My first interview
An orange shirt and three straight noes.
Everyone is nervous at a first interview. Mine was doubly so, because it was the Indian Army. A poster presentation fell on the day after the selections, so I also had a poster to design, and almost no time to prepare. I stacked my certificates, ironed my clothes, and looked up questions they might ask. I wanted answers ready, so I would not freeze. The room was nothing like the list I had prepared.
I picked a light orange shirt and military-green trousers. A fine combination, I thought. Sometimes a choice feels clever until you see it. The orange looked odd, so I decided to change. Sujan, a friend, was not attending, and by luck he was already in full formals. We swapped shirts. Sujan's complexion is a little brown, and the orange shirt looked stranger on him than it had on me. I did not say so. If he got annoyed he might call the swap off. Then we were ready.
The interviews started somewhere around noon. We had put our names down late, so we waited nearly seven hours. By the time I was called, around eight in the evening, the wait had turned into plain frustration. Because it was my first interview, I still remember all of it.
The room was the glass-door chamber of our training and placement computer lab. I went in with a small smile. At the table they looked tired, and they were talking about postponing the rest of the interviews to the next day. They did not notice me. I stood there, uneasy, until they did, and asked me to sit. After a little more talk, one of them left. When I was sure they were free, I wished them good evening.
The first question: do you have any national-level sports certificates?
No.
Any NCC certificates?
No.
Are any of your family members in the military?
No again. Three straight noes.
The last question was why they should take me.
It is a tricky question. My mood answered it. The frustration had been building since morning. I said, in more words than this, that they need not take me. I was not interested in the post. They should pick someone good at sports and NCC. I was not fit for the job. Then I left the room.
I regretted it afterwards. I later joined TCS.
First written in 2010 on virtual eye.