Reflections: The Campus Placement (2)

As promised, the second post did not come up on the 27th. Many reasons for that, but lets get down to finishing the story first.

"May I come in sir?".

One of the persons sitting on the wooden chair looked up and nodded.

"Nice shirt"

I smiled and nodded as a gesture of appreciation.

"Nice tie."

I smiled again. Now was this a trap to get me talking or were they just trying to ease up my nerves? Before I could decide, pat came the next statemet.

"A nice combination, infact!"

"Well, thank you sir, but this is my father's taste."

Looking back now, I'd like to believe that statement was taken as one in which I did not want to take credit for what was not mine. Good for starters.

As for the details of the interview, I'd rather not publish them else some people sitting in TCS might be upset. But I was not asked a single, "not a single" technical question. The remotest relation to anything tech was,"Why is network security important?". I'd like to think that the question was a joke because after three projects in the field, I expected something better. As I walked out after about 20 minutes or so, I was numb. Was it over? But they did not test me. I mean, they simply chatted with me. Good for me because I had not prepared for more than 4 hours in totality for my placements.

That night was fun listening to a lot of other 'interview' experiences. In the mess, on the roof, outside the hostel while walking to the canteen. Animated discussions taking place amongst a bunch of guys passing one, ever shortening ciggarette amongst each other. People were just not getting tired of talking. As it became clear, Shireesh had topped the written test amongst everyone in the country that year. Add to that, he was asked about music in his interview. Looking back, I wish interviews here would be something like them too. But those ones deserve a separate entry..

Next morning I had my HR interview. I was super confident about cracking it. Talking was never an athelete's foot for me and going by how my tech interview went, this one should have been a cakewalk. But as I noted somewhere on my blog, life has the uncanny habit of catching you offguard when you are least expecting it to.

So as I found out, this 'HR' guy asks me my favourite programming language.

"C".

"Fair enough. So whats the difference between a structure and a union".

This is where Mirinda gets it right. Zor ka jhatka dheere se lage. I was not prepared to answer any technical question, be it the easiest one on the planet. Besides, I had never prepared for my placements believing that I would wait for some "better" companies before I warm up. Anyways, now all that did not matter. As I took bouncer after bouncer on my chin, I realized it was time to hook some deliveries out of the ground. The interviewer game me a sample Java code, to which of course, I could not give the correct output. Just before he would say thank you to me and easily strike my name of the list of candidates, he asked a last one.

"You dont know C. Neither can you answer C++ or Java questions. Your grades are fine. What were you doing all this time?"

Now there are some innings when you might be the 11th man coming in to bat. You have not done particularly well in your career as a cricketer and the team needs a sixer off the last ball of the innings to win the World Cup finals. Life always gives you the opportunity to do something about which you talk a lifetime. I took a deep breath and spoke my mind.

"Sir, I had better things to do in the summer than to prepare for my campus interviews, and least for a company like TCS."

Sorry Mr. Pant. I said that. I just did. As I started to reach for my certificate folder to walk out, the half-mouth-opened person sitting infront me spoke with a raised voice, "Like what?"

And as they say, the rest is history. When you are facing the last ball and you know you are good on the leg side, move your legs before the bowler releases the ball. Chances are that me might follow you and then you stand your ground and heave the ball over mid wicket for a winning six. Thats what precisely happened. Though I would not compare winning the world cup to a job in Tea-See-ess, it was definitely a good feeling talking about something I could. I kept on blurting about my networking project, my project in IIT Delhi and DRDO. My guides being the Directors of the institutions themselves. yada..yada..yada..

And so, here I was waiting for the result to be declared at night. I was mostly in hostel 2 with Saurabh Roy and Rajeev Tripathi. Sometime with Birju too. Doesn't matter. Killing time before one gets to hear that you have been hired for almost $5000 as your starting annual salary.

As Mr. Pant walked into the big room opposite his office (I forget the name of it), there was a smile on his face. As he announced that out of the 167 odd people interviewed, 117 had been selected, there was a huge round of applause. Some made it. Some did not. Most of us hugged each other as we heard our names being called out. Rajeev Kunar did not make the mark. As I walked out, Chatto came running in. I congratulated him on getting the job. He ran in to check the name list. As it turned out, he was not hired. Till date, I feel I had heard it correctly, but Chatto took it seriously. He imagined that I deliberately made fun of him. Happens. Things get sorted out with time.

As the ritual of getting kicked began to lighten up the otherwise dead night, it was as if the hostel looby had suddenly became a torture house for punishing the hardened criminals. From kicks, bumps, hugs shifting and to a bleeding Oswal (courtesy Manu Kant), it was a scene to remember. I rarely have seen so many people being soa happy at the same time. Guess it was time to celebrate and harp the fruits of one's labour all those three years.

Amongst the couple of high and low points I recall from our batch were:
1. Gaurav Singh being rejected by TCS and making it to Oracle.
2. Anoop asking people to kick him more when he made it to Infy.
3. Jujhar having to leave the final round of Tata Motors to rush back home (for a medical emergency).
4. Some placement committe people quitting as soon as they got a job.
5. And many innumerable ones which is hard to mention in a single article.

As I walked back: half sore, almost limping back to room 15, it was almost day break. For 116 people from my batch, the job had been finished. I had to get back to my unfinished job...

ps: For many of us, Mr. Pant was a hero. He worked real hard, listened to people and took decent enough decisions to win the admiration of the students. Thank you sir for all that you have done to BIT Mesra. Anyone at your place could and can easily walk off by working a tenth as hard as you do. Good job.