Imagineering

"LnT is comin off campus in Coimbatore city on May 5th. All those interested in attending give your name to the placement coordinators."

This was the message written on our classboard in mid-march. And like always I decided that I would study GATE portions and this portions and that portions and be very well prepared (sounds familiar doesn't it... we all do this). Well somebody once said, ' life is just full of postponements ' was very true because till the semester exams nothing happened, after the semester exams nothing happened and thank god atleast on May 4th something happened.

I managed to get the last years question paper pattern which some of my classmates even after getting it from our aptitude sir never bothered to share it. So finally Mr. Rajesh Rajan did some preparation(if you could even call it that) before attending his first company Larsen and Toubro. And apart from knowing the pattern what did this preparation involve? Well i decided what I was going to wear and went off to sleep instantly .

Before leaving I went to the Ashram to pray. This does help a lot but mind you, God will help you only if you help yourself. So finally when i reached the Coimbatore office of L&T what do I get to see? All my classmates sitting in groups and studying, some making notes and what not. Anyways i don't blame them.. this was an ODI.. either u get the job or you don't get the job.. So I just took a walk around with a glass of water. Soon the second batch students were called to write the written test. It consisted of non-verbal reasoning and questions based on engineering physics. In the hall you could see guys who came like robots looking as if they would slide through the whole process and there were guys who were praying that they passed in the written test. The test began. I tried finishing everything as fast and as correctly as I could.
After the test we had lunch and returned to hear the results. I knew that I had done the paper well but didn't know if i had done it well enough. Listened to the names of those selected calmly and somewhere towards the end I heard a familiar name...'Rajesh.. Rajan..' I was so happy and shocked at the same time. I didn't know what to do. Well somehow it was my lucky day. Many guys were shocked. Some said it was impossible. One dude came and told me that I don't deserve to be selected... give me a break!

So after the test i got straight to the interview. My interview was the next day. Early morning called a call taxi and 6 of us set off.. there were guys studying and revising and what not.. i decided to stay cool and calm.. (i like playing it that way..) guys were so tensed that we had a nice fight in the waiting room.. both the guys got really mad and mind you - both didn't get through interview.. you lose your cool you lose the match!

Finally interview.. I had two guys in my panel.. one for HR and the other guy for technical.. both were really nice and cool.. made sure i was comfortable and offered me tea which i politely refused.. They asked me few very basic stuff from fluid mechanics (since that was my area of interest) like what is Reynolds number.. how do u measure viscosity etc,etc. it was seriously nothing compared to what the others got.. then the HR guy went through the resume form that I had filled.. and he came over the name 'MINDSCAPE' (For those of you who don't know.. Mindscape is the documentary screening wing of ASTHA-Amrita Science and TecHnology Action forum). I told him what it is and since i was the co-founder along with Ajai sir I explained it in the best possible way I could.. in one of my examples I mentioned Extreme Engineering.. he asked me which was my favorite one.. i asked him 'finished or proposed projects sir?'.. he said finished..

I choose talk about Hong Kong airport.. for around 15 minutes.. he asked me what was wrong with the existing airport.. I spoke about the landing problems due to the tall buildings near by.. He asked me what was wrong with the new airport.. I said it was its glass structure.. the glass structure could break in due to the high pressure variations during a storm.. he asked me if such a thing had ever happened.. I thought for a while and said to my knowledge I don't think so sir.. he said it had happened once.. then the big question.. 'What does an engineer have to learn from this documentary?'.. i took my time to think and answered... 'Every design is dependent on the nature of the system in which it is being used'. The engineers of the Hong Kong airport didn't take the storms into account while designing the airport which was very wrong and incase the glass broke many would die and there would be great loss of money..

"Thank you Mr. Rajesh... nice meeting you.."

"Thank you sir"

I truly enjoyed my session inside. It was as if I had decided what questions will be asked and when. The results came after 4 days and my name was there. I was very sure it would be there and there it was. Never had extra curricular activities alone played such a big role in any interview.

Why was i selected....?

I didn't worry too much about the outcome. We had the software companies coming anyway if LnT didn't take me. So i was cool and confident. I sat straight in my seat and showed great comfort and confidence. I took my time answered all the questions with confidence. Some were right.. some were wrong. If it was wrong I would ask for the right answer politely. They didn't want whiz kids. They wanted mechanical engineers who were clear, confident and had a willingness to learn..

"Its all about Imagineering"