Reflections: The Campus Placement (1)

Being my first post on this blog, I am glad to welcome myself to the arena. On the onset, this is Ujjwal Moitra from the Computer Science 2001 batch of BIT Mesra and today, the 26th day of July 2006, I begin what should be an interesting rendezvous writing some memoirs and reflecting back on the four years spent in Mesra. My posts would be part of the Reflections series.

July 26, 2004 08:50: As I rubbed my eyes to see the time on the wall clock hanging on the eventful room 15 of Baba hostel ( hostel 3 to the unknown), I realized that the sun was beating down my window and it was time to get to the mess. Although hostel 3 was famous for serving food at insane hours, 9 am was pretty much the time when one should be heading towards the rusted chairs. Gulping down water from big plastic bottle which pretty much everyone carried, I lazed towards Prabir's room for a cigarrete. As luck would have it, it was locked. So was Ankit's, the adjoining room.Crap! Alright, lets get some chai. The chai that was served was no more than a sugar syrup boiled with the cheapest tea leaves available, over and over again. Nonetheless, that was the only option of getting me started for the day.

09:00: As I walked into the mess, it was uncharacteristically empty. I could see just one Baba sitting at one end of the mess, sipping the half cold chai and reading a local Hindi newspaper with such penchant as though New York had been hit again. To the uninitiated, Baba was a common term used to describe students who had failed year after year to obtain a degree. The mess helper looked at me in amazement, as though I was just landing from Mars. As I tried to get my thinking process started about the things to do that day, the helper asked me, " Ka lijiyega? Anda naahi hai aaj. Doodh bhi khatam. Ka layen?" (What shall I get for you? Eggs and milk is finished). Thank you for the good news, now that I have to prepare my taste buds to 'relish' plain bread. As I asked for butter and bread, I walked to sit with the Baba. Some company is better than none.
As the butter was being graciously applied to the bread surface, out came the question " I thought you were eligible to sit in the campus (shorthand for campus placements). Why did you not go for the company then?". What was he talking about? Company? Campus? In my preparation for GRE, I had totally forgotten that today was the day when Tata Consultancy Services, the messiah of the masses, was suppose to come for recruitment. But who cares? I was not interested in the placement process anyways. As I gathered my thoughts, I wondered if it was prudent to miss a pre placement talk (PPT). "What time is it?", I asked the Baba as though I was a war refugee who had to catch the last us to the camp. "Nau baje tha. Chaloo ho gaya hoga" ( It was supposed to begin at 9am). Crap! I gulped down my last couple of sips of the liquid that was served in the name of special chai.

09:50: Walking into the CAT (closed air theatre) was never easy with big events going on. And here I was, jostling with the crowd pouring beyond the main gate, to get in and listen to someone who would try and convince me to join a company which I never would. And as always, when in trouble in BIT, use the age old paua (jack/source). Most of the placement committe members were good friends and it wasn't long before the head of the placement committe, Mr. Pant, was staring down me with disbelief. I was sitting on the second row from the front;unshaven, in shorts and the T shirt I had slept in the previous night and a half torn bathroom slipper gracing my feet. The sea of humanity around me was all prepared: cropped hair, clean shaven, with pens and diaries to take notes (for what?), and mostly in atleast a decent shirt and pant. Without thinking too much about it, I wondered which section of the GRE preparation book I had to finish that day. As I fooled around with friends, the PPT began around 10:00.
Thats the first impression of the company I have, a PPT starting an hour off schedule. Had it been America (well, I speak from my experience with only Carnegie Mellon, but surely it is the same elsewhere in the States), they would have served Pizza and soda, given away some freebies and started a cool state of the art PPT bang on time. I would love to see that day in BIT when students walk out just because the person suppose to present the PPT is not on time.

11:00: As I walked out the totally uninspiring and boring PPT with Siddharth Mukherjee, the only point that had captured my imagination was some collaboration of TCS with Carnegie Mellon University for sending people to complete their masters degree. The rest of the colleges they mentioned were Jadavpur Univ, IISc Bangalore et al. But CMU. My dream college. Walking past the canteen, it was clear that both Siddharth and I decided to atleast give the first round. It was to be held the hi-tech building (having seen what tech really is, I would urge the BIT administration to strip off that name. Have some mercy!). Fine.

13:30: Having been through some easy computer based maths and general analytical tests, I was waiting for the results to be declared. In my quest to be the cool one, I spoke only of GRE and what it takes to get to America. TCS? Hah..
The saying goes by: Beware!! This is TCS. Trespassers will be hired.
Only two people were not selected for the interview round. That was insane. But that was bad news too. If one does not sit for the interviews after clearing them, there might be repurcursions. And in BIT, where decisions are based not on logic or merit but the whims and fancies of a few, it was prudent enough not to give the administration a reason to play with my future.

15:00: After getting off the phone with my dad and explaining to him that I 'have to' sit for the interview, I got down to getting myself presentable. Shaved. Shirt on. Pants looked good. Tie on the neck. Leather shoes. Heat. 400 people in line. Aah. Time to take a break.

16:00 - 19:00: In the time that I spent in the canteen discussing what kind of questions the interviewers might ask, I saw others were remarkably well prepared. Most of the people had parrot-ed (I take the liberty to create a new term here) staple answers to vomit out during the interview. I felt nauseatic. It was unbearable to sit with people trying to make an effort to get into a company like TCS. Just to clarify, I dont mean to demean people who work there or the company in any manner. But the fact that a company can select 100+ people in a day is proof enough that the selection procedure is flawed. I killed time till I felt it would be better to stand infront of the placement office, where the interviews were going on.
When I walked into the corridor, I saw a sea of humanity. Some glad that the ordeal was over and doling out free tips to others. Tips to chickens on how to escape the butcher in case he comes into the room. Tips which are never ever useful. Tips which you dont remember once inside. But people talked to calm down the nerves.

20:00: Just as my patience was wearing thin by not knowing exactly at what time my interview was, I saw the Bengali manager of the TCS team coming out. As I do at many occasions, and sometimes I regret doing it that way, I charged towards him,"Sir. Are you incharge of the team here?". Before he could reply, I went on " Dont you think it is advantageous to you as well of the people standing here, waiting endlessly, to know the sequence number of their interviews. Can we have some semblence of a sytem here?"
People around me froze. I am sure they were at the point to shout,"We dont know this guy". The manager stopped. Couple of placement committe members looked at me in disbelief. There are some points in life when you dont know whether your words were taken in the right spirit or not until the other person speaks.
"Thats a very good point" and he walked off. Within five minutes, the waiting candidates were given approximate timings as to when their interviews shall be held. Good. Mine was in 30 minutes. Finally, the five hour wait was suddenly coming to and end.
" Tu marwaega beta kisi din. Chup nahin reh sakta?" (Cant you shut up ever? You shall get us all into trouble), retorted Geetanjali. She was on the placement committe and hoping to get through TCS. Fair enough. I should shut up now. But my unusual action on that moment was discussed until my batch graduated.

2130: That was the time when my name was called out. As I walked in, I suddenly realized that with my show off confidence and rhetoric, being rejected was not an option. I had to give it my best shot irrespective of what I think about the company. I walked into Mr. Pant's office and stood outside the attached side room for somebody to signal to me.
"May I come in sir?".
As I stood at the threshold of my first ever job interview, I saw two visibly tired and disenchanted personalities sitting in a hot room with an antique fan rotating from the high ceiling.

What happens next? Well, the TCS placement procedure was spread over two days and hence it is historically correct to end the post tomorrow.