Wednesday, August 06, 2003
More about placement....my placement!
Hello, dear reader. I now know for sure that my insignificant space on the Net has been visited by at least one soul....bored or not is another question. That did give a great boost to my ego. I shall now tell you about this nice interview I had with people from Maruti Udyog Limited. For those who don't know what MUL is, it is an originally public sector car manufacturer in India which has a collaboration with Suzuki. Now, Suzuki is the major shareholder, making MUL effectively a private company. They held this pre-placement talk in our campus, in which they stressed on how they wished to see us grow with them. To put it in their words, "we want to see you fly high with Maruti".
Now comes the best part. They conducted this psychometric test, and decided to interview all those who took the test. Whether this was due to the low number of people who actually took the test or because they could not get much out of the psychometric analysis is not known to me. But, I finally get to attend my first interview for a job. They were interviewing people down the order of their CGPA (my views on that subject are in the previous post). So, by the time my chance comes, I have been waiting there for about two hours.
These two hours did help me in finding out what kind of questions were being asked and all that. The panel was intent on paining everybody who came into the room. This, I liked, largely because I wouldn't stand out in those who did badly. So, I finally get into the interview room. Three persons, two guys and a lady formed the panel.
They asked me to tell them about myself, maybe to pass time before they decided on what questions they would ask me. The man in the middle was going through my psychometric test as well as my resume. I start, "I am basically from Hyderabad. I want to start my own company". The guy who was reading my resume looked up and asked. "your own comapny?!" And, that, ladies and gentlemen, lost me the job effectively. Now I can't go into the reasons why I said I wanted to start my own company when they were looking for long-term commitment, except that it is the truth. Well, I guess that my inability to answer all the required technical questions in a complete way also contributed to my not getting the job. But, I should say that they made up their minds when they knew that I was not prepared to live and die for Maruti.
Now, this leads me to wonder what these companies look for when they come for campus placements. I feel that most companies look for team-work and adaptability. The companies which come for managerial jobs look also for leadership. But they look for a strong individualist streak in all the candidates. So, is it that they are looking for strongly individualistic minded people who are good at team work? Do such people exist? I don't know. But, I guess these companies are sure of what they want.....then again, maybe they are not! Well, I guess that whatever happened had been for the good. I mean, what can I hope to learn in Maruti when I learned precious little academically in an institution like IIT Madras?
If I am boring anyone with my ramblings about placement here in IIT M, please forgive me, because, this is like the flavour of the month here.
Now comes the best part. They conducted this psychometric test, and decided to interview all those who took the test. Whether this was due to the low number of people who actually took the test or because they could not get much out of the psychometric analysis is not known to me. But, I finally get to attend my first interview for a job. They were interviewing people down the order of their CGPA (my views on that subject are in the previous post). So, by the time my chance comes, I have been waiting there for about two hours.
These two hours did help me in finding out what kind of questions were being asked and all that. The panel was intent on paining everybody who came into the room. This, I liked, largely because I wouldn't stand out in those who did badly. So, I finally get into the interview room. Three persons, two guys and a lady formed the panel.
They asked me to tell them about myself, maybe to pass time before they decided on what questions they would ask me. The man in the middle was going through my psychometric test as well as my resume. I start, "I am basically from Hyderabad. I want to start my own company". The guy who was reading my resume looked up and asked. "your own comapny?!" And, that, ladies and gentlemen, lost me the job effectively. Now I can't go into the reasons why I said I wanted to start my own company when they were looking for long-term commitment, except that it is the truth. Well, I guess that my inability to answer all the required technical questions in a complete way also contributed to my not getting the job. But, I should say that they made up their minds when they knew that I was not prepared to live and die for Maruti.
Now, this leads me to wonder what these companies look for when they come for campus placements. I feel that most companies look for team-work and adaptability. The companies which come for managerial jobs look also for leadership. But they look for a strong individualist streak in all the candidates. So, is it that they are looking for strongly individualistic minded people who are good at team work? Do such people exist? I don't know. But, I guess these companies are sure of what they want.....then again, maybe they are not! Well, I guess that whatever happened had been for the good. I mean, what can I hope to learn in Maruti when I learned precious little academically in an institution like IIT Madras?
If I am boring anyone with my ramblings about placement here in IIT M, please forgive me, because, this is like the flavour of the month here.
