The Season - Episode 1

The following was posted in my "Pasture of Lunacy" blog on Aug 11th, 2010. More than 2 years later, I have had someone asking me, what happens after this episode. And so, I've started on episode 2. Just thought I would re-post the original here, with a few changes here and there (given in italics) for you people to read through. Expect the next post in a week.

*****************************************************************************************************************

The way my final year at college shaped up would be of the range of the final Harry Potter book. But what made it even better than that was the way I got my job. The whole drama, stretching over a year can be compared to a comedy TV series or a year at some league for a club or a feel-good movie.

The initial setbacks, the incessant heart breaks, the half time reprieve, the loss of everything you wanted, the never say lost attitude, which was later found out to be plain ego (this being the part where the obvious truth hits you in the face just before you do the right thing), the last fight, the unbelievable luck, the happy ending. It had it all.

Maybe that’s why I decided to call it ‘The Season’. How over the course of twelve months I found out a lot of things the hard way, only to realize that I had learnt these lessons long back. Normally, you would put the moral at the end of the story, but I’m going to give it right now.

Never have an ego bigger than your shadow at noon.

How this is applicable in my life, as I’m sure it’ll be in yours, will be described below. I’m going to describe my final year in the way a manager would file his monthly reports for his football team. Hope you have fun reading it.

Pre-Season

The pre-season was pretty much a local affair. Before I go into the details, let me give you an idea of how things were. Since joining CET, my parents wanted me to keep up a ‘decent’ 8 pointer by the time I passed out. It’s not that I didn’t try. I did what I thought would be enough in the first year. Sadly, the University wanted more. And my seniors were at hand to give me this ‘valuable’ advice,

      •     It’s practically impossible to get an 8 pointer average after getting 7.5 for the first year.

      •     If you can maintain a 7.5 average, you’ll get a decent enough job.

I decided that instead of trying to do something ‘impossible’, I should better find ways to use my time at college so that I’ll have all the fun I could have there. (By the way, this is for the lazy ones among you. There are people who got an 8 pointer average after getting in the 7’s in first year, and there are people who scored a big job, even with a just above 7 average).

Luckily the ‘extra-curricular’ activities that I decided to take part in didn’t ruin me. It actually helped me in having a commendable resume by the time companies came. But it was also the basic reason for the swelling of my ego bubble.

First of all, there was the choice of career that was made by two kinds of people – the pure hearts and the self-conscious fools. The difference was in the ken of the two kinds. The pure hearts knew where they were going and what they were going to do, and most of them ended up reaching there; while the self-conscious fools thought they knew where they wanted to go and what they wanted to do, but ended up choosing and doing what they got. 

Broadly speaking there were four types of jobs on offer,

1. Core Engineering Jobs. (CGPA > 8)

2. Management Jobs. (CGPA > 7.5)

3. Embedded Systems Jobs (CGPA > 7.5)

4. Software Jobs (CGPA > 6.5)

And my order of choice was Embedded, Software, Management and Core.

Embedded first, cos I had done my fair share of robotics. We went with what looked like a scrap heap of a robot, unashamedly exhibited it at different fests, rode our luck, won a few, lost many, but still loved every bit of it.

Software second cos I've always had a knack for computers and programming. My dad brought our first computer when I was in 4th, and taught me the wonders of programming in the teen years. I've to thank him for the skills I've learned in using computers, and in programming.

Management third, cos I was remotely interested in doing an MBA at that time, and cos CORE had to come fourth.

Core takes up the last position cos I was itching to say goodbye to the subjects I was busily studying for the last three years.

Anyways, let me talk more about the job scenario. Recession was at its best during June 2009. You couldn’t ask for a worse time to look for a job. And here we were, about 500 students sitting inside the college (see, I didn’t use the word ‘class’, but the word ‘college’ ;) ), hoping someone would come, call us up and give us a job with a fat paycheck, like we used to dream about when we joined the college.

So, with a difficult environment, a bleak chance at any dream job, but with a puffed opinion of myself, I did my pre-season preparations. I went around asking seniors for ‘advice’ (I never learnt to stop doing that. :D ) And that’s when I found my first love. A 5 lakh a year worth payday, located at Bangalore, great working atmosphere, wonderful work in the field of my second choice. Words used to flow in torrents when DSK (deepak sasikumar) described his company. He hadn’t even joined then and he was having a jolly time thinking of going there. It got all those juniors who listened to him, to make THOUGHTWORKS their dream company. But before I go into the tryst I had with TW (that’s what we called it), we’ve to go through the month of July. And man was it a month to remember.

July

Sometime in the middle of July, when we were just back after another university, we started hearing rumors of it. IOC was coming to campus, 7.8L CTC, government job to top off everything great and nice about it. And, dispelling the rumors it did come. That’s when the season started for us, CET 2010. Ten people each from Electrical, Mechanical and Civil were called up based on CGPA to attend a direct interview. On the date of the interview, we had actually planned an Industrial Visit (a real one to NTPC). But since many of my friends were in the top 10, I decided to go with them later. I was planning to go to college and support them for their first interview, but I ended up playing cricket the whole day. But in the evening, I heard the happy news.

Four people from Electrical became the lucky ones to get a job first. And it included my project mate. I was happy as I could be. But that was not for long.

When I told at home about them getting the job, my parents were giving me another perspective. What if I had actually studied and got an 8 point average. I could have at least attended the interview, and maybe come home saying “I got a job.”

They didn’t actually hate me. But they hated the way I wasted my chances in life. And seeing them sad made me wish I had done things differently. Sadly, there’s always a time for everything. And now wasn’t the best time.

And with August showing no companies coming our way, we were left to our own thoughts and devices. I was preparing, for my dream company, TW which came soon enough.

*****************************************************************************************************************

Thoughtworks came and went. So did L&T, IBM, Bosch, CTS, Deloitte, TCS, Mahindra, et al. I ended up in GS Engineering and Construction. It is where I'm still now, and I'm loving it