An Outlet: Part 6

7 March, 2019.

Today was an interesting day.

I woke up by 6:30AM, got ready and left for college. I met up with Kristen at the station and we went to our main hall. There were so many people in college today my goodness! But it makes sense because today there were campus placements for the PG and TY UG students and/or internship for PG, FY/SY/TY UG students.

In the beginning I got a worried when I saw a lot of people carrying their entire portfolio. But then realised that nobody really has the time to read all of it. One of our professors briefly spoke about all the potential employers and the job offers. Almost none of them were Finance based tho. I already knew it but I was hoping they'll suddenly add some Finance companies coming at the last moment.

We then welcomed all the companies and they came an introduced their firms in brief. Turns out most of them are startups. Which is not bad but still, I don't understand why our Dean could not use her contacts to get us some known companies.

Anyways, the interview process began. PGs were given the first preference to go and give an interview, followed by us. I gave 5 interviews in total.

Company 1 was hospitality based. Throughout the interview I did not get any kind of response, both positive or negative. They mostly asked me questions about my internship and club work. Somehow I doubt whether they were even completely listening to my answers because there were quite a few times where they asked me questions I had already given an answer to.

Company 2 was into the energy sector. Now this was the first company I had applied to, simply because it was the first company from my shortlisted ones that I came across. But since the interviews were taking a hecking long time, I registered and went for the Company 1's interview first. Each company was given both a faculty and student volunteer for logistics purposes. Both of them gave feedback that the two interviewers from Company 2 were fucking people up. The faculty (she's a good one and genuinely cares about my group) was giving me some tips and trying to make me remember some points. However, even after hearing all this, I was unusually calm and not nervous for this interview.

I went in and they first asked some questions about my internship and then they went to ask me marketing based questions even when I had made it clear that I was not looking for a marketing profile. I had prepared for everything on my CV except the Marketing Project. They grilled me on that subject and at one point I drew a blank. I did answer how much ever I could tho. Not sure if they were convinced with my answers or not but I did whatever I could.

Towards the end, they tried grilling me on the fact that I hadn't read up about them or gone through their website. They seemed to be the no-bullshit-entertained kind of people so I answered everything very frankly. I anyways had no plans of lying but I confidently told them what I didn't know.

Company 3 was mostly into recruitment. I had a chance to read up about them pre-interview so I was able to frame my answers in a way that emphasized what I thought they were looking out for. The interviewers gave me a scenario where I had to find out and recruit a person who didn't have any sort of digital presence whatsoever. I answered according to what I thought was the correct way to go about. And that's where my interview ended.

Things went fast until here and then I had to wait for quite a long time at other places for my chance to come because.... population.

Company 4 was a mutual fund. They were initially looking for interns but opened up spots for placement spontaneously. I went for the interview and instead of asking more about myself, they were explaining the job description which I still don't completely understand. This interview was a very short one.

It was 1PM by this time and all the companies broke out for lunch so the interview process was halted for an hour. I didn't pack any lunch today so Gurtley, Deborah and I went to have lunch at our resident canteen. These are my last couple of weeks(?) so I want to cherish the food as well. There was a new pop corn stand so we ordered a mix of all available popcorn flavours. It was good to munch on while we waited for our pizzas and pasta. The pizza was nice but the pasta was way too good!

We were back on campus within an hour and I had to wait and loiter around for HOURS until I got to give my interview at my last company for the day.

Company 5 was into Trading based education or something along those lines. It was the only Finance offering company but for internships, not placement. That was a bummer. They had apparently received about 100 applications so they screened through everyone's CVs and rejected 40 outright. I was among the ones who got shortlisted which is why I was waiting for so long.

Anyways, I finally got to give my interview and they mostly asked me about my internship, club and research paper. In fact this was the first company who asked me about my research paper and that felt nice. Somehow they were more interested in the content work part of my CV (which, to be fair, was more significant than my experience in Finance).

Now coming to the outcome of all these companies at the end of the day.

Company 1- No response yet. Wait and watch approach shall be undertaken.

Company 2- After my last interview, I met the company 2 faculty handler and she told me that they really liked me but the guy said that he doesn't want me to be disappointed with the work. First of all, WHAT?! I was sure this interview went completely against me. And also, I get what he is saying. During the interview, there was an instance where we had come to a conclusion that Finance is what I want to do but they do not have any vacancies in that department. I guess the companies had to give back rejected CVs but apparently they've kept mine if at all they have any future Finance openings. Woah! I never for a second expected this kind of a response.

I'm definitely not getting into this company but I think this was the most memorable interview of the day.

Company 3- Before going for the interview, the student volunteer for this company told me that they're making shortlisted students fill a form right after the interview. None of that sort happened to me so I thought I didn't get selected. However, the faculty handler saw me at one point during the day and told me that they interviewer liked me and would like me to fill a form for the second interview. If they go according to that then my next interview might be on Saturday.

Company 4- They did say they'll call for a second interview but no confirmation is given yet.

Company 5- After talking about content for a bit, the company has given me an assignment of simplifying the Dow Theory so that any lay man can read it. Deadline- 18th of this month.

So yeah, that's the status as of now. Let's see how much of this falls through.

At night I was losing my shit over what to wear for tomorrow's farewell. They've asked us to wear Indian. Now normally people do wear saris on their farewell but my college has always been different. And hella ambiguous.

They haven't specifically asked to wear saris so no sir, this lady ain't wearing one. Besides the only sari I have is total wedding material. Granted I wore it on my 10th farewell but nope, I'm not wearing that even if you give me a million bucks.

Now I tried rummaging through my wardrobe for good kurtis but they are either sleeveless (I haven't waxed), too tight (I've grown fat), bleh (not "farewell" material) or gone for dry cleaning. The only other acceptable outfit (in my opinion) was something that I had already worn with these bunch of people and I didn't want to repeat. That leaves me with anarkali and similar suits. All of them are flashy and I HATEEEEEEEEE being OTT.

I tried styling an indo-western outfit but that didn't work out. So the only two options I have now are the one I wore before or this other Indian outfit that may result in me looking like an aunty.

Oh shit. Never thought picking out outfits would be this stressful. I think at this point I'm just going to pick the first thing that comes to my mind tomorrow.