So how was the whole journey is d question which comes my way almost everyday , well i think it's been one of d interesting journeys i have fared through which had almost every element of life wrapped in .
17th August , people wished loads of luck :) for d new start ahead
18th August ,D day came , Deshaw D Dream company of many (mine was always oracle , u know how much i believe in realistic n achievable targets :D ) , Prezo began n we were introduced to d team , n i was jus telling my frn nearby , he seems so strict he can screw in interview , he has assuring luks n blah blah as if i was goin to get shortlisted .Presentation was over n den came d time for d aptitude test the first stop of d long journey ,It went, as I recall, very cordially, but it was clear to me that I was out of my league, I splooshed d quant section , computer skills went k , program was easy i guess everybody solved dat question ryt , yeah i was very satisfied wid d essay writing :D .As i was walkin out of d examination hall , i was lost thinking over n over about d quant section , man i jus attempted some 60-70% ......
Mom called jus then n i told her mom i spoiled it all,things did not go as I
thought they would n she told tat thr r loads of more opportunities to come so cheer up :) and take a cue from what went wrong here. Someone in wing came n said hmm so when r d results cumin , i said its gonna make no difference here so m goin to sleep for i carried no EXPECTATIONS . I was jus abt to hit d bed n thr was a big bang on d door , u r through , congrats congrats congrats ......am i dreamin w/o hitting d bed :O . Some 18 ppl shortlisted and all were just brilliant , donno how i landed in that group .... Called my dad then n told i am really nervous and donno how to go about d interview , he said just be confident and go give ur best .After hanging d fone i realized tat i had another aptitude test to write "Microsoft " , now what , d time was clashin wid my interview , so i called the placement coordiantor n hesaid no need to panic , it 'll be delayed accordingly and was scheduled at some 9:45 .I always wanted a mock interview experience before my dream oracle interview , didnt knew God wud be gracious to give me d first day first show ticket to d interview :P .So i wrote d microsoft test , it was better n cuter than deshaw's so i was happy about it .
It was only an hour later, when I was sitting in my room , that I realized I was feeling a little off and decided, on a whim, to check my pulse, which was 108. Ha ha! I still remember feeling a wee bit overly stimulated. I was a bit exhausted and the time came to get dressed in business casuals ,getting dressed was d best part of d day :P .So i was all set , talked to mom n dad n left .Finally i reached the venue for d inteview ,I had to wait in a side room with the rest of the hopefuls ,nervousness was mounting. I repeatedly asked why I was voluntarily submitting myself to this type of agony... do I get some kind of cheap thrill out of it? I dunno - before I had figured out the answer, I was called in.
Strange but as i was walkin in there was a magic spell and i very confidently walked in , greeted the panel n introduced myself .It started with the normal hr stuff , about u , y shud we hire u , plans for ms n y deshaw ( but obv ans cool pay n job-profile ;) ) I rattled on and on and on and on and on about just about everything they asked ds , loads of c stuff , dbs n yeah plcc too where i was a bit struck but still blabbered a wrong answer without any sign of hesitation , u know this is what confidence is all about :P. I was entirely focussed, answering each question with a minimum of pauses and a maximum of information. Finally after many questions, some predictable and some not, I was shown out at 12:15 am aah a relif. My rather slim file of certificates wasn't even glanced at. Shame, I was looking forward to boasting that I had won the dance competition in class 5 :P
The results were to be announced next day afternoon , well i didnt had much of expectation because it is usually accompanied by anticipation and often followed by disappointment. It leaves you with a ‘what now’ taste in your mouth. Sometimes expectations are the result of how we want the world and people to be our little girl/boy inner child fantasy.
Now came the results and the deserving 5 got d offer n i accepted my first rejection in a very sporting manner , sometimes we have played out the scenario in our heads,we already know the outcome and start planning our acceptance speech. Microsoft results were out n i wasnt shortlisted n at dis point of time there was a bit of sadness in my eyes....It was all ok after a few hours of talkin wid friends n mom-dad n i said "deshaw hmm i 'll make it to deshaw for sure after job hops , i will " hahaha how kiddish of me tat was to help myself find solace:)
In the evening it was amazon , wherein again i did a silly mistake in writing one of d codes i knew well , its just that sometimes timming is wrong or what u call destiny which comes into play ....
Next day it was yahoo n netapp ...... expectations rarely go anywhere without their sidekick assumptions. Wrote d yahoo apti n once again it was me telling ppl " yes m not thru " if this is wat u wanna hear ,we assume we know people how they will react what they will do in given situations and then we walk ahead with a pocketful of expectations based on those assumptions. I don’t think it is realistic to believe you can travel without having an expectation or two. But yeah maybe we can leave the assumptions behind on the next trip and see what develops so i went ahead n attended the presentation of netapp wherein i was thr physically but not mentally for the going was getting difficult.... So finally i wrote d test n getting through this company was absolutely a dream , so this time i didnt expect much , n when in d nite i came to knew i was shortlisted , i recalled d song -breaking the habit's line " i dont want to be the one the battles always choose coz inside i realize ...."Well now this company was to question about networking which gives me cold feet , n i had one nite , i told myself , had enough wanna make these things stop(all rise lyrics :P) , n i had miles to go before i sleep ,God i never studied this amount of compnet ....
The morning came n d interview began at 7:30 , i had a nice start , it started with an algorithm ,I wrote the simplest, naive code that I could think of. I immediately saw some inefficiencies and worked to address them. The guy prodded me slightly to the answer he was looking for (I would have gotten there).He gave me two more coding problems . K done , So neha lets play with linked lists now (God i never did so much coding at a stretch , gimme a break now :P). Thankfully it was 9 n i had to go write d cisco aptitude test n d coding came to halt finally , yaye ...
After cico thingie ,second round began , this time it was with the hiring manage who seemed a bit strict but was nice .We talked for 45 minutes without a hint of coding (a relief). This was a wide-ranging discussion about everything starting from myself , my background (i love talking about myself so i went on n on ) .Then it was time to prove my innovative side so i went about discussing my project ideas ,n we somehow went about discussing the impact of Yahoo, comparison to Google, and finally culture at Netapp. I gained a lot of insight and appreciation for what they’re doing. At one point he started talking salaries and benefits, and I got extremely excited and I had to fight to keep a smile off my face (hey, I don’t want to look like a dork too early). Finally he gave me a chance to ask questions , this is one moment which is yours in an interview :D so in went about asking some stuff n it came to an end
It was time for the 3rd round ,this guy asked a lot about my projects , moulded the situations i took into account , fired me with loads n loads of os stuff n finally came to dbs , asked to write queries , indexing , normalization , blah blah blah ... thank god i was fluent wid dbs and answered his questions satisfactorily . Finally, jokingly, almost reluctantly, he said he may be obligated to give me some coding problem, so let’s do them quickly.
"U like trees ?" we'll code for trees now , again he made me code n code n code . Finally came to some infix expression tree , took me to stacks , queues n finally finally finally told k neha nice meeting u ( oh n it was so not nice meeting u :P )
Between every interview they will talk to each other and they will send e-mails to the other people in the interview loop. Yes, they’re talking about you behind your back. And yes, they will tailor future questions to cover areas missed by previous interviewers, or to follow up on a weakness , wherever u go the network follows ...
Next round was again with the hiring manager , it was a nice chit chat , he enquired about jaipur n about my hobbies n asked me to justify y should netapp hire me , n i was able to impress d manager . if it was only d hiring manager to take d decision i knew offer was in my hands but then there were more rounds to go ...
This time it was networking which went fairly well , as again there was some ds involved (courtesy graphs) which served as my savior n yeah the night-out helped me stand this round and they asked me to attend the net prog classes if possible , I thought i would be told to leave but as i told u their network follows n i was questioned on plcc n aco n finally came my turn again to question . I was just asking about some salary stuff n this guy again stole my opportunity n took over, asking me about bonds n stocks , what's inflation , what's sensex n blah ...hello it was my turn :( .I told him some crap n told i have not been attending the security and portfolio management classes the elective my resume read ...so i m not proficient in this field .
Now it was the finale , i was introduced to the hr guy .He was cool , discussed my school life , college life , asked was i satisfied with the compensation n i told no issues with the salary , its decent .He then told one thing before i give u the opportunity to question , do you drink ? netapp has a culture of booze party every friday .... I told ,I am pretty sure there would be many like me in netapp who dont drink :) n he smiled saying yeah i'll be there to accompany you .Finally making the statement so tired n bored at the end ... told him no it was an interesting interview which stimulated my grey cells n we both smiled in unison :) .Finally i had my question set answered n i took leave .
The whole thing is very hush-hush as nothing can be "official" until the results are known and every moment till the result leaves more n more restless !
My mom's prayers were answered and i got the news that i have been made an offer :) :) :)
yayi i got the job finally ,n this time it was N for Netapp for N for Neha
It is easy to get hung up on expectations or to get defensive,angry and disappointed when they are not met. Expectations at times suck. But in this whole process I learnt to -
"Expect to have expectations".
