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DECEMBER 12TH 2006:
It's been almost six months that I've been placed in Infosys. But still at times, I find it hardto digest the fact that I managed to hit the Bull's eye, right in the first shot!! Having ideallyno much expertise in coding languages, leave alone my own technical field, it’s been anadmixture of both shock and surprises for me all the way through. If there had to be a corereason for me being placed, I would primarily attribute it to my Dad's choice of enrollingme in the university that I am presently in. The reasons of enrolling me were way muchdifferent then. But doesn’t everything happen for a reason?Studying in a College, somewhere quite off track from the main city, not a single thoughthad even occurred to me all through the last three years about being placed in a firmthrough campus placements. I had just got back to the room after my GRE, when I heardrumors of our college being invited to Tagore Engineering college for an off campus placement. This was the first time we heard of prospective placements, and not one of us believed it. Just one day before, the Off campus was confirmed and none of us were prepared for it, neither mentally nor intellectually! One reconcilement was, we got to hear that Infosys does not emphasize on technical expertise; but then sources were pretty muchunreliable!!
July 20th 2006...the day before the interview (rather the night before the interview :) )
Only a handful of us had our resumes in hand; the formal wear and other requisites was analtogether different question...this was only our seventh semester beginning and placementswere never anticipated! We had only a handful of systems operative and around fifty guysrunning berserk to get their resumes done first. A handful of guys prepared a rough draft of the resume and the rest of the pack just edited the same to develop theirs. the weirdest partof it!!! And when finally after a grueling three hour tryst with our eye's pondering over theresumes, we realized we needed hard copies and soft copies alone would do no good! Werushed over to a nearby cafe to get hold of a printer. A few of us got our resumes printedand a few just couldn’t! The printer buckled!!! So near...but yet so far! There was nothingmuch that we could do. It was around 9:00 at night and we finally got back to our rooms, buying what good clothes we could buy from the one and only one reasonable store in thesilk town! All set and done, we tried to finish off our last minute arrangements for aninterview...certificates, photographs, mark sheets and other papers
 
( oh yeah!! BUT for theResume..). Almost all the requisite documents set right, we just hit the bed. Not one of thefaces of my friends showed any sort of jittery feeling ...after all who cared!!!
July 21st, 2006 (The first day of the interview)
The college, where the interview was about to be held was a good two and a half hoursaway from kanchi, so we had to start at least four hours in advance. And then we had toscout out for DTP center's or Cafe's for the resumes....Alarm's started hooting at about four in the morning...and there was a mad rush of people trying to first rush to the bath room andget readied. The frenzy settled in about an hour and a half and all of us were set to leave. A batch of about six guys (Calvin, Collin, Doggy, Gotman, Bruce lee and PLN )who got readyfirst left about half an hour early. The remaining battalion (including Me, Abhi, Doms
 
,Jamanujava, and Sexiter) left slowly at around 6:30.Had a hell of a time in the busexchanging our thoughts on Infosys, major part of it out of our imagination! Placed calls toso called knowledgeable people to find out things about the firm and all that junkystuff...Finally got a break when we got a call from Calvin telling us that he could trace out acafe in Tambaram , enroute Vandalur. All pack of nuts finally met there and got therésumé’s done. It was already 9:00 by then and the interview was supposed to start ataround 9:30.We called up a few of our friends who had already reached the college andasked them directions. Ten of us hurled into two autos and after a beaming drive on theroadway, finally happened to reach the college just on time. Once we were there, it was as if the whole SCSVMV campus had been there to receive us....we were the last set of guys toreach the center.We settled in the room allotted to us and in a few minutes, the scrutinizing of people began.There was one gruffy person checking people’s attires and their certificates and filtering out people who did not satisfy the basic requirements. The drill was over in about an hour andwe had to wait for about two hours for the aptitude test to begin. The test began at about12:00 and in almost one and a half hour we were done with the test…Basic Puzzles and avery simple Verbal section. All students were requested to wait for the test results, whichthey said would be released in around two hours. Most of us had an unpalatable meal in theCollege canteen and just kept whiling away time for the next two hours. Gotman, Abhi,Doggy, Bruce lee, Munna and myself walked over to the room where we had first sat andafter the proclaimed sumptuous meal, almost entered into a refreshing siesta almostsimultaneously. A few minutes just after we started swooning, the gruffy guy banged on theclass room door and literally ordered us to get over to another class room where, we weretold, the results of the written test would be declared. We managed to reach the room, still partially asleep.Things changed drastically after this. Looking at people in the seminar room, I suddenlyexperienced the butterfly syndrome!! The fear of failure!! Though I tried best to hold mycomposure, things didn’t really help…I just waded down to the rest room and got back onlyto find a larger troop inside…People seemed to be so very optimistic of being selected, Ifelt I was the odd one out. My inner feelings were so very averse , that I literally thought of spanking the guy beside me who was screwing me with his software language expertise.Fortunately, a couple of my college mates happened to take the seats in my row and thingsgot better then.The results were announced college wise alphabetically. When names from our collegewere read…I, for no apparent reason, felt the urge to hear my name in the list….whowouldn’t… the thought of a Job in hand, a Job in one of the reputed firms in India, Just outof college life… out of a college of not much repute…Placement mattered….It would belike missing the treasure, right when the key is given to you…My gray cells were literallyflushing with unnecessary thoughts ….Those, I believe are the moments and feelings that Iwould never forget in my life. My feelings gave way when I heard the name ‘Srikanth SPerinkulam’ being read out. From then, I’ve learnt to respect the name…respect the way itis spelt. No doubt I was on cloud nine when I heard my name being read out…but then reactions
 
had to be controlled to a very large extent as not many of my close friends were filtered in.Around fifteen of us were selected in the written test from about 180 from our University(170 and odd from the overall 2000). It was almost 6:30 by the time all the results wereannounced and the details of the next day’s Interview were given.The college was in a quite remote location and there wasn’t any proper conveyance to themain city. A few lucky of us happened to hop into an already crowded bus and managed toreach the City. We reached back kanchi at about 12:00 midnight. I was the only one in myroom to be selected and had an excruciating time facing my room mates. Bruce lee was theone to tell me that quite a few of my batch mates had walked all the way back to the cityfrom the remote college (around 4kms) literally crying over their ill luck. Only then did Irealize how lucky I had been!
JULY 22nd 2006 (THE SECOND DAY OF THE RECRUITMENT DRIVE)
Early morning again at around 4:00 in the morning the alarm rang. But then I was the onlyone who had to get up. Was up and ready by around five .I knew having cleared the writtentest, getting through the HR shouldn’t be a big hurdle. I had also heard Infosys HR’s are acake walk and generally people tend to clear the HR. Now, the ball was in my court and Iknew it was up to me to give it the best short. Every word that I talk in the interview woulddecide my future and I had to do my homework. For one solid hour I sat and posed myself all probable questions I would face, prepared irrefutable answers, and rehearsed my bodylanguage mentally, visioning myself before the HR. That brief spell of ten to fifteen minuteswould transform the way people look at me. The way I look at life, more so because I hadto dismiss all allegations set on me and this was one wholesome opportunity. That one hour is the only hour in my life till date that I have devoted hundred percent concentration to…This could only be a zero or a one…the result HAD to be a 1.With spirits high, but still shell nervous, I walked over to the bus stand at around 6:30.Collin and Abhi had stayed back at Chennai the previous night at their relatives place and planned to come down directly the next day. Met Ravi Bhattrai and Alpana there and fromthen on had an unexpectedly quick journey to the college. Reached the college at about 9:00am .The scrutinizing of certificates began again and we were asked to wait for our turn of HR. The SCSVMV batch was called to the first floor of the College building .The HR session was being held in different labs in the same floor. Most of us were seated adjacentto the Computer Lab. There was a camera on each corridor ceiling and I was wondering if at all videos were being streamed to some location in Alaska. My senses brought me back to reality and with this brief imagination started the damn jittery feeling again!! I realizedunless I shred all unnecessary thoughts my one hour of hard work would take me no where.Just to divert my attention I roped in Ravi Bhattrai to a conversation and we started talkingabout every damn thing in the world…movies ,games, places, novels, tourist spots, girlfriends, and what not…and let me tell you, that did help us to a very large extent.Meanwhile Tiwari and Satish joined the conversation and things got quite relaxing. Turn byturn, people were called in to the Lab and interviewed. From what I heard from peoplecoming after the interview, I pictured the room and the location of the HR. Plan B had to berolled out now... I had to get acclimatized to the environs mentally. Just a few minutes after the dust in my mind settled, my name was called...
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