Views & Interviews I

Everybody has to face an interview in his life. May be it is in the form of practical viva, ragging, oral exams, placement interviews, police interrogation or an questionnaire from your would-be in-laws before your marriage. So in some case or the other you have to be an interviewee. Some interview you love to remember which inspires you always while some of them are like your bad times which you still remember them as lessons. I am no exception. I have faced an interview that always inspires me and another one that always teaches me a lesson. To start with here I will tell you my good one and in my next post I will describe my bad one.
It was in the Wipro Campus Recruitment Interview's Technical Round which always inspires me to be confident, firm and determined. Being honest it was not my first placement interview because two days before, I had already appeared for Infosys HR Interview and it went quite well. I was still awaiting for the results of that Interview. The day before was the Wipro's Aptitude Round which was in pen-paper format. I qualified and was selected for the Technical Interview. It was early in the morning at eight o'clock. I have never seen so many people in the college at this time, before. I saw my friend Nitesh in the Placement cell. He was the coordinator of these interviews being the student representative from our department. He had reached an hour before. His swollen red eyes and dipping shoulder were clearly speaking that he was dead tired working late last night. He is really a tough and hard working guy. He had been running around for weeks before the on-campus placement even reached the starting line. He has a huge body and yes huge means really HUGE. He was almost triple than me on volume scale. But his massive structure was a store house of enormous power that helped him to work like bulls and horses. Moreover his presentation skills and communication abilities always made him our representative. He has a great future in politics because the way he convinces others, no one can.
I was sitting in the waiting queue and Nitesh came up to me, handing me a piece of paper, he spoke in one go, "Dude, I am placing your name for Panel-3. I know your Infosys Interview was good and moreover you are technically very sound. The guy in the panel is asking conceptual questions and he is spending nearly an hour for one candidate. He is the one who interviewed Arko last night for nearly three hours. By the way he is rejecting like hell. Arko was the last and the only one who got selected by him. If you can engage him for a longer time then in the mean while I can use the easy panels for technically-not-so-sound guys. And I know you will be selected for this company for sure. You will be the one after Arko. Will you?"
I already told you that he had a great convincing power and I agreed. SO LETS TRY.
The paper he handed me was a blank sheet where we were asked to write our views about "Global Warming" in three hundred words. I wrote an essay with lot of idioms, phrases and quotations from great personalities. At least anyone who reads that essay of mine can clearly say that I had lack of relevant points but I had tried the best to express my so-called-feelings. Two candidates were ahead of me in that Panel. The first candidate went in like a heavy-weight champ and came out like a feature-weight chap after a half an hour interval. His body posture and his biting teeth were announcing that he was thrown out by that person and his behavior was noway human. My hands and feet froze as if I was in poles. The second boy had already lost half of his strength after the scene. He entered as if there was a cannibal waiting inside to tear him apart and proclaim "REST IN PIECES".
The wait was really killing me. I saw people entering and leaving the other panels. The frequency was quite good in those panels. I thought once that it would have been better if I had taken an easy path but it was too late now. I saw people literally jumping up at the gate and giving bear hug to each other. They were very happy for cracking the interview. Some of them were howling in joy. I don't know what made them so happy. It's just a job that will pay you a salary which is not enough to sustain a standard living, on my dad's parameter. I was sure that I won't become a monkey even if the company hires me before the HR round. There was another half of the scene also, I saw several sad, dull and most importantly crying faces. Some girls were crying so much that it can dehydrate them. By the way, I realy want to ask all the girls out there, WHY YOU ALL CRY SO MUCH???
I was busy admiring the fact that why there was nobody after me in this panel. I was sitting at that very chair for more than two hours with two short and swift journeys to loo and back. I had two people ahead of me but there are none after me. The next two chairs were empty as if they were meant for nobody. I saw Nitesh sweating around with different people and papers. The placement drive should have been a boon for him as he got a chance to work out without even facing the gym toils. A hand came over my shoulder. I turned around to see who was that. I saw Dr. P.R.Purkait was sitting beside me. He is the HOD of Electrical Engineering. He was the counselor of IEEE in our college and I was the Vice-Chair of IEEE Student Branch. We knew each other very well. He was also a great fan of my Badminton skills and he never missed a chance to challenge me for a game. He didn't said a word to me and smiled. I tried to stand in response but he pulled me back to my seat, as his hands were still on my shoulder. He then pretend to be a doctor and checked my nerves in my hand after which he showed a surprising gesture to say that the pressure was high. Yes it was. He sat there for next fifteen minutes and we both didn't exchange a word there.
The door opened and my heart pumped at its maximum. PRP sir alias Purkait sir stood up and left the place after tapping my back. The guy came out and the result was obvious, he was rejected after being interrogated for more than an hour. He asked me go in and wished me luck. I wanted to ask him that how it was but he was in a hurry to cry and he left within few seconds. I just watched him going away and hitting hard the file he had. I WAS NEXT.
I opened the door. I saw a vacant chair was placed in front while across the large table there was a man wearing formals and company's id card in his neck was busy writing something in a paper.
"May I come in sir", these were my first words in the room.
"Yes! do come. Good Morning. Have your seat", he raised his hand to show me the chair. The accent with which he said the last sentence made me clear that he was either from Tamil Nadu or Andhra Pradesh.
"Good Morning and Thank you", I said to acknowledge him and took my seat.
He put forward his hand to take my file which I had placed in the table. He asked a simple two word question to which I had to reply for next two minutes and it was, "Introduce yourself..."
My introduction was nothing but an elaborate version of my fact based tabular resume. In the mean while he turned the pages of my file and I was quite sure that all my talks was of no use because he was busy reading my certificates. I ended my answer to which he replied, "Impressive".
I was pretty confused about the topic he was talking: was it my introduction or my file. Anyways it was a good sign.
He put his head down and started writing something again. Then said while writing, "So you are form Computer Science.."
"Yes", I said but he raised his head and gave me a strange look which meant that the last sentence he said was a fact and not a question. He pushed a paper and asked me to sign. I did.
"You said that you did your intern project at IIIT Hyderabad. What kind of project it was?" My god he was listening. GREAT.
For the next five minutes I had to explain my whole project whose name itself was twelve words long. I don't know whether he understood or not but I explained whatever I knew about that topic. I was speaking and in reply he was just waving his head up and down so that I can feel that he was listening. The thing ended and he spoke, "I have also worked on this platform. By the way you spoke everything from scratch to the final. GOOD". FUCK! I was treating him like I treated my departmental teachers in the presentation. But luckily I spoke everything relevant to the topic. I WAS SAVED.
"Well your CV says that you are developing an online system for an international conference", I was surprised that how a man can listen to my introduction and read my CV simultaneously.
I again gave him every detail of the project in which I was working. An international conference was about to be organized in our department after two months and I was the web in-charge of it. He seemed to like my short presentation of the ongoing project and he simply asked me a question, "Suppose the MD of a company wants to wish all his employees on their as well as on their family member's birthday. How can you do that using the platform in which you are working?"
I told him the mail function of the system. I wanted something that reaches instantly to the employee.
I said, "Sir, we can use SMS gateway to wish them via cellphones and an acknowledgement summary of the people who had been wished on the behalf of MD on MD's cell."
He was really impressed and that was easily visible from his facial expression. Then these was followed by some conceptual questions from C, data structure and algorithm and I answered them correctly. He was really impressed. But then the interview took a new turn.
"You already appeared in Infosys Interview right?" he asked a strange question.
"Yes Sir, I had", I said with utmost politness.
"That means you are selected in Infosys", he said.
"But results are still not out sir"
"No problem, Infosys people are not so fool that they will leave you"
"Thank you sir, but still I can't say anything as results are yet not declared"
"Ok but I know you have cleared Infosys and now I can't waste my seat on you. I am sure that you will be joining that company", he was testing my patience now.
"But Sir, nothing can be told right now", I tried to convince him.
"Ok now you tell how was the interview? I mean this interview", he asked.
"If you hire me then it was good or else it was not", I had a point.
"Come on! Every singer can say that how he performed before the results and so does students"
"Then it was good"
"Ok then think you have cleared both the company. Which one will you join?" Shit this question should not come.
"I can't say it now. Both are good companies and both are offering me almost the same package", I was polite enough.
"But you have to join one of them"
"Yes, then I have to ask my mentors", I said to which he simply wanted me to say who are my mentors. I gave him every detail of my mentors: my HOD and Apratim Sir.
"Ok think you went to your mentors and they are not able to take any decision. But finally they said that it's your life you better decide", his questions were killing me now.
"Then I will ask my senior who are currently working in the industry", I replied and then he asked me the details of those seniors. I gave every detail.
"What do you want from the company you will be working for?" he put forward a valid question.
"Opportunity and Good Working Environment", I never meant that, I wanted to say fat salary and luxury.
"Ok you will get lot of opportunity here. Do you want to go for higher studies in future?" again a valid question.
"Ya for sure but not now. Right now I want to earn something", I made my point clear that I won't be doing M.Tech just after my B.Tech.
"Sir, can I ask you something", a very unusual happened. I was asking him. Obviously he replied a yes.
"Sir, I have heard that Wipro supports the higher education of it's employees in different college around the globe", I seriously wanted to ask this question to somebody who is directly related to the company. He started telling me the list of all the programs that company had for this cause and he also named few universities after that where they have send their employees on study leave. I was now enjoying the show as I have done enough of the talking. Now it was his turn.
"But I know its of no use for you. You won't join Wipro and even if you do then the day the contract is over you will leave the company. You are not a long term asset for me. The company will simply drain its money behind you", he was stubborn. He was sticking to that very point only.
"Nothing can be said right now", I said in my lowest tone.
"Ok now lets make some real deal. Relax push your back. Feel easy. Remove this file", he said and he pushed everything to one corner of the table including my file.
"We can offer you ten thousand more per month than the salary assigned on special case. Will you join Wipro?"
"Sir, Money is not everything and I can't say anything right now", what a liar I was. FOR MONEY I AM HERE.
"Then we can allocate you in one of those higher study programs right now or we can hire you as our intern . Will you join?"
"Sir, Thank you for such an offer but I can't come back to this place again to correct my mistake if anything goes wrong in future. So I will discuss it with my mentors and then only I can say.", my answer was enough to shut his mouth.
Then he simply took the red form signed it and gave it to me and said, "You are selected now but wait a bit"
I was surprised if he had hired me the n what more. He took out his wallet and placed it on the table. Then he took out his keys and placed it beside the wallet. Then he placed his ID card over them.
"These are the things given by Wipro. Now I am not an employee. My name is Arvind. Call me Arvind and no Sir anymore. And I am from Kunnoor. I am working in Hyderabad right now. I am your friend. Lets shake hands...", then he put his hand forward and I too. We shook hands and he continue, "...you are selected. Nobody can drop you now. I have written a star performance on this slip which the HR will see and he will not ask a single question to you. You are done. Now as a friend tell me WIPRO or INFOSYS?"
I smiled back to his question saying, "Arvind, I still can't decide. I will have to do a R&D at my level and then I can answer"
Then what he said, stills gives me goosebumps, "Bhanu, you are firm and determined. Over it you are honest and calm headed which I liked the most. Technically, I am leaving the point. Nothing to say. But do you know for even once if you would have told that you are joining WIPRO, I would have rejected you. Because if you can say yes to such a deal then you can easily convey some secret to any rival. But you didn't. This friend stuff was also a trick. The form, I have yet not signed there. It's a piece of paper without the sign. I hope that you will get great heights in your future irrespective of the fact that you joined any company".
He took the form back and signed it. He asked me to leave and go for HR round. I went outside. I was physically outside the room but the picture of the last phase was still revolving in my head. I saw the form once again and it was hard for me to believe that I had already spent two hours inside the room.
I knew I wont celebrate as one more round was left.
I was totally unaware of why he choose me for such a session. I asked Arko and every one else who went into that panel. Nobody was interrogated like this but at the end it was good and I am glad I was successful there.