Story of a job hunter..

If you are one among the 2008 or 2009 passed out, then you must've known how hard was it to get a job then. And for a guy who is one among the 2009s and had a very weird preconceived opinion about getting a job, its even worse. I was someone who did not have any ambition to whom i wanna be. If you had asked me then, i would've said that i wanna become like A.R.Rahman. Pretty impossible. But i could've made that possible (Of course not like Rahman but at least a small time composer!) only if everything fell in place. Everything that interest me back in the day was music. So it was pretty obvious for me to choose the path i should be taking. For everything in life, there has to be a bad phase. Like the bad time that struck when i had to choose my career. It was when i went along with my brother for his Engineering admission, my Engineering admission was confirmed. How funny can that be? My focus was to get into Visual Communication but then everything changed when a she-devil cast an evil spell on my dad. She brainwashed him by prophesying her version of the future of VisCom students. It was that they had to shoot videos for marriage functions and nothing else. That's when my dad's conscience had to balance between my words and hers. And obviously, the experienced person wins. That too she was none other than the person responsible of my college placements.

Four years of Engineering was hell when it comes to studies but was fun otherwise. Every semester was like a war that i had to build a very strong heart to face every paper and so do for the results. For my parents, arrears in the very first semester was a pre cognitive notion that i would never graduate Engineering at all. It was hard to convince them that arrears are just a part of Engineering life (for us it was like an unofficial mandatory custom to have at least one. Mandatory? Well, arrears naturally comes our way!)

When God closes one door, he opens another (for all reasons!). He didn't want to see me struggling all alone. So he had gifted me an awesome set of friends and asked us to stay together since childhood. And they gave a helping hand when arrears fell like rain during my college days. It was one of my close friend Naveen and me who always used to study together. Like all other Engineering students, we dust off our books only during our study holidays. If there is 3 days preparation holiday, we would take our books the night before the exam. Our method of studying is different. We used to start studying at 10pm, each of us would complete 2 units in a book of 5 units, would finished it by 2am, do a knowledge transfer that goes till 5am. The rest one unit, would finish it on the way to exam. I still wonder how we used to clear the papers. Well after all, Engineering papers evaluation method is still a mystery.

As days went by, the biggest burden of placements started to petrify me. Not many companies come for placements in our college and being the year 2008, nothing really came. We had a very confused placement officer who knows nothing about anything. One day he would walk in to announce that L&T or TCS is coming, two days after he would walk in again to say it is not. This used to happen very often and then whenever he walks into our class, we never used to take his words seriously. It was one day he informed about Infosys placements. We never took it seriously as usual but we came to know Infosys is really coming from other outside sources. I started preparing but the preparation wasn't enough to clear Infosys aptitude test. The first 8 toppers from every two class of every department went home with their offer letter. Me, just went home with a heavy heart. We are 7 in our gang and 3 people got placed except me 2 more friends, and my brother (though he is far better than me and since just 2 companies came to our college, it was hard for him!!) My brother and two of his friends decided to start a small time web designing business till they get a job. I didn't wanna join them cuz i couldn't compete with their technical intelligence.
During my final year, i had a promise instilled in my mind that i should not have any backlogs cuz it would be hard for me to clear it then. Hence I needed more people's guidance. Its always easier to listen to someone explaining than learning it yourself (quick learning!) I used to go to some 5 of my friends house everyday for the knowledge transfer. It wasn't difficult to write what my friends explained and hence cleared all my final year papers (kudos to them!)

Graduated out of college with no job. It was then Nikith, another close friend of mine became my good companion for THE JOB HUNT. Every week we attended around 6-7 companies. Either we will not get selected or will it not be like a company at all. There was this one company called us for the interview and we couldn't find the company even after hours of intense search in that area. Later a tea shop owner helped us locate it. It was in one corner of a building terrace which had only two rooms- One to take interview and the other, a so-called 'workplace' which had only 3 computers.

After a very long search, i got into Allsec BPO and the other guy got into Cognizant BPO. I guess many 2008 and 2009 passed outs would've been in at least one BPO before joining an IT company. Allsec was one of the best BPOs. Had so much fun there and made lots of friends. My batch in Allsec seize to exist after 3 months cuz everyone in my batch were Engineers and everyone absconded when they got a job cuz that's when IT field started to come up. Many of them got into big IT companies except me. I listened to my friends' advice that i wont be able to find a job being in a BPO, night shift. After leaving Allsec, i again started my job hunt, this time, all alone.

Everything changed one night when i went to my brother's office for night stay. My brother and his two friends started asking me about my future plans and made me realize that i wont get a job unless i gain some technical knowledge. All of a sudden it was like a star of wisdom shone above my head and showed me a road to travel when i was stuck in pitch dark. I started learning the basics of few technologies and prepared myself to face any interview and come out with an offer letter. My brother was smart enough to get into Systech solutions but i got stuck right at the technical round. It was then Shaan, a HR working in Systech, helped me out and gave me a chance to attend the final round straight away. Still, my preparation wasn't enough for them as their expectations were more. I started to think if i would ever get a job. It was then my friend told me about the Cognizant recruitment. It was a mere joke for me when he asked me to attend the interview cuz for me, companies like Cognizant, Infosys, L&T, etc were like Microsoft, Google, Facebook. Imagine where Microsoft, Google, Facebook are.? They are not even in my list. After so much advice from my brother and friends i just wanted to give it a shot. Luckily, I cleared all rounds (even the 2 rounds technical interview, each 40 mins!!! Can you imagine??) I felt "joy" within me, churn out with vibrant spectrum of colors. I wanted to thank Shaan for trying so hard to get me into Systech. Nothing can be equivalent for her timely help but bought her a big bar of chocolate as a token of thankfulness (I had to insist her to take it. And Choco?? Well, money constrain!! :P) I also wanted to thank the VP for rejecting me there which had me get into One of the World's Fastest Growing IT Companies In The World.

Life after college is so different. Hope this post would've tingled a reminiscence of your past struggles to get a job (strictly for guys of my type!!) Its time that i had to add Google and Microsoft in my list.... LOL!!