Was it all clockwork carefully wound by Him???

Two years hence life was so different. Try this... I was one of those fortunate kids who graduated from College of Engineering, Guindy, Asia's oldest technical institution. I had no regrets for missing out on the IITs probably because our college was ranked in the Top 10 and our Alumni held equally prestigious positions worldwide. Yet little did I know that our college had been losing its sheen in the recent past and that the onus of putting our college back on the world map was solely on us students. By the time I realized the changes in the New World Order, it was too late. The so called IT boom had taken its toll and was successfully luring some of the best talents for 'virtually' well paid jobs. Needless to mention I was one of its victims too.

As electronics engineer I had short-listed four career options. While an IT job was almost guaranteed, searching for a core job was still a herculean task. Realists gave their GREs and managed admits from America’s famed institutions. A handful of geeks even decided to do it the tougher way dreaming to do research in IISc and IITs. There was a fourth kind who took over their father’s business or joined b-schools. While I had no interest in doing research I was damn sure that taking an IT job was suicidal. So I decided there was no harm in giving GRE as a backup plan. But within a month's time the placements season started and I was destined to convert my very first interview with Tata Consultancy Services. I distinctly remember the way I felt about my first success that I often cherish and laugh my ass over it till now.

It’s very interesting to see how your career decisions get skewed when you realize you have a well paid job in your basket of options. Thank god I didn’t get placed with Biggies like Microsoft for I wouldn’t have realized the real ‘me’ then. Hailing from a not so wealthy family I can understand how many Indian dreams get buried under a pile of cash. Suddenly GRE seemed a costly affair and too uneconomical at least for my family situation. I didn’t want to join TCS either. It was at this juncture I had to do a serious self-introspection and was surprised why I had ruled out going for a b-school. I could ascribe three reasons for not having considered it. One, no one in my family lineage was a businessman. Two, I didn’t know what MBA can do to a person and Three, securing a seat in IIMs is the toughest of endeavours one can fancy(At least that’s what people think). I was also aware of the fact that from now on whatever silly decisions I took was to decide my entire life. So I had to be careful and swift enough in making decisions. After serious deliberation and consulting from well wishers it seemed that I was way behind from what I would do with my life and an MBA would be a professional way to identify my real passion.

Everyone knows that a work experience can always come handy and is mandatory in the west for getting admitted in a b-school. But having decided to work one has to decide what kind of experience will add value for an MBA. Now that explains why TCS suddenly became a god sent gift. I believe the kind of learning a prospective MBA aspirant gets in a services company like TCS is no less than what I would have gained in Microsoft except for the technical excellence which is of no importance to me. Of course I don’t deny the fact that a Microsoft in my profile would land me better jobs even after MBA.

Two years have gone past and when I deliberate on the events that have shaped my recent past, I am overwhelmed. I couldn’t have asked for more from God and I am about to embark on a historic odyssey to discover myself shortly. After having decided my career there was no reason to turn back. I went on to enroll myself for the best coaching available and I made sure I left no stone unturned since it was a make or break situation to me unlike my friends who had been giving CAT from college days. There was no room for second chance. The good old preparation days are unforgettable. Now I am all done with my hardwork and its upto the institutes to say whether i am worth it.

If you didn't know, companies like TCS and Infy are the breeding grounds of future leaders. One won't be astonished to find someone from the next cubicle sitting for CAT. One gets to meet different people from different cultures and different walks of life with different needs and wants. TCS is the place to understand Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. You get to decide what you want to be there. You will find achievers yearning for big things in life and poor souls dreaming for onsite( no intention to hurt anybody) co-exist with seamless integrity. The corporate experience has indeed been earth shattering and enlightening as well. In the sense, it has given me a taste of the real bad world out there.

Was it all clockwork carefully wound by Him?? Or is it a mere coincidence that things have been getting better and better? According to Second Law of thermodynamics things left undisturbed should get more unordered everyday. In short the entropy should always increase. If my guess was right the day Murphy wakes up should not be too far. By the time he does I should be inured enough to take on any uncertainties in life.

A detailed dissertation of my encounters with the third kind in TCS will be followed up in the following blog.

IIM Calcutta

The GD was a small business situation. About the entry strategy to be used by Sumo Inc , a digital camera giant in Japan, while entering India.

Interview:

1. Lots of questions on work ex which I don't want to elaborate again and again. They asked me on innovative applications for datawarehousing in Governance. I talked about farm sector reforms and education. How can we integrate DW and AI. It was a nice discussion for me.

2. Recently your college was in news regarding banning od cell phones and imposing dress code. What do you think of it?

3. You have mentioned your interests in entrepreneurship. Do you have any business plans yet.

4. Don't you think many people who have shone in this field are technical genius.

5. You are from a good college. why don't you go on to do an MS? Or an ME here?

6. How do you think IIMC will help you get what you want? You know anybody who are already entrepreneurs from IIMC?

7. Do you think the entrepreneurship cells in technical institutes are a success models. Did your college have one?

I am not able to recollect many questions exactly. Probably I got too bored of posting the questions. I remember talking more than what he asked for most of the times. It was the coolest ofthe interviews not only for me but for everybody.

IIM Ahmedabad

The case was about a restaurant chain which is successful in Ahmedabad is moved to Chennai. It claims to have two separate kitchens for veg and non-veg. But one day a chicken piece is found in a veg dish. The restaurant's reputation is under grave danger. What should the owner do?

Interview:

It was the best of the interviews in my basket.

1. What do you do in a typical day?

2. What is Business Intelligence?

3. Don't you think its a high profile job? Why do every software engg curse his job? Have you considered working in a manufactuirng or sales job?

4. So if you already love the job why do you want an MBA?

5. Will you join TCS after MBA then?

6. What kind of profile do you expect for an IIMA grad there?

7. Can't you get there without an MBA? Differentiate an MBA and Non-MBA in the role you just mentioned.

8. You have all six calls. anyother apart from that?

9. You gave 6 exams? Don't you have confidence in you?

10. What is the probability that you will make it to atleast 1 IIM? Work out in steps.

me: Answered in a complicated way and made a blunder. He kept on giving clues and i finally corrected.

11. What are P-type and N-type semiconductors?

12. Do they carry charge by default? Are they free electrons?

13. You have heard of Bohr's model. The electrons are infact revolving around the nucleus. Then why do we draw a line between two electrons in a covalent bond. How is it physically present?

14. You should have gone through the Budget? What are major two kinds of taxes?

15. What all comprise of Indirect taxes?

16. Is CST an indirect tax?

17. The cost of collection of indirect taxes has been very high for the govt. Can we scrap off the indirect tax and collect everything as direct tax from end customers?

18. You have mentioned about TAS as your other option. what is that?

19. Only one from TCS makes it? Why is it so tough?

20. What are your interests?

{ We discussed about "The world is flat", "Thomas Friedman" and "Stiglitz".

21. What is Stiglitz's claim to fame? Is he an economist?

22. Can we give him a Nobel prize?

23. How many Indians have got nobel prize?

24. What are the various categories for the prize? Which was the last one to be added?

25. There are two who have got Peace prize while residing in India. Who are they?

26. Who got the Peace prize last year?

IIM Bangalore

I finally was there living the life of an IIMB student for one day. It was held in the campus. There were three panels with two profs each.

The GD was a case as usual. It dealt with a conflict of two values of a company and the protagonist had to decide upon compromising one or none in order to pitch a huge deal. It was a cultured GD on the whole. I would rate myself 4th in the group of 10.

Interview:

1. So what are people discussing outside?
me: They are very much happy they are being questioned on their work ex and current affairs and not on academics.

2. Guess we have to change the trend then. Where can we start?

3. { The IT Prof started questioning on work ex then} tell me your profile exactly?

4. What technologies have you learnt till now?

5. How far have you explored UNIX?

6. What is the difference between C Shell and Bash Shell?
me: Answered the basic differences.

7. Have you done Kernel programming?
me: No. I just use is as a platform. We use it to schedule jobs. My major forte is in SAS.

{ SAS is an important business package that is used is IIMB research lab. I thought it could come in handy. But it never did :( }

8. Have you used crontab while scheduling?

9. Describe the business logic you have developed in the project.

{ Over to the Strategy Prof }

10. What is your stake on the Kaveri Issue? { Hailing form Tamil Nadu and sitting in B'lre, it was indeed a sensitive issue to discuss. I had to be as equivocal as possible. }

me: A 5 minute speech encompassing History, truth according to Karnataka govt. and TN govt., politics involved and my suggestions to solve the problem.

{ I seemed so convincing atleast to myself ;) }

11. What things would you consider if you had to move TCS to J&K?

me: Answered about the history, business climate, few things to be done on the govt. part before Tata's can take their first step.

12. You seem to be poor in maths. You have got D grade in two papers in math.

me: Grades aren't indicative of a person's talent.

13. But they do indicate how you have performed in the exams. Don't they??

{ I answered about Fourier transforms and cauchy's integral theorem being so tough for me intially. But they form a vital part of many other subjects and I pointed out a few in which I had scored A. The least I could do. }

14. Last quetion. Why should we take you?

IIM Lucknow

GD Topic: "Politicians are the same all over the world. They will talk about building bridge even where there is no river."

We had to write an essay about the same topic for about 10 mins. The idea is to evaluate the content of the student even before the GD.

For a moment the topic seemed to be vague. But it had lots of fundamental questions to be asked. Ofcourse we were supposed to talk about POLITICIANS. Is 15 mins ENOUGH???

I and another gentleman were donning the discussion. Hailing from Tamil Nadu I was never short of examples. Kalaingar's "A TV for every household" did the magic.

Interview: It lasted for 13 mins exactly. But was I really unlucky?? I should wait untill the results are out. This was clearly my worst performance. But everyone felt so. It was a cool interview for many people and never lasted more than 15 mins. I personally felt bad because I fear they could have hardly judged me by the answers I gave.

1. What make you feel happy?

me: Pat came a grandiose reply. Following my dreams and feeling a sense of control over life makes me Happy Sir.

2. Why are you so diplomatic? It was meant to ease you up. Are you tensed?

me: No Sir. I said normally I feel happy when I am with my friends. blaw blaw...

3. Why have you got such poor grades in maths? Math II - D, Material Science - D, Electronic Circuits II - D

me: {Jesus. It surely wasn't my day.} I wasn't actually prepared for that. Said the class performed almost in the same way barring few As and Bs. I pointed out how I worked out my weaknesses and performed well in the next two years. I had never got less than C after 4th sem.

4. Your University seems to be too lenient. You know in IIML if you get (2 Fs) you are out. or (4 Ds). or (1 F and 2 Ds)

me: I realised that D was mere pass in IIMs. In our college it is a little better.(60-70%). But he never seemed satisfied.

5. You have said you are the Team Lead. What are your responsibilities?

me: Answered

6. What can we do with a datawarehouse?

me: Thats from my work ex. Defined a datawarehouse.

7. Tell me two applications for it in Sales and two in Finance.

me: Talked about Performance tracking, Marketing strategy evaluation, data mining etc. Couldn't differentiate for Finance. Any Financial data can be analysed across geographies and timelines. I wasn't to specific.

8. Which management subjects you have studied in college?

me: Principles of Management, Engg Economics, TQM.

9. What is Producer's surplus?

me: Talked about demand and supply curves and if one produces quanity greater than what the market demands it will be a surplus. { That was bull shit. The actual answer is way different. Lemme explain now. Any quantity can be sold at a particular price. If the price increased the quantity demanded reduces and vice versa. Similary the supply increases, the price also increases. So the producers usually decide on the equilibrium price which is found at the intersection of demand and supply curve. Now if we look at the graph below equilibrium point the product could have been sold even at a lower price than the equilibrium price. The excess amount made by selling at the equilibrium price is the producer's surplus. }

10. What is TQM?

me: Told about Quality. Deming & Juran. etc { Should have talked abt TCS quality processes too :( }.

11. What is Deming's philosophy.

me:I remembered it had 14 points but I could recollect none. :(

12. What is the turnover for TCS?

me: Answered.

13. Who is heading it?

me: At last I felt insulted since the questions were deliberately easy. I added about the next potential CEOs also.

Two more questions which I am not able to recollect now.

Overall I wasn't too happy in comparison to my previous experience.

IIMI Interviews

It was held in People Education Society(PESIT) campus, Bangalore. We were again split into 10 per batch.

Case Study discussion:

The case for the day was about a clash in management styles. A young MBA in the marketing team closes two important deals but with crucial deadlines. The Operations team is headed by a senior person who always thinks long term and fears he would have to compromise on quality if he had to work with such deadlines. There comes the clash of egos and the production manager escalates the issue to the chairman and recommends for the young fellow's transfer.

I made decent contributions overall. Cases are my forte and let me skip the points.

Interview: Indore is known for its mimicking of IIMA. Right from the Data forms to the cases to the drilling in acads, they just love doing it the Latter's way. Mine lasted about 25 mins. There were two people, a lady about 45 and a techie guy about 30.

1. The lady started of with the cliched tell me about yourself.

2. What are your interests?

me: I started off with my favourite, gaming, graphic designing. Talked about team gaming back in college. My contributions during college fests and symposiums. { I had developed my department's wensite too.}

3. So you have your own website?

me: Of course mam. I had developed one during college but never hosted it. Then the emergence of freewebs and blogs made it simpler.

4. what is its address?

me: She noted it down as if she s definitely gonna see it. { Got lot of work to do now :) }

5. What books do you read?

me: I prefer self-improvement, science and non-fictions. I rarely buy some famous fictions suggested by my friends.

6. What was the recent non-fiction you read?

me: The world is Flat by Thomas Friedman

The interview went similar to IIMK. But much more deaper. Thank God I had done my homework after last interview. Was able to give a clear picture about Globalization, Glocalization, flatteners etc. I steared it into Stiglitz's views on TRIPS/pharmaceuticals etc.

7. What is a patent? How is it different from IPR?

me: Answered. Also mentioned that India had only process patents. I said i Wasn't sure product patents has been implemented in India or not. She mentioned it has been implemented recently.

8. How do you think product patents will affect Indian Pharma companies?

me: I said the basic business models of Indian pharma like Ranbaxy. How it exploits expired patents and cash-in on cost advantages.

8. What else do you do in free time?

me: Hope she was looking for movies and music stuff. Said i watch movies of all genre. I am a die hard fan of steven spielberg. I Also mentioned that i have the full collection of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and watch it often.

9. What was the latest movie you saw?

me: Blood Diamond.

10. What does it mean?

me: It is also called as war diamonds/conflict diamonds. The movie brings to light the illegal diamond smuggling in some of the crisis ridden countries of Africa and how it is used to fund the war in the region. Sierra Leone, Angola, congo are some of the countries linked with it. I also mentioned about the links with Liberia, Kimberley and Europe.

11. Who were the cast?

me: Di caprio and Connely. Not sure about the african.

12. What is the next big thing almost similar to diamonds? It is also called a Blood something.

me: I was clueless. Guessed it could be Ivory since there is lot of poaching. Also said oil could be another but not as much as middle east. Its found only in gabon.

She said Ivory was a good guess. But its cocoa. Blood choclolates was the answer. { Gosh she knew everthing i brought up }

{Over to the techie} :((

13. Ok we'll start with electronic devices. Tell me how potential energy is converted to kinetic energy in an electronics device.

me: I started of with a diode and later realised i couldn't pluck anything with that. Then decided to use a simple voltage source to explain how it has potential energy. Basic law from eletrostatics. Then how its is converted to kinetic energy when the terminals are shorted or a network is connected to the source.

14. Have you done soldering? what is it made of?

me: Said i had done during a mini project in first year. It had 50% Tin but forgot the other half. { It was lead }.

15. Why is tin used?

me: Said because it binds easily with copper.

16. Is it just binding? There is something else.

me: Not sure sir { of course it was its low melting point.}

17. I will give you pure iron, copper and aluminium. Which of these transfers heat faster?

me: { Material science sucks }. I said I had forgotten the physical properties of metals. There must be some coefficient for that. Tried explaining how heat is actually transfered through collision and constant emission and absorption of EMW by atoms in conduction band.

18. It was a simple GK question. you have complicated it.

me: smiles

19. What is a microprocessor?

me: Phew at last . Blasted off with all i knew about uP an uC. Said I had done two projects in uC itself.

20. What is MRI?

me: Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

21. Thats it? How does it work? Why some people are adviced not to go for it?

me: Said I haven't read about it anywhere. It is used for brain scans and tumours.

22. You have got an 'A' in Medical electronics and you say you haven't read about it???

me: ( poor me. we definitely didn't study that. but when i said that he gave a harsh reply that he knew evertything in AU syllabi. :((( }

23. Explain microwaves using some application.

me: Talked about the obvious microwave oven. Its functioning. How water molecules are oxidised. Why we cannot heat food without water content. Caution to be taken while heating pure water etc etc.

24. This anybody using oven will know. What do you know as an engineer from a premier institute Sir?

me: { great insult } I described the freq range. Its uses in communication. Adv: Directivity and high energy. Disadv: Multipath fading etc. { I forgot to mention the whole concept of waveguides and applications. may be he was expecting it }

25. Thank you. Do you have any questions?

me: I had already got up and collected my file. So decided to leave peacefully. :)))

Lesson learnt:

1. Acads, acads, acads.{ Why didn't I give CAT back in college.}

2. I was saved only because the interview focussed on my interests. If it were to be current affairs i am royally screwed.

IIMK interviews

February 14th - Valentine's day. For the first time in my life this day had a significance. It was my first attempt at selling myself to the IIMs and I could already feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins. I was supposed to be at The Monarch Hotel, Brigade road for the Kozhikode interview. There were around 30 people who had turned up and three panels waiting for their preys.


GDs at Kozhikode are usually a small piece of article about which we are expected to discuss for about 15 mins. The article was about whether panchayats have to be brought under the constitution and their roles in public works, education and health.


I couldn't recollect even a gist about the panchayat raj reforms. So I chose the defensive and tried defining panchayats and their nature. I went in three times with valid points and went with the croud rest of the time. I contrasted the pros and cons of having a local administration. The possibilities of a village head actually being as efficient as a trained IAS officer. Issues involving the powers that can be vested and not vested. I brought about the dangers in enabling the panchayats to have judicial powers since it could sometimes even violate the constitution. I finally talked about how it can and has helped in local infrastructure development and education.


Interview lasted for 30 mins. It was a well balanced interview that didn't spare a single area of testing. There were two profs one who knows everything under the sun and another a techie. It started off with a comment about my funky specs matching the tie.


1. Tell me about yourself? -

me: I answered. {I could hardly finish my third sentence when the other person interrupted}


2. I am bored of asking technical questions for the previous junta..tell me about your interests.

me: Gaming, Computer graphics designing, watching hollywood movies, reading non-fiction etc.


3. What games? cricket? football?

me: No sir. But i am a computer gamer.


4. Why computer games? {Said the stuff i had prepared. reasons, fav genre, my learning through it.}


5. Don't you think it is not good for your vision? what kind of games you play. { I tried to weigh the pros and cons and finally justify my stance. I also said i am good at FPS and RPG games}


6. So you love killing ohters? are you so cruel inside you?

me: { I was puzzed. Said it is not about killing others but the struggle for existence. I said I can't afford to lose my concentration even for a moment else i'll take a bullet on my forehead. Brought in the management skills of strategic planning, tactical moves, sensitivity and agility into conversation. I was convinced but he wasn't - probably he had never seen a computer gamer play before. A good lesson learnt.}


7. So where do you buy these game CDs?

me: {I could see something coming up} I usually buy them in landmark. But we do share games among our friends. I blurted out that i do buy some pirated games if i am desperate about a game.


8. So you don't find it unethical to encourage piracy?

me: { Now see that was my nemesis. I tried to bring in the current nature of piracy in US and India. I tried to contrast them and also how companies like MS are actually encouraging just to gain market penetration. But frankly he wasn't satisfied with the way I compromised my ethics. :( }


9. Do you watch movies?

me: {I said yes. But this time I was careful in saying that i like watching them in theatre. :) }


10. ( He questioned about why I had taken a course on C as well as NCFM.)

me: { I said they were taken at different stages in my life and it is not in chronological order in my file }


11. Few questions on NCFM - what module. what were the syllabi. what you learnt out of it. where are you strong. one question about equities.

me: answered everthing


12. (Finally acads). Your favourite subjects?

me: digital electronics and communication theory.


13. what is Frame relay? {bulll shitt}

me: {It was remotely communication topic. I said it was a protocol used in computer communication. didn't remember its layers or operation}


14. Is it related to ISDN?

me: Sir i think it is the backbone of the Integrated subsriber digital network. { I wasn't sure of the expansion though. So i said i have forgotten completely }


15. Have you studied satellite communication?

me: {A proud Yes.} :)


16. How many satellites are required for a GPS system?

me: I think it can be implemented with a geostationary network since its main objective is to track an entity at any point at any time instant. This can be accomplished with three Geo sats at 120 degrees apart along equator.


17. I don't want you to design a GPS. just tell me how many satellites are used in reality?

me: Definitely don't know sir.


18. Should it necessarily be a geo? what height are the geo satellites located?

me: It need not be sir. I forgot the distance sir.


19. Have you heard of GPRS.

me: { Thank god.I said its expansion. Its purpose. how data is transfered and services possible with GPRS.}


20. How to avoid packet loss in a GPRS network?

me: { clueless. Iterated the ways loss can occur. data corruption. complete packet loss. CRC. source and destination addresses etc. But never answered the question asked :)) }

We also discussed about LAN(ethernet). should it always be CSMA/CD or can we use TCP/IP.


21. What was the recent book you read?

me: I mentioned "The world is flat" by Thomas Freidman.


22. Who is he?

me: He is an economist from California Univ. { I think it was way wrong. He is a journalist and columnist from New york Times}

I talked about his views on Globalization. Its impact on the world economy, software and developing nations. Brought in Joseph Stiglitz and his anti-globalization views on WTO/TRIPS, pharmaceuticals etc. He had been to chennai last week and I happen to download his speech too. So that when was when I dominated the interview.


23. Has anyone of them got a Nobel Prize?

me: Freidman received one during 2001 sir. { Everything was right except for the name. It was Stiglitz. }


24. What is our GDP growth rate? How have the three sectors perfomed?

me: answered


25. What is inflation?

me: { I had read the yesterday's newspaper in and out. I defined it. How india has performed in the past. How it occurs. cost-push and demand-pull inflation etc.}

He went into the recent decision by RBI. { I said the CRR raise by 50 basis points. why it was done. What will happen because of that. I had a confident answer for that.}

But it was my bad luck that it wasn't a demand pull but a supply side scarcity that affected the commodities which were very inelastic. He asked me how increase in lending rates will actually bring down the consumption of rice and dal. It would rather increase the cost of money for industries thus spiralling the prices even higher in a vicious cycle. Obviously I had to say a humble don't know finally :))))


26. Is Reddy out of his mind then? what is thelogic behind it?

me: I had already run out of steam and said i didn't have enough theoretical backing to continue the argument.

He made a comment that YVR is indeed nuts and laughed. They were pleased about the way the discussion ended. I was more than happy since it being my first and not performing very badly in acads which I had never dared to touch.


Lessons learnt:


1. Games should be bought legally. Atleast thats how these guys want to hear.

2. Academics have to be revisited at any cost.