Tuesday, January 25, 2011

My True Microsoft Story

My offer letter for Microsoft arrived only last week and I guess now I can reveal my true MS story ;)
Warning :-
All the facts and events in this post are true to the very best of my knowledge. Please DO NOT feel indignant at any unscrupulous incident described below.

30th Nov 2010 :-
Day zero of our placement session. 5 had already paved their way to Google. I had been rejected by IBM, my only true hope for the placements. Only hope because I had not inaugurated my preparation for the placements at all; thanx to the GRE stuff; and IBM won’t put you into the arduous task of solving algorithms and puzzles. Feeling low….. haan!!!

9 pm :-
The Microsoft written test was about to start. The big names were in there for getting into this dream company and like the rest of good-for-nothing masses I was also there to fancy my chances. The MS guys gave us the instructions and the papers were distributed. Contrary to the expectations and to my exuberance the test was a cake walk. I told myself “Everyone knows every question, so just avoid silly mistakes and take your time”. The test was expected to be over by 10:30 but the janta was getting up as early as 10 pm.
With a little premonition in my mind I tried to open the Algorithms book back at my room but having no clue where to start I went to my bed (in case I get short-listed and have to wake up early).

1st Dec 2010 :-
At 3 am in the morning, when possibly I was dreaming of ... you know what ;) , the short-list had arrived on our mails.

7 am :-
Vishal comes knocking my room “Uth ja saale, tu short-list ho gaya hai, 9 baje interview hai tera!”.
The news ran into me like wind and for the first time in my life I woke up on just a single call , pet ka sawaal jo tha :-)
I opened up my lappi just to confirm and yes there it was, my name was in the 9 am slot. My neighbor, Mohit aka Tuxxi was also there in the same list. With all sorts of thoughts whirling in my mind, I opened my C++ compiler and made a very naïve linklist program just to recall the pointers. Then I took a bath, called my home and got ready for the D-day. Our wingies, the AT walaazz wished us good luck saying “Phod Dena” and off we start our journey to become heroes from zeroes.

9 am :-
We (me and Tuxxi) reached at the interview site which was one hell of a remote place in IIT, none of us had ever seen this “Jai Kishan house”, 1 Km behind the Khosla Guest House. The HR guys told us that we had about 45 minutes before they’ll start our slots, so we went to the university canteen for some pet puja

10 am :-
The HR guy calls my name….. dhak dhak…. I could feel my heart pumping so loud. Other contenders wished me luck and the guy took me into a room. A kinda Gujarati guy was sitting there to be part of my first ever personal interview. Good Luck…..
Fortuitously the interview was easy. I managed to expound three out of four questions asked. My next interview was after an hour.

11:45 am :-
Tic-tac-toe…… time for the second roller-coaster ride. This time it was some south Indian guy. He asked for my resume and kicked-off with my Georgia Tech project. For once I struck there, I couldn’t explain what I did there…. God this is so ridiculous. I took a sigh, a do-or-die thought came to my mind and somehow I improvised an answer for him…. Pheww, Am I getting nervous? After he was over with his techie stuff, he asked me about the TOO cold weather here @ Roorkee. I just felt like saying “January main aaio yahaan pe, interview ke naam pe Hello keh ke hi nikal lega :P“. Then he escorted me to the door and confirmed my 3rd interview with the HR guy.

1 pm :-
Students started coming back from lunch, we were discussing all sorts of questions….. how many will they take……. who did well…… what are the questions being asked…. Who is THE deadly interviewer? Everyone was saying, there’s a khadoos guy in blue pullover….. usne le li to wo le lega tumhari (interview u pervert :P )

2:15 pm :-
As I hear those words, the khadoos guy himself comes out and calls “Who’s Amik here, come with me”. With a sense of “mar gaya” in my mind and a contrived grin on my face, I raised my hand for this about to be super duper roller coaster ride ;)
He looks onto my resume and asks “Tell me about yourself”. I have heard this question many times and I am the one who knows every single thing about me, but why this heaviness? I just couldn’t start anything. After a very obscure response he asked me about my high school scores and JEE rank. Yes, he was impressed! Following the very hackneyed phrase “Make hay while the sun shines”, I told him about the Olympiads and my AIR 25 in AIEEE. Dude, now he started talking a bit convivially with me :P
Then he asked some questions to which I gave very annoying solutions. Maybe the luck was on my side that day and in came an already done puzzle to my rescue. I comported myself as if the puzzle was Greek to me but the guy was adroitly sagacious. As soon as I showed my answer he yells “Tell me you have done it before!”. The time for the first lie or should I say a smart truth, “No, actually I have heard of a similar puzzle, just thinking on its terms”. Now, he couldn’t even deny looking into my answer! As the interview ended I thanked God for just getting me out of that room.

4 pm :-
Phew… I was too tired of standing out and going in for interviews again and again. Waiting there one perturbing news had come, I wasn’t short-listed for adobe. Every single cell of me was saying “Please get into MS, we don’t have energy to face more interviews and tests!” Lost in my speculations, I heard a voice, MS selected their first candidate, Tarang, he was elated.

5 pm :-
My last interview was with the director of Microsoft India. Tarang had told me that he was a very knowledgeable person and would be asking very cryptic questions. When I paced in, he looked like a very amiable gentleman. He greeted me in with a handshake and started perusing my resume. I had three projects on it and all of them were in parallel computing domain. I explained to him whatever he asked. Then he said “Apart from these projects (on my resume) tell me any other technical or any other difficult situation you have faced”. With virtually nothing coming to my mind, I told about those 2 years of study for JEE, how I used to study hard, fatta… lol. Then he asked “No, some project or something”.

The very BIG Lie :-
I had written everything on my resume. I had to make something here to dazzle him. Some course, event, quiz……. ehhh, would be too small for a man like him. Yes I played a gamble here, I made up a big project, a big lie to my name “The Micromouse”. I had watched some guys making a robot mouse in my first year. The retrospection happened in a flash and I told him whatever came to my mind. Now that I had taken a big bite, I played safe to chew upon it. My finishing line while explaining  was “though we couldn’t be successful in making the final robot”. The ingeniously designed ostentatious answer seemed very apodictic to him and I was over with the interview \m/

6:15 pm :-
I was waiting outside and knew that result would be out anytime. The next 10 minutes were the most nervous moments for me. I was moving to and fro outside the guest house, talked to no one and was just remembering God.

6:30 pm :-
HR guy comes and calls me. I was numb, every emotion in me wanting to hear a goddamn Yes!
He says “Basically you have made it through. We……… (to hell with anything he said after that)“. I shook hand with him and moved out. YES YES YES, an eternal smile had made its place on my face. I was in the heat of the moment, on top of the world feeling.
Accepting the greetings I made my first call to my mother, ecstatic she was \m/. The only thing she said “Just thank god”. Heeding to her words I went to pay my obeisance to the Almighty and then a series of phone calls started.

7:15 pm :-
I knew what exactly I had to face on entering my wing and Deja-vu “Saale bina tayaari kare MS nikal diya tune, na koi lab kari aajtak na program banaya. Aur hum yahaan G ghisaate reh gaye” and I could just smile to their sarcastic remarks. Truly said “Only friends can say you anything they feel”. An alliteration fits perfectly here “Awesome Amik’s accidental achievement astounded all” :P
I was so high that day that someone (:P) actually said on a call “lagta hai chadha rakhi hai aaj”. The day never ended for me, still I get to hear a Congrats from here or there. Thank You all :-)


PS :- Tuxxi couldn’t make into MS, but now he is into Google and Adobe both…. Congrats dost :-)
PPS :- Thank You AT walaazz, the tigdam and bunny for wishing me and making me feel good before the placements!