Compared to the people who showed up at Avadi, I definitely feel that this lot was much better. This is mainly because not even one of the 17 kids I interviewed said "I can able". The quality of English was definitely bad, but again, compared to Avadi, it was better.
Anyways, here's a collection of some of the interesting statements heard during the interview sessions: (I hope Ramadurai also blogs about his experiences)
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# 01
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While winding up an interview, I asked the candidate if she had any questions for me. She immediately asked me why interviews were being conducted by us? She asked if it wouldn't be easier to conduct multiple Group Discussions rather than waste time and effort conducting individual interviews.
I was really stumped by this question. I gave off some gyan answer, but her question definitely validated my selection!
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# 02
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On a similar note, another kid asked if I was here for the money or for fame. If only his communication skills were better.....
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# 03
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Q: Who is Pratibha Patil?
A: He is the... uhhhh... mmm.... He is the Republic Minister of India.
Q: (with the best straight face I could muster) Ok, anything else?
A: He is the good Congress person. He do lots of good in politics. He is the good with states and ....uhhh ... mmmm ... what I can say... states and districts. He is the very good Congress.
A: Ok, moving on...
I mean to say, I am no fan of Ms.Patil and in fact loathe the fact that she is the President of this country. But then, it was really disappointing to note that a citizen of this country doesn't even know the name of his President. In fact he didn't even know the name of the post. And worse, he didn't even know the gender of that person. Is there a way or law by which such people can be arrested?
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# 04
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Asked the same question to the next candidate.
Q: Who is Pratibha Patil?
A: She is the Prime Minister of India.
Hello.... I didn't ask who is Sonia Gandhi. I asked who is Pratibha Patil!!!!
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# 05
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Name of a candidate was *Pandian.
Q: Which kings or dynasty ruled Madurai?
A: I don't know saar
Q: You don't know *Pandian, its there in your name itself.
A: Oh, Pandian king saar.
Q: What was the logo/emblem on the Pandya king's flag?
A: I don't know saar.
He was probably frustrated with my questions or didn't want the job.
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# 06
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Q: What is the legend behind Potraamarai Kullam?
A: That sir, its from the Thiruvilayaadam Puraanam.
Q:
A: There will be a Pandian king saar. He will get doubt and so ask to write poem saar. One poet cant write poem saar. So God comes and gives poem. He takes to king saar. But all king's minister, poet will find fault saar. So God will angry saar. Then he will dismiss Nakkeerar saar. This will happen in that kullam saar. That's the story.
He basically narrated the famous Dharumi episode from the Thiruvilayadal movie. While I too didn't know much about the legacy of that kullam, where is the link between the story he narrated and the presence of a golden lotus in that pond (etymology of the pond's name explained)?
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# 07
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Q: What are your hobbies?
A: Reading books, listening music
This was a standard answer from almost everyone. When I asked them what books they read, 4 out of 5 would respond that they read technical books to improve their knowledge. Basically, reading books listed in your curriculum is a hobby!!!
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# 08
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Q: What are your hobbies?
A: Gardening, reading books..
Q: Gardening? Do you have a garden at home? What sort of plants do you grow?
A: In Madurai we wont have like garden saar. There will be fields and I will do planting of crops, harvesting etc saar.
Q: Oh, so you mean more of agriculture is it?
A: Yes saar
Q: What kind of crops do you grow now?
A; It is like... uhh... mmm.. like paddy rice saar..
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# 09
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Q: What are your hobbies?
A: Listening music, reading books...
Q: What type of books do you read?
A: Comedy or humorous books saar
Q: Ok. Who is your favorite author?
A: Shakespeare saar.
Q: Cool. Which book of his you like the most?
Note: for the last 2 questions, I was not looking at him directly and was flipping through his resume, test sheet, application form etc.
A: Dragon Lord saar
That was a bolt from the blue. I almost dropped the papers I was holding and somehow managed to ask him:
Q: Dragon Lord?
A: Yes saar
Q: By Shakespeare?
A: Yes saar
Q: Can you tell me the story?
A: There will be a king saar. He will go to fight the dragon saar. After the fight saar, the king life will be with dragon. Then all the peoples will go and fight the dragon saan. The dragon will die and the king will come saar.
I don't even want to do a Google to find out if that great bard did indeed write fairy tales.
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# 10
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This was not part of the fresher interview on Saturday, but a telephonic one that I conducted on Friday. The candidate's resume said he had some 2.5 years of experience. I had another panelist with me and I started the interview introducing ourselves and the guy cut us off midway and gave his name.
Us: Lets start the discussion with a brief introduction about yourself and what you are looking for at
Him: Bangalore or Pune.
Us: No, we meant what your expectation is at (my company)?
Him: Testing job.
It was clear that we were heading nowhere with this guy.
Us: Ok, can you please tell us about yourself?
Him: Ok sir. I am ......
He went ahead and gave his family background. Nothing about his education or previous experience.
Us: Can you tell us about your current project?
He went on and on at full speed about the project. I interrupted him and asked him:
Us: What is the database structure used in your project?
Him: There will be many columns sir. One for Serial Number, one for Test case id, one for Test case description, one for actual result sir, one for expected result and one for defect id.
Us: You have told me what a test case template is. I wanted to know what is the database structure used in your project.
Him: RDBMS sir.
Us: What? Which database. Oracle or MS-SQL or MS-Access?
Him: SQL sir.
Us: Which version?
Him: 9i sir.
At this point, I asked my co-panelist to continue the discussion and I stepped out to catch hold of my friend, who is also the recruitment anchor for my unit at Chennai. He heard this candidate speak for a minute and immediately asked us to close out the interview. But just before we closed out we wanted to find out if he had spoken to someone else earlier in the day.
The background was that there was another unit also conducting interviews that same day. Sometimes it so happens that the other unit guys might find a profile not meeting their requirements and might refer it to other units - on that day, it was us. Here's what transpired....
Us: Have you attended any interview before this at (my company)?
Him: Yes sir
Us: When?
Him: Today
Us: Whom did you speak to?
Him: Interview sir
Us: Ok, did you speak to the HR or did someone interview you?
Him: Today only interview sir.
Us: No no, before we started this interview, did anyone from (my company) speak to you today?
Him: No sir. Only face to face interview call.
We were quite exasperated by then and closed out the discussion.
1 comment:
I think you can safely ask for a raise.
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