Longbeard
I must have easily attended close to a hundred interviews in two years in different parts of Bangalore and was in the throes of a nervous breakdown. “Don’t stop at applying only for software jobs. You had better start checking out other domains. Else you will end up feeling extremely insecure,” warned a concerned colleague at an NGO where I was chipping in with some social work for children. I took that as sage advice.
I started spending more time on the jobs section of The Deccan Herald. One day, I happened to see an ad asking for Market Research Executives. The company was MODE, a market research agency of note. I had seen their surveys in India Today. The job sounded interesting and I wasted no time in sending across my resume. Those days, I would have 20 copies of my resume made each time I went to the Xerox shop. Even the man at the Xerox shop at Tippasandra, a kilometre away from home, would inquire each time in a concerned tone, “Have you still not got a job?” I would just nod my head and give him a sad look.
The only nice thing about applying for jobs is that it would give me an opportunity to take out my BSA SLR cycle and enjoy a ride to the post box at the end of the NAL campus. At times, I would go cycling around the campus several times just to chill. Cycling was a stress-buster. There were times when I would go cycling after dusk whenever the weather was pleasant. It gave me great solace and happiness.
I received a call letter for a test from MODE. The test was at St Joseph’s Indian High School on a Sunday. When I looked at the test paper, I was stunned. It was an objective-type test and the questions were mostly on cars. I fared badly.
However, the test made me develop more interest in cars. Every time, there was a survey on cars, I would read it. This way, I knew the names and prices of all the cars in the Indian market. My favourite was the Opel Astra. Some day, I dreamt of buying this car.
After a few months, I again came across an ad for Market Research executives put up by the same company. I decided to apply and hoped to do well this time. The venue was the same and to my luck the paper too. I aced the test, as I knew all the answers. After a couple of days, I got a call for an interview! I was overjoyed.
I left for the interview on a happy note and hoped to nail the interview. The office was at Cunningham Road. I took a bus to Shivajinagar and walked to Cunningham Road.
There were two people at the interview desk, a dusky bespectacled man with a long oily mane and an equally long beard (I shall call him Longbeard) and a younger man probably his assistant. When Long Beard started speaking, I realised that he is from God’s own country. “Are you married?” he asked after scanning my resume and the test paper. “No,” said I. Longbeard craned his neck and continued, “Have your parents started searching for an alliance, or has an alliance been fixed?” “No,” I said. “Why? Where do you hail from?” he said chuckling. The younger man joined him in the “chucklathon”. “Hee hee hee hee …” the twosome went on a laughing spree. “I need to start working first,” said I. He then reclined on the backrest of his chair and continued, “If we give you the job, chances are that your marriage will get fixed and you will leave. Also, I am not sure whether you are temperamentally suited for this job, why don’t you explore other avenues?” “Sir, Your ad in the newspaper sounded interesting. That is why I applied. Contrary, to what you think, I would say I am temperamentally suited for the job,” I replied in a stern voice. He thought for a while, took off his spectacles, wiped them, and then replied, “Well, we will get back to you in two days.” I left feeling annoyed with his array of questions especially those on that old chestnut, the topic of marriage. Moreover, I had gone with high hopes. The conversation with Longbeard turned out to be a hell of a mood and morale dampener. I walked back crestfallen to Shivajinagar and boarded bus number 139 that took me home.
I never heard from MODE.
Again ….
Of the endless list of interviews, that I attended one was at Ranka Builders. There was a test preceding the interview and it was not very difficult. I cleared the test. The wait for the interview was long. The girl sitting next to me got talking to me and during the course of the conversation I came to know that she is my father’s colleague’s daughter. As everyone says, the world is really a small place. She said that she was not particularly looking for a job as she had just had a baby but decided to give it a try as her house was just a stone’s throw away. Our conversation ended when I got called for the interview.
The interviewer was a lanky, well-dressed man who resembled South Indian cine personality Pratap Pothen. He exuded style in a long-sleeved green T-shirt and came across as a very positive individual. He glanced through my resume and then my test paper. “Good, you have scored well,” he said smiling. And then he reclined on the backrest of his swivel chair and continued, “But the problem is (he paused)..” “But…?” I thought to myself. Was he going to utter those dreaded words like many of the interviewers that I met earlier? Yes, he did!! “You fellows get married and go away!!” and he sat up grinning. To which I replied, “No. I will stay. Marriage is not going to happen too soon.” “All the female candidates say that. Once they get the job, they get married and they leave,” he replied with nonchalance. “Okay he said. I will keep your candidature in mind and will get back within a week,” and nodded his head. I took leave. Looks can be so deceptive. This man was not anything that I imagined him to be and the interview was such a letdown. I never heard from the builders.
Something different
In 1995, I decided to attempt CAT. The entire year I immersed myself in mock tests. The mock tests were a great mental exercise. In between attending interviews and tests, I worked on mock test papers or else watched movies on TNT and spent an hour reading novels. I loved all the activities.
A month or so before CAT, an alluring ad put up by Raman Research Institute caught my eye. It was for Research Associates. The candidates needed to be graduates who had Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry as subjects in their graduation. I had graduated 6 years back and was therefore woefully out of touch with those subjects. Moreover, I was preparing for CAT and had no time to brush up what I studied in BSc. After a lot of thought, I applied for the RRI job. In a few days, I got a reply from RRI asking me to come for a test. The following three days, I divided my time studying for the RRI test and doing the CAT mock tests. The time was too short to prepare well and I kept wondering whether I should drop the idea of going to RRI. I thought a lot and finally went. RRI was very far from home and I had to leave at 7am for the 9am test. It took two buses and a rick to reach my destination. It was my first visit to RRI. The campus was beautiful. There was greenery all over and flowers of various hues skirted the lawns. The landscaping was excellent and a treat to the eyes. For a moment, I forgot why I had come to RRI. The lawns of RRI were the kind that would have one’s creative juices overflowing.
The test began at sharp 9am. I struggled with the paper; I could not remember many things. I did not hope to make it to round 2, that is, the interview round. I was surprised when my name figured in the list of those who had made it to the interview. Maybe, my marks in my graduation worked in my favour. There were around 10 or 12 of us in the interviewees’ list. My name figured somewhere in the middle.
The interviewers were taking an hour with each candidate. I had come to the test feeling like an empty vessel and felt the same after writing the test. I started feeling extremely nervous. When I entered the interview room, I noticed there were four interviewers, and that included a female interviewer. Each of them was a subject expert and asked questions from their field of specialization. It was not a conventional Q&A but a very creative session that tested the candidate’s analytical skills. At times, I got stuck; the interviewer granulated things so well that I finally came out with the right answer. I learned quite a lot during that one hour. After the interview, someone from the interview team asked me to stay back for snacks. During the snacks session, one of the interviewers came running to me and told me that he knows my father. He had in fact worked with my father at NAL. It was a pleasant surprise. “I have come to your home too. You were a baby when I visited,” he said smiling. He then added, “Your father will know me. Tell him you met _______”. Sadly, I cannot recall his name. When I returned home, it was past 8pm. I asked my father if he knew Dr _____. “Yes!” said my father. “I know him. One of the nicest people I have worked with. Did you meet him?” And I told him about the interview, the interviewers, and the snacks session. My father was elated on hearing about Dr___________. He added, “He hails from a very illustrious family and is very intelligent and highly qualified. He is a thorough gentleman. Consider yourself blessed to have met a distinguished individual like him.” I couldn’t agree more. There was something very nice about the man. I never made the cut at RRI, but then I had not performed well. Sigh!
Potpourri 