Show up, “You’ll be the (wo)man for the job”

The topic on which I am gonna jabber about, in this post, is Placements. People who haven’t yet attended it, might call it “The deciding factor in my Career”. People who have attended it would say “Somebody had to get selected, I did”. I got placed into a software firm myself.

During my final year at school, I wanted to get into mechanical engineering and do something with cars as a career. How that motivated kid (Me, who I am referring to, here) after four years, ends up in a Software Company. Couple of reasons behind it. What is the ONLY advantage working in a software engineering firm???? Well, GIRLS. As some superior human being put it, “The taste of success is known best by the people who never succeed”. Well, after four years of engineering, even the mundane kinda mechie (student of mechanical engineering) becomes a flirt, eagerly awaiting an opportunity to talk to the first female, who by mistake, turns and looks at him. It’s very similar to the feeling that a traveler who, after traversing through a desert for days, sees an Oasis in the distance (What the “oasis” thinks, I am not gonna discuss.)

Another reason is that its the easiest job, an engineer can land into. Its no work at all. All you need is some luck and it goes without saying, without luck all the talent in the world wouldn’t suffice. You begin by writing a stupid aptitude test. Its the best example of working in teams, people put up partnerships to solve the paper and copying is more of a must than a choice to get through.

Then comes the second part which usually is a technical interview (Certain companies waste some more time conducting Group discussions). Getting through these two rounds has nothing to do with WHAT you talk. All that matters is your “shweet smile” (Never lose it, it’ll cost you your job) and the fact that even if you don’t know a thing, always remember, you know more than the person who’s asking you. So blurt out the first thing that comes to your mind no matter what he asks. I remember how I went about mine. He asked “what would you do when a junior is taken into your project team?”. I went about giving him a lecture on motivation and support (Not joking, he was impressed).

Then comes the final stage of selection. It’s the HR interview. To put it differently “You are getting into an organization full of girls, I just wanna see how you handle this ONE”. Well, to my advantage, she (She looked GREAT) was a mallu herself and I, in between my monologue on “ME, a brief history” blurted out that I am from Cochin. She started talking to me in Malayalam. It was fun… deep in thought…..couple of minutes passes by

So, to guys who are about to sit for placements just a couple of months down the line, remember, its no where near as difficult as you think. More than solving papers, what you need to do is pray for some luck to favour you. You’ll be just fine. And after you get selected, try all the exams you have, CAT, GRE, GATE and go about telling people “I was this close to getting into an IIM” when you finally land up at the electronic city in Bangalore, just to show that you are a step ahead of the crowd. A huge crowd, believe me.