My Venture to Siva Ventures

The first interview for summer training while almost more than half of my batch mates were placed for summers, as the process of summer placements had begun almost more than a month back. And this one also was probably one of the last interviews for summers as I had actually applied only for a couple of more companies. The reason for all this was me being too much choosy in the matter of company and profile/project. If I did not get through this interview I probably would have had to take up a project under faculty. The projects under faculty were good enough but the motivation to do your summer internship in a company is far higher than under the same person whom you have been knowing for and listening to for almost a year and also to do the same in the 4 walls where you have spent the past 1 year.

I was not well prepared for the interview, in the sense that I did not do any additional preparation as I planned earlier. I was very cool, as I never had to attend an interview for such a long time while other batch mates were appearing for interviews almost every week. The desire and the spirit to get into this company were high enough due to a lot of reasons. Reasons like
The company has diversified businesses which would give me great exposure and insight in what ever limited time I am there.
The company was family owned and was a venture capitalist kind of firm, which gave me a feeling of adding to the entrepreneurial skills.
The company came to the campus for first time, and an alumnus was already working there very happily.
The company was offering a profile in Finance as such.
And many other reasons…..
We reached the company (8 of us were appearing for the interview) and had to wait for quite some time for the process to start, but I was completely relaxed. There was a lot at stake for me, but I was not much concerned, I don’t know why but I was a bit relaxed than I am usually before an interview. And as usual I being last in the list for the interview as it was alphabetic order wise, I had to wait until everyone else is done and got to listen to how their interviews were like etc… But meanwhile we were talking to the HR person of the company, about the company, its activities and so on. The HR person was a really cool guy, was very casual and spoke very openly and in a friendly way to all of us to remove tension if any from all of us.

The first person came back after an interview of about 30 minutes and she said that it was an HR interview and not a technical one, while all of us were expecting a technical interview. So this piece of first hand information again helped all of us to get a bit more relaxed as there was nothing much to be worried about for a HR interview, so we went on speaking to the HR person. While in my mind the thought that my turn would come after a few hours started as every other interview went on for about 20 minutes, but I knew what ever it is I have to wait how much ever time it takes and this was making me a little impatient as I was hungry and tired (Cos I had already waited for almost 3 hours).

And finally it was my turn after waiting for such a long time, I headed towards the interview room, entered and greeted the interviewer, who was 50+ in age and was even more tired than me. As I took my seat he asked me about myself and started talking on the phone, which made me stop myself until he stopped talking on the phone. Finally after he disconnected the phone I started telling things about myself and I was out of points just after 2-3 points as I could clearly see the level of interest of the interviewer (he was continuously yawning). Then I got silent for the next question to be thrown at me, the next question was “What is the prayer song of D.G Vaishnav College” (It’s the college of my graduation and also of the interviewer, coincidentally), I told him upfront that I did not know the same as I was an evening college student and there wasn’t any prayer for evening college students as such. He nodded his head and asked me a couple more questions to make me feel that I was actually being interviewed, as I answered them and remained silent, this person who was already tired and bored told me thank you, this is enough and you may go. I was shocked by the fact that the interview did not even last for 5 minutes, while others interview lasted at least for 20 minutes. I was not able to decide how to react to this, but then being a pessimistic person I told everyone that my interview was screwed due to my name, as the interviewer was least interested. But the only one motivating factor was the talks with the HR person, who from the start told all 8 of us that, all of you are selected, we are just doing this to know u better. So all of us were pretty confident and were taken by his words. But the mind never was ready to accept this fact, as HR managers are always very sweet in their speech, so never trust a HR manager.

I believe our faith was partially right, as the results came out the next morning 4 of us were short listed for summer internship and of course I was one among the 4. You will not believe me it was as sad a moment as happier it was, as the rest 4 were left out and our suspicion on the HR managers as such proved to be right, he filled us with a lot of faith, but at the end only 50% of it was true, so reacting to this situation became very difficult, as this was not some thing which we people who got selected had proved to achieve, it was an HR interview and it was just how we portrayed ourselves in the interview, so at the end of the day, it was a Win-Win for me, but a sad moment for my friends.

One important thing after the summer placements I would like to share here is the way I describe the company to all my friends and relatives who don’t know the company but know its neighborhood. It is this way “Do you know Kamaraj Memorial (Congress Grounds), opposite to that have you seen a tall building called Sterling Tower (which everyone who has been to congress grounds must have seen for sure), that is where I am placed for summers and it is a $2Billion revenue worth company with 33 different diversified businesses and so on”. This is the way my description goes to show that I am placed in a really good and big company. LoL.

Anyways I am into Ventures, and what about U??????? U there??????