My Placement Diary: Chapter IV

“Mass Recruiters”, better known as life-savers for all the private college students. Generally, we have a trend where if a student gets a job in one of the mass recruiter then he isn’t allowed to sit for the next round. But this time, the companies had a different process where the results would be declared only when all the four companies would visit and hence, the students were supposed to sit in all of them. Hence, the coming days from 1^st September to 12^th September were supposedly the toughest ones for all the fourth years.

It kicked off with Cognizant, our first one with its written test on 2^nd September. I had been sitting for so many companies but I never felt the pre-written test chills ever. But the night before 2^nd, I was actually scared as to what’ll come about the next day. Probably because these were considered as ‘your last chance’. The day came and my written test went almost well but I was so unsure of the results. We all give our best when it comes to mass recruiters. The day the list of selected students went out, around 1500/2200 were selected. And I’d made it. The worst thing about placements is the air around you. You can’t feel the joy until the person sitting next to you makes it too. I was happy I could make it but was sad at the same moment as my roommate couldn’t. I knew what rejections felt like.

Anyway, the next day was my interview, so I read as much as I could about Cognizant and some parts of DBMS (Yes of course, previous interview experience). The day came and I was pretty confident about my interview. The worst part is waiting for your turn for the interviews and when it comes to mass recruiters, you can find every single person waiting in each corner of the auditorium. I kept holding my file and waited for my turn. Every time when the volunteers would call out names, he’d flip the papers upside down and magically mine would go to the last each time. Hence, I was called at around 7 pm in the last slot. As I entered the room, there were about 20 more panels sitting in that room. My interviewer asked me to take my seat and left the room, “Oh God, not like MuSigma again...” I murmured. While he was out I could see the girl getting interviewed right beside me and I could really feel the heat of the conversation going on. The girl was literally shuddering and sobbing with her interviewer yelling at her. “Gosh, that’s not something to look at when you’re next.” And as I took my eyes off them, my interviewer came and started with saying nothing for about exactly 3 minutes. I was sitting there wondering whether I should speak or not. All he kept doing was staring at my resume and filling some form. “So, tell me something about this DREAM SCHOOL project?” Wow, finally a word from him, and I told him what the project was all about and how we proposed our dream school plan back in class 8^th. And then a few random HR questions. When the technical round started, he asked me a few definitions, which I could ‘almost’ answer. The next question was, “Can you write a code for THIS?” As I took the sheet, there was a ‘pattern’ drawn!! Come on there are a hundred other questions than this one, I started sulking, “Okay, this adds to another rejection today!” I could barely explain him the logic. But he was quite supportive throughout, so he pretended that I was right. As the interview was about to conclude, from somewhere he asked me about my Android project and this lit my face up, a bit. I explained him as much as I could and told him about my test cases and how I identified my bugs. This sure got me a genuine smile. I showed him my app which I was carrying on my cellphone. And that’s where I was able to take a steep turn away from rejection. As I left the room, I was still nervous about my results. But gladly I’d made it. Next, we had an HR round. Since, it was too late, the HR panel was barely asking any questions. All he asked me was my latest movie that I saw and what I liked about it. Because this was such an unexpected question after such a tiring day, out of nowhere I said, “KICK”. The next thing I remember was recalling his question, “..what did you like in it?” God save me, I liked nothing about the movie. “Sir, as we all know Salman Khan’s movie are completely baseless, this one was a little different.. something something.. socially responsible..” and he stopped me, “So social responsibility touch?”, Yes Sir absolutely.

When I walked out of the HR room, I felt so relaxed and lively again. When I walked towards where the placement volunteers were sitting, they were all clapping for me. “If he’s a Salman Khan fan, he’s never going to take you Ishita”, chuckled some.

The feeling that I’d gone through so many rejections and that today I can sleep with a half surety that I’m placed, was beyond explanation.

The next company was Infosys, with quite a different pattern for their written tests, which made it easier to clear as everyone was having same set of questions and plenty of time. Around 1000 people made it after the written test. The best part was all we three roommates had made it. Finally some celebration time! Hugging and crying with joy.

The next day when we were all sitting for the interview, I calculated my turn and was sure that I’ll be called at last again. And yes, how my silly intuitions always go right. About six of us were left and we were sent to a panel who as people told me were asking the toughest questions. As it was a glass door, I could see one of the interviews going on right in front of me. The guy looked like some villain from a Telugu movie. He looked so scary and I was praying to get some other panel. But oh, how I forgot, these were my WHATEVER-YOU-SAY-THE-OPPOSITE-WILL-HAPPEN days. As I took my seat I could see sheets where large codes were written in a language which at that point of time seemed alien to me. He started off with shooting back to back random definitions of few terms which I could answer all. Followed by that, he asked me a few HR questions and that was all. I was surprised, “Sir, is that all?” Yes, you can leave.

The guy who was grilling others asked me nothing, probably because I was the last one to be interviewed. I was very sure I’m not getting it. That’s the odd of being called last. I shooed away the negative thoughts and was still positive that I’ll be able to convert at least one of the four those were visiting us.

I could clear the written round for Accenture too. This was one company I wanted the most out of the four, mostly because of the job location flexibility. I wasn’t willing to work at Chennai or Cochin. But at that point of time, I wasn’t even having a choice so I thought I’d give my best to this one. Accenture had a weird recruitment process, they interviewed five candidates in one go. Also, they’d said that they don’t want to judge us on our technical skills, they’ll just be looking for our soft skills. Thankfully, my turn came pretty soon this time and they were giving individual topics to each one of us to speak for 2 minutes. My topic was “OLD IS GOLD”, it’s not the topic which is an easier one or tough but the fact that you’re sitting for an interview of your first job. Somehow, I could give a sensible 2 minute talk over the same. Accenture’s process got over in a blink of an eye.

Next company was Wipro which had given out a ‘Topper’s list’ as mentioned on the portal. Students with 80% and above in class 10^th and 12^th were having direct PI rounds the next day. So, the next day I was sitting right outside my interview room, a little nervous and a lot tired when a friend came and wished me luck. All I could say at that moment was, “Please pray that this one’s my last one”.

There were six panels for Wipro and a few of them were only asking technical questions and the others were asking HR questions. Just as others, I was hoping that I get the HR one too. As I entered the room, the man who was supposed to take my interview was reviewing the previous candidates’ form and hence asked me to wait.

When the interview started, he asked me all the HR questions I’d ever heard existed, so I was happy that I’d got an HR panel. But my interviews are never over with a sudden flip, “So, let’s check your technical skills!!” One after other he asked me questions from DBMS to OOPS to My project to Software Engineering to OS and what not. But this was my best performance till date as I could answer them all and that too in quite a convincing tone. He gave me a Thumbs up at the end and I was completely raptured. It went for about 45-50 minutes and I was loving every part of it. As they say all’s well that ends well. Wipro was the last one of all four and it went great.

On 13^th September’14, the college was to announce the results and we had this little function too where the founder himself came to unveil the results. As we began with it, we were first told as to how many of us got all four jobs and then the company wise number. My fingers were crossed. I remember, my whole group was sitting in one single row and we were all so frozen at that moment. As the founder declared the numbers, one of the training and dept. members started to announce the names of students who’d got all the four jobs. Just as it started, in about seconds they took Khushboo’s name, one of my roommates. We jumped with joy and just then I heard my name. At that very moment, for no reason, I could feel nothing, I just rang back home and told them I’d made it to all four. The feeling of hearing them scream with felicity was just beyond explaining and I burst into tears. But then we did not move from our seat as it was still not over for us, we were waiting for Durga, my other roommate who was all tensed. Finally when we got to know that she’d got two offers too, we just jumped off our seats and after that all we did was screaming and hugging each other. That was one hell of a day, when you get paid back for what you constantly toiled for.

There was this air of joy all around me, but I still couldn’t feel it much. May be because this was not what I aimed for or may be because I was too tired to celebrate now. We can’t just be satisfied with mere success but are concerned with the terms upon which success comes to us. And for me, the terms seemed much more important than this success I got.

But still going with the flow, for me, my first one was special. After a few days, we had Ericsson and I got that one too. I won’t write much about that one as I that was a real unplanned one. But yes, today I have five offers in hand. Not that I’m too satisfied with my jobs but yes they sure are a starting point for me. My journey begins and I’m sure someday I’ll get to where I wanted to be from the very start. I’m sure there’s a much better chapter coming up for my placement diary. Hoping to write soon…