That day of yours :-)

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