Campus to Corporate

It was early 2005. I was in third year of engineering in the College of Engineering and Technology (CET), Bhubaneswar, India. It was declared that Infosys was coming to our campus for interview. The whole campus was filled with ecstasy. Previous year Infy selected 91 students and now rumors were that the number may go to 150 as the company was given first slot. So one-third of the strength was going to be selected in the first go.

Everyone was busy preparing puzzles. Infy was known for setting toughest puzzles during its selection process for freshers as compared to any other company at that time. I remember at least one Sakuntala Devi’s puzzle book in everyone’s college bag. In the hostel the scene was different. In the dining hall, volley ball ground, corridor, common room everywhere you would find people solving puzzles or discussing about it. The flow was such that the one year juniors and even the freshers who had recently joined college started with puzzles book. The hot Infy air was everywhere.

One evening I visited one of my class mates’ room. He was busy solving puzzle from George Summers. I asked with my idiosyncrasy, “What, if not Infosys”. He responded overturned with out lifting his head from his note book, “I am going to make it to Infy. That’s it. No ‘what if’.” I had had hardly anything to say.

But I was in different mood those days, busy doing my usual stuffs. I did not buy any puzzle books nor solve any except occasionally solving someone’s doubt. I wanted to do something different, at least decided ‘not to go with the flow.’ I told friends that I was not going to sit for Infy. Most were shocked, “How can you let go Infy”. But the friends who used to be my well-wishers asked, “Why.” I told them, “I want to join Wipro.” Wipro was supposed to come in second slot. The reason I gave was, “Infy does not conduct any technical test, but Wipro does. I want to face some technical stuff.” Soon, I was considered to be the ‘Wipro Boy’.

And finally, it was the day before ‘Infy campus’. I was in the college. Everybody was busy collecting hall ticket. It was then the placement officer declared that everybody had to sit for the test as it was the promise from the college to the company. And the one who would disobey had to face his anger and may not be allowed to sit for any further selection processes for any other company. I had no intention of creating any issue nor did I want to be in the notice of the grumpy placement officer. I collected my hall ticket and went home.

We all gathered in the college at nearly about 8 AM in the morning in full formal attire. The first phase of the test, the written test was started at noon. It had two sections: Puzzles (Analytical) and English. In the hall everyone discovered that the puzzles in the paper were not usual (Sakuntala Devi or Summers) type. The pattern had been changed and the analytical section was more of CAT style. Many were disappointed. You could make out from the faces soon after the test was over. Soon the rumors were that those who solved 4-5 puzzles out of 10 might get selected. I attempted 7 and solved 6 correctly. But one had to clear cut off in English section which I knew I truly screwed up.

It was 5 PM. Someone from the placement cell was standing on the stage with a list of those names’ who cleared the written. The next day interview would be conducted. It was complete quiet in the hall. You could have heard a pin drop. The names were dictated. First name, then second, then third …. And it ended in 89^th. Even the number was less than the total number of candidates who finally cleared last year. Many were in tears. The frustration was clear on the face in rest of hundreds students. I was the odd-man out. I was one of the losers but with a smile.

On the way back home, I was on the bike with one of my friends, who was one of the most intelligent chaps in the college and but a loser today. He wanted to stop at the beetle shop near the college to have cigarettes. “It only happens to me every time. I was one of the state toppers… I had to go to IIT. I got a rank but, not a seat with that rank. I joined this college considering the best and only government engineering college at Bhubaneswar. I prepared a lot only to see this day”, he continued with his third quick cigarette.

The next day only about 50 got selected for Infy. It was different moments. Being selected by the first company visited your campus is altogether a different experience. You become hero in the college; juniors keep chasing you to know how and what happened out of excitement. Suddenly you discover people with new girlfriends. Obviously, you can make out from the person on the back on the bike. Though I never expressed, I felt a bit about being a loser.

Anyways, exactly 7 days after Infy, Wipro was scheduled to visit. As many of the good students were not selected in Infy, it was obvious that we would have a top competition for Wipro. Everyone was busy in technical stuff now: C, C++, database, OS and what not. I came under a bit of pressure. I tried to revise the technical stuff but hardly completed any. The ‘Wipro Boy’ had to get selected in Wipro. It was the week I stopped eating panipuri (GupChup as is called in Orissa) which I had almost everyday before. I still miss those panipuri near Delta Square in Bhubaneswar. I was almost on diet food because I did not want to fall sick. I had a bad habit of biting my nails from my childhood and somewhere I read that nails were part of the appearance and could be judged in the interview process. I got rid of it that time. My mother often wondered how I came out of such a long standing bad habit. Till today she has no clue about how it happened. Probably, I was rinsing my cottage cheese those days.

Well, the day came. I cleared all the rounds and was now in HR and final round. It was very short and but I told a short story in that for sure. May be about these stories in another blog.

And finally the moment came. The final results had to be declared. The names started getting dictated. There were 46 name already announced. I was still waiting for my name. It was last but one. It got announced, ‘Sumit Kumar Mund’. Oh God, that’s me!! Now I had an offer. I did it. Of course I was happy. But I would confess that it had not that charm in the college as it was during first campus where I was a looser.

A year passed after that and it went like a night. Having job in pocket, being appreciated from all friends and family, hardly much to study the year became like a holiday trip. It was the time when the Bollywood movie ‘Rang De Basanti’ got released. I watched it many times. Every time I watched, I hardly wanted to get passed out from college. But you can’t hold time.

Now the Wipro joining dates were almost arrived. To make the process of new recruits getting trained faster Wipro decided to conduct the induction training (‘Campus to Corporate’) in the college itself. So two corporate trainers (I must say excellent ones) came to our campus to train new recruits for two days.

One of the trainers was a nice, cute girl. It was obvious that she was the center of attraction for all boys. Many tried or had a wish to woo her until the second day when she told in the training that she was already married and mother to two children. She hardly looked like that aged. I must be lying if I would say I was not among the many.

Anyways, it was the training where I had one of the most important learnings of my life. The trainer taught me how to take risk. It was simple and about how to calculate risk. It was like this, “If you want to do something important in life and you have to take a risk or anytime you have take a risk, then ask yourself: ‘Can you survive if the worst happens ?’ And if you get the answer ‘Yes’ then go for it. If you get the answer as ‘No’ then probably rethink on it. ”

Just after the training I decided that I won’t join Wipro. I knew it well that even if I would never get a job again after declining Wipro, I could survive. My decision was clear. One of my well wisher relative called me to persuade, “Sumit, you should never miss this opportunity. Probably you have a good luck, so you should join a nice company like this. ” I gave him a reply being sober, “I should not join this company because I have good luck.” He did not say anything further and later remarked that I was too overconfident. In the training I was also taught that being overconfident is not bad. Because as you go to do a difficult task its natural that your confidence level decrease as you go. So probably it’s not bad to be overconfident in the beginning.

The reason for not joining the company (which I never shared with anybody) was my secrete target which I set before the beginning of the third year of engineering. It was that I should get a job with a salary higher than anyone in my college. It was of course difficult because there were many students in my batch who were many times more intelligent than me. And I had been an average guy. Those days I read a book by Professor Arindam Chaudhuri, named ‘Count your chickens before they hatch’ where the author said that to be successful you don’t need to be most intelligent but you need to be passionate.

So after I declined the Wipro’s offer I went to Hyderabad and joined a course in Embedded Systems and Network programming in the best institute in the city (Depik). The course was in Linux. But sooner I realized that I should delve more into Microsoft technologies as I felt it would be better for technology consulting career in future. But the course was excellent and I really enjoyed it. It was 2 classes left to finish the course. I got an interview call from Philips. I had high expectation. I was nervous before interview. I told myself, “I may not be the best among all the candidates but no way less than the best.” I was one of the two ones, whom Philips selected from Hyderabad in November, 2006.

I joined a job with nearly doubled the salary than my college mates who mostly joined Infosys, Wipro or TCS from campus itself. My corporate life began.

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