Entropy in the last question!

This is about my 3 job interviews where everything went right; well, almost everything!

Computer Vision India (PTC), December 1998:

This was the first one; 11 years gone but the memory is still fresh. I was just few months old in my first job which was not paying me enough to live as my own. Then I got an email from HR PTC, Pune for an interview in Windsor Manor Hotel, Bangalore. I was very excited indeed. The selection process started with an aptitude test followed by a technical test. Then they called me for interview. There were 5 persons including one from Boston and Mr. Bipin Kocher, asking me questions in tandem. Never before I faced such a big interview panel with so many questions to answer. After a while, the questioning gear shifted to persuasion mode. One of them opened an Indian MAP on the table and showed me that Calcutta (my home town) is closer to Pune than Bangalore and so I should move to Pune and join PTC. While I was assuring them that relocation would not be any issue, Mr. Kocher came up with a last question. He handed me a piece of paper and asked me to write a double linked list in C. I returned him the paper with the answer. Now the last question was extended a bit further, "have you ever used linked list in any programs in your current organization?". My honest answer was "NO, but I used them in my self learning exercise".
He paused for a moment and assured me to finalize my offer once he get back to his office in Pune. I was not smart enough to hear the empty words he spoke. I was hopeful for almost a month. Then the hope started fading away; I was so much shocked that I did not try for another job for a year. However, a year latter, the experience from PTC interview helped me to get pass the "Last Question" in PTC rival SDRC Inc.

Then PTC made a mistake by calling me for interview again, in the same hotel. With offer from SDRC in hand, I did went to see them for a sweet revenge. It was really sweet that I felt like I had won a nuclear war :)

Techspan Bangalore (Headstrong), October 2004:

Almost Two years in Wipro Technology was probably beyond the limit I could tolerate in a service company. So, I uploaded my resume to few online resume database. There were many calls but I shortlisted TechSpan. It started with an online test where Techspan HR gave me an user name & password with a link to an online test. I had to take 3 such test and submit score before they switch to telephonic interview mode. One, two, three, four, five, six and finally it ended. I got a request to meet the HR in their office.
When I went there, I was very disappointed to see a small reception area where no more than 2 person can sit. Yet, the HR Siddharth Mavinkurve kept me waiting there for hours with an excuse that his hiring manager was not yet in the office. After an hour he assembled a group of senior technical engineer in a room and called me inside. Among those, there were one hard core C programmer who did not like object oriented programming. He had the last question for me, "What is the use of C++ when we already have C languages that can do almost everything?". He did not agree with any of the OOP advantages I talked about. It lead us into an argument that was almost taking an ugly turn before other people stopped us. I returned home whereas Siddharth Mavinkurve was still looking for his hiring manger to talk to me.

Several month latter, when I was already settled in TIBCO, another HR from TECHSPAN Bangalore contacted me for job interview. IT is indeed a small world. I requested her to connect me to Siddharth Mavinkurve. I did learn some excellent foul words in Kharagpur. This was probably the only time I could use those words outside KGP campus life :)


February 2010, five years since I last edited my resume. Then I felt there was a need for that. This ain't any half-hearted attempt as I really wanted to move somewhere, where I can feel little bit more important for the organization I work for. An agent from HONG KONG contacted me for an interview with Goldman Sachs. This is in financial domain where I recently developed lot of interest. So, I was looking forward into it.
At first, I talked with a VP, Ashia-Pacific-Japan, who did not ask many questions. Once he was satisfied with his initial conversation, he called his technical expert for more questioning.
This one went on for an hour and I almost missed my lunch. At the end, my interviewer was so excited that he almost made me an offer, only if it was in his hand!!! His last word was, "You will hear from US, soon". I rushed to my office canteen with a hope to bite on something and I was lucky. I savored whatever I could bite on while on the back of my mind, I was preparing my good-bye speech for TIBCO.

In the evening, I had to clear the last hurdle. The VP of operation from UK was my last interviewer. He was almost 15 minutes behind the schedule. Finally when he called, he had many questions for me and I had answers for all of them. Then came the last question, "Have you used any software to handle real time trading data from exchange". I forgot my lesson in PTC and replied in negative.

A week latter, my agent from HONG KONG called me. When I answer the phone, he said he had good news for me. I thought I knew the next sentence but I did not. The good news was that J.P. Morgan wanted to interview me, not Goldman Sachs was making me an offer. The latter did not hire me because I did not have any experience in investment banking.
The J.P. Morgan interview was also canceled 5 minutes before the schedule because of the same reason.
For a while, I am stopping my job search effort. Maybe it's not gonna be easy to continue in where I am today. But it's better to hold on till the right offer comes.