Friday, October 15, 2004

I am IN.

The wait was over. Yesterday, Infosys (one of India’s largest IT firm and a more importantly one of the best recruiter) came to our campus. Three other colleges were coming to participate in the placement procedure. All the arrangements in my college were perfect and at times I felt I was somewhere else.

The pre-placement talk was scheduled at 9 in the morning and I reached the main gate at around 8.35. I had just moved near the gate and the guard stopped me and said, “No entry from this gate. All college students have to enter from Gate No. 3.” This was the first time I came to know of the presence of “Gate No. 3” in our college. On asking the guard guided me to “Gate No. 3”. At “Gate No. 3” I was stopped again and asked to display an identity card. Now being the careless person I am, I had managed not to take my newly issued identity card (I lost my first identity card last year). After all kind of excuses failed, I called up my friend Setu who came with my Infosys eligibility certification slip. So finally I was allowed to get into my own college. The Infosys team was on time and the pre placement talk was about to start.

Inside the lecture theatre I was told that there was a new formula we had to use to convert our CGPA (relative marks on the scale of 10) to percentage marks. I borrowed a calculator and began with the job. Meanwhile the presenter from Infosys team was on stage. I was literally awestruck by her sheer beauty. She gave a superb presentation and I felt for the first time the urge to perform well in the exam. At the end I realized that I had not calculated my %age marks as yet. We were asked to assemble in our dear old LT1. We were given a huge form to fill in 45 minutes. I finally calculated my %age marks in this time.

The first test was an analytical test containing 10 puzzles to be solved in an hour. Most of the puzzles were interesting and of normal complexity (I could solve them without pulling my hair). I was able to solve 9 puzzles successfully. After this was the English test containing 45 questions to be answered in 30 minutes. I left the RC (Reading Comprehension) questions and attempted the rest in around 15 minutes. The RC was an excerpt from a thriller and was really interesting. The questions were a piece of cake. I spent last 7-8 minutes of the time wishing that the passage was longer.

The result was to be announced at 4 so I went to the hostel to discuss the test and gossip. Before going to see the results I found that Australia was all out for 235 (2nd Test Match, India vs. Australia). That was great news and everyone was full of excitement. I was waiting in LT1 when someone announced 48 out of 105 students have been selected. I just wished me and all my friends were in the list. The result was announced and I was the fourth name on the list. All but a few of my friends made it to the second round. My interview was scheduled to start at 6.45 an now it was 4.35. I decided that this time I’ll prepare myself well for the interview and not mess it up like I did the last time (Read “Campus placement begins…”).

It was 6.45 and I was ready to face my interview (Read: I had mugged up the answers to common interview questions). I learnt from the feedback that they were asking very difficult puzzles inside for e.g. “What’s similar between lemon, page and light?” Now there was no way in hell that I could answer this in a tense interview environment. So I closed my ears to any further feedback. And then, I was called. I went in amidst confusion and best wishes. A man escorted me to an open cubicle (I was wondering how I had never been to this part of my college). I was told to wait for sometime. After sitting there watching myself in the glass cabinet door for 5-10 minutes I was called inside.

The interviewer was a middle-aged and graceful lady. After some casual questions like my name, city of birth etc., she asked me the first question, “What kind of person do you think you are?” Oh my God, It was not in my list of my interview questions. I ran around my mind and thought that I should frame my answer around my strengths. I did that and she was impressed. Then I told her about my interest in Computers and how the interest developed into passion. Again I kept embedding lots of strengths of mine in my answer. The second question she asked was, “What do you do to keep yourself updated about technology?” I answered her giving names of websites and computer magazines I regularly read along with the recent articles I read on each of them. The third question was “What are your other interests?” I said Cricket. She asked me different questions like “When is the second match between India and Australia?”, “How do you rate the current Indian team and it’s captain?” and “Have you ever played cricket?” I answered all the questions easily and I could see the balance tilting my side. After this she came to teamwork. She asked me the roles of leader and member in teams and whether I have played any of the roles. I answered the question giving one positive (successful member) and one negative (unsuccessful leader) answer. I supported my answer with the fact that I have learnt a lot from my experience and now I have perfected myself to play any of the roles. Then she asked me something I dreaded, a puzzle. To my relief the puzzle was easy and I managed to solve it quickly. She was done with her quota of questions and asked me if I had any. I asked two questions, “What is the growth tree for an Infoscion?” and “Is a management degree necessary to continue climbing up this tree?” She satisfied me with her answers, wished me all the best and asked me to leave.

I narrated the above interview experience 4-5 times to different people outside and went into the waiting room (Lecture theatre). All the interviews were over by 10.15. We were waiting for the results when a friend came and announced 41 out of 48 students have made it. I felt the height of mixed feelings. Only 7 students had been rejected but who were the unlucky 7 and what if I was one of them. In 5-10 minutes the same astoundingly beautiful lady, who gave the morning presentation, came to announce the results. She requested us to be quite and announced the names quickly. I and most of my friends were IN the list.

The atmosphere was filled with happiness. Everyone was shouting like hell and the news spread like fire. Our college managed 40% success rate in Infosys in the very first year of placements. I went to my friends house as it was too late to go back home.

As of now, I am back to normal self. I am eager to study hard and get admission in one of the IITs for my Post Graduate studies.

I wish that all my classmates who couldn’t make it get better jobs by the end of this semester. In the end I want everyone to have his/her Messenger status saying "I am IN."


Sunday, October 03, 2004

GMail = Good Mail.

GMail is the best. Google is great.
Sounds clichéd? Oh Yea, Now it does.

A few months back my friend Swaroop sent an SMS to me saying that he has sent a GMail invite to me. I ran like hell, booted my PC, typed “mail.yahoo.com” in IE and logged in. Yes, it was there. My heart was beating like anything. Shit! username chirag has already been taken, same with chirag.gupta. Phew! I got gupta.chirag. I thanked Swaroop and went on exploring GMail. I thought it was a big day in my life.

But now, the GMail hype is almost over.
Almost everyone I know has a GMail account and most of them have completely switched over to it (Not me though, I still use Yahoo and Rediff for some mails). Most of us love GMail mainly for the 1GB trend it kicked off. But there is more to GMail than 1GB.

I want to share with you the reasons why I really love GMail.

  1. Size.
  2. Clean interface and keyboard shortcuts.
  3. No Advertisements.
    I know text based ads are there but they are rarely as bad as banners/pop-ups.
  4. Speed.
  5. AutoComplete enabled address book.
  6. It enforces security.
    All the new accounts are required to have a non obvious password. Some people might feel it’s useless but it is really good as it enforces some kind of precaution that will be a must in the coming digital age.
  7. Uniqueness in Email Ids.
    This one needs explanation. Let’s take an example. Say your GMail Id is first[dot]last. At the time you register, GMail reserves firstlast (without [dot]) and fir[dot]st[dot]last and all other Ids formed by the combination of [dot]s in your Email Id. So if someone misreads your Email Id and adds/removes a [dot], you need not worry. You will still get the mail. Try this if you haven’t, it’s a great feature.
  8. Search. It's quite obvious.
    Let's think about near future. You’ll have a Google search client on your system. It will first search for the query in your local disk, then your GMail account and then go to the web. Good for guys like me who tend to forget there recent search queries.
  9. It’s from Google.
    Google is one company I really trust. If they do something, they leave no stones unturned. More importantly everything they create is designed to make your life better and easier. Expect the same from GMail.
  10. All we have seen is the Beta version. I am sure all user demands will be incorporated into the final version to make GMail the best email service.

And yes in case you are one of the rare species who does not have a GMail account, mail to me at echirag [at] gmail [dot] com.

I have a few GMail invites that might make your email experience a bit better.


Saturday, August 28, 2004

Campus placement begins...

I entered my college (JIIT Noida) at 9 in the morning, looking forward to what could be the best day of the semester. It was drizzling. All of a sudden a voice whispered in my mind, “It’s raining fortunes for us final year students”.

It had to be. It was the first time a recruiting organization (Infogain) was coming to our college (No, our college isn’t that bad, actually we are the first batch of the college). And as if it was not enough we had the final UGC inspection scheduled for today (if they liked the college we would get a deemed-to-be university status).

It was 10 and we were pushing our way through the door of the lecture theatre where Pre-placement talk was scheduled. It was raining heavily. Everything went on as usual (Read boring) until the guy on stage mentioned the compensation, Rs. 280,000 p.a. (approx. $6250). All of us like woke up from sleep. The pay package was way higher than average pay offered by other such IT companies. Everyone (around 150 students) geared up for the test. There were two tests – aptitude and technical. Also, we were supposed to write a small paragraph on our hobby. I performed fairly well in the tests and was particularly good in the paragraph (I chose computer gaming as my hobby:-)).

It was 6 in the evening and we were anxiously waiting for the list of candidates selected for interview round. It was still raining heavily. As we were waiting, a rumor spread from somewhere that we had been awarded a deemed-to-be university status. Before we could check whether it was a truth, the Infogain team arrived with the results. 27 students were selected for the next level (Oh yes, I was there). We were told to fill in a form and be ready with our resumes.The interviews started at 8. I was sixth on the list. A few people went in and out and lo, the coordinator announced “Chirag Gupta”. I rushed in nervously, accepting all the good wishes in the way. It was still raining. There were two guys sitting on a conference table waiting for me. The first guy asked me some general questions about my family, hobbies and areas of interests. All these questions did little but increase my confidence. Now the other guy asked some technical question (Basically, he asked me to utter something about my areas of interests and skill set). It was a long interview and to worsen the situation he asked me to wait for next round. It was already 10 and I wondered how long and boring this would be.

It was 1.30 and the night was pitch black. We had spent hours listening to essentially similar interview feedbacks with some white Gaussian noise added here and there. Finally I was called for the second round. Late night 2 isn’t particularly a good time to give an interview that could earn you a good job, but I had to do my best. I went in and was very cordially welcomed by a gentleman. He asked me all the same questions but they were better framed and expected a more precise answer. I was answering everything perfectly before he threw the ace - “Mr. Chirag, you have got such good marks in GATE (a GRE like exam to pursue higher engineering studies in India. Why would you come and join our company?” I tried to do everything to show my inclination towards job, especially a job in his company but I couldn’t impress him with any reason. Ironically it was a truth that I would have probably left the job if I got an opportunity for higher studies. He changed the topic and I performed well in the rest of the interview. Finally it got over and I came outside.

It was 3.30 and we were all speculating each others chances and waiting for the results. The results were finally out and 6 of us were selected (No, not me:-(). I went outside and saw it wasn’t raining anymore. The pleasant voice in my mind had been subdued by loud congratulations. I went to my friend’s room (I am a non-hosteller) had a long sleep and bunked college the next day.

As of now everyone is waiting for a huge party from the selected candidates – Anshuman, Gaurav, Abhishek, Ankita, Shikha and Aakansha. Sadly, we still haven’t found whether the deemed-to-be university news was a rumor or not. And yes, the pleasant voice in my mind is back and I am sure it’ll be raining fortunes for all of us final year students.

Sunday, August 22, 2004

My first technical article.

I have been reading and admiring computer magazines since 3 years but today was the day when I got inspired and wrote my first article. Some credit must also goto Google for supporting Blogger, the coolest way to publish articles on the Internet.

My first article contains my thoughts on the future of computing. Read it to know more...
And Keep watching http://guptachirag.blogspot.com/and http://futureofcomputing.blogspot.com/