Aptitude
test, first step of screening in any recruitment and its Infosys! prepared few
GRE words, revised few formulae of R.S.Agarwal, wrote a mock test at college.
Started early, 2hr pre-placement talk (by Mr. Singh,who was
really strict!) specially the video which showed Infosys’s 357 acre campus @
Mysore and highlighted its work culture was impressive. Then exam went on for
75 min. It went okay. There was a passage bit which I couldn’t have solved
without TV series ‘SHERLOCK’. Confused?! I’ll make it clear! This series has
the best British English spoken by its characters and I happened to learn quite
a phrase like ‘over the moon’, ’spill the beans’, ’letting cat out of a bag’,
’psychopath’, ’milieu’, psychosomatic’ etc. and the last word ‘psychosomatic’
was the exact answer for the bit I was speaking of. I know, long story!:p I
didn’t expect to clear the round as
1)I left 8-9 questions unanswered
2) competition was fierce
Fortunately,
in the evening, I get to know that I cleared the round and I will have to
attend an interview, the next day. I started brushing up concepts of C
language, practiced a good ‘Tell me about yourself’.
Next day morning, I was lucky to get
right buses at right places at right time :D :p. Interviews’ session started on
time as we were informed. But here comes the twist, I forgot to get my tenth
and inter memos’ Xeroxes.(I know it’s the last thing expected from a student
going for the interview, but ho gaya!)Hence I wasn’t allowed to take the
interview and was given few hours of time to get my memos. So, my priority then
was attending the interview rather cracking it :p Many thanks to mom for she
scanned the copies of ‘em to my mail. But there was hardly a net café near the
college; that 1 shop also had no power then. Luckily, power came back in
time;my friend,I got the copies printed and were among the few last MGITians to
be interviewed.
I went to the cabins where
interviews were held and was waiting for my turn. I saw one of my friends
coming out of a cabin, also happened to see the man who interviewed her. His
face resembled to that of an HR of a past interview of mine which didn’t go
that well. So, I was hoping not to go into that cabin. But, the supporting
staff lead me to the same cabin! It really feels lively and exciting, reliving
all those moments once again by writing this article
Interview progresses like this: (I
have to mention, his face was a nice, smiling, pleasant one, basically it
doesn’t make u nervous)
He: Sit
down, Manasa
While I was
sitting, he asked me:”So you are Manasa, Right?”(my resume and memos were given
to him beforehand)
Me: Yes,
Sir.(with a smile)
I was smiling
throughout the interview to myself comfortable and let him know that I’m not
nervous so he can speak to me well.
He: What
does ‘Manasa’ mean?
Me: It means
‘heart’ in Sanskrit, sir.
(I was so
glad with this start because I already prepared exactly the same in ‘Tell me
about yourself’. I thought I’d start like this ‘My name is Manasa and it means
heart in Sanskrit’. I thought it so because I was told our intro must be
unique.)
He: Who
named you so?
Me: My dad,
sir.
He: So, you
ever asked your dad why he named you so?
Me: I did,
sir. He was thrilled by this place ‘Manasarovar’ in Himalayas, where Lord
Vishnu is believed to live.
(But when I
ask my dad now, he says its actually lord shiva)
He seemed
impressed with the fact that I actually knew it.
He: Your
father was thrilled or you?
(I didn’t
get what’s the point of the question, nevertheless I replied with a smile)
Me: My
father, sir.
He: So
Manasa, You know C language?
Me: a
little, sir.
He: What
programs can you write Manasa?
Me: Prime,
odd-even, factorial…
He(going
through my memos, specially marks in C): Okay, write a prime no. program for
me. Meanwhile, I would eat snacks. You wouldn’t mind?
Me: Sure
sir.
(Scribbled
the program on the paper, not sure if it’s correct)
He: You are
done? Let me see it. Can you explain it to me?
I started explaining but there was a
flaw in it and I said, sir, I know the logic but I’m unable to write a program
for it. He said ok, Explain to me taking an example. I explained the logic for
3-4 min. Initially, he couldn’t get it but thankfully he got it eventually.
Then he went on asking me about stacks, queues, heaps; differences,
applications of each, he asked me of memory allocation procedures, types. He
remarked ‘very good!’ when I said types malloc and calloc. I was relieved and
now again, he shifts to HR kind of questions.
He: Manasa,
there is a flaw in this cabin, we are in. What is it?
I immediately answered, ”No
ventilation, sir”.(because I was suffocating with the fan’s hot air right from
the moment I entered).Then I thought I caught the right flaw seeing the
expression on his face.
He: What is
the problem if there is no ventilator?
Me: Hot air
is circulating in the same cabin, sir. Fresh air outside and hot air inside are
unable to exchange with each other. So, room gets hot.
He: Okay,
What shall be the remedy then?
Me: AC sir.
He: No
budget, then what?
Me: Put a
ventilator, sir.
He: Okay,
you are an engineer right? Tell me, which side of this wooden cabin would you
put one? Let me give the details, one side has a wall parallel to it, one side
is your door, one side is the common one with the next room.
I gave it a thought and said, ”the
remaining side, sir”.
He: It can’t
be applied to all other cabins, for if you do so, both the adjacent cabins
would have the same ventilator and noise would creep in.
Me: Then,
ventilator should be on the same side as that of door, but you need to make
sure the noise from outside wouldn’t get in.
He: How
would you do that?
Me: Its
related to acoustics, sir. You can put some sound absorbing material there.
He: Okay, No
problem (with a smile). Are you ready to work on any technology anywhere in
India? (A positive question :D :p)
(He was
writing/allotting marks on the feedback sheet, he was given)
Me (with a
pause): Yes, sir. You will anyways train us right!?
He: Oh, yes!
He: Tell me
Manasa, how did you prepare for the exam?
Me: Sir, I
read few words of GRE, borrowing from my friend, brushed up basics of C,
R.S.Agawal’s formulae,
He: What is
R.S.Agarwal?
Me: It’s a
book with concepts of aptitude, sir.
He: Oh,
okay!
Me: I also
wrote a mock test at our college.
He: Oh, you
cleared it?
Me: Yes,
sir.
He: How many
marks did you get?
Me: They
actually didn’t tell us, sir.
He: No
problem! You have any questions?
I asked a few regarding market
share, profits etc for which he answered.
He: Anymore?
Me: No,sir.
He: Thank
you, Manasa
I left with a hope it went well
And I get the job!! :D I got to know
about in the late night. I was on cloud9; my family was extremely happy! After
all, its Infy :D and it was a double dhamaka as its my birthday, the next day
:D the biggest ever birthday gift
Bottom line is never keep your
spirits low, don’t give up that easily! Because its my 10+ attempt trying to
get into a job! It’s not a big deal if you are jobless for few days! And it’s
not a big deal getting into an MNC! There are always better things to do in
life! Ups and downs are part of the life! If not now, a little later. That’s
the formula of the life. So, as my article says, ’Eveyone will have their that
one day! :) Pata hein sabko maloom hein ye sab! But this is kinda reminder
PS: Have
been thinking to write this one from months! But what triggered me now?
Mood-off! Why? Mood-off is a quite natural phenomenon that occurs in humans and
this time un-tasty food made my mood off. So thought ‘writing’ would keep me
busy and I’d feel better and I did
Yeah I used
to wear this nice cotton, comfortable dress to every test and interview I gave
:p This time too I wore it for the test, couldn’t wear it for the interview
because the interview is on the following day of the test. Anyways, interview
went well
