Gear 3. Getting a Job

BACKGROUND: Semester based Engineering curriculum is like Shatabdi Express which only stops at few important stations along the route and one can't even read the name of in-between stations because of its high speed. Semester Exams and their Results are the two NIGHT stops of Engineering. Why NIGHT STOPS ??
The Night before the EXAM plays a tremendous role in an Engineer's life >> The night of exploring the syllabus, xeroxing the toppers' notes (always GIRLS' notes), building a roadmap to crack questions based on last 5 year's Qpapers, making numerous phone calls to spread paper leak rumors etc.
In addition to it, the Night before the RESULTS is also very critical >> In my times, folks used to gather outside the regional print media office which published the university results. As soon as they released the print of the results, the whole sight turned into a kind of wild protest which demanded for "Right to Know the Results." Intolerable shouts consisted of two crucial words "All Clear (Pass in all subjects)" and "Back (Fail in one or more subjects)".  In general, nights are very essential for an engineering student. They talk (BC), watch all sort of movies, smoke, drink, copy the assignment, in short everything except sleeping.
Anyways, that's how a normal school pass-out becomes an Engineer ("or rather gets the Engineering degree) !! Nevertheless everyone expects a good JOB, which is an obvious expectation.

TRAINING: As we entered the 5th semester (III year), the Head of Training and Placement Cell addressed to us and handed over the Placement Forms. She claimed " Last year we got (> 300) offer letters and this time I expect more." That politician's like speech was full random statistics and expectations which left people wondering. Who crosschecked the statistics and cared about her raised expectations ? But we clapped after her speech.
The team also distributed "Placement Forms". Those were the funniest forms I had ever filled in. It asked questions like >> What is your dream company ? Which sector you want to work in (like IT, Embedded or so on ? It was hard to believe that TPO team created the form like that because they seemed like ones who needed training and placement both. My friend laughed at the form and doubted " Do we have all choice in life ? "  
Interestingly a new subject "Soft Skills" was introduced, dedicated completely to train us for the upcoming months of campus placements. On the first day, the teacher jotted down five English words down and asked us to raise hands if anyone knew the meaning of any of the words. I was amazed to see that few of my batch-mates in the class knew the meaning of the words, I was not even sure if they existed in the language. My friend whispered" they all go to CAT coaching classes". (In this semester, the class was broadly classified in two strata >> Going AND Not Going to CAT coaching classes)
"Okay, that's good to know that ~ 10 % of the class is getting job during placement, very impressive" He said with pride. I didn't understand how that correlated with jobs. May be, only CAT aspirants could withdraw that conclusion. For me, it was the class of losing self confidence and self respect. Tough aptitude questions and never heard words of English were the only attributes of the class. That's how Soft skills were taught in a hard way. 

GETTING A JOB: In the beginning of 6th semester, several companies (Only IT companies) visited colleges of my city to organize centralized placements for eligible students. Everyone was so desperate to get a job in whichever company one was eligible for, quite contradictory to what one had filled in the so called "Placement Form". I was NO EXCEPTION.
Few smart folks downloaded Model CVs and others including me copied from them. Including a fascinating career objective was quite a challenging task because one could hardly make plenty of changes in Freshers' CV, however   majority of folks had more or less the same career objective, some of them had the same even (word to word). Hard to believe but sometimes while making changes from others' CV, few folks even forgot to change Father's Name, DOB, Gender (quite funny but you cant help it if you copy from girl) etc. Some folks thought why to waste energy in changing the hobbies' section ? 
After all who actually knows what they love to do in spare time ? They all do BC or sleep in spare time :) 
Written exam has to be qualified prior to Interviews. For interviews, either one had to buy "Let Us C" (Beginners guide to learn C language) or borrowed from someone who had not qualified the written. Buying was rather better option. Anyways some programs like "Fibonacci series, Calculate the factorial" were quite famous programs among the interviewers. I mugged up all of them though was not much sure of explaining them to the interviewer. In addition, answers of some FAQs were also mugged.
A group of 10 students were told to wait outside the room of Panel-1 interviewer. On one hand, majority of them explored "Let Us C", I whispered to my friend "Let Us See who all get through". I became very nervous as my name was called. Interviewer was very busy with his seemed like new "Blackberry Phone" (Blackberry was known to be a status symbol those days and reflected your social status. Iphone was not quite popular, so as Samsung).
He asked me to sit without deflecting his eyes from his BB and put 3-4 questions.
1Q Tell me something about yourself ? He stopped me in a "Not Interested tone" when I said " .... my hobbies are ..."
2Q Why do you want to work in IT industry despite you are from EC cadre ? I wanted to answer " Do we have any choices ?" but I answered what I found on Google.    
3Q Do you want to work in Development or Testing ? I said " Development" because that seemed more creative than Testing, though I was completely unaware of both the terms. I argued but interviewer explained with sarcastic smile " There is no creativity in Development, we develop what our client says and Testing Team tests what Development Team develops"
4Q Write a C program to traverse the string ? Oh my god, I didn't mug up that program even few strongly recommended me to do so. I confidently picked up his pen and jotted down the basic structure of a C program then he said " You may go now and send the next one". "Okay sir, thanks. Have a nice day" I said with smile.
I wondered what did he see in me and the folks like me. But that's how I got my "First Job".
My photo was printed on next year's college advertisement which claimed " Highest Placements for 2008 batch" OR "100 % Placements" (Some studies claimed that ~47 % of Indian graduates are unemployable for any job) !!  OR "Best Placements" 
They took all the credit to attract next year's aimless mass. That's how it is :)

Gear 1: Entering Engineering College

"Electronics and Communication (E&C) is an evergreen branch". While filling up the option forms to get an engineering branch in the college, it was the only rule I followed knowing all the illogical facts behind it. I got Electronics, Instrumentation and Control (EIC), a newly introduced branch in the curriculum of the university and not much people aware of it. My parents had a sigh of relief (knowing at least name Electronics in the branch) but Mr. Gupta clarified them the difference between E&C and EIC. In spite of my repetitive attempts explaining him the insightful facts about EIC, which I got from the first 5 google results on EIC, he was not convinced at all at the end. But the discussion ended with a suggestion made by Mr. Gupta that gave new hope to my parents. He said that first few rank holders of I year had the possibility to change the branch in II year. It was the VISA for me to enter the engineering college. 
I was completely unaware of majority of the facts that makes a college "A COLLEGE" !! I chose to stay outside the college campus. The area seemed to me like an education hub consisting of colleges and hostels. As I was dragging my luggage from the bus stop to hostel, a group of people, who had hockey-sticks, chains and punches, stopped me and asked "First Year ?" I stammered "NO, I am searching Vrindavan Hostel. They laughed and showed me the direction of my hostel. One of them whispered "ek aur aa gaya, aaj hi lete hain saale ki" !! I was scared like hell. They seemed like senior scholars who rag I year scholars. Once my friend informed that whenever whoever asks you "Intro De", it's ragging.
Anyways, I was relieved by being helped by few folks at the hostel's gate to get me in. A bunch of people caught me after dinner later that day. In addition to the conventional "Guide Book for I year students" and some obscene games, a list of tasks were assigned to me for the very first day of my college. I was asked to write the name, city, contact number and few other specification of the girls of my class in a tabular format. The task worked for me as well. On one hand, I gained the sympathy from the girls saying that it was an exercise under ragging, on the other hand, my database was also updated ;) Now the database was well analyzed later that day by seniors. The specifications were well cross verified with II year girls who shared the hostel with the girls. Seniors classified and allotted the girls amongst themselves by mutual understanding.
On Fresher's Eve, they celebrated because they were happy that no one among them could have got a girl. The chances of getting a girl for I year scholar (junior) were even lesser. How could anyone cajole a girl with all your hair cut, worst pair of shirt-pants, shoes with awkward laces and no style till Fresher's Eve ? Even then if you were caught with a girl during the day, a long overnight ragging session had been called for you.
II year scholars (so-called immediate seniors) were classified into "All Clear" (Pass in all subjects) and "Back" (Fail in one or more subjects) after their I year results that also declared during the crucial time till Freshers Eve. This classification doesn't exist for girls. Statistically, all Back class students were very good at making a group for fights, ragging and trying to get a I year girl. Their majority of discussions took place at "THADI" (An exclusive place for smoking, fights, ragging, creating accounts etc.)    
Engineering could be explained in terms of visionary Mr. Gupta at HOME and the way it's pursued at THADI. What a difference ?? :)

College Life: Reverse Gear

"Your son got 84.6 % in class X", said Mr. Gupta to my father. Mr. Gupta had both internet connection and particular interest to check the board results of the children of his colleagues. 

Once the results were out, a tsunami of free advices hit my family. The major advice was that which coaching institute in Kota to join to prepare for JEE. My parents and I didn't even know the full form of JEE and were unaware of the benefits after qualifying that. I was indeed so curious to know about that. Just after the basketball match one day, few of my school mates were discussing about the examination, which one has to qualify to enter the coaching institutes in Kota. One of them claimed that if got an admission in "Jain Classes (Famous Coaching Inst in Kota)", selection in IIT is guaranteed. Now what is IIT ? Were IIT and JEE two different things ? Later that day, I saw a big fat book in the book store, printed "A complete guide to IIT-JEE" on it . That made me so confused, it was not the time where one could google anything easily to clear the confusion and asking Mr. Gupta was also not the good choice either. 

I assumed that it was the only way to become whatever you want to become in the life. Just passing the class X, going to Kota, entering one of the institute there and finally qualifying IIT-JEE and if not qualified, then no options !! 

When I reached Kota one month prior to the entrance test of "Jain Classes", I was amazed to see the city. The city was flooded with institutes' banners, advertisements of food suppliers or messes and "TO LET" boards on every house's entrance gate. Almost every banner was full of pictures, especially of KT sir, PK sir, SM sir etc presenting something to AIR 1 candidate !!! ?? !! AIR 1 was printed on each one of them, one more short form ? One of the advertisement caught my attention which claimed "Prepare for Jain Classes, Gateway to IIT-JEE". I joined that class however failed to enter Jain Classes. 

The day when the results of Jain Classes were out, aspiring students got separated in two classes: One being studied in Jain Classes (Upper Class) and others NOT (Lower Class). Upper class candidates thought of everyone except them were good for nothing and wasting the money of their parents. I felt like I failed the last exam of my life. I didn't want to come back to my hometown and study there because it was hard for me and family to defend my return so early. It was expected for 2 years not 2 months. I joined "Rank 3" coaching institute in Kota. I didn't know where the Rank came from but one has to breathe in the air around. 

Two years passed like hell. Attending hours of lectures, solving unrealistic problems, reading dozens of uninteresting books and talking about the marks/ranks after every monthly test. I wanted to give up that "life with no charm" but defending the reason to quit it in front of society seemed far more difficult than being there with stress and trauma. 

After two years of stagnant life, I came to know 3 things: IITs (Indian Institute of Technology)are the premier technical institutes of India, JEE (Joint Entrance Exam) is the name of the exam to get into IITs and third, get into an engineering college is not a tough task either. I ended up getting into an Engineering College. I didn't know where I was heading to but indeed it was a new beginning :)