10 December 2007

The Final War...

Caution: Long Post!

The battle is over. The battle whose beginning lies in the oblivion of my mind, the battle interspersed with many wars, a victory in each giving way to the next. The battle, the last war of which was the largest and deadliest.

In this age of competition, where people are practically running at a breathtaking speed to secure their livelihood, the first concern that a parent faces when a child is born is of his living. They leave out no straws to ensure that the child gets a good job, probably better than theirs' and lead a decent life when he grows up. And the preparation of this fight for livelihood starts at the very beginning, when the mother teaches the child A, B, C, D, or when the father tries to get the child an admission in the best Montessori. Then the wars come along one by one. The war of getting the highest marks in a subject, the war of terminal examinations in school, the war of standing first in class, these wars typically shape up the Childhood of a person and give way to his youth. At the dawn of youth, the person is exposed to something more challenging, the board exams, and then the college entrance tests, for these wars are vital for the battle.

Well, even I fought these stereotype wars. And my battle culminated with one single war, the largest of them all, the placements! In my previous post, I had spoken about placement pretty lightly. Well, I had taken it lightly till then, for I had an impression that for a electronics guy with a fairly good performance record, placements would be a piece of cake. But then, I finally felt some sort of pressure on the night before my first entrance into the arena. For the kgp junta, placements started from 3rd December. For me, it started from 4th, because I was not interested in finance companies or i-banks. On 4th, I applied in nVidia and Cisco Systems and qualified the written test for both. But the interviews were like nightmares. In nVidia, I was an idiot enough not to have solved the rest of the written paper before the interview. And in Cisco, I faltered even when asked the simplest algorithm. nVidia made its intention clear even before the results were out, and Cisco rejected me after first interview, bringing my first day of placement to an early end.

Dejected and demoralized, I took the next day off, i.e. the 5th. There were no core companies and I spent the whole day ramping up digital circuits, object oriented programming and C++. The next day, a confident me took the written test of Mentor Graphics and made it through to the interview. But again, I faltered at the interview, because they asked questions not from C++, but from C, and that too pointers and memory management. Also, my performance in the circuit questions were pathetic. Still, on the 6th night, I waited for the results till the dead of night, only to learn that another company had rejected me. Now, even more demoralized, even more dejected, and in the mortal fear of failing to secure a job at all, I walked back to my room at 3 in the morning to find that the test of SanDisk, is scheduled at 7 a.m!!

I slept for 2 hours, and then madly rushed through the books on analog electronics so that I would at least have a chance in SanDisk. Yet, I failed to clear the written test. Then, the next test scheduled was for Adobe Systems, a core Computer Science company. Initially, before the start of placement season, when I was shortlisting companies, I had included Adobe only half heartedly, not sure whether I would like to pursue a career in Software. But now, I hardly had any doubts in my mind. I appeared in the Adobe test, and am sure, scored full marks in the first two sections and fairly well in the next. Thereafter, I had my lunch and returned to my room at around 1.30 pm, only to learn that Magma Design had scheduled its test at 4 pm. I decided on a quick nap. At 3 pm, a placement representative called me up to inform that I have been shortlisted for Adobe interviews and need to be there by 3.30 pm. Dressing in formals were no more a new thing, and by 3.15, I was at the site. Also, to our great fortune, the Magma written test was postponed to 5 pm. So, I gave my first technical interview in Adobe, which went pretty well, I answered all questions related to algorithms and programming, but faltered in computer architecture. Anyways, I was called for a second interview at 6 pm. So I rushed for the Magma test. Magma was hiring for two profiles, hardware and software. God knows what happened to me, in spite of my hardware background, I appeared for software and qualified. Thereafter, I again rushed back for the second round of Adobe interview, which went like a dream. I never knew I could be this good. Then there was another round, in which I again faltered in architecture. Thereafter, there was a HR round, which went uneventfully.

After Adobe was over, I rushed back to Magma at around 11 p.m. My interview was scheduled originally at 1.30 a.m, but was later rescheduled to 11.30 p.m. The first interview went pretty well, because by this time, I was quite confident in software. I was asked for a second round, in which I answered all the questions asked. Finally, I returned to my room at 1 a.m, only to realize how hungry I am. So I went to cheddis and had some Maggi. At around 2 a.m, I again went to TnP to check the results. The Magma interviews were not yet over, so results were not out. But somebody told me, I was through in Adobe. It was unofficial, but still, unofficial stuff in kgp is more official than anything because of high student participation in the placement machinery. But yet I waited, only to find out, at 3 a.m in the morning, that the battle was finally over, the final war had finally been won! I was placed at Adobe Systems, posted at Noida!

I came back to my room and called home. My mother, worried as to what might have happened to force me call at such odd hours was the first to get the news. She asked me to get some sleep first and celebrate later. The next day, I woke up at 8 in the morning, and met the Adobe officials as is customary. Then, I submitted a declaration in TnP that I actually accept the offer. Thereafter, it was all silent, all lull! Quite contrary to what I have imagined the situation would be after I get placed. Then, I realized, I was standing like a lone winner in a battlefield, while most of the other soldiers were still fighting. And those who had won had already left.

So here is wishing all those soldiers who are fighting the biggest war of their life's largest battle a very best of luck. May you all get placed soon and prosper in your life.

03 December 2007

On the eve...

So this is how it feels to see things materialize in front of you, things that you have once dreamt about, things that at one point of time demanded so much of your thoughts, influenced so much of your decisions, things that you have once lived for, things for which you could even lay down your lives, things that you have eagerly awaited since time immemorial. Yes, finally its placement season in kgp, something that every kgpian await eagerly, something that keeps a kgpian going even in the toughest of the days, be it working for days straight trying to complete an assignment or be it trying to digest the inedible shit in the mess. And today, as I write on the eve of the placement season, it seems as if I can see the dreams, hopes and expectations of a thousand young minds materialize in front of me.

Yes, I am in final year too, and will surely be trying to secure a job for me, preferably with a good salary and work profile. But then, all those dreams, those thoughts, those hopes, I don't seem to be able to find them. With placements around the corner, my sight seems to be fixed on something even further. All of a sudden, something that influenced my life till today, something that forced me to come to IIT, seems to have become meaningless, inconsequent. Three odd years ago, on this very day, I would be sitting in my room, wondering when I would get placed, when I would be able to lead an independent, secured life. Stuff that appeared to be everything that day seems to be hardly of any importance now. For today, I hardly care for jobs. I seem to be more concerned about what would happen to my applications in the universities, whether I would get through CAT, whether I would be able to publish a paper before I leave IIT.

Guess this is life. No body ever seem to be consented with what they have achieved or even with what seems achievable to them. While this sure is a sign of the ever progressing mankind, one can not deny the sense of insecurity, depression and agony this brings along. And when ever you try to stop, to protest, you are silenced by some cheesy quotes from some motivating poetry, stuff like, "rest if you must, but don't you quit"!