Tuesday, June 2, 2009

My interview Story

I was going to post this after I get a job. But that doesn't look like happening very soon, and old stories become stale. So here eet ees. (If you don't have patience, feel free to wander away from here :-)

Nandhini has been trying so hard to find me a job. She kindly told her friend Lavanya, Lavi for short, that I needed a job and sold me so well that Lavi got convinced what a super woman I am :P So, I went for the interview to her company. I was interviewed by FIVE people, for 3 and a half hours. I was applying for a position in their Sales team, so I was separately interviewed by the HR, two Sales managers, Vice President-sales and the COO.

Bloopers:

1. I told the Vice President my favorite author is JK Rowling and my character from Harry Potter is Sirius Black :)

2. Q: Why do you think you will fit in here?

A: Heard of Ad zap... they make u sell BIZARRE products there. If I can do that and win prizes, I can of course sell software

3. Q: What are you proud of? (To be written)

I'm proud of the fact that when I die, a lot of people will cry.

4. Q: Ok, so explain data mining with an example.

A: Sheepish grin. Example... er... example... ok, Let us say you want to know who uses washing powder on a daily basis. We have a data of 100 random people. Split into man and woman. Woman, further split to above 20 years and below 20 years. Above 20 years, split into working woman and home-maker. So, the home-maker uses it on a daily basis. (As an afterthought)... this is the classification method.

5. Nature keeps calling me. I'm sitting right before 2 toilets. Both men. Then I ask the HR lady where the ladies room is. She shows me the way. There are two toilets. One on which is written Women. I assume, since the other place had two men's, this should be two women. I open the toilet on the side, and I'm wondering what this fat guy with glasses is doing there. Then with a jolt I close the door and hurriedly enter the Women's room. I hide there till I convince myself the coast is clear to come out.

AND, the same day night at 10pm, the CEO called from the US (their office is in San Jose, CA) and he asked me all sort of techie stuff as well. (Example: Difference between Stored Procedure and SQL Query) Lavi told me in the evening itself that she was getting super feedback from whoever interviewed me. So I was sort of confident already.

And then, the HR person called me with the offer. (Out of the 6 candidates who had come in, out of which 3 candidates were filtered and sent to the sales manager, he picked only me. All the others were MBAs. I was the only under graduate. Felt so cool) Lavi had already asked me to negotiate pay cuz hr adi maatu velai dhaan solluvanga nu she'd already warned. But later... I said yes to the pay they offered after I realized they weren't ready to negotiate. After an hour after I said yes, the HR calls and tells me I’m on hold. Wondering what was going on...I asked Lavi. She thinks it’s because she is this egoistic bitch who wants to prove her authority. She probably thinks me bargaining is a question on her authority. And apparently she doesn't get along with the sales manager AT ALL, and he has marked me pretty high on the interview. So she wants to have the satisfaction of annoying him and not getting him the candidate he wanted on his team. Etc etc.

(The sales manager is a good friend of Lavi. So that's how I came to know about all these inside issues. ) Lavi and this sales manager(thoroughly good looking :P), asked me to talk to this woman once and maybe then things might work. And, I tried calling this woman that day and she just said 'oh...Vedha... listen I have to talk to the CEO and only then decide' and she hung up on me. Talking to the CEO is not even a likely excuse. The VP spoke to her(as told to Lavi) indirectly enquiring about me. She has just told him she has her own apprehensions. But when the sales manager asked her, she put the blame on the VP, saying he thinks I’m not good enough for the position. We knew something was wrong. But we couldn’t figure out what. After two shitty days(where my hair fall got pretty high)… Voila! We understood what the catch is – the HR’s Annan ponnu has come to attend the interview for the same position :-)

Saniyan Sevvailendhu Sarukittu vandhu en vaazhkaila sadugudu aadudhadaa saamy!

நாங்களும் வரைவோம்-ல!

Lol. When I was in 5th standard or something, I used to fill even ruled notebooks with my drawings and water color paintings. (I think I still have them somewhere). Then somewhere down the lane, I lost touch... But yeah, now me being vetti, and Bumboo, Blab and Nithi being the full the inspirations, I sat down to sketch Nandy(ayyo paavam).

Kadasi varaikum, that smile couldn't be duplicated (eppadi ellam samaalika vendiyadhaa iruku?!) Still have to do finishing touches(?!) but yea.. you can see what it looks like.

Idhu Nandhini illa.. Nandhini maadiri :P