had anticipated earlier, there was paucity of time for my lunch. It was a long and agonizing wait for my turn to come, as mine was the last name in the list. I saw many different faces of people emerging out of the interview hall- some happy, (with the HR form in their hand, meaning that they were cleared for the next round- HR interview), some sad, some pale faced, some hysterical. Finally, at around 3 pm I was called for the first of the two rounds of the interview- technical. Now the fun begins. My interviewer was sitting pretty on his chair, seemed to be tall, happy faced, jolly young man. He was impressive. He welcomed me and asked me to take my seat. He read out my name… the same thing many people do when they hear a name like that of mine. “Can I have your résumé?” I quickly pulled out my résumé from the purple folder I was carrying and handed it over to him.

“Hmm.. so you say u like basketball! So what do you think about Michael Schaffold? He plays for which side?”

I was awe-struck! “Sir, I don’t follow the matches at NBA, though I love to play the game and have been playing for the last 10 years.” He was smiling, all through.

“So, how well do you know the C language and DS?”

“Pretty confident, Sir. You may ask anything you like.”

“Then please write down the programs for bubble-sort and quick-sort.”

I could manage to explain the logic of the programs, I believe not-so-pretty impressively. Anyways, he was in a good mood, so he changed the topic and started bombarding me with questions.

“Please tell me about yourself!” {My resume says it all, man!}

“Why would you like to join an IT company, deviating from your field?” {You should know why you are interviewing me, and what help could I be for you. That should’ve been my question!}

“How would you relate computers and metallurgy?” {Computers are everywhere! Computers are indispensable!}

“Why don’t you have any presentations/publications to your credit?” {I haven’t done any genuine work to publish a paper or present a paper from an abstract copied from resources online. Please!}

“Would you be planning for further publications?”

“Wouldn’t you like to continue with your research than tie-up with an IT job?” {Don’t expect me to remember what I answered!}

Answering these questions with all my patience and with a smile on my face made me feel so bad as I was cheating him on his face. But I answered honestly, to the point, and confidently. Maybe that’s what won me the HR form at the end. But there’s some more fun before that.

“What’s the difference between annealing and normalizing?” {The only question in the technical round pertaining to my field of study! That was pretty easy.}

“Forget that, tell me your favorite subject.”

“Physics!” I uttered! For the next 3 seconds I wondered why I said that! What would he ask!! He asked a good question, and I answered it correct! He was happy. Very happy.

“So, is Gandhinagar in Orissa?” “Surely not, Sir. It’s in Gujarat”

“Then in which state is Bay of Bengal?” “Surely not in any state!”

“You sure?” “Yup!” “No! It’s in liquid state!”, and he started laughing. It was his moment of triumph!

I laughed with him. In an understanding voice he said, “that shows one’s presence of mind!” Both of us were giggling for the next 2 minutes. Finally he was satisfied with his 20-minute interview, and bid me adieu. But where was my HR form? I didn’t leave till he gave me the form. I was finally through to the last round. Just one step away from my first job! What a feeling!

The HR interview- 2-minute interview!

Waiting for my turn for the final interview process, I could hear people sing, laugh, weep, dance, write and do what-not, to impress the interviewer, who was supposed to be The Man to finally eliminate or appoint us. My neighbors on the chairs we were sitting on began discussing as to what could be his possible questions. We had the final giggle before the interview.

My name was called, slightly mispelt. I was asked to take my seat. Then began the flurry of questions off The Man.

“So, Mr. Srujan, which state do you belong to?” {Orissa. He was emphatic!}

“Could you please sing a song in Oriya?” {I never thought he would be unlucky to hear me cry out the first two lines of an Oriya song I learnt in my high school!}

“What do those lines mean?” {I explained}

“Forget that; tell me why should Wipro select you?” {I gave an answer fearlessly, straight; luckily for me, I didn’t stammer.}

“Why were you not selected by CTS?” {I thought I made the biggest mistake by replying, “I couldn’t clear the aptitude round”}

He didn’t give a smile, not a glimpse of patience. He was in a mood to hurry up the interview, I felt. The entire interview lasted not more than 2 minutes! Believe that! I was hopeless. I knew I wouldn’t make it, this time too!

The moment of truth

After a wait for almost an hour and a half, our results were announced. My friend, Sheikh, refused when he was asked to sing in the HR interview. He had his fingers crossed. Earlier in the day, he had his soiled-shirt exchanged with a friend who had similar body dimensions as his! After feeling happy for many of my friends from the other branches who got through, it was the turn of our branch. The names continued … {my heart was beating slowly, quietly, my ears waiting to hear} “.. Raghu, Rupa, … and Srujan!” My heart stopped for 2 seconds. It was a feeling I cannot explain. Tears filled my eyes. My heart skipped beats alternatively. My ears stopped listening. I had made it! Made it through to my first victory; my first job!

I was feeling sad for Sheikh; he couldn’t make it. I called up home to tell the good news. There was a small party at home. My sister gave me a big hug; my mom gave a bigger one. Dad was happy. I felt so satisfied that day to see my parents happy. I had the most comfortable sleep that night.

Disclaimer: The views expressed against the interviewers’ questions were solely for humor and not meant, in any way, to humiliate, defame, mollify, or any other feeling one may think of, against Wipro, or its employees. The post has nothing to do with freedom of expression, or any other term the technico-political gurus may invent to block my blog.

To the readers: Thank you whole-heartedly for bearing my unusually long post. Hope you enjoyed it.