Another Golden Opportunity

And then there I was, sitting on the chair waiting for my Letter of Intent (LOI). I just couldn’t make out that was I happy for getting through this interview or am I sad that I will miss the company of Sonali in NSN.I was watching the other candidates who were still giving their interview. I was watching and at the same moment it struck my mind why did I get through this interview? Before coming for the interview I had prayed to GOD that I don’t want to pray to get selected, I have got the chance of interview because YOU wanted, and if I am eligible and if you think that I should get then only I may be selected. And that was VERY TRUE……

Flashback:-I do have a habit of going through the pages of my old newspapers before shoving them aside to the corner of our long verandah where they stay before being sold away at a cheap and meager price of Rs.6/- per kilo by the paperwallah. The rate is generally fixed one and sometimes it does fluctuate and one may get a little bit of extra amount depending on the bargain which he can do with the person buying them…

Well, this blog is not about the paperwallah not about bargaining or not about the discount you may get from him, so don’t jump into a conclusion that this is a blog about saving techniques. If you are looking for that then I have to say only one thing-“sorry search somewhere else”. For the rest who are interested may continue to read along the blog where I had just described “How I have just bagged a new job with a highly renowned company.”

I am a fresher, and like others in the market do not have any job experience to boast about. Though I am already placed with TCS, they haven’t till date given me joining date. Hence my present status is neither Student nor Looking for a job; rather it can be better defined as waiting for the job (Grin).

It was 31^st August, 2009. I was fed up with my spending time on the net hence was flipping through the pages of some back dated newspapers. As I had mentioned I have the habit of going through the paper before throwing them away. I remember Sonali had called me then. I was lying on the bed and was flipping through the pages of Ascent, a 4 page pullout given with The Times Of India every wednesday,dated 26^th August, 2009 while talking over the phone. Suddenly my eye struck on the bottom of the front page. It was an advertisement about Nokia-Siemens Graduate Engineer Trainee Program 2009. It was asking for applications from graduate engineers in ECE, CSE and IT from Tier-I Engineering colleges to sit for the exam which was to be held on the 13^th of September, 2009. I at once looked at the last date for application for the exam. To my astonishment I found out that they had asked to register for the exam before 1^st September 2009.I at once logged on to the site and followed the instructions to fill up the form for the exam. My next duty was to inform my friends about this examination.

To be honest each and every one of us i.e. students, we do fill up forms for a number of exams with only thing on the wish list, to get selected in at least one of them. But do we really study that much to achieve that target? Pardon me if I am wrong but we do really don’t study to the extent that we should, rather we do complain of hard questions and that there wasn’t any time for us to prepare properly for the exam. Also we may complain of higher cutoff and negative marking (The above don’t apply to the students those who really study hard to achieve their targets). I also wasn’t serious about this exam as I do belong to the above category students and generally all the above conditions do apply to these types of national exams, though in this case negative markings weren’t there .That was a relief.

Whatever may be the case, everything went fine. Though many of my friends didn’t get the admit card for the exam, but it wasn’t a problem with me as I downloaded my admit card on time for the exam .The exam went by. I used the no negative marking scheme to randomly answer the technical part as I wasn’t thorough with that portion but managed to do quite a handful of the questions on the aptitude part. Rests were all answered randomly by me.

We knew from the advertisement from the paper that the date for calling us for the interview was 24^th of September 2009. But neither me nor did any of my friends receive any information about the interview. We weren’t moved by this fact as we knew that it is tough to get through such competitive exam.

Everything was fine when suddenly on the 29^th of September; I received a mail from Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN). I was being called for the interview scheduled on the 4^th of October. I was on cloud nine. Who wouldn’t be? After all being selected for the interview is a great achievement for a student like me. Though when I enquired from my other friends they said that they didn’t receive any such mail from NSN and they congratulated me for my success. But I only knew what kind of exam I did give. But at this juncture it hardly matters what kind of exam you gave as no one is going to look back.

I started my preparations for the exam and searched the net for types of question that were being asked to the selected people who are having their interviews being held at that moment from different parts of INDIA. To be honest this time I did study very hard.

On the D-day I reached there before time. After submitting the documents they had asked for I was led to another hall where I was told to wait for the interview. Many people were sitting there and waiting for the interview. Some were waiting there to get their first round interview result. But the thing that worried me was that many of the students were told to leave from the interview venue as they were not selected for the second round. Some were told to go back then, if required they would be called by the company later. T he rejection rate was very high.

I was sure that this is a very tough interview, tougher than the one I had at TCS. When my turn came, I was led into another hall where I faced a panel of three people, two men and a lady. The first question I faced was a general question “tell me about you”. The questions mostly asked were from HR and mid way through the interview I was sure that I am selected.

Short while later after my first interview, I was asked to face my second round of interview. And to my delight I found out that I am being asked the questions that I have already prepared for this interview. The person in the second interview panel was quite impressed with me answering all the questions. As an affirmative he said “Good” at the end of the interview.

And then there I was walking out of the Stadel in Salt Lake, with a very happy and light heart. I am selected in Nokia-Siemens Network (NSN) GET 2009. But was I really happy????? I don’t know…………………………………