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 :)