the interview drama

It was yesterday, the 8th day of placements and it started with a big disappointment, me failing to clear the test of Dunhumby, inspite of me doing good in the test. I had lost all the hopes with it. I came to hostel and went on for lunch, suddenly got a call from bansal who informed that I had cleared the test of PWC and have to appear for the interview and should come immediately. This news bought a ray of hope for me and I didn't wanted to screw it up but as usual everything can't go right with me, now this is how events unfolded.
I rushed to my room, took out my suit and then someone pointed out - hey dude you should shave before appearing for the interview. Fortunately I had a new razer at that moment but the first contact of razer with my face skin resulted in a deep cut. The blood was not stopping and I got a call that you should come for the interview immediately. I tried everything in desparation, used 2 different after shave lotions, thinking that the other one might me successful in clotting the blood. I used antiseptic cream but finally it was alum that stopped the blood. Now once blood stopped i started dressing, i realized that I had already lend my necktie to someone else, but fortunately I could find one necktie in the wing, so finally I was dressed up but once again my folder was missing so i had to carry my resume in a notebook. I reached the IBM building, the centre where all the placement activities occur at IITD, right in time. But there the volunteers told me that it will take some time before interview will start, so i got some time to look at my resume and think of few HR questions. A cursory glance at the printed copy of reume made me realise that somehow there was a blank bullet inserted in between lines in the resume and I had send the same resume to the PWC people, I realized that it was not my day and I shouldn't expect anything from it. (Well there are only very few days in a year rather years that I could call as my day, rest all are OTHERS days) I rushed to get another printout of my CV and finally was able to get one. Now I thought to relax a bit in the waiting room, right in front of the interivew room. As soon as reached that room, the volunteer said, sir you are vivek singh, I said yes, he said, you are next for the interview. Now I was nervous for the first time, and looking at the other candidates and knowing that company prefers Postgrads aur Undergrads with good academic record, I had lost hope of any outcomes from the interview and was thinking what other options do I have after this, suddenly door opened and I was asked to get in. I walked in and saw three people sitting for interviewing me, i was hardly prepared for one on one and PWC had arranged a three on one combat for me and one of them was in no mood to have any mercy on the pitty creature like me who was just one interview old. This is how it went..........

Interviewer 1: So vivek tell me something about yourself

me: I am vivek singh I was born in bihar, did my shooling in three different cities of utter pradesh before landing here at delhi. I..... (interupted)

Interviewer 1: What were the 3 cities

me: Kanpur, shaharanpur and ghaziabad

Interviewer 2 (with stern face expressions) : You faired very badly in the aptitude test, what were the reasons for it?

me: I did the questions sequencially and it might be the case that I had not attempted the questions, which were easy but were present at the end, so I might not have faired well on the relative scale.

Interviewer 2: (Angrily) the worst part is that you performed badly in logical reasoning part, was it beacuse the questions were too tough for you or you were nervous or was it because of lack of time?

me: you didn't provide any rough papers so it resulted in me using the space of qusetion paper which was not enough, so the case may be that I had jotted down an information and while solving, had interpreted that messed up thing as something else, and just a single mistake would have resulted in whole question going wrong. I still believe that I did all the questions right as I hardly commit any mistakes but if there was a mistake than the reason that I explained earlier is the only one that I can think off. (While answering this question I realized that they have already decided not to take me, so now lets just play on)

interviewer 1: Ok. i'll give you a chance to show that you have good analytical skills, tell me the conusmtion of paper cups in a single day in your campus

I worked out this one and came with an answer of 3750

Interviewer 1: Thats on very high side

me: (I too thoght that he was right, its exorbitantly high but I had to defend myself): Sir the number of cups of coffee in paper cups that I drink in a day and the people around me drink and the number of cups I see lying here and there I can say that the figure I have quoted is if not exact than is definately very close to the excat figure.

Interviewer 2: (looking at my CV) How much time have you spend on your CV?

me: around a week

Interviewer 2: Do you know what is inside it?

me: yes offcourse, I think you are saying so beacuse of the blank line that is present, that was a a formatting error because of version conflict that occured while I took the printout. I had realized this later thatswhy have bought another one without any glitches, for your review

Interviewer 2: Its fine, as far as all the information is complete, i dont care much

Interviewer 2: Now tell me, why should I take you?

me: I am hardworking and I . ......(interupted)

Interviewer 2: everybody is hardworking

me: I am academically inclined while..........(interupted)

Interviewer 2: Everybody here at IIT is academically inclined rather is supposed to be academically inclined. Dont give generic answers. If you have anything unique to say about you than say else its not required

me: I had done marketing for one of my project and was able to bring corporate sponsorship of Rs 10 lacs, this exposure had developed strong convincing skills in me apart from this......... (interupted )

Interviewer 2: Is it? Take this pen and If you have to sell it to me in Rs 1 lac, how will you do it?

me: (taking the pen offered by him) Sir, this pen was used by Mr.Ratan Tata for signing the Corus deal and thaswhy it was a success, he however didnt use it for signing the agreement with orissa government for the nano project (what a geographical blunder as I replaced west bengal by orissa but it remained unnoticed) so it failed miserably..........(interupted)

Interviewer 2: Did you steal it from him?

me: No, actually mr.Tata didn't realized its power hence he passed this pen on to me. I traced whole of its history and realized that all the pathbreaking deals were made thorugh it only so the power of making successful deal lies in the pen only. So taking this into account I have kept its price at modest Rs 1 lac, you can pay and get this pen and then you can go on and sign those path breaking deals

Then there was further grilling over my CV, but i came out unscathed with most of them as fortunately none of them in the panel was technically very sound as far as mechanical engieering is concerned. Then came the final question

Interviewer 2: Are you prepared for travelling?

me: I love travelling

Interviewer 2: everbody says the same sentence but when it comes to travelling than it becomes a different story

me: I really do. Infact, in one of my projects I scanned whole of delhi in each of the single day

Interviewer 2: Doing that for one or two days is not difficult

me: I did that for atleast 15 days straight.

Interviewer 2: there is lot of difference between 15 days and 1 year

me: It might be, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of those 15 days and on that basis I can say that I would love that even if made to do for whole year.

Interviewer 2: Fine. It was nice meeting you, have a good day

I left the room, having a clear feeling that I screwed the interview and there is no scope of any hope. I described this incident to atleast 15 other people and they told me that It was a stress interview and I had fared quite well in it. But I still had doubts over their interpretations so I went to hostel and hoped that what others said,be the case. Finally at 9 I got a call that PWC people want to meet me. I rushed once again from the hostel (second time in a day) and reached there (fully suited). The 2nd interviewer told me that he had kept me on first waitlist. He said that he was impressed with me particularly the way I sold him the pen, but they had come to recruit just 2 people and the 2 that they have selected slightly better suit the profile that was being offered.
So this was how my second interview of life ended and I could say that It was a partially successful one but still I went back remaining unemployed, just hoping that I get placed in coming week.