The Test - Part 2

He kept himself free that day and was eagerly waiting for that call. All that was totally new to him, which added to the excitement. The phone rang. He greeted the lady and the conversation started. It lasted for exactly 45 minutes, as precisely mentioned in the email. It was one-of-its-kind interview he had ever faced. The questions were unique. They were not only interested in what he had done till now but also on what he was capable to do for them in the future. So, they tried to know him and his leadership qualities along with aptitude. Before he could accept what was going on, it was over. The lady told her that she would update him about the telephonic interview in a couple of days. He felt he did a good job and gave brisk and confident answers.

He got an email in exactly two days, just like it was mentioned. He saw it in his inbox and opened it with his pulse shooting off the roof. He was getting excited at each stage wanting to know what was next. It was not the end goal which he was focused on but wanted to enjoy the journey to reach there. He could not believe the content of the email. He got through the telephonic interview and was now invited for a final round of personal interview at the company’s headquarters. This personal interview was not just a couple of hours of conversation but actually a three day process. It was an all-expense paid trip to the company’s headquarters including stay and food. Coming from a third world country, all this was getting quite amusing, funny and surprising for him. It was getting hard for him to realize and understand the amount of time, energy and money a company was investing in hiring people like him. All of this, when he considered himself as an average person with hardly any special skills.

The connections were checked and tickets were booked to reach the company headquarter which was actually in a different country than the one he was living in. He preferred to take the train. It was faster and hassle free. A top class hotel room was booked for him with a double bed and other luxuries. He checked-in at his destination hotel in the evening before the beginning of the real deal. Keeping up with his small town mentality, looking at room he thought, what a waste of money. The company could have easily adjusted two students in a single room. Little did he knew of the concepts of privacy and etiquette of the western world. 

While checking in, he was told that a representative of the company which invited him for the interview will meet all the candidates in the lobby next day morning at 8 am. He was told there were 12 guests in total booked for 3 days by the company.

He had a couple of sandwiches for dinner which he had brought with him and then checked his suit if it needed any iron. All excited for the next day, he went to bed early.

More in the next part ... 

The Test - Part 1

Like in the life of any other post graduate student, during the later end of his studies in 2007, he was looking for an Internship. With the intention of getting a big name stamped on his Resume and to get a better job in the future, he was only applying to big companies. He believed - big name matters most. That was his level of naivety in the real world.

He also applied to a company which had almost nothing to do with his studies so far. Even though being from the IT background, he applied to one of the biggest oil companies in the world. It was his way of exploring ways to deviate into another domain and try his hand at something new. This internship did not had any particular prerequisites. Anybody with good grades and involved in a decent level of extra curricular activities could apply. So, all confident of the open and flexible requirements, he applied and waited for a reply.

Now, this was not any average company. Founded in early 1900, this company has almost 90,000 employees worldwide, with total assets in the range of $600,000 billion, and with a recorded revenue in 2012 of around $450,000 billion. With such statistics to back it, even the intern recruitment was no child's play. They really meant business. 

The first phase of the recruitment process was an online application with an essay to write on one of the given topics. In addition, there were several questions to be answered which gave an insight into the applicant's character. That was also assisted with an online psychometric test. He carefully answered the questionnaire and the test which took him almost 2-3 hours but he was satisfied with his answers. He was quite surprised and happy at the same time for going through such an experience which was completely new to him.

After a few days, he almost forgot that he had even applied there since he did not heard back from them for a long time. Then one fine day, he got an email in his inbox informing him that he has cleared the online phase and had been selected for a telephonic interview. He was happy and content. He selected one the days offered in the mail for the interview keeping enough time for himself to prepare for it.

Being the kind of person he was, he kept all of this to himself and did not shared it with anybody, not even with his family and friends. He had once heard a phrase which stuck a chord with him and had stayed with him ever since. It says - It ain't over till the fat lady sings.     

More in the next part ...

New kid on the block

I am a bit late in posting this on my blog since the trip to India and a short spell of ill health took its toll on me. But still, since I said I would write on this topic so here we go.

I personally feel money is one of the most fascinating things ever invented by mankind. It makes people do exceptional things, both in a good and bad way.

Let us roll back in time. And when I say that, I mean sometime before 2000 BC. It was a time when people used barter system to exchange commodities or services. Of course, such a system had some limitations but still I would love to use it even today. Eventually, human beings became more capable and started the system where a new term was coined called currency. Currency in a layman’s definition is the medium of exchange. At one point in time, a standard was set against currencies. One of the most recent standards we know was gold. Today, there is no currency in the world which has an enforceable gold standard currency system. Thus, they are called fiat currencies. It is a fact which few people know. This means, that the governments have control over the circulation of their respective currencies. Now, a currency note or coin actually itself does not hold any value. It was made ideally made against a standard like gold which means that when you would go to the issuing authority and return the ‘note’, the authority will give you an equal amount of actual gold worth in return to you. You can see such a promise on an Indian rupee note or on a British pound note or on old American dollar notes. With the currencies breaking away from a standard, the only thing you would get in return when you go to RBI with a Rs 100 note and ask for gold is raised eyebrows and probably a call to the security guard. This is probably the reason why on new American dollar notes such promise sentence is no longer printed. You can check for yourself. (Example: “I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of XYZ”)

Let me not make this post as a lecture on currencies and share with you a new kind of currency which is talked about the most lately. It is called Bitcoins. The reason for the entire buzz was because some people were willing to pay 1300 dollars to own 1 Bitcoin at a point of time in Nov 2013. In 2012 you could buy more than one for a dollar. An increase of more than 4000%. Sweet, isn’t it?

I am sure you can find tons of information on the internet for Bitcoins since it became a hot topic during the end of 2013. But here I would like to explain it in completely layman’s words with absolutely minimum technical jargons.

Bitcoin is a digital currency. This means that you don’t possess it physically in hand. It is just a digital number. It can be held in digital wallets online or offline. This means you need a digital machine like a PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone to hold it and so far you use it only online with internet to buy or sell anything.

It all started when guy with pseudo name Satoshi Nakamoto created and released a software program (algorithm) on the internet to make Bitcoins. Yes, Bitcoins are made by normal people by running that software on their computing machines. The software is kind of a tough puzzle/problem which only high end computing machines can solve and with each person successfully solving it can create and own a Bitcoin. The software is based on peer-to-peer technology in which all these computing machines are connected to each other over the internet thus keeping track of every new Bitcoin produced and avoiding creating duplicate Bitcoins. The software is made in such a way that with each consecutive Bitcoin created, the software gets even tougher. This means that the ease with which these Bitcoins are created gets tougher with time. It all depends on how many people are trying to create them and the kind of tough machines they are using. And by tough, I mean sophisticated machined which can need a full house to keep. By latest count, around 12 million Bitcoins already created and the software is made to create about 21 million Bitcoins. The estimated time to create last set of Bitcoins would be in the year 2140. This means that they are limited. People who cannot create their own Bitcoins because of lack of technical knowledge to run such a program/software or because of lack of funds to buy sophisticated machines can “buy” them from the people who are generating them. There are many online stock exchanges available in many countries where people can buy and sell these Bitcoins. The maximum amount of trades recorded so far had been in US, China, Japan, Russia, Germany.

This is a currency which is not backed by any government and limited in number. The most fascinating aspect of this whole story is the faith that people have put in such an online currency. It hit a peak of around 1200 dollar per Bitcoin somewhere in Nov/Dec 2013. Today it is being traded at around 900 dollars per Bitcoin.

The advantages, issues, concerns, questions which I have on this topic will need another post. I have not discussed how to buy or sell Bitcoins or how to create digital wallets etc in this post. This is not a tutorial. I just wanted to start a discussion which I would hopefully conclude in my next post.

Though this blog is not visited by many people but still if anyone has any question then feel free to post your queries.

P.S: I am not a student of economics or even professionally involved with this subject.