Date: 29th January, 2011
Venue: Praxis business School
We were summoned at the Praxis business school Kolkata at 8.30 AM sharp. Officially it was the first interview of my life. I started early from my home alone, with a bag (it was my father’s) inside which I kept my file. I took the blessings of my parents and started for the place. My eyes were wet, for an unknown reason. Maybe because I was alone, and I needed someone beside me…but I chose to stand alone.
I had some seniors known at Praxis, I visited the place 2 days ago to have a feeling of the place, and I found it quite good.
Well anyway, at 9.30 our GD started. The topic was ‘Internet isolates more than it connects’. The girl sitting beside me started out, and told about some of the isolation thing about internet and then I joined the discussion bringing in Facebook, Orkut and Gtalk and other social mediums which connect…and then the rest joined. It was a fair discussion and ended after ten minutes or so. Charanpreet sir was there (He used to take our classes at IMS). After interview we were asked to sit in the library and wait. Within 5-10 minutes the interview process started out.
I was the fifth person in line. I kept talking to the other students there and tried to keep my nerves under control. At last came that moment when I was asked to wait at the front of the room of interview because the student before me had just entered the room. I was nervous. But I knew somewhere down the line I was going to be confident, whatever be the situation. I told myself, I have seen worse cases, have hated life in most of the times, now that I have got a chance to tell people that how special I felt about myself, and I really had something special within me, I will have to prove it to them.
Then came that moment when the volunteers told me to get in. I took a deep breath and stepped into the room.
There were three people sitting in that small room. Middle one was the finance guy, Amit Parakh. The other two were unknown.
I stepped in, asked a formal ‘may I come in sir’, and then went near the chair, waited for one and half seconds and then asked, ‘may I sit’? All of them were quick to say ‘Yes sure, take a seat.’
Amit Parakh asked the first question…well Somsubhra, tell us something about yourself.
It was not easy. First of all I was hyper excited. And then for the next sixty seconds I babbled about myself which was literally unrecoverable by the interviewers, as I realised afterwards. After I ended my talk, the person at the right corner said, ‘well, can you just slow down a bit?’
I said, ‘but sir, I am done.’
It was clumsy.
Then the person at the right corner started out with something I didn’t expect at all. He asked me to prove the Pythagoras theorem, which I said I can’t. Then he asked me to solve a critical geometry (with 3-4 constructions) which again I couldn’t solve. Then he asked me a simple fraction concept problem and I hardly took ten seconds to solve. He kept on asking questions from C and data structure concepts, digital electronics concept and logical gates, and I managed to answer fifty percent of them though with real difficulty. Meantime Amit Parakh had asked HR questions like why MBA, why Praxis etc. The person at the left corner was quieter. He asked me about my blog, about the NCC (Navy) I did and confirmed about the rank I had in Navy which was ‘Cadet’. He asked me what was the source of this whole blogging thing, and I told him the history of Blogs. He asked how the writers maintain the security in the blog arena, asked how many followers I have, how many hits does my blog have (no of visitors) and so on. He also asked me whether I have done any camping from Navy. I said I didn’t but I have the experience of ten rounds of gunfire in Navy. He asked me whether I remember if it was a two not two or three not three rifle and I said I have completely forgot it. These were the basic questions I faced and after that they said it’s over and I can leave now. I stood up, and shook hands with the person at the left corner first, then with Amit Parakh, and last but not the least with the person at the right corner with a broader smile…maybe just because I couldn’t answer half of his questions.
After coming out of the interview room I realised that mine was the longest interview that day, no idea why. It went on for forty five minutes.
This is how my first GD PI went. It was a good experience, rich in learning process. People over there were good, and helped a lot. Seniors were also good. It’s different that I didn’t join Praxis, but I liked the feel of it. I am already officially friends with one of the seniors over there named Shishir Ramkumar.
I believe this experience helped me sort out my negatives and positives a lot. The process is not over yet, and there are six-seven GD-PIs still to come. But first experience will be the first ever, and you will remember it for a long time no matter whether you go for it or not.
P.S.: After five days or something I got the final offer letter.
-Feb '11
