The Interview
Months ago, I wrote a post about my dear friend, Timir. I had also mentioned about the classic interview he gave during campus recruitment to land the job. His CPI, which was paltry 5.5, had hit the rock bottom of the entire Aerospace department. It was never believed that with this academic record, he would ever get a job, leave alone the first one in the department.
Well, many a beliefs were about to be shattered soon.
Even when he had cleared the written tests, to be short listed for the interview, along with 36 other B.Techs & M.Techs from various departments, people still thought this was a mere flash in pan. It was indeed difficult because the company was calling in the descending order of the written marks achieved, and his number was at about 25 out of 37.
The number 37 was far too much to select just 8 or 9 people. Even 25 was also on the farther side. And to top that, his pathetic grades. Nothing short of miracle was needed. But miracles never happen. They are created by genius. And Timir, the genius he was, to the utter shock of entire batch, pulled off one.
Interviewers were two - the senior Director, a guy, and the senior HR Manager, a lady. To every person, they were asking two geometry related questions, one puzzle of sorts, while rest was general HR staff. But the problem was that they had a limited set of geometry and puzzle questions, so they were getting repeated. By the time ten guys were interviewed, every still-to-appear had most of the questions by heart.
This was the key for him. He realized that since every one is answering those puzzles, there is no point answering same ones. He needed to do something different. And different he did.
On his turn when he was asked about the first puzzle, he replied that he has heard of it, so please ask a different one. He repeated same answer for next three ones. Perplexed, they enquired about the reason of his knowing all of them. He told them the truth that he has heard them from others. They were highly pleased by his honesty.
Then they asked some different questions, that included a puzzle which till then nobody had answered. Since, there was no of dearth gray matter, it was cracked. This, along with his honesty, had done the trick. His frank admissions about his low CPI, which by then had ceased to be a factor, further sealed the case for him.
Next morning when the list of selected candidates was announced, the only ones from my department were myself and him. Kalpana Chawla's foray in space, and Timir Ranjan Chatterjee's landing the first job in Aerospace department were the most widely talked about topics in both, student and faculty circles of IIT Kanpur that year.
My Last Post On Timir - Rememberance
Well, many a beliefs were about to be shattered soon.
Even when he had cleared the written tests, to be short listed for the interview, along with 36 other B.Techs & M.Techs from various departments, people still thought this was a mere flash in pan. It was indeed difficult because the company was calling in the descending order of the written marks achieved, and his number was at about 25 out of 37.
The number 37 was far too much to select just 8 or 9 people. Even 25 was also on the farther side. And to top that, his pathetic grades. Nothing short of miracle was needed. But miracles never happen. They are created by genius. And Timir, the genius he was, to the utter shock of entire batch, pulled off one.
Interviewers were two - the senior Director, a guy, and the senior HR Manager, a lady. To every person, they were asking two geometry related questions, one puzzle of sorts, while rest was general HR staff. But the problem was that they had a limited set of geometry and puzzle questions, so they were getting repeated. By the time ten guys were interviewed, every still-to-appear had most of the questions by heart.
This was the key for him. He realized that since every one is answering those puzzles, there is no point answering same ones. He needed to do something different. And different he did.
On his turn when he was asked about the first puzzle, he replied that he has heard of it, so please ask a different one. He repeated same answer for next three ones. Perplexed, they enquired about the reason of his knowing all of them. He told them the truth that he has heard them from others. They were highly pleased by his honesty.
Then they asked some different questions, that included a puzzle which till then nobody had answered. Since, there was no of dearth gray matter, it was cracked. This, along with his honesty, had done the trick. His frank admissions about his low CPI, which by then had ceased to be a factor, further sealed the case for him.
Next morning when the list of selected candidates was announced, the only ones from my department were myself and him. Kalpana Chawla's foray in space, and Timir Ranjan Chatterjee's landing the first job in Aerospace department were the most widely talked about topics in both, student and faculty circles of IIT Kanpur that year.
My Last Post On Timir - Rememberance
Labels: Friends, IIT Kanpur, Memories, Timir
posted by Unknown at 3:54 PM
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