Interesting Interview Situations I
Before I made the switch of jobs recently, I had the experience of few interesting interview situations. Let me describe them in the subsequent blogs.
My phone rang at 6:00 pm, the time at which my office bus always starts in its long journey to my home. The person at the other end of the call was a HR from a software firm that is into financial products. I had applied to the firm just the previous day and so was least expecting their call at that time.
HR: "One of our senior members from the US wants to interview you now. Can you receive the call in 5 minutes?"
Me: "I'm sorry but I'm currently traveling and so wouldn't be able to take the call now. Can I have the interview tomorrow?"
HR: "We want to finish this today. Can't you take the call today?"
Me: "Ok then. It'll be 8 pm when I reach my destination. I'll take the call at 8:30"
HR: "It's urgent. Can't you take the call now itself? I can hear you clearly."
Me: "Actually, I'm in the office bus. So I can't possibly attend an interview from here."
HR: "Then can you take the call at 8:15?"
The bus generally reaches my place by 7:30. I had given the time as 8:00 giving me some safety net. So 8:15 didn't sound bad at all and I agreed.
7:00 pm: The bus was still near office. There was a traffic jam due water logging in the roads (yep, the Mumbai rain deluge)
7:30 pm: By this time I was sure that I wouldn't be able to reach home by 8:15. What to do now? A friend suggested that we get down at a mall nearby and take the call.
8:10: We entered the shopper's stop showroom and I was ready to attend the interview when all of sudden the sound shook me. It was the usual, "Ladies' salwars at 25% discount in first floor", kind of shop announcement. There was no way that I would have been able to attend an interview with announcements blowing off every 5 minutes. We quickly moved out of the shop and roamed around the mall to find a peaceful place. That's when we came across a section of the mall that was still under construction. Since it was late evening, the work for the day was over and the place had very few people. I felt satisfied with the locale and my phone rang instantly.
The result of the interview was an offer from the company, which I later declined. But the experience of searching for a place to attend an interview during a downpour, and answering questions while walking up and down a shop floor under construction is something that I can think of and laugh about.
My phone rang at 6:00 pm, the time at which my office bus always starts in its long journey to my home. The person at the other end of the call was a HR from a software firm that is into financial products. I had applied to the firm just the previous day and so was least expecting their call at that time.
HR: "One of our senior members from the US wants to interview you now. Can you receive the call in 5 minutes?"
Me: "I'm sorry but I'm currently traveling and so wouldn't be able to take the call now. Can I have the interview tomorrow?"
HR: "We want to finish this today. Can't you take the call today?"
Me: "Ok then. It'll be 8 pm when I reach my destination. I'll take the call at 8:30"
HR: "It's urgent. Can't you take the call now itself? I can hear you clearly."
Me: "Actually, I'm in the office bus. So I can't possibly attend an interview from here."
HR: "Then can you take the call at 8:15?"
The bus generally reaches my place by 7:30. I had given the time as 8:00 giving me some safety net. So 8:15 didn't sound bad at all and I agreed.
7:00 pm: The bus was still near office. There was a traffic jam due water logging in the roads (yep, the Mumbai rain deluge)
7:30 pm: By this time I was sure that I wouldn't be able to reach home by 8:15. What to do now? A friend suggested that we get down at a mall nearby and take the call.
8:10: We entered the shopper's stop showroom and I was ready to attend the interview when all of sudden the sound shook me. It was the usual, "Ladies' salwars at 25% discount in first floor", kind of shop announcement. There was no way that I would have been able to attend an interview with announcements blowing off every 5 minutes. We quickly moved out of the shop and roamed around the mall to find a peaceful place. That's when we came across a section of the mall that was still under construction. Since it was late evening, the work for the day was over and the place had very few people. I felt satisfied with the locale and my phone rang instantly.
The result of the interview was an offer from the company, which I later declined. But the experience of searching for a place to attend an interview during a downpour, and answering questions while walking up and down a shop floor under construction is something that I can think of and laugh about.
posted by Jammy at 4:11 PM
3 Comments:
More laughable is the part that you did well in the interview (given that you got an offer, this is an assumption that can be made I think) despite the not too conducive environment. :P
hmm congrats ;)
Nice subject chosen, to blog on... Maybe even write in about some interview guffaws...
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