The ‘D’ day

The ‘D’ day  

Morning 8:00 AM

I was having a sound sleep when I heard Abhisheek (our CR) madly kicking my door trying to awake me up. Out of anxiety I was not able to sleep until 4 in the morning. I noticed 29 missed calls from home and other friends who were responsible to wake me up on time.

Morning 8:45 AM

I somehow managed to reach on time, although I had to miss my breakfast for that (however it had become my routine to miss breakfast). After a short powerpoint presentation about the company, and its offered packages, we were handed over a question paper for screening round.

Morning 9:50 AM
 

After the screening round, which was not a hard nut to crack, we were asked to prepare ourselves for Group Discussion round, luckily the topic was of my choice, “Has privatization lead to increased corruption?”. I kept three things in mind while going for it, (added here for final year people and to be final years)

1.      

       Tried to start the conversation. It is a good confidence builder and additionally, it helped me to steer the complete discussion the way I wanted. For example, I wanted to bring in the word “License Raj” in the conversation, so I just mentioned it during the very first sentence I spoke. Once it got into the discussion and 2 or 3 other people also mentioned it, I knew this GD would be a cakewalk. I definitely knew better than other people regarding this.

2.        

      Tried being a good listener, from my body posture the judge must get an idea that I was  receptive of others’ points.

3.      

            Gave a conclusion and included the opinions of others also so that it looked like a group conclusion.

I was confident of getting shortlisted for the interview round.

It was the interview round that was most crucial part of the recruitment process; therefore I will try to reproduce whatever I am able to remember from that 40 minutes interview.

There were two members in the panel, one was a lady member from HR and the other was head, Maintenance department of their Haridwar plant (Electrical Engineer).

Evening 5 : 45PM
 

I entered the room with my certificate file and two copies of CV’s (one for each member).

Member 1 (Head, Maintenance department, from now on M1)

Member 2 (Company’s HR from now on M2) ;

AA = Adish Aggarwal

M1 (Looking at my CV): So Mr Aggarwal, you are from Nahan.

AA: Yes sir

(He tried to remember something by the name Nahan.)

AA: Sir, it lies on Dehradun Chandigarh National Highway, and you being currently stationed at Haridwar plant must have crossed it.

M1: oh, so how do you go to Nahan.

AA: Sir I follow Chandigarh route.

M1: So there is no direct route to Nahan from here? (Well, I wanted to tell that the one from Chandigarh is also direct, but he wanted an all himachal route I guessed)

AA: No Sir, the one present is one way and dangerous. Moreover there is no direct bus service available for the all himachal route.

M1: (looking at my CV), so you like listening to soft music.

AA: Yes sir, Jagjit Singh and Md. Rafi are my favorite.

(I just prayed to God that they must not ask me to sing, because I am an awful singer. Thankfully they did’nt)

M1: Tell us something more about yourself ?

AA: Sir, I belong to a business family blah blah blah (I tried not to repeat the things already written in my C.V)

M2: you have mentioned that you also write blogs?

AA: Yes mam, occasionally.

M2: Tell me your favorite entry.

AA: Mam, it was the last one, regarding Education System In India, it was entitled: “The Great Indian Education System: from Gurukuls to IITs”. In it I tried to enlist the major differences between our traditional system and the current one. (Since she seemed interested in knowing further, I continued)…
In gurukuls, we had the concept of continuous learning and testing, the pupils during their formative years used to reside with their teachers and as and when the teacher or guru found it right to promote a child, he would do so. However now this is being replaced by a 3 hour examination system, that is insufficient to judge a person.

M1: In the same manner don’t you think it is impossible to judge a candidate in 10 minutes of interview time?

AA: Yes Sir to an extent you are correct, but there is no better alternative left to that.

M2: So in tune of your argument in your blog, should we resort back to the old system?

AA: No mam it is not possible, because it is impossible to change the whole system. Moreover we would
not find that high level of morality and understanding in today’s teachers.

M1: (cutting my sentence) What are your favorite subjects?

 Heat Transfer and Manufacturing process sir.

M1 : OK, so can you draw Iron - Iron Carbide Phase diagram?

Yes Sir, (I made the Fe-C phase diagram, and started explaining). These are two isothermal lines, one dictates Heat treatment process and other one Casting process.

M1 : Please explain in detail?

Sir, when we have to go for casting we have to increase the temperature above this isothermal line only above this the metal liquefies and when we have to go for heat treatment, we have to see to it that Austenite phase is formed and only after austenite phase is reached, we can go for cooling and requisite properties can be obtained. Blah blah blah…….

M1: Why do we need Heat Treatment?

Sir, primary aim is to alter the properties of any substance according to our needs and it has an added advantage that it relieves the workpiece of the stresses that might develop during machining.

M1 : Any Example?

Suppose we made a product on shop floor, only to discover that some of its dimensions are improper and would need further machining, we in that condition must go for annealing which would soften the metal, machine it and then again go for quenching to harden it. In addition to it……

M1: Ok , good.

AA : Thanks sir

M1: Do you know about Induction hardening?

AA: Sorry sir, I don’t know.

M1: What quality distinguishes you from others?

AA : Sir undoubtedly, my honesty.

M1: Laughingly, can you compare honesty?

AA: yes sir, it is a relative term?

M1: What relative term? Can you say he is 40% honest and 60% dishonest?

AA: No sir, but we can always say, he is more honest than him.

M1: But either a person is honest or dishonest there is nothing called a middle path….

AA: Yes Sir I think you are right.

(Then there were various questions related to my projects, a majority of which I answered satisfactorily except this one.)

M1: Since you mentioned, you used pumps in one of your projects, can you tell me how to connect pumps in series?

AA: Sorry sir, we have not read pumps.

M1: But I am asking about pumps and you have used them, just try?

(I kept quite because I had no idea about Pumps.)

M2: If a worker comes to you with a broken tool (in order to test your knowledge) and ask for a remedy, you being his boss what would you do?

AA: Mam, initially I will try to figure out whether it is actually a problem or he is just befooling. I would try my level best to help him…….

M2: But he is trying to escape from work by testing you, as I said?

AA : Mam, I would try to make him understand that he would ruin his performance report by doing such activity ……

M2: But will he listen to you?

AA : Mam, I have taken up various responsibilities, which involved handling my juniors and seniors during my college span and I am confident in handling people, I think I can handle the situation.

M2: What would be your preferred area of research?

AA: Mam if given a chance I would like to work on gearless bikes. I would specifically try to reduce cost and increase efficiency of the same, which at present is very less.

M1: What are your future plans MBA, M.Tech ………

AA: Sir they change every now and then. I wish to first stabilize myself in any reputed organization like yours.

Then there were some questions regarding Finance Team and  SOME (Society of Mechanical Engineers) of which I was the finance secretary and joint secretary respectively. They were general questions and were answered comfortably.

M1: Tell me your greatest weakness?

AA: Sir I have some level of stage fright.

M1 : OK, so what have you done to overcome it?

AA: Sir, we celebrate Hindi Diwas every 14^th September, I recited a poem during the last Hindi Diwas celebration. Although I fumbled in between but I was successful in completing it.

M1: That’s good, you must always try to improvise. OK, Mr Aggarwal we are done with the interview, would you like to ask anything?

AA: Sir I would like to know the prospects of foreign postings?

M1: Well, it depends upon the requirements abroad and your personal caliber. It is too early to ask this question. Anything else…..

AA : No Sir.

M1 : OK, it was nice meeting you, you may go now.

I wished thanks to both the members and left the room.

Late Night 2:00 AM

The interviews stretched upto 2:00 AM late night and the results were declared just about an hour after that. All the interviewees were asked to assemble in the auditorium.

M1: It was a tough task short listing these students, we wish to take more but we have our number constraints……………………
Following 5 students will become a part of Hero Motocorp family from now on, I would be speaking alphabetically

1.        Adish Aggarwal - Mine was thefirst name ...

I lost a beat, and was not able to hear other names declared and could know them only afterwards from my friends sitting beside me.

Having completed about two years in Hero Motocorp now, I could still feel a gush of fervor while I remember the sequence of events that day.

 Seth.