How I messed up my first interviews: Chapter I

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I have messed up my first interviews in both colleges that I attended. Today, I will speak of the first one that I gave.

I have written about this in two of my earlier posts- Engineering is a state of mind, and Group discussions and introversion.

I wasn't sure earlier if I should write this or not but I do feel that failures are an important part of life and I sport them confidently. And, for the past 2.5 years of my career, I have been sitting on the other side of the table, hiring others for my company and I have grown a lot since then so, this post wouldn't hurt my career. Here it is- My interview experience with Wipro. This story dates back to December 2012.

Wipro was one of the first few companies that visited our campus and like I always do, I cleared all the prelims and was amongst the few who got qualified for the interview pushing back many ECE, IT, and CSE grads despite I being from the mechanical branch. 

I got my formals stitched for the first time in life, cleaned my beard to have a french cut probably for 2nd or 3rd time in my engineering life. I was one of those kids who always sported a beard, wore cargo pants, and never tucked a shirt in. So, this interview brought a complete change in the way I appeared. Although I have changed a lot since then; my current colleagues in Gartner have seen me without a beard more often than with a beard, I tuck in my shirts for almost half of the week...Typical corporate persona :)

Anyhoo, I went inside the Amity Noida campus where interviews were being held, got some photographs clicked with my classmates around the campus before the process started as it was our first time in the Amity campus. We got seated in an auditorium from where we were called in small batches for the aptitude test. My few friends and I cleared the aptitude test and climbed up the ladder for the next round which was the interview.

While we were waiting outside the interview rooms and seeing other candidates going inside and coming out, I started to feel the chills. Anxiety was up and my transformed looks made me feel weird.

After a few hours of waiting, I was called and placed as the next candidate lined up for the interview. The senior who was coordinating placements came near to me and asked how I was feeling.

"I am good, thank you," I said despite my face must have spoken a different story.

"Can I have a look at your file?" He was trying to strike a further conversation.

I gave my collection of degrees, mark sheets, and certificates from various ECAs I did during school and college.

"This is pretty nice! You have good scores and lots of certificates," He said while still flipping the pages in the file.

"Chetan, you have a good chance to clear this, I have been seeing other candidates since morning and I can tell you that your profile is really good," He sort of praised me.

"Thank you, sir," I said.

"All the best," He wished me while sending me inside the interview room.

And, that sort of made me a little more comfortable before going inside.

"Welcome, Chetan, please have a seat," the interviewer said. He seemed pretty senior with his partly bald head and white hair.

"Good evening, sir," I greeted while sitting. 

And after some greeting exchanges, the interviewer started looking at my profile and asking questions.

"You seem to be good in academics, decent scores in school and college," He said while flipping through the pages.

"What is your passion, Chetan? Any activities you pursue apart from academics?" he quizzed.

"I draw, sir," I answered.

"What all things you draw?"

"I can draw cars, sceneries, cartoons, portraits..." I said and took a pause trying to think what else...

"Alright, can you draw my face?" he asked.

Now, this was a test I didn't expect but I said yes. I took the A4 sheet and a pen from his table and started sketching :) In 2 minutes, I drew a quick doodle of his face. Given his unique personality, it was easier for me to sketch his round face, bald head, little hair. I think I had done a pretty nice job given how nervous I already was.

"Nice work, Chetan! So, you are an artist," he was happy seeing himself sketched :)

"Thank you, sir"

After that, he threw me a mechanics question which was again unexpected for him coming from an IT firm. Wow! I felt. But, the good part is that I was able to answer all the mechanical basics questions he popped.

"Chetan, I see that you had got a backlog in the second semester. What had happened?" he asked the first tough question.

"Sir, I was still getting adjusted in college back then and this was my favourite subject. I was overconfident about myself getting good marks like I have always had. So, I didn't study much but if you look at my reappear result, you will see that I have scored more than 80 marks which speaks that I am good at that subject," I replied.

"And, why your overall percentage in engineering is just over 72% when you had 80+ % in 10th and 12th?" he asked the second tough question!

"Sir, engineering college is different than school. The average score in engineering is 60%. We have just 3 students with 80% marks and I am counted in the top 10 of my class with these marks. So, I think that I am doing good," I countered his opinion.

He seemed to have bought my answer.

Inside, I felt happy for slowly getting closer to this offer in hand and was eagerly waiting for myself to clear this last hurdle and keeping my fingers crossed behind the table. 

"Great, Chetan, just one last question for you," he said.

Wow! I thought.

"Why do you want to join Wipro?" he asked.

"I don't want to join an IT company, actually," I threw the bomb.

"Wait, What?" I said to myself even before he could speak. 

"What the hell are you doing, Chetan??" I thought again. 

I knew that the interview was over for me and so was this opportunity. I didn't know how to undo the words I spoke. I was short of time before I could attach another statement to correct myself.

"Sir, actually I am still hoping to get into an organization related to automobiles and Wipro just happens to my second choice," I dropped yet another bomb at him. 

I was too young and unprepared at that age to be diplomatic and save myself. And, in the end, I tried to do some damage control but I couldn't. After coming out, I knew there was a scope to fix my answer at least if not undo it. But, at the spur of the moment, I failed miserably. It was not only my failure but also a disrespect to Wipro, and the effort and time I had spent that day.

Results- 7 of my classmates got placed in Wipro, the best my class had achieved in placements. It was saddening initially for my mistake but being a firm believer in destiny, I knew I had something better waiting for me. My class friends did really good in their Wipro careers but if I look back now, and think if I had joined Wipro Pune or Bangalore, I might have never cleared the design entrances of NID and IIT. I might have been pursuing a job that hardly interests me.

But, zoom out of this picture, and come to 2015, I got placed in Infosys during M.Des. And, I did make sure that I didn't do anything stupid during the Infy interview. And, I started my career with an IT firm which was even bigger than Wipro :p

"One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it."

-Master Oogway

Lessons to be learned: One, wear the clothes you are comfortable in :) Two, there are times when we don't get what we hope for; it might hurt in the short run but that's because destiny holds something better for us in the future :)

"Whatever happens, happens for a reason."

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My Infosys interview was successful yet it has those awesome elements to be written in an article. Will write that as well. But, before that, I will write Chapter II of this series to include my first interview of M.Des with Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India. Stay tuned!