I Came, I waited, and I finally Conquered !!

I was thinking of writing about my 3 months of work here, but before that I thought it would be better to write about the Loooonnnngggg journey i had to undertake to reach here. It's quite long, so have patience and read on !!

My hunt for a job started about a year back. Around this time last year, companies started to trickle into my college to kickstart the campus interview process. The thrill that I felt when I heard that TCS was the first company coming to our college, may sound quite foolish now, but at that time, was a great source of happiness to me.

The D-Day arrived. TCS guys came, conducted a test and I qualified that. Next was a psychometric test and I still remember reaching home at 12 midnight after giving the test. Next morning,Pratap broke the news though, that I was not selected for the interview process. You don’t need to be an Einstein to guess that I was heartbroken. But now I can say that I was very badly prepared for the whole process (I had not even prepared my resume till then).

Next came the CTS guys and in the interview when they asked me to write a program for a binary tree, I knew I had no chance. Sayo Naara !! CTS!

The next company proved to me that God really existed!!

Satyam came to the campus and as usual I cleared the aptitude test. I still remember the “Round table conference” that I had with my other classmates in the college canteen before the Group Discussion session. I was regarded as some top shot in GDs (I don’t know why). Everyone in that group was about to attend the first GD in their life. Since I had attended some GD classes in TIME before, I gave all of them some gyaan I had acquired.

And then there was the GD. I had done extremely well and felt that barring some godly intervention I was through to the interview stage. Then the results of the GD were about to be announced. My friends were very tense; I was very cool and had already started my prep for the interview. Then Disaster struck. 55 names were announced. My name was not!! I was shocked and almost in the state of breaking down. To add salts to my wounds, all my friends got through!! I remember wishing all of them good luck for the interview and boarding the college bus. What did I do god, that u have punished me like this….It took me a couple of weeks to come back to terms with the reality.

By now most of my classmates were already placed. I was disillusioned with the whole life as such. Then, one fine day I received a mail from a company called KANBAY saying my resume had been short listed for their test. My first thought was what sort of a company is that, never heard of it. But, what the heck, who cares.

Getting through the aptitude tests had become a habit for me and this was no different. I was asked to attend the interview the next day in their office. So the next day I went there. Phew! What an interview!! 1 hour. I was asked to do everything. From giving a 10 minute speech to giving a 15 minute presentation of my engineering project to explaining the importance of Admiral Gorshkov to the Indian Navy. All this were my strengths so i had no problems. But as expected, I was F%$@ed up in objects, classes and pointers.

But I knew that my performance in the non tech portion of the interview was sufficient to get me through. And right I was. I still remember the date. 8th February, 2004. I received a mail confirming my selection in KANBAY. I was overjoyed and felt like all my previous sins have been washed away. Happiest moment of my life.

But I had a problem. No one knew the company or had ever heard about the company. When I broke the news of my selection to my relatives and friends, their lips said “Hey congratulations!!”, but I cud read their minds thinking “What sort of a crap company is that ??”. But who cares, KANBAY is a big MNC and can u believe it, I was about get the highest pay packet in my whole batch. God is great!!

I was told that I would have to join sometime in May. So till then, I was in my own world, trying to “enjoy” life before I face the “rigor” of the corporate world. Before I realized, I got a call from KANBAY asking me to join at the Pune office in June. At this stage , I had a personal problem and asked the HR lady whether she can defer the date of my joining by a week. She replied very calmly saying that, that was not a problem and there was a new batch of employees joining in the first week of July and I could join then. I never knew that this telephonic call would change my future.

Soon it was July and I got no call from them. I called them and they said that they are sorry and that they would accommodate me in the next batch starting in 15 days. July became August. Again same response from them.

I understood that I was in trouble. Cursing myself, it was then that I started my job hunt. In the mean time I attended a French training class and was able to speak a few sentences in Francaise.

Also around that time I got a call from KANBAY, saying that they do not have any more new projects. But since they have already selected me, they are willing to give me a job in their Call-Center office. I told them F%$! off, and hung the phone.

Then one fine July day, I attended a TCS walk-in test. About 20,000 ppl were estimated to attend that test. As usual I got through the test. In the tech interview, I said that I cud speak French. The lady there then asked “Comment s’appelle vous” and to this I replied “J’mappelle kannan”. That’s it. Rest was formality. I was selected in TCS.

Again I was happy. But more was yet to come.

A few days later, when I was speaking to my classmate, Vikas, he told me that a company has come to the college for recruitment and we cud write the test. I asked him to fill up the form for me. The good guy that he is, he obliged.

I had never heard the name of the company. But what the heck, I did not have anything to do at home. So, I wrote the test. I got selected. That night when I browsed through the internet to get some company info, I was stunned. It was then that I realized the magnitude of the next day. I had the opportunity to get selected into Deloitte Consulting

Attended the interview. Phew!! That was one hell of a stress interview. My technical skills were compared to those of the Deloitte Sweeper. Then more bouncers….. Why should we give a job to a 70% guy when, when we have 90%ers standing outside the room. It didn’t stop there. As a young engineer, shouldn’t u have the enterprise to learn latest technologies, other than learning only C and C++?

People who know me, can certify that Iam a calm guy. Boy!! Did my calmness help me there? You bet. I knew that they were only testing my patience and so i was a little confident of getting selected. Results were supposed to be announced the very next day. Selected candidates would be informed by 8 PM, they said. So the next day, I checked my mail at 8.05 PM. No mail….. Checked my mailbox at 9 PM again. No luck again…… I was disappointed. I thought that my fate was sealed with TCS and I would have no escape from it.
At Night 11.30 PM I decided to check my mailbox again. No mail again. I was very sleepy and was just clicking around, when by chance I clicked on the BULK FOLDER of my mail box. EUREKA!! The subject line read,

“Welcome to Deloitte- The Place where the best choose to be”

I knew this was big. VERY BIG. I woke up my parents and informed them.
HAHAHAHA I went to the terrace of my apartment and screamed as loud as possible ..

Life has changed for me since then…….

Now I realize why I did not get through the Satyam GD and why the KANBAY guys behaved the way, they did.

Thank you GOD!!