The Days Of Our Lives

I am finally back to the world of blogging. My disappearance can be attributed to a number of reasons - placement season during Decemeber end, Delhi visit January starting and my state of laziness which is ongoing.

'Winter of 2005' was unforgettable of sorts. The placement season took its toll on me. It was adventurous yes, but depressing as well. Here is a short summary of the same.

First day was Goldman Sachs. From about 500 people who applied for the job profile, about 120 were selected for the written exam out of which 6 made the final shortlist. I was one of them. An interview based on probability I was least prepared for, which obviously, got me thrown out. Come to think of it, I wouldn't have been able to fit in properly with a group of hardcore mathematicians anyway. Just not my style.

Next came Sales and Marketing at HLL. This I was very interested in, since I always imagined doing marketing for a FMCG company in India would be a worthy challenge in itself. Again, from the 400 people who applied, 70 were selected for the group discussions out of which only 4 survived for the final interview rounds. I was one of them. And my interview went perfect, so to say the least. Which made me all the more disappointed to see my name not being in the final list. This came as a blow.

Then came Microsoft Development and Amazon. I was one of the few people to make it to the final interview rounds again. This was becoming a habit of sorts by now. Both jobs had Hyderabad placement and a shitload of money to offer. Again, God had other plans for me. (Come to think of it, maybe falling asleep during the Microsoft presentation wasn't a very un-stupid thing to do after all :D)

A company called Inductis followed. Although I hated the work which is looking for patterns in thousands of entries in Microsoft Excel sheets, I was still looking forward to the Gurgaon placement, since that is half an hour drive from my home at Vasant Kunj in Delhi. Again, out at the final interview rounds.

Another failed attempt at a US based software company made me a legend of sorts. By now, either people were not getting shortlisted at all or easily getting jobs. I was one of the few who would easily clear the written exams but falter at the interview rounds. By this time I think I was leading the failed interview race, by a huge margin I might add. And things were only getting worse. The top-notch companies were coming to an end. So was my patience.

30th December was to be the lucky day. A company called Induslogic came and all of a sudden my luck changed. I easily cleared the two written exams and this time around didn't do a single thing wrong at the 3 interviews that followed. When the results were announced I was only too happy to jump about and shout "I'm no more berozgaar (unemployed)!!" This was almost like a dream job. The work would mostly by designing - not coding, the placement is in Noida, which is at max an hour's drive from my home and the pay is a shitload of money. Good things come at a price - that price for me was the time. That night the company people treated us to dinner at the Grand Hyatt and all of a sudden the good life had started. I got back at about 2 at night and the first thing I did was book my tickets for Delhi. Within 12 hours I was at my hometown kissing the ground in front of the airport.

And ladies and gentlemen, that was my placement season - not so short, not so pleasant, but it had a happy ending. :)

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