Job Interview - The Presence of Mind

Recently, I did one (good) thing. I convinced one of my friends Mr. AK to start blogging. After his first post, he himself confessed that he did not knew about himself until he wrote it. It is this thing with writing. You never know what you would write. Also, I am trying to convince others to write their interview experiences so that we can blog them. Let's see how much I am successful.

Now continuing with my job interview. After my first interview, I was pretty confident that I should call it a day. But I waited till it was official. Meanwhile, the interviews going on for another profile did not go as expected and the corresponding interviewer was not happy with any of the interviewee and so planned not to continue the selection process with any candidate. The profile was related to Computers and I along with some of my friends were apt for the same. (Atleast technically since we are doing our graduation with Computer Science stream). So, the TNP head Mr. AK (Not the same as one mentioned above) proposed that we should be given be a chance and asked the interviewer to atleast interview a few others. On agreement he listed all names of students in the Computer Science stream for the interview.

When the first of these Mr. AC went for the interview, he was asked the most trivial question of reversing a string (What is your name? would become a rather difficult question as you move up in the hierarchy of this stream) for a decent Computer Scientist (if I may say so). After he massacred that question the interviewer was in the state of searching-from-when-found-now and as I am told from then on the interview was good enough to be called a cake walk. Apparently, the interviewer had been asking the same question to the previous interviewees but none were able to give a convincing answer. As Mr. AC walked out of the room, more than satisfied by the process, the interviewer followed him and called him again in the room. This was not for the second round but to the surprise of atleast a few, an offer had been made.

As time progressed, two more candidates Mr. PG and Mr. AG were involved in a similar sequence of events and both had been offered a job. I was happy for them as well as for the fact that I was somewhere in this line of people getting jobs but was sad since I was second last in the line. I thought that though one door had closed (literally) after my first interview, another has opened. After three candidates, it was almost lunch time and the interviewer asked for the CVs of rest of the listed aspirants. What is commendable here is the presence of mind of Mr. AK who was very much responsible for these offers being made. If it not had been for his immediate thinking and voluntary action, the 3 candidates may or may not have sailed through.

For me, I was waiting for the lunch to get over so that I could have my chance. I had to miss my lunch since another company had their test for selection the same day and the lunch time was the only free time (ironically, the lunch was also free) I could have given that test. What happened after the lunch would definitely satisfy your appetite ...

Job Interview - The First Encounter

On the mentioned backdrop, I asked the interviewer permission to enter the room. He welcomed me with a handshake and asked me to have a seat. Just as a host of a game show, he explained the rules of the game.
Rules:
1. 10-15 minutes is the interview time.
2. Short Questions, Short Answers expected
3. Feedback would be provided.

Having grasped (nothing much to be) the rules, I gave my CV to him. He started with reiteration of he facts mentioned in the CV like the senior secondary percentage, my rank at IIT-JEE, my CGPA. As he went through the projects he asked me to talk a little bit about them. I mentioned in brief what the project was about and what were my responsibilities as well as achievements in the project. The final line of my CV had the mention of ‘Keeping track of Stock Markets’ as my interest. From there on the QA session started. (The job profile was related to the stock markets)

Note: I: Interviewer; AA: Myself

I: How do you keep track of stock markets?
AA: The Economic Times and CNBC TV18.

I: What is the stock price of Yahoo! (I did my internship at Yahoo!)
AA: I mainly look at Indian Stock Markets (where Yahoo! is not listed). But I do know that it is not fairing that well due to the competition from Google.

I: Choose any two stocks
AA: Reliance and ONGC

I: What are their 52 week high and low
AA: Reliance: 800 and 400
ONGC: 900 and 500

I: When did Reliance go down to the 52 week low?
AA: During the dispute of the Ambani brothers (The brothers used to control the company)

I: What is the latest news for the companies?
AA: ONGC has struck a gas find (2 days before) and Ambani brothers have agreed on a splitting formula for the company. (But he was looking for something else for the latter part of the answer)

I: Do you know anything about the gas find by Reliance?
AA: No. (Apparently, there was a gas find the day before. But I had not read today’s newspaper.)

I: What is the main difference in the operations of Reliance and ONGC?
AA: ONGC mainly operates outside the country while Reliance is within the country. (There is also the difference that Reliance is more into natural gas and petrochemical while ONGC is into oil and petroleum.)

I: Did you give GRE or CAT?
AA: Yes, I gave CAT but not GRE because going ahead I did want to pursue academics on the technical side.

I: So if you get selected through CAT, you would go to one of the IIMs and not join my company?
AA: I would definitely join your company for 2 reasons. Firstly, I would go to an IIM so that after completing my studies I could get into a company like yours. Secondly, you are placing me at Mumbai where my family is and where I would prefer to work. (He was not that much convinced.)

I: Now, for the feedback. You have good communication skills (wonder how he got that), analytical skills, pretty clear about your career etc. The negative thing is that I fear I may lose you to an MBA. So, if at the end of the day I do not shortlist you it would be because of this.

Thanking him I went out of the room and asked the next person to go in. I was sure that the one negative thing he had mentioned was negative enough to spell my doom. I wondered (then and not now) if I should not have mentioned giving the CAT. Now I had to wait so that once the shortlist comes, I may have to go for the second round of interview which I did and …

All about my TVs

So its minor time here, that implies I have the license to kill... time that is. Anyways so "whilst" killing time, I was going through my friend's blog, where his post on the B/W TV reminded me of my childhood.


My 'old' old TV was from Sonodyne (nothing to do with Cyberdyne which was blown up by Arnie in T2 anyway). It was this cool khul-ja-simsim kinda TV where once the door was opened you could see the bi-coloured world shown by DD.

Fortunately nothing as traumatic happened to it as did to my friend's TV, it was just the introduction of colour TV that made my parents decide to get a colour TV (this was back when they were still taking the domestic decisions in around 1992, it turns out they still are!!!).

So when our 'new' old TV (Videocon) was bought, everyone in our family thought that the B/W TV had better sound quality. May be my parents didn't want to let go the old TV. Hence they bought a TV stand, innocently built to have a TV on the top and some little showpieces below.

My parents had a different plan though. It was the birth of the first and the last two tier TV viewing system. The colour TV was kept on the top and the B/W TV got the bottom shelf. The colour TV with remote has a mute button, a facility, which was aptly absent from the B/W one. So we saw the colour TV while hearing the B/W one. As we had only one channel to view there was no need of a dual controlling system, just had to switch on/off two instead of one TV.

We continued that way for some time after which this extreme luxury of having two TVs was snatched from us. The old TV was migrated to my village.

Now 14 years of this 'new' old TV have been very rough. There was a mechanic that my father had befriended and soon his technical skills were honed so sharply by the frequent visits to our house that he went to Dubai!!!

Anyways this TV still works, can show 12 channels at an instant, the remote gives random access to any of the channels at only one button push, a feat that can't be matched by the newer TVs that have hundreds of channels.

Hoping that this one works till a new kind is invented...

There is no dinner like free dinner!!!

I recently had the good luck of being able to attend a dinner because of a conference. I was invited by a close friend, US (No relation to United States except that he really wishes to go there). While having the delicious dinner there, my belief was re-asserted that there is no dinner like free dinner!!!

Let me get down to the details of the menu, Me along with my four friends started with some Coke and Mocktails (For those who know me would know what free coke means to me). We also had an open bar besides it (with Vodka, Rum, Red Wine, White Wine and Whisky), I don't think I need to say anything more for the drinks section.

The food consisted of too many dishes to count and were simply too tasty. I had to actually loosen my belt after the wonderful dinner. The dessert had pastry, ice-cream with chocolate sauce and ras malai.

After eating all this, we took another shot at the drinks table and were realizing the importance of free dinners. Everyone around us was also eating like us (considering we are hostelers), in simple words, eating like they have been hungry for days.

In the end, the conclusion is that there is no dinner like free dinner!!! Waiting for the next invitation ;)

Job Interview - The Backdrop

Continuing from where I left, even before the actual interviews began there was quite an activity outside the interview rooms. The company was offering 5 job profiles. These had been indicated when we were to fill the applications. We were also required to order the profiles according to our priorities and if someone was not clear, he/she could also have indicated by mentioning the keyword ‘any’ in the application.

So, from the people included in the initial shortlist, they had further divided them into 5 categories which coincided with the job profiles. To start off, there were some discrepancies as this categorization did not always match the preferences as per the application. The students who were victims of this event (not many) rejoiced when their names were also included in the category which they had their eyes on. They were happier now since they would be allowed to give 2 interviews and so had doubled their chances of being ‘placed’. I had no such luck and was in the category I had wanted to be.

The interviewers were given one room each and so we now had 5 rooms who would witness the actual selection process and the behaviour and feelings of the candidates (I am making it all emotional now but that time I was just thinking about myself). My name was third on the list which had a total of 14 students. Before I could realize the first person on the list had already been interviewed and was now out of the interview room. People started following him to know the kind of questions asked and so on but he just barged out of the waiting room without speaking to anybody. We understood this unusual and rather rude (as we see it in our institution) action when the TNP (Training and Placement) Cell Head (FYI, he is also a student) Mr. AK explained that the interviewer had asked him, and for that matter everybody, not to disclose the proceedings of the interview.

Meanwhile the second person on the list was on the door asking the interviewer permission to get in. The other 4 interview rooms were either witnessing their first encounter or yet to face one. So, the interview (of the first interviewee from my list) was rather quick. As compared to that, the second one was taking a good amount of time. I started wondering if the amount of time accurately reflects the chances of being selected. I was not far from the door, which I would have to cross before I face my first interview, when the door opened and the younger of the two came out. The ‘volunteer’ (I doubt he was volunteering) from the TNP cell took a minute and then went to ask the person behind the door if the next candidate can come. Getting the green signal, he passed on the same to me and …

“Will you be my valentine?”

“Will you be my valentine?”

This would be the most used sentence today. May be you have already used it and if unfortunate (or fortunate, depends on how you see it) you may be planning to use it again. The problem for the male section of the society is that they are a little too many as compared to the female section. At the last count there were 3,169,122,000 males as compared to 3,132,342,000 females making the gender ratio to be 101 in favour (I am not sure of the favour part atleast on the Valentine’s day) of males. Thus by simple calculation we see that 1 guy stands to lose for a potential gain of 100 guys.

And I am happy including myself in the category of these few individuals who choose to ‘lose’ so that some 100 others can ‘gain’. I being much of an introvert, in the traditional sense of the term, do not want to use this sentence. On this day I literally celebrate the SAD part.

Time for a little history.
Lovers and the greeting card industry may have Geoffrey Chaucer to thank for the holiday that warms the coldest month. Although reference books abound with mentions of Roman festivals from which Valentine's Day may derive, Jack B. Oruch has shown that no evidence supports these connections and that Chaucer was probably the first to link the saint's day with the custom of choosing sweethearts. No such link has been found before the writings of Chaucer and several literary contemporaries who also mention it, but after them the association becomes widespread. It seems likely that Chaucer, the most imaginative of the group, invented it. The fullest and perhaps earliest description of the Valentine's Day tradition occurs in Chaucer's Parlement of Foules, composed around 1380, which takes place “on Seynt Valentynes day,/Whan every foul cometh there to chese [choose] his make [mate].”

Talking about the greeting card industry, the world's largest greeting card maker, Hallmark Cards Inc., has for the first time analyzed individual cities' data for top-selling Valentines, and it yielded a surprising result. Researchers at the Kansas City-based company expected the choices of customers to be as different as the cities they call home. But it turned out V330-5, one of the thousands of options Hallmark offered last Valentine's Day, was the top choice of consumers in New York and Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Miami, and virtually every other city.

Job Interview - The Introduction

I would start with a warning to Mr. AR who in his first post has used names of people when he would have liked to use their initials, as is the rule of the game. Being the administrator I am constantly on the lookout for such “errors”. Since it was for the first time I am ready to overlook but it should not become a norm and the sanctity of this spac should be maintained at all costs.

I do not remember if I told you or not that I have been “placed”. By placed I man I have received an offer from a company. The company has offered me to hire me. They will use all the fame I have for their benefits and increasing their clout. In return I would be paid for my so called services. The company name cannot be disclosed for sake of my future well being. I had wanted to narrate the incidents that happened the day I was placed and so here it goes.

I was to reach at the place of interview before 09:30. Since the placement was a part of the ongoing campus placements, the place of the interview was none other that a building (the Synergy building … I wonder why the building got that name … was it some kind of a symbolic synergy between departments or for that matter between the institute and the corporate world) in the academic area of our institute. I was in the most formal dress I had been in my entire life, all set to impress the interviewer. (Though I believed he would be impressed just by the fact that I was interested in his company). Also the backdrop was that many veterans’ names had not seen the light of the shortlist which the company came out with just two days before. It would be necessary for you to know that it was just the second day of placements and all the veterans were looking forward to this company. So there was quite an amount of anguish for the company along with the excitement.

As I reached the venue, the image of many fellow students became clearer. All had a distinct smile on their face. We discussed about how everyone likes to be in their night suits (if you may call them so) for the entire time they are at their hostel rooms. And how they would be most comfortable and moreover “themselves” if they were allowed to be in the same attire here at the interview. After a little delay (which was credited to the flight delays due to the fog) the process started.

Rest in the next post … you did not think that I would be completing everything here even after reading the title!

Why Maria Sharapova lost to Martina Hingis???

So AR's last post was kind of a sting operation. He stung me. I very vaguely remember him taking that snap of mine. People say there was a lot of puking that followed the vodka shots. I do not remember any of it, but when I saw my pic with NJ coming out of the washroom, I sincerely hope that was what took me in there with him more than anything else ;)

Anyways that treat was an intoxicating experience, and we are never going back there again...

Now walking up the memory lane, let us come back to this weekend. TRYST, the annual tech fest of ours, was organised. Like every year loads of students from engineering colleges all over the country came here with inexplicable enthusiasm. And like every year I spent another fest-weekend away from the academic area of the campus.

What did I do instead? Watched movies. One of them, Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi, was quite good. One of those movies that make you question your existence.

What the hell are we doing? Poor people of India are paying taxes to educate us, and what do we do with the "education" for our country??

Get into some MNC, make money and once in a blue moon when there is a spike in the patriotism level (due to movies like this) donate some money. I don't think until we contribute at the grassroot level there would be any change. OK, I haven't done anything to deserve to speak like this, so I'll change the topic.

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I made an interesting observation today. How many of you have seen a potrait of Lord Shiva with a beard?? For that matter, how many of you have seen any portrait of any God in the last month??

Anyways guess where did I see this? In the Barber Shop. I was sitting on the chair to get a much awaited shave... and there it was, right on the mirror on my left. Almost felt like the barbers were explaining why would God be there.

So then after the shave the barber started explaining why I should have a face massage. I asked him to cut the shit (with some different scissor ofcourse!!!), and go ahead with it. Never had that done on me before, so thought why not give it a try...

Well... he slapped the hell out of me, and in the end I owed him 25 bucks!!!

I think I'll sign off now. Hope the other posters come up with some posts this week... and the readers with some comments. I know the perfectness and completeness of the posts here leave you speechless but we would appreciate some acknowledgement. :D


P.S. - The title of the blog was a publicity stunt.

Forward this

As Mr. SS mentioned in the last post that Myself Speaking™ will someday outnumber Google. Yes surely it would. In fact I get so many requests from people who want to be a part that this can happen any day.

But it would not happen soon. The criteria we follow for choosing a contributor is very strict (You may have guessed by now since you are not a member). Also every contributor has a veto power regarding the membership part. So you would be required to meet all the requirements put forward by all members/contributors. So don’t be surprised if next time we reject anybody because we did not like his name.

In this post again I want to bring to you some practices followed by people. You can judge whether they are good or bad.

There is a trend these days of forwarding mails (from anyone to everyone in one’s mailing list). One of Mr. KS’s friends has started using a novel idea of returning the mails to the sender with the subject “backward”. However, it seems that people use this medium more often than not to remove their frustration of receiving these forwarded mails. So, any mail which a person feels may help anyone on his mailing list to the remotest extent dies then and there.

Our HOD changed sometime back. He has the habit of forwarding mails which he feels might be useful to someone. Initially I and some of my friends were not that excited about the cluttering of our mail boxes. This practice was quite unique when compared with those of the previous HOD and for that matter any other professor.

However, we soon realized that this practice is more beneficial than otherwise. Firstly, we have more information about the happenings not only within the institute but also outside in other institutes (Since any mail for the institute is directed to the HOD). Secondly, we are no longer under some censor who decides what would be useful for us and what would not be that of a use. People should be given the freedom to scan things themselves and then decide on their utility.

A (sharp) contrast to this was seen in the mails we received from our TNP (Training and Placement) cell. Though they had done a pretty good job but sometimes they were not that elegant when it came to forwarding mails in their complete form. What we received was their own version of the mail containing the bare minimum of information about a company and its offerings. Many times even the package was not mentioned (you can think what would have happened to the job profile which is second in priority to the package for almost all the students). We would come to know about this data hiding only when the company came to the campus and assumed that we know everything about the offerings and frequently referred to the mails they had sent.