This too will pass...

A fortnight back, I was so stressed out in life that I thought there was no looking up from here. When good things start happening, that is when we realise that life is a cycle with ups and downs. After a series of lows in placements, i was waiting to see some light.That is when CTS came into the picture.

The top 15% of the students in each class were exempted from writing the aptitude test and were asked to directly attend the interview. We were given the 'Topper Shopper' tag. This was certainly good news. The first mass recruitmet company visited our college waiting to take huge amounts of students into their company. The first day was a no-stress day for us. Only the aptitude test was conducted and results were announced. We were asked to come prepared with all the lessons learnt in the previous 3 years. A few hours is certainly too little to recapitulate the three-year course material. I decided to just take things as it comes. Without much preparation, I went to attend the HR interview. The interview went on well. I was asked to answer a few personal and a few technical questions. There was a long wait post the interview for the results.

The moment finally arrived when the results were called out. I was glad to be one of the chosen 352. But the happiness was not very sweet since due to sheer absence of luck, a few of my friends could not clear the interview. Not because they were bad. but because they ran out of luck getting trapped with the wrong HR. Cognizant has beautifully arranged our welcome with offer letters being handed over immediately by the Principal followed by cake cutting for our welcome. The cake was certainly yummy.

There was Musigma whuch followed CTS after a couple of days. A friend of mine instilled a lot of enthusiasm into me to write the Musigma aptitude paper. I wrote the paper prety well but was not lucky enough crack it. There came the second disappointment. It took me a couple of days to get over this failure. Akamai was the company to follow. It was certainly tough to carck a dream company test and clearly this was not my cup of tea. Luckily, not cracking the aptitude this time did not lead to much of a disappointment.

A couple of days later, it was Computer Sciences Corporation that followed. The company was very strict in its principles. Right from giving the instructions while writing the test to final interview stage, we were inspected by strict professionals from the company. On clearing the aptitude round, we were given the technical written test. I was so nervous after a series of disappointments. But luckily, it clicked this time around.

On successfully clearing the technical written test, we had Just-A-Minute. We had to speak on a given topic for 2mins with zero time for prepartion. My topic was "Truth no longer exists in today's world". I gave a solid start with "Satyameva Jayate" and continued to give my thoughts. My friends told me that my talk stole the show. It felt good and I was a little confident. But the next hurdle was the technical interview. I had to go to the panel which saw maximum rejection but I was lucky to get away. On clearing the technical interview, the HR followed. The interviewer was one of the toughest and probably the best HR I have seen. She was very quick to catch a mistake and counter attack our statements. fter nearly waiting for five and a half hours for the results, they were fianlly announced. Since I finished my interview really early, my name was called along the last few names. Yippee...I was one of the 32 selected. The wait ended on a positive note and I was happy. The company policy of the two year bond and an average salary keeps me thinking if this is a good one to plunge on.I got to witness the view of the college at 12am due to the gruelling rounds of interview. I finally reached home around 12.15 and had dinner.

The last few days saw interesting changes happening in college. It was a big day for all of us since we had the National Board of Accreditation visiting our college to rank us. Teachers,students and the management have been working hard for this big day. I was lucky enough to interact with the panel twice as a part of student interaction program,once represeting college and once the department in the span of two days.

In between all these events happening in college, a wedding in the family was planned.I am so excited to attend the engagement at the end of this month. I have decided to even skip my internals to be a part of the big day.

Now with three offers in hand, am a little relieved. But then life always keeps us busy.Preparation for GATE, for the wedding and above all the next internals is in store for now..

Life is certainly a Roller Coaster...

Everytime something great happens, there is something bad to balance it. And then, something great follows. Sometimes, I feel it proves the credibility of Newton's 3rd law. It convinces me that life is a cycle of ups and downs.

The week after the first placement followed with a series of lows. Agreed that the companies that follow were big-shots, but no one feels good after a rejection. The failure at De-shaw and Amazon did not keep me down for too long as Kalanjali preparations were on full swing. I was too involved in my last Kalanjali, our silver jubilee Kalanjali.In between all this at the professional front, I also got busy with arranging dolls for Navratri. I took the responsibilty of setting up the whole thing on my own.

The hunt for talented anchors started with announcements in all classess regarding the auditions. It felt good to be a judge, judging the speaking talents of juniors and pick out potential anchors to replace me. Anchoring at MVIT has always been so close to me over the last couple of years that I sometimes get pretty possessive about it too.

The auditions were a successful and helped me assign anchors to all the 29 events at Kalanjali in addition to the anchors for the main stage. The next couple of days went on with preparing my own speech, correcting others' speeches and more importantly assigning the right task to the right one.

The D-day finally arrived.It was the time for Kalanjali 2011. The day was pretty hectic.I had to anchor at the inaugral function along with a junior who was absolutely new at the job. Post that, it was time to take part in software presentation and paper presentation. By the time, I reached home, I was totally tired. The next day gave me some time for myself to enjoy a few events as audience along with friends.I had given myself the role of giving the event's report on Day 2. What followed was the rockshow, whcih saw me head banging for a while under peer pressure. Overall, it was a memorable event.MVIT's Kalanjali 2011 was quite a big hit.

With very little preparation for Aricent, I decided to give it a try. The test seemed pretty easy at the beginning but the last section was a nighmare. I could relate to how any match result cannot be predicted until the final ball is bowled. The Aricent results gave me a reality check. I realised how much I needed to work on my technical skills in addition to my pretty above avergae aptitude and HR skills.
But as it is said, there is light on the end of every tunnel. I am waiting to find that light soon.

On that note, I would conclude with a forward that really motivated me..Something that is sure to lift me when I am down..."Life has its own way of making us smile especially at times when we lose hope but certain surprises come our way just when we think we could never smile again."