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!

Sukanya got placed!!!!!

YES!!! YESS!!!! YESSSSSS!!!!

Sukanya got placed! Sukanya got placed!! In i-gate global solutions, 2 lakhs per annum!
Lady, we are all proud of you!!!

After all the tension(She actually did நமஸ்காரம் to Priya ma'am!!!! Just imagine how tensed the woman could get!), I can finally see the big smile back on her face, and ain't I glad!!


PS: Sorry about the crown Suku, but it was done in a hurry ;)

Yea...the D-Day(Campus Interview)

Hey blog! aabbbababababababababaaaaababbbbbaabaababbaababbb [for all you dumbos who don't know what this means, it is "long time no c(see)].

Its been a mad mad 10 days after my last post. Finally after I got through in the campus interview, I had to concentrate completely on Abilasha, which, as always, took up most of, no, all of, my time.

Anyways, we are here to continue talking about campus interview. Abilasha will come later(definitely!)

The D-Day- my advice (You can always take my advice, I never use it anyway!)

Dress up. Actually DRESS UP. You have to be very careful when you pass comments on the corridor, cuz the person standing next to you, might very well be your HR. (own experience!). Ask a lot of questions in the pre-placement talk(that helps, really!). Chuck being nervous. You have everything to gain, nothing to lose. And, use your brain and LOGIC in aptitude. Raking over formulae for hours, is not gonna help. Trust me. We had no group discussion or technical round(I LOVE HCL!) and so in the HR round, again, ask questions. Show that you are genuinely interested. If you dunno anything, say you don't. Truth prevails. Jai Hind

CAMPUS INTERVIEW

Let's face it. Be it board exams, or campus interviews, there are people EVERYWHERE to give you much needed support and NOT-AT-ALL needed advice. I'm here to give you neither. But I just thought I'll let you know what happened to me.

Me being hailed as the queen of sorts(pun intended!), everybody expected me to get placed in the first ever interview I sat for. Thank whoever I did, or else I dunno what shit I would've had to go through.

Campus interview=

• Chaos
• Group studying. SINCERE group studying.
• you finish studying for the day, your head aches.
• You actually start to like all the HUGE books that are lying in front of you. (You realise what a wrong thought that is, minutes later!)
• Your parents actually ask you to STOP studying.
• Everything else seems blurred in memory
• You message/call anyone in your address book and ask for wishes.
• You start appreciating and admiring your seniors!! "Whew! They actually got through this madness!!"
• You don't sleep at night
• If you do, you get stupid dreams.
• Instead, you sleep in class.
• You regret sleeping/playing in your 8th std Math classes...
• RESUME- they actually give you classes to boast about your(very little) achievements in a paper called, 'resume'.
• And then comes the actual D-Day!
  

to be continued......