This is one piece that P has been pestering me to write for about 3 years now. This is entirely about my experiences in interviews - both in India and here in US. Without much ado, lets get started.
My very first real world interview experience was during the so called campus interviews that happen in the colleges. I had already decided (and my dad had decided that he would not let me) that I wanted to complete my Masters in US. But I had to go for the campus selections because - well - my dad forced me to do it because it will give me a job security if my master's application or the visa approval falls through. I still think that he was secretly praying that it will indeed fall through.
Back to my interview, yes, the very first company was a software MNC (a giant in India). Everyone was dressed to impress and we sat in rows to take our written technical. It was a piece of cake, in part, due to the GRE training and exam I had already completed. And about 20 (of about 400) students were short-listed for the face-to-face interview. Surprise, Surprise!! I was in that 20 and then began the ritual of hastily adjusting our hair, dress, more perfume, and what not.
After a nervous wait, it was time for the interview and I walked in, standing tall and confident, looking straight at my interviewer, and with a warm open smile. She smiled back and held out her hand. After a cool confident handshake (just don't crush their hand and insert the no-sweat-no-limp-open-handshake lecture here) I was pointed to my seat and the interview started (I was to later find out that I was half way through my interview at this point, we were graded since the moment we were selected in the theoretical test).
The questions were very typical. It started with the tell-me-about yourself. Since I wanted to play my strengths to my advantage, I let it slip that I have achieved the highest honor in Girl Guides (Rashtrapathi Award of Bharat Scouts and Guides). What followed next was a slew of curious questions of what I need to know or do to achieve that honor, what are camps like, yada yada yada. Well, I had colorful stories from my 5 years of being an active Guide and a year of teaching the budding Guides and she was impressed.
Next came the most dreaded question of what are your weakness. The usual answer here will be to tell an extreme strength as a weakness, say, you are a workaholic, or your uncanny attention to detail getting out of hand. Well, I had a curve-ball here. I told her that my weakness is fear in general, in particular, fear of failure. As expected, she asked me to elaborate. And as expected, I launched in to my (real-life) story of myself failing the Physics exam in my 9th grade by 0.5 points. I did not talk to anyone for a whole day as I tortured myself that I was worthless and was depressed. But at the end of that day, I started comparing my physics paper with the other papers i had completed in that exam (and scored in the top 1% of the class), I realized where I had gone wrong. I had simply wasted a lot of time in explaining a few questions in great detail that I ran out of time and had to turn in the paper without completing it. I now knew what was wrong and how to correct it and I made sure that I always got the first mark in physics in all the other exams (ofcourse I was in the top 1% in all the other subjects as well). A different answer for a difficult question scored me more brownie points.
With this have taken most of the time allotted for each candidate, I was expecting technical programming questions (I was particularly trying to avoid programming questions as I did not know C or Java, which were the sought after programming languages at that time, but had a good knowledge of SQL). My interviewer was looking through my CV, when the interests caught her eye. She looked at me and said,
Her: 'So, Poetry huh? What is your style?'.
Me: (Jackpot!) Almost all my writings are long romantic ballads. I do write some science fiction poetry but have not done so in recent months.
Her: Interesting. Engineers usually don't enjoy reading ballads, let alone write. Do you have a short and sweet one?
Me: Sure. This is an adaptation of a few versus I read somewhere but cannot remember the source. It goes like this, 'Long long ago, so long ago. Nobody can tell how long ago... There lived a King and Queen who loved one another to grave. And now, history is repeating itself- By creating you and me!'
Her: (was silent for a few seconds) And the guy?
Me: I am sorry?
Her: Who is that guy? If you write these versus, who is that guy?
Me: That is simple, it is Prince Williams.
Her: What? You don't even know him!
Me: Well, when I saw him walking behind his mother's coffin with a brave face, knowing that he needs to stay strong for his brother, my heart went out to him. Everyone will have an ambitious crush in their life-just like how the girls like the movie stars- only difference in my life is that I like someone real and who, in my view, is a hero.
Her: That is very true...
From now on, the interview was a chatter and she thanked me for my time and that I should wait for the results. I thanked her back for her time and after another firm handshake, I walked out confidently and let out a huge sigh when I was out of earshot. Of the 30 minutes in the interview room, I was never once asked anything technical while other students were grilled crazy with the programming questions. After hours of waiting, I learnt that I was one of the 6 students who were selected for the job. Looking back at the interview, it was purely my confidence and the personal touch that scored me the job.
However, I eventually persuaded my dad to let me complete my Masters and came to US. My quest for a job here will be the next entry...
My very first real world interview experience was during the so called campus interviews that happen in the colleges. I had already decided (and my dad had decided that he would not let me) that I wanted to complete my Masters in US. But I had to go for the campus selections because - well - my dad forced me to do it because it will give me a job security if my master's application or the visa approval falls through. I still think that he was secretly praying that it will indeed fall through.
Back to my interview, yes, the very first company was a software MNC (a giant in India). Everyone was dressed to impress and we sat in rows to take our written technical. It was a piece of cake, in part, due to the GRE training and exam I had already completed. And about 20 (of about 400) students were short-listed for the face-to-face interview. Surprise, Surprise!! I was in that 20 and then began the ritual of hastily adjusting our hair, dress, more perfume, and what not.
After a nervous wait, it was time for the interview and I walked in, standing tall and confident, looking straight at my interviewer, and with a warm open smile. She smiled back and held out her hand. After a cool confident handshake (just don't crush their hand and insert the no-sweat-no-limp-open-handshake lecture here) I was pointed to my seat and the interview started (I was to later find out that I was half way through my interview at this point, we were graded since the moment we were selected in the theoretical test).
The questions were very typical. It started with the tell-me-about yourself. Since I wanted to play my strengths to my advantage, I let it slip that I have achieved the highest honor in Girl Guides (Rashtrapathi Award of Bharat Scouts and Guides). What followed next was a slew of curious questions of what I need to know or do to achieve that honor, what are camps like, yada yada yada. Well, I had colorful stories from my 5 years of being an active Guide and a year of teaching the budding Guides and she was impressed.
Next came the most dreaded question of what are your weakness. The usual answer here will be to tell an extreme strength as a weakness, say, you are a workaholic, or your uncanny attention to detail getting out of hand. Well, I had a curve-ball here. I told her that my weakness is fear in general, in particular, fear of failure. As expected, she asked me to elaborate. And as expected, I launched in to my (real-life) story of myself failing the Physics exam in my 9th grade by 0.5 points. I did not talk to anyone for a whole day as I tortured myself that I was worthless and was depressed. But at the end of that day, I started comparing my physics paper with the other papers i had completed in that exam (and scored in the top 1% of the class), I realized where I had gone wrong. I had simply wasted a lot of time in explaining a few questions in great detail that I ran out of time and had to turn in the paper without completing it. I now knew what was wrong and how to correct it and I made sure that I always got the first mark in physics in all the other exams (ofcourse I was in the top 1% in all the other subjects as well). A different answer for a difficult question scored me more brownie points.
With this have taken most of the time allotted for each candidate, I was expecting technical programming questions (I was particularly trying to avoid programming questions as I did not know C or Java, which were the sought after programming languages at that time, but had a good knowledge of SQL). My interviewer was looking through my CV, when the interests caught her eye. She looked at me and said,
Her: 'So, Poetry huh? What is your style?'.
Me: (Jackpot!) Almost all my writings are long romantic ballads. I do write some science fiction poetry but have not done so in recent months.
Her: Interesting. Engineers usually don't enjoy reading ballads, let alone write. Do you have a short and sweet one?
Me: Sure. This is an adaptation of a few versus I read somewhere but cannot remember the source. It goes like this, 'Long long ago, so long ago. Nobody can tell how long ago... There lived a King and Queen who loved one another to grave. And now, history is repeating itself- By creating you and me!'
Her: (was silent for a few seconds) And the guy?
Me: I am sorry?
Her: Who is that guy? If you write these versus, who is that guy?
Me: That is simple, it is Prince Williams.
Her: What? You don't even know him!
Me: Well, when I saw him walking behind his mother's coffin with a brave face, knowing that he needs to stay strong for his brother, my heart went out to him. Everyone will have an ambitious crush in their life-just like how the girls like the movie stars- only difference in my life is that I like someone real and who, in my view, is a hero.
Her: That is very true...
From now on, the interview was a chatter and she thanked me for my time and that I should wait for the results. I thanked her back for her time and after another firm handshake, I walked out confidently and let out a huge sigh when I was out of earshot. Of the 30 minutes in the interview room, I was never once asked anything technical while other students were grilled crazy with the programming questions. After hours of waiting, I learnt that I was one of the 6 students who were selected for the job. Looking back at the interview, it was purely my confidence and the personal touch that scored me the job.
However, I eventually persuaded my dad to let me complete my Masters and came to US. My quest for a job here will be the next entry...
