How I Got My First Job - Part III: The Call

So where were we? Last time we met, I was still without a job. Well that was soon going to change, in about eight days to be precise. So sit back (or you can stand, no issues) and enjoy this third & final part of the series.

6^th February’ 2016
A formal attire ironed out, cab booked, documents ready and I was all set for my next encounter. I spent the previous day in learning more about the agency, its work, but most importantly, I ran a recap of all the previous interviews in my mind. While my worries had taken a short nap after I felt great things were in store for me post my last rejection, they were far from over because at the back of my mind, I knew our college fest was next week, and with mid February approaching, we were closer to the end of the placement season than its beginning. A lot was going through my mind in that two and a half hour ride from our campus in Pune to the agency’s office in Mumbai. Interspersed with thoughts of what might/might not happen, I couldn’t help but notice that I had been on more road trips in these last few days than I had been in the past couple of months (that was also going to change shortly!). All I wanted though was that I should either come back with a good news or no news at all. So either tell me those three words, “You are selected” or the rather suspenseful four words – “We need more time”, but don’t share a shortlist with my name not in it. I wanted to enjoy my ride back to Pune if nothing else.  My family didn’t know I had an interview; some of my friends were out for a mini vacation and didn’t know either.

We reached the destination. A small office, with no employees inside! It was a Saturday, an off for them. So if I do get selected, at least I will have 5 working days only, nice. After waiting for some time in the conference room, the HR representative entered and told us that the PROCESS would begin shortly!

Why did I write PROCESS in capitals? Well, that’s because she said it would be a 3 stage procedure – a group discussion, an interview and an assignment and then the final call would be taken. PHEW! A part of me was always a little apprehensive about group discussions. I always felt that GDs, with their ten-minute duration  were not the perfect yardstick to judge a candidate’s potential, just like how a #7 batsman shouldn’t be analyzed for his performance if he comes out to bat in the 48^th over only. You don’t really see his full potential. But, if there was an obstacle, you had to jump over it, that’s how races are won, that’s how I was going to take it.

Before the GD we were given an overview of the agency by the CEO himself. My interactions with companies thus far had been with the HRs, the departmental heads and so forth. So the CEO himself taking time out for the placement process was pleasantly surprising and obviously ensured a more scrutinized interview process further.

We started off with the group discussion. I was the second one to start speaking. The discussion was quite civil, I say that because if you have been in that atmosphere, you will understand how people can get heated up in the process, and it doesn’t take long before it becomes one of those noisy debate panels on a news channel. As my friend later put it, perhaps we all had been through the rigours of the placement season that we wanted each one of us to have the best shot at the opportunity, so no sentence interruptions, no pointing fingers, no “chal be chal, kuch bhi mat bol” gestures. It was like you went to see an India v/s Pakistan match expecting fireworks but you see Virat Kohli smiling & chatting with Shahid Afridi, while the over is in progress! Personally, I was satisfied with what I spoke and how much I spoke. But then again, I was almost satisfied with my first interview, very much satisfied with my second interview and we all know how that turned out.

First obstacle out of the way, next we were all set for the personal interview – with the CEO & the agency’s L&A (Learning & Analytics) head. I was the second candidate to be called (as we later deduced, we were called in order of the sequence we spoke in our GD). It went for almost half an hour. I explained why I was here, where I sought to go, what were my skills, my strengths, my weaknesses. They explained the agency’s vision & culture. A few questions from my end followed and I came out with a positive feeling, but based on recent trends, I wasn’t riding too much on how I felt. The interview got over, it was evening, we were told that based on our interactions, an assignment would be shared with us which will have to be completed in 2-3 days. The same shall be evaluated and a final decision would be made. So they said the latter of the two dialogues I wanted to hear, at least I could go back now actually enjoying the 2-3 hour drive without any burden or let down.

The task was shared with me the next day and I had to submit it in 3 days. It pertained to how would I go about strategizing the India launch of a certain global entity on the digital front. Simultaneously, we had our annual college fest during those 3 days and I had to look after the sports events. I knew I wouldn’t get much time once the fest starts, so I spent the entire day & night working on the task so that the next day I could manage the events on the field without any worries. So technically, I had 2 days to myself. By 5:00 AM on the morning of the 3^rd day, I was done with my task. I went through it once, twice, thrice to spot as many shortcomings & mistakes I could. I was happy with the work I did. At that moment, that was all that mattered. I had a good GD, a nice interview and was satisfied with the work I had put in in the assignment in the given time frame. If it still doesn’t work out for me, then so be it. So I went to bed knowing that I would have to be up again in 3 hours and head on to the field. I didn’t mail them my task just as yet, I kept a small buffer for in case I got time after the event and wanted to make a few tweaks.

The day went off smoothly. After spending nearly 12 hours on the field, I came back to my room, went through the presentation I had made once again, showed it to my roommate to see if he, being a third person could understand everything I wanted to say.

And SEND. My work was done. I shut down my laptop and headed out again. I was involved in the fest the next day as well, like most of my college mates. We all had put in a lot of effort and also this was our last event on campus. People had already booked their tickets for home the very next day. We had a month long break before our exams would commence, in the last week of March. I still hadn’t booked my tickets for home yet, you know why.

The fest went off really well. On a personal level, I was now 6 shades darker, thanks to the oh so bright sun and me being on the ground for better part of the two-day extravaganza.

I was strolling on the campus with a friend. We had just seen off a friend who was going home. It was a pleasant evening and we sat outside the hostel. We saw suitcases coming out, the lane filled with cabs, courier services happily making money. Amidst all this, I got a call on my phone – unknown number. I was getting random calls from colleges for the past few days who wanted to participate in the sports tournaments, but now the fest was over, ab kaun ho sakta tha? Wrong number?

I answered the call and it was the L&A head of the agency I had just interviewed for. A few seconds into the conversation, he said “I’ve called to give you the good news. We really liked your assignment and you have been selected for the strategist profile.” If you are wondering how I felt at that point of time, imagine yourself standing atop a mountain and hearing the echo “YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED..” “YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED..” “YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED..”

He told me the HR representative was going to call me shortly with the details. I said thank you, in fact I remember saying it more than once. What else are you supposed to say when they say you’re hired? I didn’t know, this was my first time!

I kept the phone down, looked at my friend and said “I got a job!” Coincidentally, this was the same friend who shared with me her undergrad experience and told me of my possible weaknesses. So it was nice to have her as the first person to share the news with. I got a call from the HR representative shortly, discussed the pay, the joining date and other details. What was even more satisfactory was that I got a job in the profile that I wanted, and I literally earned it after a quite a bit of struggle. The “something great in store for me” was finally here. The third umpire had finally ruled in my favour.

They had also informed the placement cell of the college about the same & I got a call from the student head of the cell who was understandably very happy and relieved. She was also beginning to get slightly worried with the opportunities slowly thinning and I could feel the honest happiness & sincerity in her congratulations. She asked me to change my Whatsapp status which had been driving her a little crazy – “Waiting for News to Cheer”.

The news spread, my friends congratulated me. Those that had left, called. I was now a six shade darker guy with a twelve shade smile on my face. After it all had sunk in a little, I called home. It was a weekday and I was waiting for both my parents to come home from work so that I could share the news with them simultaneously. I called mom and she said dad hadn’t come home yet. I told her I had an important research survey to do and wanted him to answer a few questions. “So tell him to call me ASAP once he’s back.” Meanwhile, I shared the news with my sister and she was elated as well. She had been my support system in my growing up years and this thing meant a great deal for her as well. Later I got a call from dad, asked him to put the phone on speaker. Continuing with my “survey” bluff, I started off by asking “Aas pass me kuch meetha pada hai?”

And so I broke the news to my parents. They were surprised, happy, elated and puzzled all at once since I hadn’t told them about this job opportunity earlier. They were a bit saddened by the fact that the job was going to be in Mumbai and not Delhi, but for that day, at that moment, that was nothing compared to the joy of seeing their son get his first job. “Ab to ghar aa jaa... naukri mil gayi ab toh”

I will be completing six months at my job in a couple of weeks and it has been a great experience so far. I have made mistakes, I have learned from them, I have tested myself, and I have done well. Also, I have moved on from a college I-Card to a business card. 

When I was asked what quote would I like to have on the back of my card, I thought of the 21 year old me, sitting comfortably in his home in Delhi, wanting to pursue a Masters in advertising at a University in Pune. I made the choice of stepping out of my comfort zone then, and I have come a long way since. What quote would I like to have? Only one thing came to mind.

So, that’s how I got my first job. 

Hope you had as good a time reading it as I had writing it. I am overwhelmed with the response I have received from you all. Thank you, really appreciate it. Will be back soon with another experience, another story.

Until then..
Take Care :)

How I Got My First Job - Part II: Seeing The Silver Lining

In the last post, I talked about how my “let’s get a job” experience was turning out to be longer than expected and a little more testing than what I would have hoped for. Time to take the story forward.

The last week of the year had begun, festive spirit all around and I was still bummed at my rejection. Had it been such a scenario that every day a new company was coming for recruitment, one would have to move on from one interview to the other with much less stress because you wouldn’t have time for it in the first place, pretty much like how it goes in the IPL. You can’t ponder much over a bad game because you have the next game coming up in a couple of days. But with Christmas and New Year approaching, we were told the placement process would gain steam sometime in January only, when the executives & HRs would be back in their offices after a long holiday. So while I was eager to get back on the ground like a player waiting to prove himself so as to get back in the national team, I also knew there were no upcoming matches in the vicinity. The more alone time I spent, the more I would think about that interview, & the more disappointed I would get. I knew I needed a mode of escape, something else to focus my attention to. 

Luckily for me, we had an intra-institute cricket tournament coming up in January & I was the head of the Sports Cell at SIMC. I decided to focus all my attention on it, for three reasons. One, it was cricket, and our team had spent a lot of effort in getting things done. It was imperative that we put up a good show. Second, this was going to be the last major event for the seniors. I was keen to provide a great experience for everyone, something they could cherish as this was also going to be my last major event as in-charge. Lastly, if I did these two things right, I knew I wouldn’t have much time to think about the placement process. 

For those odd times when the thought still crept up in my mind, I was lucky to have some good people around me. Random getaways, evening discussions & late night walks were a solace. A close friend of mine told me about her placement experience during undergrad, how it didn’t pan out the way she would have liked, and yet how she emerged victorious in the end. On another occasion, she told me about some of the weaknesses she felt I had which perhaps hindered my chances in getting a job. This was probably the first time someone had openly talked to me about my weaknesses & strengths, and she made some really good points. The takeaways from such discussions were serendipitous. Had I gotten a job in my first go, such conversations would never have come up and I would have missed out on some great insights about myself. Better late than never, I was beginning to see the silver lining. When I look back at these times, such conversations are my best takeaways.

So I went about the process of making sure our cricket tournament went well. Our team’s efforts paid off and we had a great event. I was happy of being able to see my batch-mates and my juniors enjoy the experience and have a good time, something that’s been my primary goal every time I set out to execute an event for the masses. 

On the other hand, my parents would call me up and ask about the details of the upcoming companies. They were eager to know, understandably so. I myself didn’t know much so couldn’t tell them anything either. But back in my mind, I decided the next time they would hear about a job from me would be the one that I got. Until then, I wasn’t going to tell them anything.

Then one day we were told of a prominent agency coming to the campus. Back to the drawing board then for me. I cleared the on-campus process and was called to the Mumbai head office along with other shortlisted candidates. The D Day arrived, and I was ready to step on the field. I had taken a note of the learnings I had from my previous interview & left my room in the morning with the optimism that I would come back to it with a happy news. That of course, time was going to tell. The interview went well, I answered everything I was asked the way I would have liked and I also clarified some of the queries I had in my mind. Remember how I gauged my interview based on my first reaction on coming out? This time, there was not one thing I would change.

We waited, and after an hour or so, the shortlist for the next round came out. One of my friends and fellow applicant was handed over the list to share the same with us.
“Guys, they have shortlisted 5 of us for the next round..
XX
XX
XX
XX
and
the last one is me. That's it guys.”

I didn’t make the cut. I DIDN’T make the cut. I was shocked more so because I didn’t know where I went wrong. It was like making a century and yet the selectors thinking you’re not good enough for the team and choosing to ignore you. As I would later be told, they were not too keen on a fresher, and wanted someone with job experience. I was disappointed, I was angry. Search thesaurus for the synonyms of these words and I was every single one of them! I wished my batch-mates going forward all the best and set on my way back to Pune. 

During the ride, we came to know how at the last moment, the said agency arbitrarily changed certain clauses regarding the job opportunity, including the pay. This was like déjà vu. Another opportunity I missed later turned out to be something else only. From my school days itself, I wasn’t too obsessed with the prospects of getting into a prestigious college post school, getting the much sought after course. I did my job, which was to study and knew other things would be taken care of by the third umpire sitting in the heaven. I got a good score in my Class XIIth boards, but didn’t make the cut for any of the north campus colleges of Delhi University, the likes of – SRCC, Hindu, Hansraj. I got admission in an off-campus college, had a great time there during my three years, began writing, started a blog, got two internships because of it, played tennis for the better part of my three years and most importantly, developed an interest in advertising. Had I been to the aforementioned colleges, who knows where I would have gone. But I didn’t, and have lived to tell the tale! 

So when we were told of this last minute change by the agency, I was a bit relieved and felt the third umpire up there was perhaps planning his own moves, as always. I was so eager to get into that agency because I had been following them since my undergrad days. After an hour of sadness and anger, I was now surprisingly, confident because I felt that if I didn’t get the job I so eagerly wanted, there was surely something much better in store for me. This wasn’t a false sense of hope, but a strong belief which was substantiated by my experiences thus far in life, which I will talk about some other day.

So while I was a little happy, I still didn’t know what lay ahead of me & how much longer would I have to wait. At that moment, my phone beeped. An e-mail from the placement cell, regarding another placement opportunity I had applied for. I had to report to the agency’s office in Mumbai for the recruitment process. Here I was, coming back from Mumbai to Pune after a long hectic day, after an interview that didn’t go through, and I had to do the same now in a couple of days, again. 

Later that night, when I came back to my room, as I lay on my bed, I thought back of the morning when I left believing that I would come back with a job. I laughed, I was no longer angry, just tired. One more day, and I would once again be on my way to Mumbai for another trial with destiny. Will the selectors take note of my performance then? Will I make the cut? 

I didn’t know it then, you will know it, next week, in the third and final part of this series.

Until then
Take care :)

How I Got My First Job - Part I: The Tournament Begins

Since my last few years in school, I approached the examinations just as a cricket team approaches an upcoming series or tournament. I took each subject as a cricket playing nation based on certain attributes & would write on a paper how confident I felt the night before the exam. After the exam, I used to come back home & write on that paper how the “match” actually went. This was an interesting tactic for me, it used to somehow keep the element of boredom away. When in November 2015, the placement season commenced at my post graduation institution - SIMC Pune, I was expecting an interesting tournament for myself. What was in store for me though was way more than interesting. It was the kind that makes the word “serendipitous” fit perfectly.

I didn’t sit for any company for a month into the placement season. I knew the kind of opportunity I was looking for and didn’t want to flap my hands at anything and everything that came my way. People around me started getting jobs. I was firmly, and happily not of the mark yet. Then one fine day, it was confirmed that a certain agency was coming to campus. I was interested in the profile and confidently took my first chance with it. I say confidently because I was quite optimistic about my chances. Since my school days, I used to work hard for the things I wanted and they often came through in the first or second attempt. I never let this translate into over-confidence, but I knew that I still hadn’t experienced “what struggle is” and my time for that would come. Will that come in the placement season, I wasn’t so sure (and rather hoping that it won’t!). 

So the D-Day arrived, and I ventured into the placement seating venue in my crisp formal attire and the events gradually unfolded. We were divided into teams of two and had to make a presentation before the panel of judges on a certain topic allotted to us. We did. Was it the best presentation I had ever made? No. While talking only I could feel it inside, “man, I am hearing myself and this is not turning out to be the way I visualized it in mind.” Results came out later that day. My partner made the shortlist. I  didn’t. Disappointed, but fair enough. It was like playing a match after a long time period. I was “rusty”. Later we came to know that the said company reduced the promised CTC by more than 50% without any strong reason. Their dealings with the shortlisted candidates weren’t the most professional either. Lucky miss, I told myself. At least I got good match practice. My one bad game of the tournament was out of the way, or so I thought.

The next day itself we came to know of a prominent agency coming to our campus. The package offered was precisely the basic minimum I had decided for in my mind prior to the commencement of the placement season. But the scope was good. I so wanted it. The catch? I could either sit for the placement process or attend my sisters’ wedding. I say sisters’ because my two first cousins on either side were getting married, on successive days, which collided with the placement process. Understandably, I cancelled my tickets and skipped the weddings. “Let’s get this job for my sisters”, I told myself. Seemed a good climactic finish to me. I passed the written test, did well in the preliminary interview and was shortlisted for the final round – in Mumbai, at the agency’s head office. Excited, confident, optimistic and positively nervous – I approached the upcoming battle.

Good wishes were coming from all quarters, I was quite hopeful of making the cut, pretty much like how India would have fancied their chances against Kenya in the 2003 World Cup semi-final. The interview wasn’t the best I had ever had, but was decent. The thing with interview is, I always gauge how well it went on the basis of my first reaction on coming out of the room. The more you wait, the more “oh I should have said this instead” creeps into your mind. My first reaction here was slightly on the positive note. Time to wait for the results then. 

We were happily coming back from our trip when one of my friends, who also had the interview and was also the placement team member spoke all of a sudden, “Guys, they sent the mail. They have shortlisted just one of us.” As one would expect in such situations, it wasn’t her. It wasn’t me either. It was someone else, a friend nonetheless. We congratulated her, she humbly accepted our wishes and then got busy on the phone to share the news with her dear ones. A close friend of mine had the interview the same day with another company, and she got through. Great news for me, as a friend. Not so great, as a person. 

My upbeat mood went down in a second and I was the saddest I had ever been in the last few years! I wasn’t expecting this. Got a call from my family, they gave those customary words of wisdom, “aur opportunities aayengi.” I knew they were a bit disappointed as well, as much as they try, they can’t hide their feelings from me. I could. That’s how we have lasted happily for so many years! So I came back to campus, went straight to my room, sat on the bed, gave myself a small pep talk and decided to skip the dinner and watch something – an old cricket match or an episode of Friends – just to take my mind off it. Got a call from one of my close friends, the word had spread, she asked if I was ok and if I had had dinner. I told her I was fine, just not in the mood to see anyone.  

That night and the next day I was at my lowest point. Remember how I said I hadn’t faced struggle yet? I was getting a small taste of it now, and it wasn’t good. This was around Christmas. My batch mates were planning vacations, going on trips, I decided to shun everything out until I got that "news to cheer" mail. Well, after every final selection, a mail would be sent by the Placement cell to the entire batch & faculty mentioning the names of the students who had got placed. I was now so eager to get that mail with my name in it. My parents asked if I was coming home for New Year. They weren’t going to see their son come home without an offer letter. They understood.  

So the end of the year approaching, no new company in sight, festivities all around and here I stood, waiting for my finest moment in the sun. What happened next, you will get to read next week, in part II of this 3 part series.

Till then..
Take care :)