Episodes: Placements

When I was in the first year, i was volunteering for the placements' logistics team, and found place in the food and beverages team that takes care of feeding the candidates and specially the companies on campus thru the hectic 2-3 days. And doing that, i was working out of the SCR and coordinating with teams over the walkie talkie and sending out food orders.

So basically, i wasnt on the floors, in the action, to witness the anxiety and everything else.

and u lucky ppl who got PPOs are, well..... lucky.
But after you've been through it all, you wouldn't want to take as much stress ever again in your lifetime, but ure still loving the experience.


A month before the D-day, the last of the company presentations ended. and prior to that we'd had some 2-3 months of going through presentations from some of the best brands in almost all businesses in India.
So all of us had a fair idea of which company was offering wat roles and wat money.

Most had sectoral as well as company preferences. I had mine.
I'd been and auto freak for most of my growing up years, and even while at MBA i was looking at auto companies as prospective recruiters but was pained to find that only 2 of the major indian automakers would visit our campus and even those werent the best paymasters.

Anyway, my preferences still lie with the autosector, but with those packages, they were slotted pretty late in the day. And i wasnt the one who was going to not apply to n companies listed before them.

I was NOT game for fin services... i.e. insurance, banking and everything like that.
Not so much for IT too, though the money was always good, but somehow wasnt going to be hardcore marketing and all that jazz.
Ab marketing waala banda FMCG na apply kare, to ho nahi sakta, but i still dint apply to all except the top notch. (not that i had great hopes of makin it there)

What i WAS really interested in was Media and advertising, apart from Auto that is.

My applications pre placement applications met with less than moderate success with very few making it through screening and i tried to put blame on the bad cgpa until the baap of all FMCGs shortlisted me. And then on, i was game.
So all in all, of all day zero companies, i made it to the interviews of the 2 FMCG majors but dint make it in the end when it mattered.

And till now i had been brave (or stupid) enough to not apply to the big Fin and IT offers which were offering ludicrous monies.
And all this while, there was this sole ad agency i was focusing on. everything, in and out of it. all about IMC, Media, and everything there was to do with the agency business was on my tips. on the day, it was thankfully slotted pretty early in the day. And i was pretty confident abt it; made it to the last 3 in the process.

Phir, it came. the news. only one of the last 3 was selected and it wasnt me. I was there. standing in utter disbelief. It was like the beginning of the hardest trek ever.

the companies slotted immediately after this one were rather good, but i hadnt applied to most of them, and now was the time to move on.
And i realise now, had it not been for those good friends, it would have been even more difficult. Really, they kept me from falling apart.
It was already happening. I was screwing up straight forward GDs. Din't get through any of those.

Then came a slew of IT cos, some i hadnt applied to earlier and no amount of pushing CVs was going to help.
Anyway, i managed an interview with ek sexy consulting brand and cracked it too. It was for a position i knew wasnt worth it, but still was banking on bargaining in the interview for a better profile. At the end of it, they werent going to give me anything better than pre sales and that wasnt just wat i was going to take.
So that was the end of it. But it helped in a way, that i had at least one company make an offer.

About 3-4 more GDs and later, came one IT co based in the north. Though the brand is a known one but not so much for its culture or that ways.
Anyway, ab tak... jo kehte hain.... phat chuki thi. And mind u, this is just the first day. 2 more days slotted with good brands, I think most of the pressure comes from seeing the fizzling out crowds as everybody and everybody u know is getting placed and ure the one left out.
So i went in for this interview without knowing the I of the IT consulting business i was pitching for and the interview was pretty funny to talk about.

one of the interviewers asked "So what do you know about XYZ (her co.)?"
And i was "Well, it is a respected IT consulting company, with these many clients and years in the business and blah blah blah, AND OF COURSE, IT HAS WORK LOCATIONS IN NORTH INDIA"

I don't know where that came from, it was funny, but not in this situation, and least of all jab meri khud ki phati padi hai. And the interviewer too, let out a chuckle and then got back to me with "Is that the reason why you're applyin?"

Achan: thats not what i meant. Its just a bonus to be near my family. I'd like to work for you, even otherwise. (to myself: decent comeback)

I was the first interviewee for this process and it went ho hum.... then came the call for the other IT co, #! i had thought of as my backup in my run up to the day. This was a co i had heard was good, was offering good profile and more than decent money. So off one went for this process while others were being interviewed for XYZ.

Ab ji interview achha gaya, then pata laga there are going to be more interview rounds for this one, AND in the mean while communication from the other XYZ co panel came that they wanted to negotiate and make an offer.

So now was the time to go for the kill. I had a message sent to #! panel that i had an offer and if they have anything positive for me, then they might want to consider speeding up my process in particular. And so it happened, 2 more rounds of interviews later, I was made a spot offer and was only too happy to accept it.

In hindsight, everything seems to fall in place, as it always does.

At the end of it all, to say that i was relieved is definitely an understatement. My friends too, who had been there for me throughout heaved a sigh.

another funny account of that day is, when i was going in and out of the interview room for the multiple rounds that were happening for #!, all the friends were standing outside with bated breaths..... after it was all over somebody commented that they were waiting like fathers to be outside an OT waiting for the first wail of a new born!


All's well that ends well and so it did the next day, Placements at NM were unofficially closed in 1 and a half day's slots. About 45 more companies that were slotted for day 2 and 3 and 4 were politely conveyed the happy situation at campus.
One Auto major i had in mind din't get the opportunity to recruit at all.

One memorable day that was.