Continued from HERE.
I had been used to receiving multiple number of emails in a day – mostly from consultancies and so called “HR’s” masquerading as a representative of large MNC’s. So the first thing I did was to check if the email address was legit. It was. I couldn’t believe it. I then went through the entire email with great anticipation and realised that it was a call-for openings in SUBEX for Testing Engineers and Product Support Engineers. The package was awesome – 3.5L PA. Considering the recessionary period, this was indeed, a GODSEND for me.
BOOM ! The balloon burst just after it had swelled up to its maximum girth. I saw a small line at the bottom of the mail which specified a percentage criteria that I didn’t meet. I was deflated. It was a cruel twist in the story. Because, to get a call-for directly from the Co, for a guy like me at that stage, was totally unexpected – a miracle even. And then to see this criteria ruling me out, it was a bigger disappointment in terms of emotions than the elation I experienced when I first saw the mail.
Anyway, to just try my luck, I mailed the concerned person and asked her if she could exempt me from that rule since I had some some specialised training in an IT training institute, and all those extra qualifications I had etc etc…and boy oh boy, I got a call from this person the next morning, saying that I can attend the interview. Now this was a second miracle according to me. I was so pumped that I started preparing for the interview straight away.
Fast-forward to the day of the test. The first round was a written test round. The venue was Adarsh Tech Park on outer ring road. When I reached the venue I was a bit overwhelmed by the number of people out there. But I was impressed by the manner in which the Co. handled the huge masses in an orderly manner. The arrangements were top class. I wrote the test – did pretty well, in hindsight. Because, my initial impression after submitting the answer sheet was that I had screwed it up. I thought I had not done well enough to qualify for the next round. So I left the campus thinking that I might never get to see such a great facility again. I was to be proved wrong !
A few days later I got another email/call confirming my selection for the next round : GD. Now this is my forte. I was overjoyed. I took all of these lucky events as a good sign and went to the GD well prepared and absolutely smoked everybody there. FYI, the GD had 20 ppl in a group so it was no mean task. I never felt in doubt about my selection in GD. Sure enough I was one of the three that got shortlisted from that round.
Subsequently, a person from the HR came to talk to me and looked at my performance till date and my resume and said we want to take you in for Product Support provided you clear the remaining rounds. I was a bit aghast at this. I know my grad scores were nothing to write home about but everything else in my resume was screaming about my technical prowess , not that she seemed to bother. Product Support ? Nah, it would be a restrictive career option. So I politely asked her for some time and went home to ponder about it. 3.5L PA was tempting but money was never the primary criteria for me and it still is not so I thought about my career long and hard. Made a number of calls to friends and relatives who were in that line and in Dev line and took as many opinions as possible. Spoke to my placement officer at the IT institute as well and clearly explained my position : Money is not the criteria, future career development is the matter of concern. And all things considered, I arrive at MY OWN decision not to pursue the Product Support option. I told this to my parents and I was expecting a disappointed reaction but amazingly they supported my decision all the way
So I informed the HR that I wouldn’t be interested in Product Support and she asked me why and I enlisted my reasons blah blah. At that point she said , she can offer me Testing because they do have Internal Job Postings available for Testers to join Dev line of work. I was excited. This was another miracle. I immediately agreed to it and the next round – Technical interview round 1 was 3 days away.
That night I stared at the stars and thought to myself – “well what the hell is this ? Here I am seriously worried about my future prospects, with no job opportunities and then an opportunity like this lands in my lap ! And despite so many obstacles, I am making headway here ! Truly this is a miracle. ” It felt like something was conspiring to ensure that I got into SUBEX. I was only too happy to oblige.
3 all-nighters later, I went back to the campus – confident in my preparation. But the interviewer who took the session obliterated me and challenged my learning to the core. To be fair he did his job, but I felt it was excessively detailed – a bit like an investigation, rather than an interview. Anyway, he told me that I had to up my game a lot to get through even if he did select me for the next round. I was so happy to hear that. All through the interview I got this sinking feeling that this was my last visit to this superb facility. But in the end, he did select me for the next round – Technical Interview II.
I was wondering what else I could study for the second round. I had studied everything from my First semester of Engg to final semester project and all other peripheral topics,electives etc and was up-to-date on everything put in my resume, yet I was found wanting in the First tech round. Still, I summoned all my concentration and motivation to study things in more detail for the II round. The II round was almost anti-climax. I was expecting another dressing-down session but instead the person who interviewed me was a cool customer who enjoyed conversing with me and liked my competence sufficiently to select me for the HR round. Now this was a BIG victory for me.For the first time in 2 weeks since the interview process started, I left the SUBEX campus knowing full well that I would be back for the next round. What a wonderful 2 weeks it had been !
The HR round is usually not as tough as the other rounds so many people think its just a formality. And as news spread in my circle that I had just the HR round to go, people started talking like it was a given that I was already in, that it was just a stupid formality – the HR round. Their confidence was not to be faulted, since my forte is my language and communication skills so I would or should have aced this round just like the GD round. But there was to be another U-Turn in this story !!!
I arrived about 20min earlier than the scheduled interview time for the HR Round. I was bristling with confidence but I kept all my thoughts and expectation under check. I sat in the lounge for 30min and recollected all that I wanted to say to the HR about myself . I was feeling very calm. Maybe too calm for my own good ? I don’t know. Anyway, the HR called me into his chamber – he was a large man, a burly man with a baritone voice. As always I greeted him pleasantly, and took my seat after him. I maintained an easy body language since he appeared to be quite serious. Soon he started shooting some questions and I felt totally at ease in answering them. He asked meM just 6 questions in total. 4 of them were about myself/my background and the two others were logical questions in which I might have goofed up in one question. It lasted all of 20min. Abruptly he said – “OK I am done with you”.
I was a bit shocked when I heard it. It hit me at that point that this was a very strange HR interview. It felt cold and clinical , fair enough its not supposed to be a cakewalk but there was an air of nonchalance about it. Almost like it was insignificant in some ways. At that point I felt, something went wrong here. Anyway I left the campus with mixed feelings. I told myself that it was impossible that a candidate such as myself would get rejected in HR round and anyway, its not very very common to reject people in HR round unless they have serious language/communication problems. But then this was far from a regular HR interview.
As I left the campus on that bright sunny morning, I was not sure if I would ever return to work here….
I knew that they usually confirmed the selected candidates within 3 working days so I didn’t bother too much about it and went about attending my IT training classes. But I admit that on the 3rd day, with no call/email from the HR I was a worried man. I sat in the class one evening, totally blanked out , my mind wandering about meaninglessly , trying to make sense of all that I had seen in the last 3 weeks or so. From being in a position where I could potentially not get a dev job at all, to being called for an interview by Subex , and then to have a roller coaster ride through the interview rounds and all that, to now …facing a possible rejection in the HR round ! What a shame for me to get rejected in the HR round ! My god. I got goosebumps at the thought of being rejected in HR round. I still feel that bad vibes now.
Of course, there was no call. There was no email. I understood what it meant but just to try my luck again, I called them myself and was told very politely that I was rejected by the HR and that they would give me some feedback shortly via mail. Of course I didn’t get any feedback. Actually I was quite keen to see the logic behind their rejection. Coz there was nothing in the 6 questions I was asked in the HR round that they could have used to eliminate me. I just concluded that either they decided that my aggregate being a bit below their criteria, they couldn’t select me, or that they were not interested in taking me for testing or some other reason. Whatever it was, the experience left a bad taste in the mouth. I still feel bad.
In some ways I felt cheated. By Subex. By the HR who communicated with me during this time. By the HR who did my HR round. By the person who screwed my scores in Tech round 1 etc. but whats the use of looking back on negatives now ? So I just let my mind calm itself down by taking a few days off before I sat down and did a thorough post-mortem of my performance. I did find a couple of areas where I could have done better, but by and large I was still mystified and disappointed by my rejection.
I later came to know (sometime in Dec 08- Jan 09) that SUBEX had dealt with a lot of people in a similar manner. Especially the batch of people who got through till HR round during the Sept-Dec 2009 period. These people never heard from SUBEX again. To me, it appeared that SUBEX perhaps interviewed many more resources than they required or that they miscalculated their needs especially in light of the recession which by now had firmly taken root in the economy.
At the time, I looked at this as a serious blow to my aspirations. It dented my confidence but I was still hopeful and things would change in the near future. The SUBEX saga was not going to be a defining event for me. BUT , two things came out that experience -
- I stopped believing in my good luck. To this day, nothing that happens by good luck or chance excites me because I have developed this attitude towards chance/luck that it will always even out. So when something good happens by chance, I tell myself : “buddy, remember you have rotten luck. So be prepared for something equally bad”. And I follow that policy even today. I still believe I have the absolute most rotten luck in the world in some issues.
- After a few days of hurting, I bounced back mentally. I wanted to prove to myself that SUBEX had just lost a great candidate. It was motivation that arose from deep hurt and anger. I found a mission. To prove how wrong SUBEX were to not have given more consideration to my candidature. I was determined to get my foot in, in the IT industry and I wouldn’t listen to anybody telling me I am not good enough. I knew I was always good enough.
