Interviews

warning : its long..
This post was inspired by silverine's post on interviews.
Flashback - 3years ago........
Place - Engg College ,Campus placements is going on ...

The first company that came along was a giant in engineering side.....The profile offered was that of a management trainee...The big guns in our E&C department are all ready for the battle..Yours truly couldn't appear as the cut-off was like an astronomical number!!!(for me ;) )
After the initial rounds namely written examination and GD,some 10-12 ppl were selected for interview. GD round also saw the rise of a star in college -Mr.AV.
Till the GD, he was regarded as the most silent guy in college (well his friends knew better).But the GD woke the LION in him . But for this interview it was not Mr AV who was going to hog the limelight but Mr.KL aka iceman This guy was pucca management material and all.So our iceman goes for the interview -The company had a very bad reputation of recruiting only Brahmins !!!!!!But our iceman is one among them....So everything is set.....

And interview starts

Interviewer (Int) : Describe about yourself ?
Iceman : I am so and so from a Tam Brahmin family

Int:So are u a Iyengar or Iyer ? (seems there is always a fight among Tam brahmins among who is superior and blah blah )
Iceman :Iyer

(Interviewer was highly impressed as he was also one ) starts the real interview
Int: why is your marks going down and down
iceman : good qn ,even I was having the same doubt why??? but he didn't give that answer well i became house captain, cricket ,injuries etc etc
Int :Injuries?
iceman :yeah concentration goes ..u know???
Int : Maybe ..I never played in my life...ok,we are ready to give u a offer
iceman:what !!!plz don't do that..u didn't even ask something remotely technical
Int:That's OK ..we are ready to offer u a position as so and so...
iceman:No!!!!!!!!
Int:Y???
iceman:I am not interested in this area...
Int: Then y the hell did u come to interview
iceman:I don't know how i cleared the test!!! :o
Int:(In Mind : *&^@#$% we tried u help u)..we are disappointed!!!!
iceman:I want to be in s/w industry :(
Int:Are u sure u don't want an offer
iceman:i have never been more sure of anything else

Int starts talking abt professionalism and all...iceman is tensed ---what if they screw up his other oppurtunities......but nothing of that sort happens......he allowed to withdraw :)

The Company in its true professionalism selects 4 - 3 from our class and 1 guy from Bio and yes u guessed it correct all Brahmins ...appa what a start to campus interview!!!!

After this college made sure -if u apply for any company u have to sit through interview ....

The 2nd company -a s/w giant (main operations from Chennai )comes down to Kochi.
As usual our iceman makes an impression before the test itself !!!(this was his dream company ,dont know whether he has the same opinion now!!!)

For this Company -most of us were allowed to write the exam (low cut -off) and they have an habit of recruiting in bulk (35 was a big number back then -now bulk is like full college ),so everyone was excited,tensed,emotional -u name it all the emotions were there.....Now comes the twist -the 4 selected earlier was also asked to write the exam by the Company ppl...Now coll authority is in a dilemma ...they dont want to make the first company ppl angry ..so they found a workaround ask the selected 4 to underperform .....
So the written round starts the elite 4 underperforms........1 guy Mr KS underperforms like anything, of the 25 odd qns, he attempts only 9 ....But the qn paper was real tuff for the ordinary mortal souls ....so the cut-off was based on hit ration and a min cut-off. Based on that ranking our underperformer Mr.KS comes top!!!(All 9 were correct !!!) Now Mr KS is scared -what has he done.....but again the placement co-ordinator comes and says "its ok underperform for the interview...."

Interview Room -Interviewer knows he has an offer already
Int :So how was the exam
KS:It was easy.
Int:Easy??
KS:yeah
Int:Then ,why didnt u attempt more qns???
Our KS is happy ...I can screw this up ...ha ha
KS:I dint get time!!!
Int:Still it was easy???
KS:Not exactly, was time consuming ???
Int:Hmmm.....Or did u underperform??
KS : No sir no way.....
Int:Okie....So explain TV???
KS: TV????
Int:yeah
KS:There are 2 types of TV's basically...Color and B/W.
Int:I meant -how the TV works ???anyway the insight was good..
KS: I dont know...
Int : what???You are and Electronics and Commn Engineer rite??
Now this hurt him a bit ......poor KS ..hes top class in basics actually.
KS:Well I remember only in parts.....
Int:Hmm can u think and come back to me ...after say 10 minutes
Mr KS goes out to think......
Outside the room ,instead of thinking ..He roams around the corridor laughing with friends cracking his PJs .In total was having a great time.

After watching all this drama from the room our Interviewer comes back and takes him back to the room "by his ears" .yes by his ears!!!that was a site indeed -interviewer taking the interviewee by the ears........
Int:We know u are under performing ...but nevertheless we are giving u a position in our company....

And so KS gets another offer!!!!

Now after the initial rounds of placements most of the ppl were having 2 offers and ppl like KS had 3 offers....

This interview happens to Mr AV (The same guy who became a lion after first GD)
The Company another S/W giant the one with offices all over Bangalore.

After the test - Mr AV comes first -- Nothing to beat him in Verbal Tests ...(Av had read Karl Marx in Std II to talk with his 'palkaran' milkman in English. His childhood stories I will write in another post )He's such an expert in everything ,we call him walking encyclopedia :). I guess you get the picture.

Well the interview starts its an HR interview

Int: Tell me abt your self
Av : I am blah blah blah...I did blah blah
Int: So what do you do in your free time
Av : I read
Int: What??
Av :Fiction Non fiction everything???
Int:Why do you read??
Av:For enjoyment??
Int:You are wasting your time dude???
Av: What???
Now Av is really exasperated
Int:Yes.
Now is the part I love .......
Av: To understand books ,you need to have sense ,sensibility and sensitivity....
(This is a hit mammoty dialogue in an altogether different context )
Int:What???hmm........u have any other offer in hand???
Av:(gotcha) yes!!!!!!!
Later in the day when results came out Av converted this interview to a job offer!!

The characters
1. Av had converted 5 of the 6 IIM calls ..(Indore didn't find him as bright prospect i guess ;) ) and is all set to join IIM A.
2.Ks is working for an MNC (named after some country) now as a field application engineer (he quit his old Indian company)
3.KL aka iceman is still with the original company and all ready to fly to US.