I think this happens to everyone of us- We forget to eat, drink or sleep before an interview. We forget to do the homework but we make sure that we look good. We forget about our goals and spend hours editing our so-called ‘impressive' resume.
And like that old pepsi ad, I too used to ask-“Mera number kab aayega?”
That day it was my turn…
6th Jan 2010-6.30 pm
“Good evening Ma’am. May I come in?” I asked the woman who was scrutinizing some sheets of paper deeply.
She didn’t even look at me. “You are already in Mr. Aritra Sen.”
I noticed that I didn’t knock on the door but instead stepped inside her cabin directly.
This lady, who was barely a year older than me, was wearing a yellow kurta and blue jeans. And she was damn cuteJ.
Agar Jatin(my dear friend) hota toh kehta-“Aritra, main toh bolu isko pata le. Teri life set ho jayegi boss!”
I sat opposite to her and gave a curt smile.
“Tell me Mr. Sen, if we have an array of numbers, which sorting technique will you use to sort them?”
“Merge sort!” I replied instantly. Not that I was confident about my answer but the truth was that I forgot the names of other techniques.
“Why not Bubble sort or quick sort?”
“Because it is the fastest of all”, I said.
“But isn’t it more complex?”
“Complexity is not a problem for engineers, is it? All we need is to save some time.”
She looked unsatisfied by my answer. I gave a faint smile and pushed my folder containing all the certificates towards her. “Trying to impress me by your records Mr. Sen?”
“No Ma’am, I was just....” left the sentence incomplete…!
She wrote some numbers on a piece of paper and said, “Sort them.”
Sorting i.e. arranging numbers in ascending or descending order was a child’s play.
I did it within a second.
“Which technique did you use?” she asked.
My jaw dropped.
I thought she said SORTING! She never mentioned that I have to use some particular technique to derive my answer.
I said, “Bubble sort”, because I had a fair knowledge of the algorithm.
“Why?”
I said in a low voice without looking at her eyes, “Because it’s easy.”
BAKRA PHASS
“Easy!!! ‘Complexity is not a problem for engineers’”, she imitated me, “Why not Merge sort this time?”
“Kuch naa aaye toh jhooth mooth ka haans dena”- Karthik’s words started ringing in my head.
I smiled falsely in a hope that she would smile back at me but she didn’t.
“Stop giving that stupid smile”, she snapped.
Kill you Karthik!!!
“Tell me, what is late binding?”
“I don’t know…”
“What is binary search tree?”
“er…em…I don’t know…”
“What is the difference between Structure and
“I don’t know…”
HATRICK!!!
“What is the difference between printf and sprintf?”
“I don’t know…”
“What are types of queues?”
“Linear queue…er…em….ah…circular queue…er…I don’t know…”
“What is the syntax of free function?”
“Write ‘free’ and open close brackets.”
“What!” she exclaimed, “That’s it?”
I realized that I made a horrible mistake by answering something I didn’t know.
“Sorry…I think I am wrong…I don’t know…”
DOUBLE HATRICK!!!
I wished she slapped me and have said, “Gadhe! Tu software engineer banega!”
But she remained calm and continued firing more questions.
“What is an abstract class?”
YES! YES! I know this one!
I managed to deliver an efficient answer.
Her eyebrows rose an inch.
Ah! She never expected this!
I was feeling like a loser turned hero.
She asked me more and I gave her more.
NOTE:- There’s no double meaning to the above statement. Well, not intentional anyways…!!
She bowled five more balls while I managed to deliver a six in every shot…felt like Yuvraj singh!
C’mon baby! One more!
“Shed some light on storage classes.”
OH! Yuvraj Singh just had a cramp in his leg…
“I don’t know…”
“Thank you, you may go now.”
I just saw the negative axis in my ‘Engineer’s dream’. It was clear that I couldn’t make it to the next round.
It was 6.51 pm then. I made a mental note that mine was the shortest of all interviews.
As soon as I came out, many curious faces started asking me one question-“Kaisa tha?”
And I managed to give them only an one word answer-“Pakau.”
*
Everything she asked was read by me at some point in my life but I forgot to brush up my memory.
I believe someday, both you and me will survive those 21 minutes! And even if we get rejected again, then-Honthon ko kar ke gol…Seeti bajaa ke bol…Aal Izzz Well!
