The Hurdle

When I saw my name in the shortlist for interviews, Rahul bajaj was there with me, he was also waiting for the results with me. So after a grilling group case study and individual presentation I finally made it to the interview, the chance I have been waiting for so long. After the result, rahul bajaj started giving me final tips and fundaes to crack the interview advising me what to say and what not to say in the interview(He mainly dealt with the HR type questions leaving the technical stuff for me). So without any delay I moved forward to the metallurgy department where the interviews were going on. When I reached there I saw that my name is second in the list for interview in room number 106. So I started revising the HR questions as I heard from everywhere they ask HR questions mainly. After about 45 minutes, they called up my name. I went in with two copies of my resume. I greeted the interviewer and gave him one copy of my resume. As I gave the copy I realized I had not stapled the two pages of my resume. So as expected the interviewer gave me a disgusting look and asked me- "You haven't even stapled your resume?". Without losing my composure and confidence, I replied - "Sir, it is easier to view the resume in one go when the pages are not stapled, you can get the whole picture of what I have done in one go". Impressed by my answer, he replied -"That's nice, you took care of this little thing". The next question as I expected was - "You are an electrical engineer, why do you want to join consulting?". I was more than ready for the answer and so I replied - "Sir, I don't want to confine myself to be working on the same problem for many years like we do in MS or PhD, I want to pierce through various dimensions and different fields of knowledge like we do in consulting where we deal with practical problems at the root". Then as I was expecting another HR question, I was shocked that the next question was - "Can you write me a code for sorting numbers?". Without showing my level of shock and fear, I asked him- "Which sorting algorithm?". He said any of my choice. Within those micro and milli seconds I recalled everything I studied the day before yesterday with alok, where alok was reading the book and explaining me the sorting algorithms, data algorithms when I was busy playing the guitar!(That day's(1.5 hours hardly) study helped both me and alok, it helped alok get through avaya's interview).So I chose the selection sort and explained him the algorithm and wrote a pseudo code to satisfy him. I even gave the time complexity of the algorithm to impress him. He then asked me a question based on the algorithm to which I first gave the wrong answer but then corrected myself. He then asked me about bubble sort to which I replied I haven't studied it. He again gave that disgusting look and I was preparing myself to cover up, someone entered the room distracting him to some other task. So I bought some time and relaxed. After that I replied by saying I have studied only selection, merge and quick sort(little did he knew that I studied it only two days back :P).After that he asked me a puzzle on chess board and asked my approach to solve that, it was a question which I solved way back in kota when I was in bansal, a simple permutation and combination problem. So I gave him the approach and he was happy. He then asked me - "Where have you applied IT in your life till now?". I was not expecting this but somehow I related IT to the academic projects I did in my curriculum and inspired him. He then directly asked me to explain one of the projects, I opted for the vowel synthesizer and explain him the project in layman terms giving him the facts which would appear fascinating to a common person and act like USP(unique selling point). Then he asked me about my extra curricular activities, so without any delay I started off my music and participation, awards etc, but soon was diverted to tell more about the coordinator thing in techfest(which I never did, I fell sick before that so I was not present during that time), so I went off by saying what I had in mind when I had decided to add this to my resume, explaining him how I led a group of five people to optimize the budget of the gaming zone and expand the horizons (:P). After that he asked me among so much work how do I manage time. I was ready for this answer too (thanks to naman and rahul bajaj)- I replied - "I prioritize my work according to the deadlines ahead, giving maximum priority to the one whose deadline is the earliest and hence make a list accordingly". He was expressionless, didn't know what he was thinking. Well after reviewing my resume again, he said - "I am done with my part, do you have any questions?", frankly I was not prepared for this, so I said - " No sir". Surprised, he asked again in a enquiringly voice - "You don't have any questions? !!!". Then out of the blue and from the deep corner of my brain I fired the RAAMBAN(A weapon which is ultimate which can make things right at any time howsoever bad things are), I replied-" I already know a lot about Deloitte as my mama is already working in it in the Hyderabad office. Deloitte is a multinational company, 140 countries, more than 150,000 employees(I knew the exact figure(165,000) but I said it like this so that it doesn't seem to be artificial) etc." His face melted as I told him the figures which ended my encounter in the best fashion possible. So I went out with a smile on my face.
When I came back to the room, I slept and tried not to think about the result and all as my mind was undergoing too much pressure. I found out many loop holes in the interview and thought will it make such a difference. Fought hard with the emotions creeping up, roam around the room to prevent sprain in my muscles telling myself I am going to get selected in this no matter what. My heart beat was never less than 120, which resulted in a bit of high pressure and dizziness. I took long breathes to cool me down. Each second was going like a millennium. Whole life flashed before my eyes, the things I said to few 'special' people everything!. Then I was able to sleep for about half an hour, click the refresh button in my browser(for about the 1000th time in two hours), and there it was - my name among the final offers. Mission accomplished!