The Last Interview of the season!
Hi guys! Sorry for being monotonous but at this stage of time its almost impossible for me to write anything else other than my interviews. Life had never been so busy for me & traveling never so frequent but I still love life & I still enjoy traveling, irrespective of the conditions.
After my interview of XIM, Bhubaneswar on 1st March, I’d to go to Purulia(my native place) to attend a marriage on that very day. After a sleepless night on the 2nd of march I’d to move to Kolkata the very next afternoon. Then straight away I started off for Ahmedabad that night within 1 hour of reaching Kolkata. Two more days of journey followed by the MICA interview.Then an entire day of freaking out in Ahmedabad. Then the very next day off we went from Ahmedabad to come back! Another two days of train journey & we landed at Kharagpur at 1 am, ensuring that there was no sleep for us that night. Finally back I returned to Bhubaneswar by probably the most wretched train of the world. A few days at Bhubaneswar & again it was time for me to go to Kolkata for the TAPMI interview. Really, at this point of time I was feeling that I should have got a season ticket for Kolkata this month. Finally after the interview I returned back to Bhubaneswar to be greeted by my college exams from 21st March!
But wait a minute! I’m not done, in fact I’m yet to start! This post of mine is going to be about my Tapmi experience. Chances again aren’t too bright from any sorts but actually I somehow enjoyed this interview. The atmosphere wasn’t too great as it was a Sunday & a chance to enjoy the greenery of St. Xaviers College, Calcutta was wasted. But I still enjoyed my time thoroughly as I made quite a few friends & talked to almost everyone present there.
We were asked to reach by 9am & the GD started off by 9:15. Our group had 19 people & as if this wasn’t enough, we were given the topic, “Discuss the captaincy styles of Ganguly & Dravid”. Before I could say something I was already hearing a lot. Kolkata is already obsessed by sports as I’ve written in my previous posts & most of the localites were getting too emotional, but the bottomline stayed that by hook or crook, no one should let anyone else talk. I tried to make my point after a minute of the GD & was successful in having the group listening but hardly for 5 secs. I could make my full point heard only after about 5 minutes. I then preferred being a listener & tried to moderate a bit when I could see that the AC in the room was also unable to bear the heat. Finally I could make another point about imaginative traits of a captain to a silent group but as soon as I was done, everyone blasted at me & I had absolutely no idea if they were supporting me or opposing me. The scene got so unruly that the two moderators had to intervene in the middle & restart the discussion but to no use at all.
Finally they asked each of us to give three points about the discussion & I spoke exactly 3 sentences & said “that’s it!” because most of the people extending their 3 sentences were cut short by the moderators.
Then there was the GD write up & we were asked to summarize the GD in 250 words in 10 mins. God knows what everyone did as how do u summarize something that you’ve never heard. I jotted down a few things that I’d heard & rest was masala added. I couldn’t write my own views coz time ran out. Then they collected the sheets & we were taken into the next stage, the extempore stuff. Man the topics in the beginning were pretty easy like “Amitabh, the real icon”, “smoking in public places”,etc. Most of the people were doing well but were speaking for less than 2 mins when the time allotted was 3 mins.My number was 14 & there were two topics before me that got really funny. The first one was “Jessica Lal murder”. The guy who got this topic spoke for 3 mins because he was narrating the entire story of Jessica Lal, he was doing a real story telling session & the best thing was he kept on saying “the son of the MLA”, coz he’d forgotten Manu Sharma’s name. The next funny thing was that a guy got a topic “ murder of Manju Nath….”, and he didn’t know who this person was ,actually even I couldn’t make out till I was told that he was the IIM Lucknow guy. But this guy had some real guts, he spoke for over 2 minutes on the topic & spoke about everything that’s going on in this earth , but Manju Nath! Finally I got the topic “Can Infosys survive the global competition?”, I was more than happy as it was in my domain & had a really nice extempore with a right blend of facts & ground realities of Infy.I measured the time just right as my friend said that it was just over 3 mins & I ended it before being stopped by them! I was really satisfied by this one.
Finally we were thrown out of the room & were asked to come in sequence of our numbers so I knew that the day would be long for me. I was told to come after 2:30pm but I stayed along as most of the others did. Each interviews lasted for about 20-30 minutes. The general view was that they were stressing everyone out with a few out of the block questions & situations. I was both happy & disappointed to know that there was no one with an engineering background in our panel. After a long wait upto 4pm I got my call.
I got in & was first asked, “Would you like to sit or stand?” I said that I would be comfortable sitting but if they wanted to judge me while I was standing then I would be ok with it. They didn’t ask me to sit & I kept standing. I was asked to submit all the photocopies of my certificates & I was doing that standing, I believe I wasn’t looking uncomfortable. A couple of questions about my certificates also were answered by me standing. Finally the younger of the two asked me to sit & I did. They asked me to introduce myself & just as I was about to complete I was asked the difference between a group & a team. While I was doing that I was asked some irrelevant question by the other person & I obliged him by answering & as I ended the other guy asked me to continue on the group vs. team. I was working hard to remember the questions asked by them. I knew that this was their style of stressing me. They were hardly computer savvy people & I got to know about that by their quality of their technical questions. I took pleasure in saying Linux as my favorite subject when I was asked to. I tried to my best to cash in when they asked something about that as they didn’t even know that Linux is open source. They asked me about my tie which was red in color & tried to intimidate me by repeatedly telling me to describe my tie. I tried my best but failed miserably. At one point I was holding my tie & staring at it, thinking what to say!
Finally they came to some ethical issues, asked me what was done in my college if a person is found sending a sms in the class. I said this never happened in our college(sheer bluff) as it’s considered to be dissent. He asked me what should be done in such a case. I said, the mobile should be taken away & the student should be given a strong warning. Then he said what if he does this again, I said that the higher authorities should me informed along with the parents , etc. of that student & he should be fined. They were intent on stretching this & said what if this happens again, I said that this time the mobile should be taken away completely & the student should be punished by suspending him from college for some days. The younger guy was laughing at all my answers as if I were doing Samba before them. I tried to keep a straight face but probably I was smiling a bit at times also.Then they said, “Do you know what happens in Tapmi for such a case?..... The person is thrown out of the institute at the very first instance, believe me, thrown out of the college & this has actually happened, do you want to study in such an institution?”. After a pause I gathered my senses & said, “Of course sir, why not, Big institutions like Tapmi are big only because of these kind of stiff rules & I believe that rules are meant to be followed at least as far as you are a student.” They asked me a few more ethical things like cheating in exams & what was meant by blacklisting etc. before asking me abruptly “So, how much do you rate yourself in this interview out of 10?”, I said without a blink-“8”.He said “Thank You” and stuck out his hand for a hand shake & I made my exit with a smile!
I really couldn’t make out anything out of it & everyone said that my interview had lasted for over 20 minutes although I still feel that it was below 15 mins.
This has been another of my long blogs probably the longest, but the experience had to be shared so as I always say if you have gotten this far reading my entire post then please make a comment! Ciao
After my interview of XIM, Bhubaneswar on 1st March, I’d to go to Purulia(my native place) to attend a marriage on that very day. After a sleepless night on the 2nd of march I’d to move to Kolkata the very next afternoon. Then straight away I started off for Ahmedabad that night within 1 hour of reaching Kolkata. Two more days of journey followed by the MICA interview.Then an entire day of freaking out in Ahmedabad. Then the very next day off we went from Ahmedabad to come back! Another two days of train journey & we landed at Kharagpur at 1 am, ensuring that there was no sleep for us that night. Finally back I returned to Bhubaneswar by probably the most wretched train of the world. A few days at Bhubaneswar & again it was time for me to go to Kolkata for the TAPMI interview. Really, at this point of time I was feeling that I should have got a season ticket for Kolkata this month. Finally after the interview I returned back to Bhubaneswar to be greeted by my college exams from 21st March!
But wait a minute! I’m not done, in fact I’m yet to start! This post of mine is going to be about my Tapmi experience. Chances again aren’t too bright from any sorts but actually I somehow enjoyed this interview. The atmosphere wasn’t too great as it was a Sunday & a chance to enjoy the greenery of St. Xaviers College, Calcutta was wasted. But I still enjoyed my time thoroughly as I made quite a few friends & talked to almost everyone present there.
We were asked to reach by 9am & the GD started off by 9:15. Our group had 19 people & as if this wasn’t enough, we were given the topic, “Discuss the captaincy styles of Ganguly & Dravid”. Before I could say something I was already hearing a lot. Kolkata is already obsessed by sports as I’ve written in my previous posts & most of the localites were getting too emotional, but the bottomline stayed that by hook or crook, no one should let anyone else talk. I tried to make my point after a minute of the GD & was successful in having the group listening but hardly for 5 secs. I could make my full point heard only after about 5 minutes. I then preferred being a listener & tried to moderate a bit when I could see that the AC in the room was also unable to bear the heat. Finally I could make another point about imaginative traits of a captain to a silent group but as soon as I was done, everyone blasted at me & I had absolutely no idea if they were supporting me or opposing me. The scene got so unruly that the two moderators had to intervene in the middle & restart the discussion but to no use at all.
Finally they asked each of us to give three points about the discussion & I spoke exactly 3 sentences & said “that’s it!” because most of the people extending their 3 sentences were cut short by the moderators.
Then there was the GD write up & we were asked to summarize the GD in 250 words in 10 mins. God knows what everyone did as how do u summarize something that you’ve never heard. I jotted down a few things that I’d heard & rest was masala added. I couldn’t write my own views coz time ran out. Then they collected the sheets & we were taken into the next stage, the extempore stuff. Man the topics in the beginning were pretty easy like “Amitabh, the real icon”, “smoking in public places”,etc. Most of the people were doing well but were speaking for less than 2 mins when the time allotted was 3 mins.My number was 14 & there were two topics before me that got really funny. The first one was “Jessica Lal murder”. The guy who got this topic spoke for 3 mins because he was narrating the entire story of Jessica Lal, he was doing a real story telling session & the best thing was he kept on saying “the son of the MLA”, coz he’d forgotten Manu Sharma’s name. The next funny thing was that a guy got a topic “ murder of Manju Nath….”, and he didn’t know who this person was ,actually even I couldn’t make out till I was told that he was the IIM Lucknow guy. But this guy had some real guts, he spoke for over 2 minutes on the topic & spoke about everything that’s going on in this earth , but Manju Nath! Finally I got the topic “Can Infosys survive the global competition?”, I was more than happy as it was in my domain & had a really nice extempore with a right blend of facts & ground realities of Infy.I measured the time just right as my friend said that it was just over 3 mins & I ended it before being stopped by them! I was really satisfied by this one.
Finally we were thrown out of the room & were asked to come in sequence of our numbers so I knew that the day would be long for me. I was told to come after 2:30pm but I stayed along as most of the others did. Each interviews lasted for about 20-30 minutes. The general view was that they were stressing everyone out with a few out of the block questions & situations. I was both happy & disappointed to know that there was no one with an engineering background in our panel. After a long wait upto 4pm I got my call.
I got in & was first asked, “Would you like to sit or stand?” I said that I would be comfortable sitting but if they wanted to judge me while I was standing then I would be ok with it. They didn’t ask me to sit & I kept standing. I was asked to submit all the photocopies of my certificates & I was doing that standing, I believe I wasn’t looking uncomfortable. A couple of questions about my certificates also were answered by me standing. Finally the younger of the two asked me to sit & I did. They asked me to introduce myself & just as I was about to complete I was asked the difference between a group & a team. While I was doing that I was asked some irrelevant question by the other person & I obliged him by answering & as I ended the other guy asked me to continue on the group vs. team. I was working hard to remember the questions asked by them. I knew that this was their style of stressing me. They were hardly computer savvy people & I got to know about that by their quality of their technical questions. I took pleasure in saying Linux as my favorite subject when I was asked to. I tried to my best to cash in when they asked something about that as they didn’t even know that Linux is open source. They asked me about my tie which was red in color & tried to intimidate me by repeatedly telling me to describe my tie. I tried my best but failed miserably. At one point I was holding my tie & staring at it, thinking what to say!
Finally they came to some ethical issues, asked me what was done in my college if a person is found sending a sms in the class. I said this never happened in our college(sheer bluff) as it’s considered to be dissent. He asked me what should be done in such a case. I said, the mobile should be taken away & the student should be given a strong warning. Then he said what if he does this again, I said that the higher authorities should me informed along with the parents , etc. of that student & he should be fined. They were intent on stretching this & said what if this happens again, I said that this time the mobile should be taken away completely & the student should be punished by suspending him from college for some days. The younger guy was laughing at all my answers as if I were doing Samba before them. I tried to keep a straight face but probably I was smiling a bit at times also.Then they said, “Do you know what happens in Tapmi for such a case?..... The person is thrown out of the institute at the very first instance, believe me, thrown out of the college & this has actually happened, do you want to study in such an institution?”. After a pause I gathered my senses & said, “Of course sir, why not, Big institutions like Tapmi are big only because of these kind of stiff rules & I believe that rules are meant to be followed at least as far as you are a student.” They asked me a few more ethical things like cheating in exams & what was meant by blacklisting etc. before asking me abruptly “So, how much do you rate yourself in this interview out of 10?”, I said without a blink-“8”.He said “Thank You” and stuck out his hand for a hand shake & I made my exit with a smile!
I really couldn’t make out anything out of it & everyone said that my interview had lasted for over 20 minutes although I still feel that it was below 15 mins.
This has been another of my long blogs probably the longest, but the experience had to be shared so as I always say if you have gotten this far reading my entire post then please make a comment! Ciao
posted by suvra at Monday, March 27, 2006
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Aage Badh aur naya kuch likh
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