Udham Singh ready to place :)

Mugging (be it for quiz, for mid-semester or that for end-semester exams) really blows you hard, and feeling the same pain in the same nerves for 8 semesters, 48 months, and 4 years, don’t know how many times it would have killed anyone… The only thing that drives you out of the whole bloody business is the thought that you’ll get a job. I entered the gates of IIT Bombay on July 17, 2002 with my father. Though he didn’t say me anything but he must have thought of an image of his son coming out dancing with a fabulous job offer in hand. There were varied opinions of seniors over the importance of CPI (Cumulative Performance Index), the thing which most of us IIT’ans don’t like to comment on (for obvious reasons). It should be above 8 on a scale of 10, if you want to say it decently, if you want to cross all barriers in jobs, and to cross that, I only know which all Gods I prayed to, Which all exams I studied for, for how many nights my bed waited for me to lie down but brain didn’t allow? All is well that ends well. I could make it to 8. Now, I am doing full justice to my bed, lying there for 16 hours a day :).

And you just can’t imagine the shivering thought process which the sound of the words placement season produces. It all started in July 2006 when there was a big doubt whether IITs will start their placements from July or December. Luckily or unluckily (I don’t know), but December won the competition. And you rightly observed, I was anxiously waiting for the Christmas month.

The ninth semester (July- December 2006) has laid its story on my mind like imprints made by sculptors on rocks and both are amusing me till today. This semester, as every other semester, had many weapons to kill innocent students like DDP (Dual Degree Project,) 2 courses, and of course PPT (Pre-Placement Talks) with tests following them. Courses I took were both of philosophy, Indian Philosophy and second one a Ph.D level course, Vedanta Philosophy. There were two main reasons of taking these courses. One was to relieve the pressure of boring technical courses. Second was my deep interest in philosophy that led to the confident thought of getting some good grade in the subjects. Time passed by and the PPTs started.

Let me elaborate PPTs a bit. These are 30-120 minute talks by the company representatives in front of all the students who register for the company recruitment process. Like illegal immigrants, people from other batches also do appear for the Pizzas that many companies give at the end, as a compensation for all the pains students bear listening to all the crap they speak (True for most of them). The problem is that if one registers for a company, one has to attend company’s PPT according to placement policy otherwise has to bear a fine of Rs. 100 (and a pizza!!). I attended around 30 PPTs and each one can individually demand one report, so am leaving all except this one. I started clapping during one PPT when the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of that company compared IITs to MIT and Harvard, the top universities in the world. Actually that was a sarcastic clapping since the same company was offering double the amount in those universities than what it was paying in IIT, but you can’t differentiate a sarcastic clap and a normal one. Can you??

Our placement nominee was a smart chap. At the end of the talk, he announced, “Ashok Kumar, meet me.” I met him at the end of a boring, monotonous talk and he noted my roll no. etc; said that I would need to meet placement officer. I tried once to tell him that the clapping was because of the honor he gave to IITs but he wouldn’t listen. I came back because I knew the same argument of mine was a very solid one in front of an officer who has served almost whole of his life at IIT Bombay. Anyways, there are many incidents which are popping themselves up from my memories now to get themselves written here like we all wish to get an autograph from some TV personality, however small he/she may be. One more incident goes like this: Once I missed a PPT, and the person taking attendance called, “Ashok,” some other person with common name called for my presence, thus saved my 100 bucks. What a lovely fellow!! He never met me otherwise would have given him 50.

Probably, the biggest career decision was to choose between technical and non-technical paths. Most of my parts were in favor of non-technical, while few including right brain were pressing for technical, but ultimately, right or wrong, majority wins. That’s what happened in history, wherever you see. Anyways, I decided for a non-technical career. I introspected myself and found out that related to analytics, deeply involved in mathematics was the kind of job, I must be looking for. The job must be highly challenging, demanding and off course must be paying rich dividends. Investment banking sector was closest to the set of my requirements. Thus, the decision was finally made after a lot of hues and cries raised from various brain hormones.

Oh! How can I forget the making of resume? Recalling all the crazy things, I did 22 years from birth was fun, but selecting which out of them were crazy enough to be included was tough… Deciding in what form should they be written was tougher? Then, came application of the feedback theory. The final draft by me was sent to many seniors, many people whom I thought were able to give their valuable comments and had time to give their valuable comments (There is a big difference between ability to do something and actually doing it.) The toughest part was to include their feedback because after my final draft was ready, any suggested change in that one was going against my ego and intelligence. I literally fought a Kalinga-level battle with both of them, but could change it only at few places. Not every suggested change could win the battle. Then came the time of applying to companies, the time of filling forms on their websites for times varying from 40 minutes to 10 long hours…. My rule no. 37 from childhood, “Think and then do” penalized me for longer times. I usually took more than double the time my friends took for filling the same form, unless there was a time restriction. Somehow, I couldn’t convince myself that this was the best I could have done. Some 20-30 days passed along with their nights but this PPT, form etc. business was far from over. This was during September – October 2006.

Then came the real time of proving ourselves, the tests, of market analysis, of analytical ability, of mathematics, logical reasoning and related areas. Most of the big companies took tests (except Lehman Brothers). I was anxiously waiting for almost all the Investment banks (Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, UBS, Morgan Stanley (Finance division), Merrill Lynch, Capital One, Lehman Brothers), since that was the first choice.. Except Goldman Sachs, I was quite sure of clearing them all. Goldman Sachs has a reputation of setting up a highly tough test and they shortlist only 10 people out of all. I went to take their test with an aim of just seeing the test. It had 6 questions and I was surprised to see that all were doable, and so I did them all. After coming out from the hall, I came to know that I had done all correct. Now, though it was a great achievement in itself, but the thought that many would have done all six was inevitable. But my happiness knew no bounds when I saw my name right there on 4th number in the list of 10. My confidence also paid off when I cleared all the tests and was shortlisted for first round interviews almost by all the companies I applied for. UBS and Lehman Brothers’ shortlists were shocking to me as I was fully sure of getting into the smaller list. Even after seeing the names of people shortlisted and large scale processing by brain, I couldn’t locate a single parameter where I could have lost, but anyways, there are some things which you can’t know and it’s better not to probe deep into them. I let them go, may be the mechanism of Self Defense was working, but still I feel I should have been shortlisted. It was some mistake on their part. There are no taxes on such thinking.

There is this psychometry test, which is a part of many companies. This consists of behavioural, psychological, case-analysis type of questions. I took two such tests and qualified both, and so think that I can suggest something here.
1. Read the company’s website fully and find out what they are looking for in a candidate.
2. After seeing a question, think why it was included in the question-set and what should be the desired response? (obviously taking into consideration the first part)
3. As the test progresses, make a list of qualities you are showing in the test and in which order. Maintaining order is very important (as everywhere) because the questions will test whether you retain your priority order or not. Going against your priority order is suicidal in this type of test.
4. The most important one: Pray to your lord before doing these tests. There is a big amount of luck involved even after taking care of all the above points.
Though I wouldn’t do so, but even if I try, I can’t forget the memories of all friends sitting for online tests of everyone of us and the joy knowing no bounds after seeing all the names in the final list of successful candidates.

Amidst all this strenuous period, I was lucky to get a long 10 day vacation trip to home encompassing Diwali and my birthday. These were probably the best vacations I had during IIT tenure. With nothing to do, I fulfilled the expectations; did full nothing. On the third day of vacations, the idea of having a suit for placements cropped up and writing its preparation details demands a book, so I leave it here only with the comment that I saved a lot of money from the thought. After a bagful of wishes of close people, came back from home and cracked all the tests I took thereafter.

Days passed by and first round successful candidates lists started coming. With the same name by which people call me appearing on almost all lists, I was feeling happy but can’t say what people’s feelings were? We couldn’t enjoy much because end-semester exams were not allowing us to. In between, there was CAT (Common Aptitude Test) too. Everything went well, and finally, when grades came out, every pore of me was rejoicing after seeing 100% marks (CPI 10/10). I couldn’t get more than 9 in all the previous 8 semesters. Highest earlier was 8.65. My condition was like a hungry boy getting Shahi Paneer who never got more than Aloo ki Sabji. Now that placement days were near, placement shopping was becoming a necessary evil. As the suit was ready, I only needed tie, belt, shoes… I thought of Jugad Technology as the best solution and tried it too. Though most of things I could manage, but I went to Pantaloons with friends for their shopping with a thought that I’ll buy all the things if I like the items and the transactions are possible in reasonable prices; I don’t like this technology much. There, a tie kissed me and it was so lovely that instantly, I felt lighter by 600 bucks. Udham Singh truly said, “Keep safe distance from females, even female objects kick you hard, what to say for humans?” My garments were ready but I hadn’t gone alone. For friend’s dresses, we moved to Life Style, Provogue, Pantaloons; Saw more designs than what even any designer would have seen in his/her life. Finally, after debiting their father’s accounts to a few thousands, came back.

Now, I was about to face interviews after 3 days. You can feel how time went in those three days, if you can feel the following situations.
1. you are going to propose your girl few days from now and are worried about what she’ll say. Feel how your days will go.
2. you don’t know anything about the course and in few hours, you have your exam. Feel how those hours will go.
Basically, when stakes are high, the pressure is enormous and add to that the problem to think if you don’t know what to think. You do nothing and enjoy and infact, that was the best thing to do in my case. I did the same .

Three days also passed by, and the eve of December 1, 2006 came at my room without knock. Mannerless evening!! I was standing in front of her as a strong, confident, though had a bit of nervousness, waiting for few hours to end. The night in front only was a door between me and my destiny.