A Valentine Eve......!!!
ROHIT GOYAL

She called me up and asked me to meet,
I thought she might be calling me, for a treat………

I got ready and reached her home,
She was ready, to go with me alone.......

We decided, it’s VALENTINE , let’s go to a club,
Just to hang out and have some fun……

The weather was quite a fine and,
In our hands we had a wine…………

I held her hand and requested to dance,
We got together and had some romance………

We both were enjoying the evening very much,
However, we were not in a relationship as such………

After that dance we had a long talk,
Then we left the club and went for a walk……

The stars were shining in the dark sky,
We stopped there to look in to each other’s eyes……

We felt that time it wasn’t just fun,
We seriously were, getting in to the LOVE……

What happened, we expected that never,
And God chose VALENTINE, he was clever….!!!
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CHAPTER 4 : The Final Showdown….
ROHIT GOYAL

It was 9:00 pm and still there were no signs of results soon. Now frustration started to creep in many of us waiting there but nothing much we could do about that. Wait continues and it was 10:00 pm by now (“we had spent an hour which I felt was really a long 1”) we didn’t have our dinner that too was building our frustration. Finally after waiting for a long time at about 10:30 pm, the results were out and five names were announced (Priyanka Garg, Gagan Anand, Rohit Goyal (me), Amit Kumar Dey and Amit Aggarwal) “the list in order” and we were asked to go to the SENATE to collect our offer letters. We were really very happy that time and also got the bumps by our friends “a tradition in college…. ;)” we went to the SENATE and were even congratulated by the members of RECRUITMENT PANEL on our way to the SENATE. We were waiting for the formalities there to get completed. As we thought we had a job in our hands, we were told there is one more interview round……and we thought the DRAMA is not yet over……

It was around 11:00 pm that time and we were really tired by that time…..they called five of us one by one for final interview…….. I kept on waiting for my turn and at about 12:10 am, I was called in….( i was the third one to go in ). I went in there and this time a complete panel of 12 members was waiting for me….”yes….for the first time I was a little nervous” I wished them “good evening” (not sure that should I wish them good morning :P ) and they offered me a seat “A centre seat for you Rohit” and I said, ”thanks for this honor sir….really appreciate that…. ” they smiled at it. Now it was kind of RAPID FIRE round of questions and answers….”one from this end, one from that….” Some of them I don’t even remember now. One of them asked, “Compare yourself with other candidates…” and I replied, “…………can’t write that here…….. :P ” and then they asked about DELLOITE again (same old questions that I was used to answer after my earlier interviews….) then they asked me to compare FREESCALE with other semiconductor companies. I hesitated a little but still kept companies like INTEL above FREEESCALE. I thought they were a little shocked and upset is well….and asked me to explain….i explained them convincingly with best of my knowledge about both of these…. Then one of them asked, “do you believe in ethics, integrity, commitment like principles ?” and I answered, ”Yes sir, I do…” Then he added, ”then why are u sitting here when you had already made a commitment to DELLOITE” and I said, “sir, I told them that I will definitely try for my core companies…..” then after listening this he asked, “If tomorrow, u get a offer from a better company than this, will you go for that ?” I took a moment and replied, ”Sir, if I am not satisfied working with FREESCALE and having a better offer than that, then I will take that…..because satisfaction in mind is the main thing for me…..” (the moment I completed my answer, I knew he didn’t like my answer….) he asked, “according to u…..tomorrow after your marriage if you will be getting a better girl, then you will leave your wife ?......then where is your commitment….” And I was surprised by his question and answered, ”Sir, I guess you are comparing two different things…..i consider this question irrelevant….and I can answer only if you compare two things on same grounds….” He still insisted me to answer that twice but I didn’t…….then one of them changed the topic and asked, “we have a bond of 7 years which you have to sign right now…..will you sign that….be careful with your answer….”. I thought and replied, “no sir, I can’t……7 years is a much longer period….i won’t be signing a bond for such a longer period)” and everybody was looking at me just like I had committed a crime……then they asked some questions like “work or money”, “job or family” etc…. and finally asked me to ask anything if I want to…..i said, “No sir….” And they asked me to leave. I was little upset coming out of that room,,,,,and it was around 12:40 am. I thought now my chances are a little blink over others….

I kept on waiting for final results “eagerly” (so were my friends). They called other two candidates after me and we thought results were just around the corner. But the drama was not over yet and they recalled two candidates (Vijay Tayal and Ditesh Kumar). Then by the time they interviewed these two, we all were half dead looking our watch again and again and we found it was 1:30 am and still no results…..they kept on coming out in a group of two and three but without results every time…..finally, at 2:30 am…results were announced……and five of us (7 now) were selected (Priyanka Garg, Rohit Goyal (me), Gagan Anand, Amit Kumat Dey, Vijay Tayal) “list in order”. We were more relieved than happy by that……and were asked to go in to collect our offer letters. We went in there and were congratulated by all the panel members and they gave us our offer letters and some goodies….Then they asked us about our experiences about the day and then one of them asked me to say few lines (in my poetry style)…I was not in a situation to create some at that time, so I denied that….but he still insisted so I had to make some and I said, “aap aaye humare college humein khushi bahut hai, aate rahein har saal rakhte aashayen bahut hain, select karke aapne humein khushaal kar diya, hath mein offer letter dekar maalamal kar diya” (I thought they might not like those as even I wasn’t quite satisfied with those). But they appreciated that…..then they asked Amit to sing a song and he sang a song. (I don’t know in which language it was….). After that they took a group photograph (FREESCALERS…..name given to that photograph by one of my friends and future colleague) and there were handshakes all around…..and God knows…..we were really very happy……and then we (me and some freinds) went to KHOKHA at 3:15 am to celebrate and I found the day long and even the longer night…….(but a beautiful 1…. :) )

Well….!! I would love to thank some of my friends who were there with me whole day and night and supported me….(Deepak Kumar, Gaurav Bhatia, Nitin, Rajinder, Rahul Singla, Parbhat and many more…) without their support I might not be able to face their exhaustive recruitment process…..thanks a lot my friends…..

And before I end this story, I would also like to mention special thanks to a friend who was in continuous touch with me with her wishes…..and had confidence in me even more than what I had in myself. Finally I was also happy because I didn’t let her down and I know she was happy as much as I was………..
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CHAPTER 3 : The HR Court Room.....
ROHIT GOYAL

After that technical interview it was 6:40 pm by my watch, I was out discussing my interview with friends and was also waiting for a call for an HR interview. I kept on waiting and finally at about 7:30 pm, I was asked to get ready as I will be facing HR interview very soon. I went inside and asked for the permission from the HR, he told me to wait outside as he was interviewing my friend GAGAN ANAND. I waited there for about 15-20 mins and finally was called in for the interview. I wished him (the only person in the room other than me) good evening and he offered me a seat. He got my resume in his hand and a form on which there were various categories under which he was supposed to judge me…..

Well..!! his first question was again the same conversation starter…..”Tell me something about yourself” and I repeated the same answer as I’ve answered previously. After that some more repetitive questions from the previous interview about the earlier job offers and all…….

Then he asked some basic aptitude problems which were just too easy in an interview for firm like FREESCALE (or the reason for asking those problems might be that he understood I won’t be able to solve difficult ones ;) …..). After some of those easy problems he just dictated a problem which was (he himself was not clear in his mind) not dictated properly. I first discussed the problem with him and solved that 3 times with different explanations but always with same solution values and got the same answer from him….”You are wrong Mr. (with that great smile on his face which I wasn’t liking that time…..)” …… Then I insisted him to repeat the problem…..and he dictated that again……but before doing that he asked, “Do you have a trait of ‘try to convince others’ with best of your efforts even though, you know that you are wrong”. I admitted that and answered,” yes Sir…I do have that but I only try to convince others when I am sure that I am correct at a point……..he interrupted me with my answer and asked, “don’t you think that it’s your OVERCONFIDENCE”……and I replied, ”no sir. I also love to listen and accept others point if he have a reasonable explanation to that point of his…..” and I took him again back to the same problem and solved it for the fourth time and amazing thing was I got the same solution as well as the answer from him……… ” I was a bit angry by that and I just asked him (or just convinced him ;) …..) to either listen my solution or to solve that problem himself and he decided to choose the later one and when he solved the problem himself he got the same answer as I calculated all the times…… Now he was shocked at that and it was my time to smile…..(same way as he was earlier,,,,,). He too smiled at that and said…..so you were right and  ( I guess for the first time he was a bit impressed,,,,,). Then he asked, “if we offer you a posting in AMERICA so will you take that ?” I answered, “sir, only if you send me for a period of around 2 years to explore the opportunities, I will go but I won’t settle there and mentioned the reason that I can’t left my parents for a longer period and they also don’t want to settle abroad with me either ….”. he found my answer convincing and said, “ok….fair enough”. Then he asked about details of the family members’ occupation and I answered him casually. Then he started asking questions like……comparison of FREESCALE with other companies. Then he asked, “we, FREESCALE have a bond of five years and a package lesser than other companies. Are you ready to sign that bond with us”. I took a moment and answered, “sir, I can sign a bond of maximum period of two years but not more than that………and about package I will say if FREESCALE had even offered 2 lacks….then also I would’ve been sitting in front of you.” He just pen down something on his form and then asked me to clarify my doubts about the company if I got any. I again asked the same questions as I asked in the presentation but didn’t got the convincing answers there…………and I got them here….(in a general healthy discussion with him). After that he asked me to leave with a smile and I left the room and came out with a satisfied mind and a good feeling about my interview…..i noticed that this interview was about of 45 mins and it was about 8:40 pm by then.  Then I discussed that interview with my friends waiting outside………….and wait for the recruitment final results continues…….about which we had no idea that how much time we have to wait for…… in the mean time, some candidates were called for their second interview and some of them even for third….. so all kinds of rumors about the recruitment process were going on that time……nothing we could do about that…..so we just kept on waiting…..
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CHAPTER 2 : The Techi Sheki Dilemma.......
ROHIT GOYAL
Well....now i was sitting there expecting a lot of technical questions.....and here was their first question, “so Rohit, tell us something about yourself.” I answered their question starting from my name, then about my schooling and family and ended that with my interests like writing hindi poetry and watching cricket. (actually I never thought, that answer will be the theme of my whole interview ). After this answer one of them asked, “ can u do poetry right now, lets say on a pen in my hand ?” I answered,”yes sir , can I take a moment ” and started thinking over it. After about a minute I asked for their permission and these were my lines “aaj fir aasman mein chand chad aaya hai, aapke haathon mein mujhe ye pen nazar aaya hai. Kitni hai taakat is pen ki ye mujhse pooch lijiye, aur ik sign karke is se mujhe job ka offer dijiye”. I figured out they were impressed and when they came to know that i also write blogs they asked me to give my blog address to them. After this one of them told me that they have picked up a candidate from DCE who also have interest in poetry and they will make me compete with him. Now there was the time, when they explored my second area of interest that’s watching cricket. He asked me  or rather I should say discussed with me about the last ODI of the recent series between india and SA where india lost to SA. “I enjoyed the discussion and the panel too”.

Now they asked some questions about my family and I kept on answering them. Nothing interesting about those questions or the answers of mine (just the general ones). “By this time I was thinking whether  I was really facing a technical interview”. After all this stuff, they took my folder and started looking at my resume and rest of the certificates (well..!! I was not expecting that really… Never heard of requirement of folder in campus placements ) . After looking at it, he asked, “do you got any job offers yet ?” I answered, “yes sir, I got a offer from DELOITTE INDIA” and then he asked for the package and I said, “it’s around 5 lpa.” I soon figured out that he wasn’t ready to buy that answer and he asked, “what I am seeing from your resume is you are a rank holder as well as strong in programming languages then why you chose delloite which is a consulting firm ?”. ( I thought this question was just like a question in exam which I have no clue about but still have to answer ). I smiled thinking that and answered, “sir actually, I take feedback from my brother and he suggested me that DELOITTE is a really nice company......he interrupted me with my answer and asked “you haven’t applied for any normal or dream job other than DELOITTE or you weren’t selected in them ?”......i took a moment and said,”sir, I haven’t applied for those because no core company other than NSYS and TEJAS have visited our campus yet and I was placed before these and…… ” he again interrupted me and asked, “why I haven’t applied for any software companies when I am strong in programming ( and also mentioned names of yahoo and Microsoft )?” now I felt the ball in my court and answered immediately, “sir, we had all three in our campus i.e. GOOGLE, YAHOO and MICROSOFT but all these are just for COMPUTER and IT streams only so there is no point discussing on that.”” I thought this topic would be over now but he just didn’t want me to walk away from that so easily and asked, “so, let us assume you are getting an offer from any of these three and also an offer from FREESCALE, which of those will you choose ?” ( I thought should I answer what he wants me to or original one.) I chose to answer the original one and said,”sir, I will go with the offer from those three as according to present scenario I feel they are better than FREESCALE and if I say FREESCALE that would be a fake answer which I don’t want to.” (I don’t’ know whether he was enjoying this discussion or whatever the reason was…but he kept on asking questions on this and here is another one ) he asked,”so, you are regretting being in ECE ?” I answered that even before he completed his question,”no sir, I think in Computers or IT we program for softwares without knowing of the fact about the real hardware and memory constraints whereas in ECE we really know all about the hardware of the system and then program them accordingly.” He was quite satisfied with my answer now and asked, “you have  the knowledge of assembly language of 8086 and 8051 and VHDL too, then why you have studied java ?” I answer this question very casualy,”sir, I have a lot of interest in programming so I thought I should learn java too as it’s platform independent language.”( I just forgot to tell you a thing that my written test was in the interviewer’s hands and I had already seen that I scored 39 marks.) the next question he asked was, “so, Rohit aapko kya lagta hai aaj aapne test mein kaisa perform kiya, kitne marks liye honge aapne ?” this time I just pretended that I was thinking and then answered,”I guess I performed fine in the test and must have scored around 35-40 marks.” He smiled and said, “quite impressive” and I just added, “sir actually I know what I’ve done in test so….” Now he opened my paper and show me the questions which I haven’t attempted (I thought here comes the technical stuff) and asked me to give’em a try and I answered without wasting any time,”sir, If I could’ve then I wou……”he interrupted and added han tab hi kar dete”” I just smiled at him. Then i got my first technical question,”can you design NAND and NOR gate using CMOS”. I was shocked by this question (to all those non ECE readers, I assure you it was just like a 2+2 maths question for us ECE students) and designed the circuit. Then he asked 1-2 questions on basic digital electronics and I answered them as nothing difficult about those. Then he asked,”if you were to rate analog and digital electronics what will be your rating.” I answered, “sir on a scale of 10, I will rate analog on 6 and digital a 8.” Now, other one asked,”what’s the name of your girl friend ?” I thought I must’ve done a mistake in listening him and asked ,”what sir ?” he said,”your girl friend’s name?” I answered, “I don’t have any” but he just didn’t believe me and asked that question thrice and I just stood by my answer. Now from other end I got a question,”you have said that you have interest in programming and digital electronics, so which are the subjects u don’t have much interest in?” I thought for a moment and answered, “I guess DSP sir…”he asked why in b/w” and I said I just never got any interest in transforms like things”. He said alright and asked who is your favorite teacher here. I replied,”Mr. ARIF SIR…..he is not here now, he taught us digital electronics.” And again as I was expecting he asked why and I answered,”he was not biased at all….you have to admit somewhere other teachers are but he wasn’t……” after this, he relaxed a bit and said,”Rohit, pata hai yaar tumse baat karke maza aa gaya……maine jitney bhi interview liye hain aaj tak,I always got those conventional answers which we want to listen which is not the case with you.” Now he asked me to clear my doubts if I have any. Ya I asked a few questions and they answered them or rather clearified all my doubts. Then he asked me to leave. I said,”thanks a lot, it was really a nice experience” and left the room quite confident about my interview but still in a doubt whether I’ve gone through a technical interview………
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CHAPTER 1 : 25th JANUARY - The Big Day.....
ROHIT GOYAL

Actually it started on 19th January, I was sitting in my room surfing net when I got a call from one of our PAC members PRADEEP KAUSHIK asking me whether I am interested for FREESCALE or not. I just couldn’t believe what he was talking about (“because placement policy of our college doesn’t permit us to apply for a job when we already had a dream job”).....and I said YES immediately. The next day I just figured out what are the various subjects that I need to study for the big day. I just arranged those books and thought now it’s time to study. I tried to study but soon realized that books were doing nothing good to my confidence and I decided to leave it all to destiny. 

Here comes the big day, I was waiting for, The 25th January, the day when FREESCALE visited our campus. I got up at 7:40 am (as we were told to reach the SENATE HALL “venue of written test” at 9:00 am), got ready and reached the venue on time. Well..!! as expected we were informed by our PAC members that we have to wait for about half an hour and we understood that they were talking about 2 hours, “having experienced that earlier”. We went to the market and spent the time there until we were called again to reach the SENATE. The company members were there by this time, they instructed us in brief about the test and the test started around 11:30 am. It was a 1.5 hour subjective test containing fifteen questions… after the test there was a presentation and then we were told to wait for the results. We had our lunch in the mean time and then waited for results. (I was hopeful by my performance in the test that I will make it to the interviews but was a little anxious while waiting for results). At 3:15 pm the results were put on the notice board and I was quite happy seeing that I secured 6th rank in 23 shortlisted candidates for the interviews. My interview was scheduled at 4:15 pm. I went quickly to my room and dressed up in my formals and reached the FACULTY HOUSE (venue for the interviews) at 4:10 pm. My interview was scheduled at 4:15 pm but I have to wait till 5:15 pm for my interview as the earlier candidate (my friend RAHUL SINGLA) was in there in a long discussion with the panel. I spent my time by walking in the corridor in a to and fro motion “just like a pendulum ;)”. Finally he came out and I was called in for my interview “A TECHNICAL INTERVIEW”. I entered the room and two people were waiting to interrogate me. I said, “good evening sir” and they offered me a seat. Now I was sitting in front of them for a questionnaire……..
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