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 ...

Gluttony as charged !

Normally, I don't like taking pictures of food. I prefer to bring it to its right place asap i.e. stomach. But a few weeks back, me and biwi prepared manchurian with noodles and it came out pretty good. Biwi forced me to take pictures and they came out good as well. Thought of sharing on my blog for a change to the lighter but fulfilling side of life.

I love cooking and feel that it is the best stress buster in the whole world. No matter what mood I am in, whether it is anger, depression, tension or anything else, it tends to mellow it down to pure pleasure. If there is anything I would like to do in my life at some point of time is to open my own Restaurant.

News Junkie

I think I have a problem. I think I am an addict. News is my drug and Internet my dealer. 

I don't know why but I always feel like updating myself about what is going around the world every few minutes otherwise I feel restless. And what other mode could be more useful today to achieve that other than using the World Wide Web. Spending even a single day without the internet seems like getting lost.

Reading news is not the main problem but getting tangled in it and spending hours on it is my problem. And this thing really scares me sometimes. Let me explain by giving an example. There was recently this row over Italian marines in India. Just going to a website like BBC and reading the related article should ideally do the job. But, not for me. No, Sir. This is not enough information for me. I will not stop and move on with another article. I will keeping digging into the article, dissecting it piece by piece, doing a postmortem on it word by word till the point that either I get tired or bored or the Internet stop giving me any further information (this rarely happens) or I suddenly realize and ask myself, Are you crazy? Do you really need all this information? Will it help you anyway in your life? 

The thing is that I want to know everything, I want to know every opinion before making my own opinion. So, I will read the same news piece on maybe 10 different places. Like what or how the American media has written it, what is the opinion of the Indian media, what German media has to say about it, how the Europeans react to it. The madness just does not stop there. It leads to a kind of chained reaction. A random word/ting in the article will catch my attention about which my knowledge is limited. Then, I would try to google it or check it on Wikipedia to get an idea. A link explaining it would contain further links. Then I would go checking all of them out. If my appetite is not satisfied by wasting spending enough time on it, I would then go to Google Images and try to find its images. Continuing with the Italian article example, I further tried to find out what really is a marine. Then how are they recruited in Italy. Is it similar to the marines in the US. Does India also have a marine recruitment process. What are the differences, how different do they appear in reality. My curiosity just does not seem to stop at any practical level.

Another example from yesterday. I read a simple article that the brother of that Sri Lankan guy, Rajaratnam (who was earlier found guilty of fraud) was also indicted on charges of insider trading. But that did not seemed enough for me. It let me google the guy out on Google Images. Then, reading even more about the story like how did they started, where did they started, who were the players involved in that scam. The chain continued by googling more on Anil Kmar, Rajiv Goel, Rajat Gupta and even Roomy Khan. How they look, where they are from, what they studied, where they studied, whom they worked for, are they married, where are their families, what are they doing etc. I just cant stop myself, it seems. The point where I was listening to the wire taped conversation of Rajaratnam, I realized I was not in my right senses. 

I asked myself if knowing all this would help me in anyway or if it was even necessary. I am not a journalist, I don't own a media house, I am not the chief editor of any of Murdoch's many news houses. I am a simple person working in the domain of R&D in Communication Systems which has absolutely nothing to do with any of the above not just by miles or kms but by a million light years. No matter how hard I try not to waste my time on things which I have no control over or which might not be affecting me directly, but still like a junkie, I am just not able to let it go. Hope this madness has an end to it .... soon.