The 'J' word

It's nice to be back to blogging and its nicer (if that's a word) to be back to blogging after being employed. What surprises me most is that the reason why I stayed away from blogging was because I was too busy preparing for job season and as this being my 50th post, I wanted it to be special. And now finally after getting a job, I seriously don't think the whole job thing needed any preparation. For instance, the company that recruited me did not have a look at my resume and made my technical interview look like Latin. And although I fully respect the decision of company recruiters, I think the reason they might have preferred me was that I had lived in different parts of India ( and hence had very less location constraints) and because I had done shopfloor work during my intern.

Now here comes the fun part. Let's do a cost benefit analysis of the placement season. Now most of the things people do in IIT is for the reason of getting a good job. (And what is meant by a good job here is either Mc Kinsey or BCG because nobody is thinking below it right from the day they hear their name for the first time in their life till the day the shortlists of these companies arrive in the final year during placement season). The best way to make a junior work here is pave a path for him and show how doing that work would eventually help him getting a good job and he would be running to get the job done. So be it academics, plays, debates, sports, projects, college festivals, everybody has the 'J' word attached to it at the end. If you attach a 'why' to any activity done here, you will eventually end up to a job. Why are you studying; so that I get a good GPA, so that I get a good job. Why are participating in debates; so that it adds to my communication skills, so that I get a good job and it goes on.

Hence the benefit out of IIT placement season can be safely considered as 'a good job'. Now we arrive at the cost part. I must have spent some 3 weeks making the my resume which they ( the company that finally recruited me) did not look at. Two months went into Rendezvous Coordinatorship that they did not ask me about. Three months of project work which they failed to understand and two months of internship which I think finally got me the job. Hence out of the seven month three week of rigorous work which I tried to sell them, saying ' look, I am different from others!' got me 32K per month including perks. Compare this to the one week study I put in preparing for GATE exam that presently fetches me 8K a month and you will know why I writing this blog out of frustration.

So finally leaving the one thing I liked (its blogging btw) for job preparation was not such a good idea at all. You know these guys who give resume fundas to everybody, who tear apart every line of your resume and torment you into believing that your resume was good for nothing and that if you want a good job (see again we arrive on the 'J' word) you should put more time on your resume; such guys should be screwed and they should be screwed badly. This is because firstly these people torture you, and you think its fine to hear all the scolding and critical comments so that it would eventually help in getting a good job, but there you are, by the end on December, sitting on a job you never imagined you would be doing and blaming global economy for you loss. And what hurts most is that after day one of job scene, people rarely look at your resume. So probably it is the right time to think, whether your so called 'resume guide' was really worth listening.

I dont know whether I have actually been underrated due to this global economy thing or I really deserved this job. But the best part about this whole meltdown is, and I thank all those bankers who are responsible for this crash, that it has brought so much hope in people. People have got a reason to blame their losses. The one with a bad job thinks it was all because of these banking bastards that I got such a bad job. The one without a job thinks, 'had this global meltdown not been there, I would have definitely been in.' And the guy who gets a good job thinks, ' Nothing on this planet can stop me, not even a global meltdown.'


PS: Nothing above is meant to be serious. So guys I understand it is a tough time... just hang on. Anybody could have been in your place.