How I got into Infy ...

Those days I was preparing for CAT (entrance exam for prestigous management institutes of India). One of my friend told me that Infosys is going to conduct interview for recruiting graduate fresh out of college. The interview was supposed to be in Baroda, 200 kms. from my place Gandhinagar (Capital of Gujarat, India). I thought I will try my luck and in that way I can visit my friend's house in Baroda.

So, we (Japan, Mauktik and I) took a train to Baroda in the early morning around 6:00am and we were in Baroda at 8:00am. On the Baroda station we met one of our college mate, Fatima if I recollect. She too willingly accepted invitation from Mauktik to stay in his out. So off we went to Mauktik's house from the station. The written test was at 4:00pm in the evening so we had some time to do prepration. Our preparation material included some books from Sakuntla devi and one english author whose name I am not able to recollect. We cracked some of the puzzles without help and some with hints/peeking at answers. Mauktik's mom gave us a good lunch which we had along with our brain teasers. It was in no time we realised that it was 1:30. Another 2 odd hours remaining for the test. Around 2:00pm we started for MSU campus where our written test was to be conducted.

We reached the place in autorikshaw without much ado (unlike other part of India). We searched for the room and finally found it from one of notice boards. There were some 400 odd people who had gathered. All were anxious to get through the test. There were couple of known faces in the gathering. And there were some whom I had seen the first time. Later on, three of these faces were to become my room mate in chennai. More of that in my next posting.

The test was conducted in two class room with old style benches were you can hardly get in. Some how we all sat there for around 1 hour after which some HR folks (as young as we were) came and gave papers to us. Since I was preparing for CAT, I felt that the play ground was quite familiar. The only difference was we were to give step by step how we arrived at the result.

Around 6:00pm or so the test got over and all of us returned our sheet for evaluation. They anounced that results should be out in another 1 hour. So, we had around 1 hour to roam round the MSU campus. At 8:00pm after one hour delay the results were anounced. To my bad luck none of my friend's name was there in the short list else it would have been a different story. I was asked to come for interview the next day as it too late. My time for interview was 10:30am.

I think the blog is becoming too big.. may be i should cut short.

I went to the interview. He asked me some couple of puzzles which yours truly was able to solve with left hand (no i am not left hander :-)). One question I liked the most was how many moves can be played in the first step in chess? Being a fairly knowledgable in chess I was able to give it correctly... Others please help yourself...

During the interview I made a grave mistake which I will never ever forget in my life. He asked me do I have locational preference. I being a moron blurted out "No locational prefrences!!". I still do not recall why the heck did I made such statement. I could have opted for Pune. But no I had to say "No locational prefrences!!"... what the...

After interview I was back in gandhingar studying for CAT in the same good old library.

One evening my father came to library (I thought he came to see if I am really studying or not...:-)). He came to my desk and took me out. I thought something serious thing has happened. Then he pulled out a telegram notifying that I have been selected by Infosys and would be required to report at Infosys Chennai on October 3rd, 2000 (how can I forget this date!!!). My salary was around INR 16,000/per month. I said I will have to think. I had decided after coming out of college I would not do a job if my salary was not INR 10,000/per month. The salary was meeting the criteria... The only problem was I had to leave my family for first time ever in my life... It was going to be difficult...

But I was ready for my destiny .....



Coming up next: My chennai trip...

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I tried the following link before putting this blog and guess what I got "404 Error". To avoid that I am putting this in the blog. But rest assured I will be adding a lot to them.

http://mehulrajput.blogspot.com