My First Interview

I had never given an interview in my life before. I got my articleship job without an interview because my cousin had done his articleship from that firm too, and he just introduced me to them and they asked me to come from monday.

So, today, well the night was really horrible and I hardly slept. Not cos of the interview but something else. I reached the auditorium where the campus interviews were to take place by 9am, an hour before the interview, but many others came even before me! So just about then an sms came which kinda gave me a lot of mental relief and I cud finally smile there.

So, TCS had shortlisted just 39 candidates, the least by any company there. They held a written test on the 4th where there were around 200 candidates, and they shortlisted only 39. I was the first to reach their interview place. Nobody had come. Not even the TCS people. So I just went to the Indian Oil interview place, my other interview slotted for the day. There the interviews had started but I just wanted to get into TCS more, so I came back downstairs to the TCS room.

As I waited there, other kids came in, and for a change I smilingly talked to most of them. There was this very smily girl that I sort of helped out, I even ran into her later after the interview. I chatted with most of there. There was one girl from my GMCS batch, and there was one guy who was sitting infront of me on the test day. Then the TCS people came after a while, they were 5. After taking some time, around 20 minutes, they split up into two teams of 3 and 2 in the large board room, outside which all of us were waiting. Since me and a girl were closest to the door, they asked us to go in first. She went to the group of 2 men (they looked real mean), and I went to group of 3 with a pretty lady and 2 men.

So, the lady asked me to sit down, while I was already in the process of sitting down. And then she asked me how I was, which I was completely unprepared for. I stuttered and replied I am fine and asked the question back. I can't remember if she replied it. So, technically her first question was - tell me something about yourself? So, I had rehearsed this one, and I started on the same lines, but in the middle she had a confusion with my college period and articleship period clashing so she stopped me right there. I clarified the thing to her that I was on leave for the first two months of my training for my final year exams. Then came lots of questions and I didn't handle them really well. Like

1.Are you comfortable with Accounting Standards? Yes.
Ok, tell me something about AS - 22.

I went - AS-22?!? (In all the AS they had to ask this one (but it was better than asking AS-15 which I had absolutely no clue about)) And then I start stopped to tell a few lines which weren't encouraging.

So, she modified the question to - Ok, what is a deferred tax asset?

Damn! Cruel people! Now not only me, I am sure most kids would be confused between a DT Asset and a DT liability, especially if the last time they saw these words were way back in May 2007. So, I started and she interrupted, and then I started again. Then it finally click inside my head what it was. So, I composed myself and said - Sorry could I start over again. And then I explained it in the right way.

The person on her right was giving me villainous looks. Yes! He was the villain in question. But it was still her questioning.

2.I see from ur CV that you've done a lot of audit work. You haven't done any internal audits? - No.

3.Were you involved alone in the audits?
Yes, Mainly alone. And then she started saying something, but I interrupted anyway to say - But in the last year I had subordinates under me for audit work. And I was sort of a team leader. (What kind of line was that - "sort of"! A bell rang inside me, but luckily it didnt ring inside them :) )

4.So what was the team size? Maximum 3, we had a small staff (completely honest)

5.You've done audits of charitable trusts, so what are the specific provisions in that?

Now this is where I started using the words Actually, really, mainly, all words that I was told to avoid in an interview. So I started with something else and then I jumped in between to anonymous donations and then finished up with a section I wasn't really sure of, and I am sure she wasn't aware of either.

6.Tell us about TDS?

This one I handled really well I think.

Now the left guy who was largely invisible till now jumped in.

7.Are you comfortable with financial management? I could'nt even hear him, so I asked him to repeat, which he did, and I replied yes. So, he asked about derivatives?

Now, this is where that telephonic conversation 2 days back with Taruna was really beneficial. She got into TCS 6 months back and she told me what kind of questions they had asked. And derivatives was one of them. I was ready for it. And I kinda pounced on it - Yeah sure, so derivatives are blah blah blah.

Now, he goes on to ask - what are the types of derivatives? I answer it as options, futures, and I go on to say forwards (not sure).

So, he asks whats the difference between a future and a forward?

Now I knew the answer to that but I forgot a word, which I also happen to be forgetting right now, ummm - "standardised" Yeah! So I was to say - Futures are standardised Forwards. But I lost that word so I repeated that line with all kind of funny synonyms 3 times and still couldnt find the word. So I changed it all together to say something else which was true as well. The guy didnt look convinced but the lady nodded her head to say that would do.

8. Ok now the lady asked me if I had done any specific computer programmes? I said No (I said NO??)

But the guy on the right who was the villain so far, jumped in between as said - you have written in ur CV that you know C & C++. Oh yeah, I know that. So then they asked me lots of computer questions which I did ok with.

But then the villain gave me an opportunity to do something that I am sure got me the job. He bacame the ultimate hero by asking me to write a program in C to add two numbers!!! You kidding me right, thats like a dream come true! Thats as easy as drinking water, no even easier than that. I was like - oh yeah, gimme a paper, sure thing. I quickly scribbled the program, which he took and didnt give an expression. Ofocurse it was right, I could right those if you woke me up at 2am in the night.

9.Then the villain goes on to ask my weakness?
Well I was honest, I said - I can sometimes be impatient with people. (Example - this week). SO, he asked what I was going to do about it? And I had a big smile on my face - I am going to try to be more patient.

10.Then he also asked me about the company? I told them that TCS was the biggest software company in Asia. Then he asked me if I knew what the turnover of TCS is?

I said - I am not sure but I think its $50 billion. He had a hint of a smile - It's only $5 Billion!! Whatever, so what I only added a zero right!

And then he asked if I knew the total number of employees of TCS? Yeah! Wiki to the rescue, 110000+ .

Then he asked if I was ready to go anywhere into India, and I said Yeah I was, except mumbai. And then he tried convincing me for mumbai and I tried explaining why I wont go there. Then I said that if u give me an accomodation there then I wouldnt mind going. He said he can't do that ofcourse.

So, that was the first round of interview and they asked me to go outside. I didnt realise it took almost 25-30 minutes. And all the kids outside jumped on me - what are they asking? what were u writing? are they making us do sums in there? And I patiently replied each one completely honestly truthfully.

Then after 5 minutes, a guy from inside gave me a form to fill up. I had cleared the first round. So, as soon as I gave back the form, they called me in for the second round.

There was a 6th person, a girl, who was doing this round. So, she mainly asked me stuff about my family, and my hobbies, and about the job. And then she asked me if I was open to relocation? I said I am ready to go anywhere except mumbai? Reason being the accomodation. And she said that she wouldn't commit but she would try that I don't get mumbai. And yeah she also asked I question which I was the most satisfied to reply calmly. She asked which college I had gone to? Just a couple of weeks back, I had dogded that question by saying that I never went to college, cos all the other people were from really good colleges. But today I just said it so calmly and I didn't give it a damn. I was really happy at that. So then she gave a paper to sign, that I won't be attending any more interviews. Which I didn't think about and immediately signed. And then she said - Congratulations you are part of TCS now.

She also told me that I would be attending a training programme of 17 days (most likely in Trivandrum) very soon. And other stuff that I didnt really listen to, like the pay package and all.

So, it was pretty good all together. I got a job and I think it wasn't really CA that got me the job, but 'C' rather. But CA got me into that interview room. And I would have to sign a two year service agreement, which the kids outside said I should have protested against. Why? I am not changing jobs for atleast 3-5 years. I am there to stay, so I don't mind. By then they had rejected 5 kids and I didn't see anyone else selected, so I decided to leave for home. On the way out I ran into that smily girl and she was still all smiles. And she still had to give her interview so I wished her luck and said hope to see you in TCS too. And well yeah I left for home.

Oh yeah, that guy from Sagar! He's going to UAE. Cool! He got selected by a company from UAE and they are giving him 11 lakhs. Wow! He's a pretty nice guy to deserve that. He was really nervous about the whole thing too, really glad for him. I would have loved to go to UAE too, but they didn't shortlist me. Anyway, so I am hoping that TCS would send me far away from delhi like Hyderabad or chennai or bangalore or anywhere. Lets see what happens. But whatever I do, I would just stay miles away from Orkut, which causes me nothing but harm all the time. And when I finally get into work which could be by the starting of May, I just hope I would be out of here.