It all started on 24th or 23rd of July at around 2PM when I got an sms from Dhiraj telling that Accenture is coming to our campus most probably on 28th July. That meant just 3 days to prepare for the first ever job test and interview in my life. 25th and 26th (Wed n Thu) went away without any work in this field cos Deepak sir had asked us to submit the abstract for the Seminar. The fact that the topic had to be some very recent one which is path breaking in one way or the other meant that I had to spend all my free time on the net searching for a topic and preparing . By God’s grace, I was able to finish the work off by Thursday and I was free by Thursday evening.
Now comes the hard part, the preparation for the technical interview, which I knew was gonna be tough from my online research about Accenture. Still, being the typical engineering student that I am, I kept on procrastinating till Friday morning. The revelation came quick n hard on me that the amount of knowledge I had about Electronics & Communication was almost as much as a 10th grader would know (I know I am exaggerating a bit, but still!!).So started out on conquering digital electronics which I wanted to project as my favourite subject. Then realized that I didn’t have a file to keep my documents, so went to the shop to get one. Later, I realize that I didn’t have a recent photograph. I dress up in the formals I planned to wear on the D-day and go to the friendly neighbourhood photo studio. Spend around 15 minutes for the studio dude to photoshop my image (He was working on the shadows, not on me!!!) Get the copies and go back home. By this time, amount of studies =0.5% of what I had planned to study.
By now, I decide to dump EC and refresh C++ in which I was supposed to be pretty good (& I was, in school, 3 years ago.) Started turning pages of a text by Sumita Arora. By 8 ,My brother gets home and decides to test my C++ capabilities and ask me a few questions to which gave the dumbest answers ( Later I found that he was in the tech panel for the recruitment procedure in his office ) . I get completely dejected and started the preps again. But, as usual, I decide that I would study the rest at 3AM .Set the alarm at 3 and hit the sack at 10.
D- Day
Time: 0300 hrs
The alarm rings. As usual, I switch it off and go back to sleep.
Time: 0600 hrs
Wake up to find that I knew zilch about pointers and other crap. Decides that any more energy spent on CPP would anyways be wasted and goes to read the newspaper.
Time: 0700hrs
Takes bath and goes to the nearby temple and gets the prasadam of the Ganapati Homam that was offered on my behalf.
Time: 0800hrs
Tries to have breakfast – Puttu, kadala and pappadam. Nothing seems to go through my food pipe. Stops after eating a minute quantity of it and gets ready to go to college.
Time: 0830hrs
Reach college with Gokul. See some other guys already there and we set off to the PPT hall to get the PA system up and running.
Time: 0915hrs
The Accenture guys [Mr. A (head shaven, HR), Mr. S (CET passout ’95, tech) and Mr. R (HR)] reach the ppt hall. The PPT starts and continues for about an hour followed by a small quiz session consisting of questions from the facts they had mentioned in the PPT. Winners get a pen each from them.
The selection procedure is a 4 step process.
1) Aptitude test
2) Essay (5 mins)
3) HR Interview
4) Final Interview
Time: 1045hrs
The test starts .It consists of 55 questions to be answered in 60 minutes. Plus an essay in 5 minutes about “My college life” .Answers the test pretty decently. Gets reminded of essays in Social Studies in class 10 and complete the one page allotted for the essay in 4 minutes (Pakka kathiyadi). We are asked to report at 1245 with 2 copies of recent photograph and Xerox copies of all marklists. Come out to see that Gokul had already left for home. Poor guy remembers me after he covered 2 kms and comes back for me.
Time: 1215hrs
Reach home. Have the fastest lunch I had ever had. Run up to my room and change into formals. Sms Gokul not to wait for me cos I had to take the Xerox of my marklists. Starts the bike and goes to the Photostat kada. Takes all copies and leaves for college.
Time: 1245hrs
Reach college. Move to the PPT hall. The Accenture people start moving with us and on the way, I befriend Mr. S and find that he is a mechanical engineer from CET. Reach the PPT hall and the team announces the names of the people selected for the GD round. 3 groups are formed for the GD and I fall into the 3rd group of which Mr. S is the moderator. Shocked to find that many of the probables weren’t in the list.
Time: 1315hrs
The GD starts. Topic “ Should mobile phones be banned in colleges “ .Lots of the usual crap from all of us followed by a revolutionary demand by yours truly that mobile jammers must be installed in classrooms to restore the harmony in classrooms .
Time: 1330hrs
GD ends. All 14 from my group are selected for the interview round. We are made to go to the adjacent room and fill up a form and wait for the interview call.
Time: around 1415hrs
HR Interview (lasts around 15 mins)
Interviewer Mr. R
Me: Good Afternoon Sir!!
R: Good Afternoon!! Take your seat!!!
Me: Thank you Sir!!
R: Tell me something about yourself!!!
Me: Blah blah blah.
R: Who is your role model???
Me (stumped):???
???
Kimi Raikkonen (remembers Saranyan’s dialogue once at IMS)
R: But he hardly won any race last year!!
Me: Sir!! But he tried his maximum. And I’m like him. Even in any hostile situation, I put in 100% effort and blah …. … It’s the effort you put in that matters …… blah blah blah …
R: Do u have any offers???
Me: Nope
R: What happened with Wipro??
Me (sheepishly): Backlogs!!
R: But they allowed 3 backlogs na???
Me: But I had 4, Sir!!! (Njan oru sambhavam thanne!!)
R: And have you cleared all of them now???
Me: Yes Sir!!
R: What’s the proof??
Me: (Shows him the marklists. Poor guy gets confused with sessionals ,university marks and total marks cos sessionals and Uty marks are almost same (40-43) and total marks look as if its out of 100 when it actually is out of 150)
R: Why Accenture?
Me: Blah Blah Blah
R: Would you run away in between??
Me: No sir!! Cos Accenture is the best there is and ……
R: Tell me about your miniproject.
Me (Answers):
R: Thank you!!
Me: Thank you, Sir!!
The guy from Merittrac (They organized the whole thing) asked me to go back to the waiting room.
Time: around 1500hrs (~6 mins)
Final Interview
Interviewer Mr.S
S: Entha Abhijithe Ith?? Kore ondallo (Pointing to my marklists !!)
S: Why so many supplies??? What happened??
Me: Smiles
S: Why Accenture??
Me: Same as before.
S: What is a compiler???
Me (Had learnt the answer cos I got to know that he was asking the same question to everyone.): Answers
S: What is polymorphism??
Me: Answers…
S: You won’t be able to join Accenture if you have any backlogs when you pass out.
Me: Of course, Sir!! I won’t be having any backlogs then!!
S: Any questions??
Me: Asks about how the strengthening of Indian Rupee in the market affects Accenture and how they plan to overcome it??(Courtesy: Some guy in CET who asked the same question to the CTS panel 3-4 days ago ...)
S: Answers in detail (Somewhat)
Me: Thank you sir!!!
S: Thank you!!
Time: around 1615hrs
The Accenture people come to the waiting room filled with anxious candidates. Mr.S calls out the names and hands over the offer letters. After about 6-7 names, I hear my name being called out. Shakes hand with S and takes the offer letter. That's when i found out what euphoria meant .
Spent the evening at Ambrosia wit a group of 7 people and left there at 10 .
In retrospect, I find this day one of the most happiest in my life . The best mix of 24 hours I’ve ever had ….
And thus ends my very first step in the corporate world .
Note : To those who felt like i should be writing an obituary rather than a blog ,
DUDE !! You’ve got a lot of company !!!
