Chapter-3

The big day was here. Placements day 1 is the most important day in the calendar of an IIT student. One might plan to join a company, go abroad for further studies, do a post-graduate management degree, whatever, but the placements are the ultimate shield of security for any student. A job in your placements would mean you don’t eventually lose out on anything, you have something to do with your life.

My first interview was at 7am on day 1. A major bank had shortlisted me, and it only helped that I had strong mathematical base. My interview dragged on till 11am, during the course of which they got me to speak to the manager of their New York branch, and they made me an offer at 11am, at which point I had to tell them that I couldn’t accept the offer without having a look at the other companies that had shortlisted me. Following this, I went ahead to attend a couple of other interviews, none of which went half as well as this one, and so I came back to tell the company that I would be accepting the job. But then, it turned out that somewhere during the course of my interview I had told them that I would consider a master’s programme admit from some high ranked universities seriously, in which case I might not take the job. This had left a strong imprint on their minds, and they had decided to withdraw the offer they had made me. They decided to make the offer to the second placed candidate instead. I was looking forward to studying abroad anyway, and placements was just a way of getting secure. So, I was not really upset, and I decided to check out the name of the second placed person in the list. There, to my surprise,  it was the coder-guru Punch! Punch had a job, the job he badly needed, and that made me feel like a hero, I left the interview room laughing loud, after promises of Punch treating me later.

Pramod had also landed a job with a Japanese electronics giant, while Nigga had got a job with a banking firm as well, a rival to the firm which interviewed Punch and me. The count was 3/8. I was feeling kind of miserable, with no job on day 1. I met a couple of friends Vedhaa, and Chandni. Vedhaa was a junior by one year, someone who had been infinitely ridiculed for having a guy’s name, though people refused to see the “aa” at the end of her name. Chandni was a junior by a couple of years, who would graduate along with Vedhaa (Vedhaa was a dual degree student!) They spoke to me in detail about how tomorrow would be a better day, and how a job isn’t far away. I went to sleep disappointed, but determined about the next day.

The next day was one of the longest days of my life. I had interviews all day long, starting at 7am, and it went on until 11pm. There was an online security company, which eventually hired Hameed and Lakshman, there was an electronics giant from the US, which hired Paras, while I got into a start-up which did data consulting. I didn’t really worry much about the profile, because it was a back-up at best, but it felt like a monkey off the back. We decided to go to the CCD on campus at 11.30pm, and drove back in the rain at 12.30 am. It was one of the longest nights of our lives, and one of the most exhilarating ones as well. The next morning, Kat also landed a job and we rejoiced. We decided to have dinner at the city’s richest hotel, the Grand Chola, for the heck of it. We partied that night, but the true fun was still to begin.