Sunday, July 31, 2005

Standing on my own Legs

Before going into the actual message I will be telling about what I did in the past few days.

22nd July -- Completed reading Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince, by afternoon 1:00. And started preparing for Campus Placements. Till then I was reading the previous versions of Harry Potter. It took me 2 weeks to complete all the 6 books.

23rd July -- Placement Season started at NITK, with TCS as the first company. Many from our class didn't go for that, as we were expecting a better jobs than that of TCS. TCS offered arround 2.4 to 2.8 Lacs.

25th July -- TCS selection process is completed by 7:00 in the evening. Only 1 out of the 4 who attended for TCS got through it. They were not preferring CS.

26th July -- D E Shaw a hyderabad based software company. It is offering arround 6.5 lacs. I was not expecting to get through this, but I just gave it a chance. Written test completed by 12:00 Noon written test contained mostly gen-apti and C/C++/java-apti. Results of the written test were announced by 2:00, and and and ... I got through the written test. Thats not the thing, I was one of the 9 persons shortlisted for interviews. 9 among 150. It was unbelievable. My interview time was scheduled at 8:00 PM in the evening, and I got there by 7:00 PM, came to know that the interviews are being delayed, so my interview originally started at 11:00 PM in the night. And by the time interview started I was completely nervous, and my hands are also shaking. So I went inside, the panel started asking me questions on the projects I have done in my BTech and in MTech which made me feel as if they were nothing, though I worked very hard to do those projects. Then their focus shifted to core subjects. First they went to C++. Asked me what is RTTI in C++, which was completely an alien question to me. And they went on asking me questions which I could not answer for many. And for the first time in my whole life I started losing confidence on me. And at one stage I even forgot what is ARP - Address Resolution Protocol, and what it will do. That was the worst hour in my whole life. The results were out and ... I did not get selected for this company. 3 out of 9 were selected. For the first and last time I regretted for not attending the TCS. The twist of the day -- One girl from our class CS MTech got through this D E Shah interview process, and she is the same person who got through TCS also, (still wondering why she sat for TCS).

27th July -- After having a good sleep, I just convinced myself that I was not asked the correct questions, to know about my strong area. Also I have convinced myself that I have not shown my projects in the way I have to show them. So I finally told myself that this all because of the lack of interview experience. Then once again started preparing for the next company.

28th July -- Oracle contracted a company called Professional Aptitude Council(PAC), So that the PAC will conduct the gen-apti test on behalf of Oracle. It went on for 2 and a quarter hours. It was a packing experience. 245 questions tolally in 135 minutes. And 3 timed sections. After this interview a company called ITTIAM(I Think Therefore I AM), gave the PPT. This company was offering 5Lacs. This company was basically attemting to take ECE candidates as they are working DSP IP products. I gave the written test. And none from the MTech got selected for the next level (interview).

29th july -- Trilogy - the best in pay 7.5 lacs, and if any other company tries to exceed this range, then this company will once again increase its pay so that it is always the best in pay. Started the Preplacemt talk at 11:00 AM. This is the best preplacemnt talk I have heard. I came to know that they will be providing a lot of offers like providing a career advisor to each of its employee!!! OH! This is the dream job almost all the students in the campus, but only CS guys are eligible. Around 150 people came to write the exam, it went up to 12:30. Results were announced at 5:00 PM. They shortlisted 47 candidates. They scheduled their interviews with five panels. I was one of the shortlisted candidates. Interviews were scheduled for the next two days. So I was hoping for yet another nightmare. So I started to collect all the positive aspects of my projects, learnt about RTTI(which I still think is unnecessary at my current position to use that facility in C++). But still, my nervousness started to increase.

30th July -- My interview was scheduled at 5:00 in the evening. By 11:00 O' Clock one my friend completed his interview and came back to hostel. When I enquired him about the process, he told that they were giving some problems and we should propose some algorithms to solve those problems, after that they may ask us to improve the algorithm, and even to write the code for that algorithm(without any syntactic and logical errors). This was the exact point when my confidence boosted to its maximum level, they are asking just some algorithms, and to code.... this is the thing I am very good at, and there is no HR round also. My confidence raised to its maximum extent, my hands stopped shivvering. And this time I did not commit the mistake of going the interview place too early. I just reached there by 5 minutes to 5:00. To my surprise the woman who gave the PPT(PrePlacement Talk) welcomed me in a very friendly way as if we know each other for a long time and arranged my interview at 5:00 sharp. There were two in the panel, have laptops in front of them. This was the same room my first interview with D E Shaw went on, where I screwed up everything. But the only difference is there is no nervousness in me or no shivvering of hands even. After all this is only one of the 33 companies that are going to visit NITK. The panel members first introduced themselves to me. This was a big difference between DE Shaw and Trilogy. I could not stop comparing DE Shaw and Trilogy. The interview process started went on for 1 hour, I performed pretty well. Came out of the room. Once again the PPT lady(Anuja) came to me and asked how I did in the interview and whether I felt anything uncomfort with the interviewers. I responded with a positive answers. I wondered why she asked me like that(later I observed that she is doing that with all the candidates, and it one of the typical HR Duties to keep the student with minimum nervousness). This kind of warm situation is absent in DE Shaw. Anuja told me to wait for some time, so that she will me know the results of that interview. After a while she told me that I need to have another round of interview, and have to wait for a while. I thought I must have not done very nice in that first interview, so I was given a second chance, because none of my classmates went to second round till that point of time. After 15 minutes at 6:15 Anuja arranged my second interview, with another panel, and wished me good luck. The second interviewer is not as friendly as the first one. But any way I thought I did it to my best. Came out at 7:15. After a while Anuja told me that I need to take another interview in the next day at 11:00AM.

31th July -- Another Interview..!! Now after hearing to many of my friends here, my feelings of "another chance" transformed into "the prefered one". Now my moods are very high and positive and attended the interview, once again with Anuja's warm welcome. This third interview was a cake walk with a small initial jitter. By 12:00 I was in the hostel. By 5:00 in the evening I came to know that only 3 cleared the first round of interview and went into second round and 2 went to third round. Once again I started to get tensed, will I get, will I not get, will I get, will I not get, OK I thought I did the interview pretty good, but there can be better people than me. The results were to be announced at 7:00 PM. I went to the Training and Placement Section, to enquire the results. They said it will be at 8:30. So I went to the canteen with my friends, at 8:00 one my friends got a call and was informed that the results were out and I should go to the T&P. You know I am going there any way. There were some BTech students waiting there for me and introduced themselves to me. But why are they introducing to me??. Told me to sit in a Qualis, and told me that they were selected into Trilogy ... along with me. I selected for Trilogy. Went sat in the Qualis. I still could not believe that I got into Trilogy. So I am the best among the whole MTech. Or may be we 6 people are the best in the whole campus, we are the highest paid in the whole campus. This is unbelievable. But why is this qualis for, and where is it going. It is going to Manglore to Taj Manjaran. The Trilogy Team wanted to give us a Treat. So, I will be earning big bucks from now on. Thank You Trilogy, for believing me. Came back from a very nice treat at 12:00 in the midnight. I could not sleep for the whole night.

1st August -- I called all my relatives. Then started to write into this blog. And then post it.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

The Deer


This is some where near Araku Valley. I received this photo from my friends, who visited there for a tour in there BTech.