My first interview :-)

It was a pleasant thursday morn, 18th november. Was about to attend my first official interview (cudnt get thro the 1st round in the prev one so ain't counting that). Reached coll by coll bus at 9...der was a lotta buzz in the auditorium, all the guys lookin professional in perfect formals, gals lookin sweet, wearin what befits an interview.

I got down from the bus n joined my pals in the auditorium.

We all chatted for a while in the darkness of the last rows in the hall, exchanged few so-called 'possible QnAs'...while waiting for the TCS fellas to turn up...An turn up they did, say around 9.30.. And then the 'pre-placement' talk began....I enthusiastically took out my cute little notepad with an aim of takin notes - which i felt wud come in handy during the HR interview...A few mins into the PPT i realized der was nothin worthwhile to take down n just sat back n listened to something better - my class guys' mokkais :-)

A welcome change by TCS this time was the exemption of candidates >7.5 CGPA from the ever-boring 1st apti round...was pround to know that PEC was 1 among the 15 colls in Tamil Nadu to have been given that perk. The ppt got over in an hour n while one batch headed to the labs to crack the 1st round i headed to the restroom, to don my usual 'interview shirt' (a pure white one) and a tie. ofcourse everyone else round me was doing the same.

And then set my destination co-ordinates to that of the CENTAC office entrance n reached der in a few mins. Fortunately i was one the first ones among the short-listed candidates to be interviewed(was happy to get it over with). Sat outside the interview room awaiting my turn. Was happy to see few of my class girls were der helping out....their very presence made me comfy n relieved.

In a few mins i was called for n all the nervousness i had outside the room vanished the minute i stepped in...The interviewer was cool...real cool....i was impressed by the way he spoke n his 'feel-at-home' attitude. And i was quite sure he was impressed by me too :-) The exchange of pleasantries went on for a while n then the Q's came in...To my surprise , der wasnt a single technical ques....everythin was just abt me, my interests n stuff...i answered all of them patiently, and with a smiling face :-) After abt 15 mins it was over. i bid him goodbye n left the hall....

If u wanna know what i asked in the interview, here's a gist: [Click on the images to enlarge them]

The next day, say around 5pm, i got the sweet news that i was selected :-) And even sweeter news was that most of my close pals had also got thro. We all were in high spirits, as we wud be spending the beginning of our corporate lives 2gether too :-) 29 got thro from my class...overall 216 from PEC....(TCS was on a recruiting spree!)

PS:- Am typing this post 3 days after the interview. Whether i wud be joining TCS or not, only time will tell. But am glad i got thro n glad my frenz got thro too :-) Der are still companies coming in the near future to my coll, n der's the off-campus too...got my optioins open....But this was my first interview and hence it'll remain a sweet memory for me....
So what happens from now on?? Well ,stay tuned for further posts folks!