I have completed my college life. No more exams, no more results, no more bunking first half and sleeping and lots of other things will be no more. At this point, I want to take some time out, share the experience of my amazing roller coaster ride and thank the people who mattered and have helped me get where I am today (and where I will be in a few months :-P).
The Dream
Just like every computer science student, I had a dream too. My dream started along a bit early. Right from my school days, I had two
role models. I had only one dream. I found a few 6 year old messages in my gtalk log where i was cribbing to my friends about my dream of working at my
dream company at its
headquarters.
The Start
I got through a really good job during my on-campus placements. It is at this point most people get carried away, but somehow i managed to not fall into that trap and thereby miss my dream. I chose to do my final semester internship in another company so that I will have bandwidth to explore other options. Btw, the workplace where I am doing my internship is awesome (this place is so awesome that I just can't stop boasting about it whenever I talk of internships).
Ok coming back to the topic, naturally the first step was to prepare for other companies' interviews. I started doing that and decided to apply to a company by end of March. Thankfully, one of my
friends knew a person there who could refer me and get me an interview (btw, my friend happens to be a really wonderful human being who has helped me whole heartedly whenever i needed any help. He also happens to be my college senior and i am heavily indebted to him!). Off went my resume into the company and i got an automated "thank you for your interest in us" email.
The Phone Call
Then the recruiter called me and was ready to set me up with interviews beginning with a phone screening. I was told I would get a call by 11 AM. The interviewer had some issues in dialing in my number so it got delayed by 10 minutes. One of the worst 600 seconds of my life where I was tensed to the core. Once the interviewer called me, time flew off. Einstein was right.
I felt quite confident. Eventhough i didn't nail the interview, I felt it was far away from being tagged along a tweet as #pathetic. Few days later, I got an email from my recruiter stating that I have cleared the phone screening and will have to visit their office in Hyderabad for on site interviews.
The Visit
I was plagued with sickness and was in a severe low health for a few days before the interview. They flew me from Chennai to Hyderabad on the evening before the interview. I have been informed that I would be picked up by a cab as soon as I landed at Hyderabad. That was the first "awe" moment of the trip. The cab driver was standing at the arrival lounge with a placard that had my name.
I couldn't have dinner that night, couldn't have breakfast on the day of the interview. Somehow i reached the office. The first thing I noticed was the sheer enormity of the Hyderabad office. It was just too good.
 |
| Thankfully Air India was flying that day! |
Once I reached the office, I had to have a sticker with my name printed on it (a temporary id card sorta thing). Since it wouldn't stick to my t shirt, i had to stick it around my arm like a watch!
And then there were 6!
Then started the interview process. There were 6 rounds each comprising of 45 minutes to one hour. I had a lunch break in between for half hour and eventhough i couldn't eat much (because of my illness), i was totally mesmerized by the food court that they had. The interviews were over around 6 o clock in the evening and I came back to Chennai the same night. It was a long day and i was totally down with illness at the night.
The Wait
Next came the worst part, waiting for the results. I don't know what to write in this column, but there a few things and people that helped me overcome this strenuous period. My work at internship gave me some distractions but night times were a nightmare where I barely slept for 2 or 3 hours.
The Surprise
Then came the call on 17th May, stating that I have gotten through and that I will be intimated about the work location in a day or two. I was wonderstuck, I had no words to describe what it meant to me. I mean, it was my dream ever since from when I was at school. Fortunately, I was with the people I love when the call came and I could not have been more happier.
As it turns out, the call on May 17th wasn't the happiest moment in my life. That came a few days after, when I received my offer letter. It was a totally unexpected freaking surprise. My salary was mentioned in US dollars. I was searching the letter to know my work location (as I was most eager to know whether the work location would be Bangalore or Hyderabad). When I found it, my heart just froze, I mean, it just froze. It was my dream location. It was what I dreamed about in my school days. It was whose pictures I posted in Orkut years back when it was my dream.
It was a DREAM COME TRUE !
The People
None of this would have happened if not for the really supportive people around me. I have an amazing set of
F.
R.
I.
E.
N.
D.
S from college and school. I really owe them for all their support over the past howmanyever years I have known them.
Another bunch of people whom I really owe a lot are my friends in twitter. It was one of the main reasons why I was able to achieve my dreams. Every discussion (the technical ones) I had in twitter had been a value addition to me. When I think of it, few
people come to my mind immediately. Thanks a lot guys, eventhough we've hardly met in person, you are a vital part of my life.
Thanks are due to my
parents who have been alongside me for every single decision I took in my life. They trusted me totally and I hope I have justified that trust to a certain extent now.
Apart from them, I sincerely thank all of you who have been a part of my life over the past 22 years. Without you people, I will not be where I am today.
Conclusion
I am joining my first full time job in a few months. I am living in dreams when i think of the fact that i am going to be working in the same place where people like
Prabhakar Raghavan,
Matt Cutts,
Guido van Rossum,
Joshua Bloch,
Robert Love (and not to mention
Larry Page and
Sergey Brin) work. My life cannot be more close to perfect than it is now. Once again, I sincerely thank each and every one of you!
I'm Feeling Lucky!
-Vignesh
P.S.: I have not mentioned about one very important person in this post. That is completely intentional and the reason for that being lack of words to describe what that person means to me. :-)
