My intern story

Let me get back to the posts I promised earlier, how I got an intern, how it was non technical and how I became a binder.

As soon as the first announcement regarding internship was put up, I busied myself, trying to get fundaes from seniors regarding various interns and how to crack the interviews. It was only then did I write my resume for the first time ever. Downloaded the Insti format, the one with the table, took out my grade card and listed all the courses faithfully. It became some 4 page resume with large spaces, but I didn’t know then that it was arbit. I made extensive preparation for the first interview, which was by Reliance. I didn’t even know there is something called a shortlist, and went on to buy a dress and a pair of shoes two days ahead of the first interview.

The day finally arrived, and I felt pained to bunk classes for the interview. After the first class, I came back to my room to dress up formally and went to the placement office. Instead of the interview, there was a pre-placement talk for the seniors and we were asked to attend it. The interview was in the afternoon and a shortlist has been put up after the pre-placement talk. Some ten of us have been short-listed on the basis of CG and the interview was a mere formality. Just before the interview, I had plans of dropping out, hoping to make it to ITC. Timely intervention by a good friend of mine saved me, who explained me how difficult it was to make it to ITC. Two months later, ITC came for intern recruitment and only then did I come to know the level of difficulty involved. The interview with Reliance went on smoothly and I was selected, right in August 2005 for my intern in May 2006.

This may have given me peace of mind avoiding all the trouble my friends experienced in finding an intern, but only during the placements this year did I realize that I lost something with that early selection. I had no fundaes about a Group Discussion, nor was I used to interviews. [And as luck would have it, the people who conducted mock technical interview for me this year were also from Reliance.] And that lack of experience clearly showed up during interviews this year, all my GDs cupped.

Coming back to the intern story, the projects were assigned somewhere in March 2006, and were mostly based on company requirements. They weren’t core mechanical for they had nothing to do with Design or Technology. Instead they dealt with operations related problems of the company and I chose one related to Maintenance Management.

I reached Surat on 13^th May 2006. We had a day to familiarize ourselves with the company, where we were explained about conducting ourselves in a petrochemical complex. [I have already written about my plight with the food in Surat, here.] The first two weeks slid away, without me figuring out how to go about with the project. And I knew nothing about Maintenance. So I started studying about maintenance management from the material available there, and read a few books on six sigma and lean production systems too. My mentor asked for a plan to be chalked out on how I was going to do my project, but wasn’t satisfied with my first plan. Fortunately, I found one employee there who gave me an excellent idea to carry out my project- A survey. The only thing he said was “Do it a consultant’s way!” I caught up his idea and quickly proceeded with a plan. Read various maintenance management programs and made a questionnaire.

The hardest task was getting it answered. Most managers took it as an intrusion into their authority and felt that I was cross examining them. One was even rude to me. [Here is the account.] Some delayed it indefinitely, while others wanted me to sit with them to get the thing done. There were a few good managers, who appreciated my idea and made sincere efforts in filling up the questionnaire. It took two weeks for the questionnaires to be filled up. I made a presentation and my mentor was extremely pleased. The final presentation to the management went well, despite it being the last one, after six hours of presentations by my friends. My final report was two books of 29 and 52 pages each, one for RIL and one for my Insti.

On the last day, I got the report printed from my co-mentor’s brand new colour printer. To get it bound was a different story altogether. Only the documentation centre has a binding facility, and the employee there told me plainly that he was only going to show me how to punch holes for a few sheets. I had to do the punching myself for the rest of them, put the sheets together and then use a comb binding strip. As it always happens with me, there was a correction in the report that I made for my Insti and my mentor corrected it. The writing on the printed paper looked odd, and I wanted to change the sheet. So I went back to my computer, made the correction in the page printed it and went back to the documentation centre to re-bind it. I had to be careful to see that the page was properly punched and that the alignment was right. I pulled out the already bound report and switched pages with a sense of satisfaction. Finally towards the evening, Sardie, the IITD friend of mine wanted me to help him in binding his report. He had some other work to be done and I had to bind his report too. This is how I became a BINDER. I learnt spiral and comb binding. This definitely would have been one of my options for self employment, hadn’t I been placed.

That night, at 1 pm on 15^th July 2006, I took a train to Mumbai, amidst the tense atmosphere in Surat. I was supposed to take a flight to Hyderabad the next day evening from Mumbai. I missed it, and that is the story to come next.

Dont Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow -
You might succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup.
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt -
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.

This poem has been the guiding light, through my years of engineering here, and will continue to be, for years to come. When my life seems to be in wrecks, when I feel low, when I feel devastated, I still look for this poem, on the wall of my room to give me the strength to keep me going.

9.12 (How Sri Vallabha got shelled, bumped and frustrated)

I started writing this on the sixth day of placements, after getting frustrated with my performance in GDs and interviews. I retain the lines I first wrote, to give you a picture of how I felt, then.

“Six days gone and yet, not a sign of it coming. I am not writing this in pain but in frustration. Not the typical feeling of “How did this happen to me?” but the feeling “Why did this happen to me?” Do I deserve this situation? May be I do!”

On the first day was a consulting company’s test; the questions were more on probability than programming, but I got kicked out of the first shortlist. The fact that only computer science students were short-listed gave me solace. Next was S****, the only tech company I could ever think of getting in. There was an orientation session on the evening of the first day, and the PPT hall was more than full. We sat with our legs pressed against the chairs before us, listening to the way the interview was to proceed the next morning.

Mine was the first slot on the next day. I woke up at five am, prayed God, and swallowed some biscuits I bought the previous evening from Gurunath, dressed and ran to the placement office by 6.30am. It was still dark and only one other guy was present when I went there. The case study was lengthy and before I could sort out all the papers, I had to go for an interview. It went decent and then there was an interview about my summer internship. The GD was okay too, and I felt that I can’t do it any better. After six hours of wait, and infinite prayers, I found that almost everyone else made it, except me. I rode back to my room, speaking to my mother, who was more worried. Thus started the most frustrating part of the wait.

Some companies straight away eliminated students on basis of CG, with very silly tests. In an exam, where the questions where

“1. How many sides does a triangle have?

2. What is 2563+3682? [Don’t use a calculator]

3. What are the three types of rocks?” what could be the basis of a shortlist?

Some companies sent me back straight after the written test. Out of blue came an offer from a company that offered me a job on the basis of my CG. I felt happy for the first time. [One fact they didn’t know was that I had taken their test and failed to make it to the shortlist. I was in a special shortlist for 9 pointers.] But with two famous companies coming the next days, where I rated my chances to be high, I declined to make a decision then and there. I asked for time and came back to room delighted that my CG worked finally.

The most hopeful day proved to be an equally big disaster. I didn’t have enough credentials for the good ones. In one GD, I spoke too much knowing that I can’t make it in the technical round. For the second one, my resume was cup-level. Got to know how badly I wrote it only after I opened it to see what I have written. I regretted my carelessness. During the resume submissions-exams, projects, what else and what not took precedence and I didn’t realize that I was seriously compromising on my career when carelessly filling up resumes. When I read my resume that I had filled up, I hardly doubted the fact that I won’t make it. In the GD, I got carried away by a friend, and both of us where out after that round.

Since that day, it was the same story every day. Go to GD, cup and come back. Financial Services, Investment Banks and Consulting Firms-every one drove me crazy. Almost to the point that I started doubting if there was some thing seriously wrong with me, which made me unemployable.

On the eighth day I left home for the vacation. My eyes watered as I cycled to the main gate. In the place where I lived happily for three years, life seemed to be like hell. It only seemed to show me that I was leaving like a loser. I had no ego to be pacified nor did I expect to be trend-setter, just a decent job in the first week was all that I wanted. I had no other back-ups, and at one point of time started regretting the fact that I was not apping.

I was equally undone at home. Though my parents were caring and understanding, some sense of guilt haunted me every minute. I could not stay calm and was so much lost in thought that at one point of time, my father said “Don’t worry, we have our traditional job if you don’t get one. God will take care of everything.” I spent equally uncomfortable time in Hyderabad, when I went there to visit my uncle. Memories of my days at Ramaiah, which was an equal failure came flooding in, and decapitated me still. My uncle sensing all this provided me solace with his encouraging words. I found the quickest opportunity to return to IITM and preferred spending days in front of my monitor rather than at home.

And finally I made it, on the first day of second innings. A company that didn’t want people to fight against each other in a GD, granted me an interview and the rest as they say is history.

And finally the wait ends

Finally the most excruciating wait has ended. I am placed in Deloitte Consulting, Hyderabad. Back to the old place. I will start posting, once I meet my BTP prof and return from home. So, readers please be patient for a while.

Thank you.