How I Messed Up My First Interviews: Chapter II

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This is in continuation of part one - How I Messed Up My First Interviews: Chapter I

It was December 1st, the 'Day 1' of the 2015 placements, and Honda R&D happened to be the second company to have come after Microsoft. We were 4 students from the batch who opted for the Honda interviews. After a hiatus from my previous interview experience during engineering, I thought that this time I was prepared and would have learned something. I was excited for the interview although not much excited because I wasn't into two-wheelers as much as I was into cars.

In a batch of 20 M.Des students at IIT Delhi, I too was amongst the 5 people who wanted to become an automobile designer. In our multi-disciplinary course, we studied product design for both tangible products as well as for digital products. We worked closely with Maruti Suzuki India R&D for more than 6 months and learned the entire process of car design right from research to clay modelling, but despite our efforts and successfully taking our designs to Auto Expo 2016, we couldn't translate the opportunity into a job offer from them. Tata Motors registered for placements but didn't even turn up during the placements. Thus, making Honda R&D (HMSI) making the only automobile company visiting for us.

Holding my A3-size portfolio on my bicycle handle with both hands, I paddled my way down from Karakoram hostel to the LHC. It was an immensely proud moment for all of us to be part of the placements of India's top college. 

I, along with my 3 other friends- Arjak, Hari, and Edwin were super ready and sharply dressed in all-black suits. One thing that I already knew before the interview was that - Arjak, Hari, and Edwin were better than me in motorcycle designs with much deeper technical knowledge and deserved this job more than I did but, I still wanted to try my luck because even if it was not car design, it was still automobile design.  

My bike sketches from my M.Des portfolio

In LHC, we went to a huge classroom with an eerie silence in which the three interviewers from Honda were already sitting in the front and seemed quite serious. We grabbed the first row and sat down. We got called in alphabetical order and I was second to be interviewed after Arjak who went first and came back with a positive experience. 

I went next and greeted the panel with a smile, excitement, a good morning. As I put my portfolio on the table, HR asked me to introduce myself. I started with my introduction and told them about my educational background, where I lived, my hobbies, and what I aspired as a designer. And, I finished my introduction in a couple of minutes top.

"That's it?" the HR said.

I was perplexed. "What else comes in the introduction?" I thought.

She whispered something in the ears of the other two panellists and nodded for a nay. 

"That's so rude of them saying 'no' on my face. They didn't even look at my designs," I thought with disappointment but before I could think more she thanked me and gestured me to leave.

Edwin and Hari also finished with their interviews soon and the HR announced the results, "Edwin and Hari are selected for the next round."

Well, I already knew the results and I even knew that Edwin and Hari deserved this spot more than I did so...I was okay, I guess...But, I was disappointed because I got rejected not for my poorer bike design skills but for my introduction. My engineering interview and GD experiences came back to haunt me again. 

"What could I have possibly done wrong this time?" I thought on my way back to the hostel. Getting to hear a 'no' while wearing formals was even more dreadful.

While having lunch in the hostel mess alone, I continued pondering over what had just happened. I was fluent in English so that wasn't the problem however after careful retrospection, I realized that communication plays a huge role in a design career and how we express our opinions and our designs also sets us apart from other designers. And, my INFJ personality thus, my nature of choosing shorter words and sentences put me one interview behind. I decided that I would never give a short introduction again! 

"No matter what happens, next time onwards I would keep looping sentences and stretch my story until the interviewer interjects me," I decided.

Writing this rejection story before writing the success stories was important because this story acts as the premise for my next story of 'How and why I switched to UX' and I also wish to convey that -

"All the rejections are just redirections to lead us in the right direction."

With losing this opportunity, I knew that I was going to pursue UX (design for the digital products) and my next target was Infosys, the only other company I applied for😅. 

I still think that my introduction wasn't that bad that they did not even look at my work. But, I am really glad about this rejection. Had I been selected, I would have been on a linear-path career getting a below-average salary compared to that in UX. And, thanks to my destiny, I got selected in Infosys and switched my career to UX Design which helped my career a lot.

Well, both my switch to UX and my interview experience with Infosys are interesting and inspiring stories. Those stories shall finally conclude my interview experiences series with a happy ending; I shall write them soon! 

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This was the second and the last part of this series. Read the first part of this series here-

How I Messed Up My First Interviews: Chapter I

Read more interview experiences on my blog here.