An Outlet: Part 6

8 April, 2019.

Let me start right off the bat by saying that the company did not select me.

I left home pretty early so that I have time to look for the place. The area is quite close to my college (just a station away) so it wasn't that difficult to figure my way out and reach the desired location.

The campus/complex where the office is situated is definitely a corporate looking one, just like where my college is housed. This company apparently had two offices, one on the 5th floor and the other on the 7th floor. The interiors of this building were such that I could see all (entrances of) the offices on that particular floor as well on the other floors. And the two offices were on opposite sides of the two floors.

We were supposed to come to the 7th floor but that got changed to the 5th floor at the last moment. I reached the place a little before 9:30AM (for my supposed 10AM interview) and was asked to take a seat. Obviously I didn't expect anyone to come greet me because I was early so I just had a look around and continuously looked at the 7th floor to see if anyone would come here.

The office I was at seemed to be a good looking one but it felt very empty. There were hardly 3-4 people (probably in their 20s) in the office when I arrived and they all seemed to be doing their own thing without any sort of interaction. There were rows of long tables with a telephone and a water bottle for every seat. And that was the only division between two people. What I found strange was that there were no computers anywhere. Everyone seemed to be bringing their own laptops. All in all, it gave off a very strict/ kinda sad vibe.

I sat there for about an hour and wondered why none of the other 8 people hadn't turned up even after 10AM. That's when I realised I had misunderstood the timings. I thought all the four rounds (GD, personal interview, 2 hour test, MD interview) were to take place on the same today, starting from 10AM. Gurtley had also been through an intensive interview day so why could we not have one?

Turns out, today was only the GD and personal interview day which was scheduled to begin at 10:30AM. So that means that I was more than an hour early..... yup.

Just before 10:30, I was made to sit in (what looks like one of) their Boardrooms and then the rest of the shortlisted people also arrived. So did the moderator/ hirer/ associate person. He explained the JD to us and we started with a number of GDs.

I.... did not do well. They were again mostly policitics related topics so I didn't have anything to add on. I just spoke generic garbage that was already inferred or spoken about. And even when there were topics I knew stuff about (we had one on the assignment), I wasn't able to butt in where necessary and then the discussion went into a completely different tangent where my point would have been completely random and out of place.

We first had GDs with all 9 people and then after a senior came into the picture, we had a GD with 5 and 4 people.

After hours of GDs, they selected 4 people to come directly for the third round (2 hour test round) and outright rejected 2. Me and the remaining 2 were given a second chance to prove that we're worthy of the position. And this was through a personal interview round (on their 7th floor (which was their main office)). It was already 1:30PM by then and even though we hadn't had lunch, we decided to get done with the interview first.

I thought this would be positive for me because I think I'm better at 1 on 1 conversations than in a group. But for some reason, I wasn't able to "sell myself" that well. Infact I wouldn't have hired myself if I was the interviewer. My interviewer was apparently an HR guy specialised in figuring out whether someone's bluffing or not. Everything on my CV is true but I wasn't able to completely explain everything I had done or why I was the right fit for the job. My answers seemed very half assed.

Towards the end of the interview, I kinda sorta let him know that I'm not comfortable working overtime (because he said the work tends to go beyond midnight most of the times and that seemed true because I had read some reviews before the interview). That must have been the final cut. It probably showed that I'm not serious enough about the job.

Technically, that's not a complete lie. There were times when the moderator had left the room and the other students immediately started lowkey bitching about the job and everything. They were saying stuff like "This is not what I had expected", "We're being offered the worst profile. We should get something better", "This seems shitty and not worth it", "I won't take it up even if they offer me a position", "Other companies are much better than this", etc. I didn't have much of an opinion because I do not have a set profile that I am looking for. I just know the sector I want to work for.

But with their attitude towards the job, all these comments, combined with the not-so-friendly office vibe, non-regular office hours and topping off with the fact that this wasn't a proper Finance profile (according to my interviewer), somewhere in the back of my mind, I kinda sorta convinced myself that this isn't the job for me.

Things/ Questions I need to work on:
-> Explaining my resume
-> My strengths
-> What do I see as my future?
-> What kind of job am I most looking for in Finance?
-> Which are my desired companies?
-> General knowledge
-> Having opinions
-> Putting forth my opinions
-> Saying more than one repeated line
-> Not getting swayed but other's opinions
🌋