As teenagers, we all have our own ideologies of leading lives in our own ways. When I go back and think of my days in High School I remember how I had my opinions in everything and how I wanted to just enjoy my life. Since I have quite strict parents that enjoyment was only restricted to dance, parties & clubbing (where they were also present), few movies and loads of family fun… The process of self motivation and self evaluations sink into you in different stages… thankfully it had seeped in me by the time I was doing my graduation. It was the time I decided that I had to go outside the protective arms of family and more so, away from the overpowering name of a famous dad to create my own identity and curve out a niche for myself. And soon it was time for me to travel miles away into a new city with unknown faces for my new degree.
With so many career channels that media offers today, it was difficult choosing which way to lead to. With internships in various fields, I thought I should do something that I enjoyed otherwise I may easily be bored. Deciding to follow the beautiful world of graphic designing I started freelancing, thanx to the internet and my sweet classmate who got me contacts.
But the grind started as the world went into recession and people started losing their jobs. With a news article everyday on how the corporates were chucking away employees it seemed the future of the new post graduates were doomed. I could almost foresee the picture that if I don’t land up in a decent job, I had to pack my bags and head for home and all dreams of creating an identity would definitely remain a dream.
So when all were busy attending classes and finishing projects I was having sleepless nights on what was going to be my future! I couldn’t even trust completely on the college placement cell given the bad situation in the world of employment. After some frantic searches my tryst with interviews started. And to be very frank I went through such funny situations that I was forced to think that I might never get a job!
Interview #1
The first call was from an ad agency. Probably I am the only contender who wanted to run away from a potential employer as soon as I reached their office! It was a little ‘Comedy of Errors’ kind of situation because of the similarity of the name with a very famous agency! Something happened inside me, some ‘akashvani’ kind of stuff which told me “You are not meant for this place, run away!!” Somehow I couldn’t do that and sat through the discussion and to my horror I realized I was giving all non-sense answers as if someone else was answering! I even went on to tell them, “Let me see if I want to join or not, I’ll let you know over the phone sometime latter may be a month!” :O This was exactly the expression on the face of a good friend (he was kind enough to accompany me because I didn’t know the area!). Instead of the company telling me anything I ended up giving them a deadline!
Interview # 2
I landed up in another design agency headed by a famous personality in the city. I took care of every little detail so that everything went smooth. First few minutes we spoke quite well, but when they were busy asking on my expectations and about my future plans my eyes were wandering through the office. Frankly, I didn’t quite like the interiors of the office. It didn’t match with my picture of an ideal office. So all my excitement of working in the company started fizzing out.
And this made me goof up the technical round. I exactly did the things which I was asked not to do. Not that I did it intentionally, but it just happened! Something was stopping me from opening that little creative mind that I have. I am sure they must have thought I had flicked someone else’s portfolio when they saw what I had finally produced. I just wanted to run from there. I had never ever thought that I could produce something as bad as what I had actually done that day!!
Interview # 3
The college placement cell sent few of us to a certain organization for content writing, even after telling the office repeatedly that I was interested in advertising they happened to put my name for magazine reporting and such was the clause that I had to attend. I took it up more as an outing with friends than an interview. But how I would know what was written in my fate! We landed up in a whole day interview process which included written exam, GD and personal Interview! I think they had mistaken us for management graduates!! Jokes apart, that was a ghostly situation when I was thrown in the GD room with all enthusiastic aspirants with the most boring topic ever one can speak on…related to Indian politics!!
While everyone in that GD batch was busy jotting down points, the question that was making rounds in my mind was “Will I ever land up in a job?”
Interestingly, I was always worried on all those days on what lied for me in the future, whether I would be able to find myself a decent job or not but during the final moments the looks of office used to put me off! This was the time I had almost lost hope on myself and my weird mind.
The strange incidents didn’t stop here. The interview with my current employer turned out to be the most exciting one as well as the most exhaustive too and it lasted for more than 6 hours! I was finally happy with the look of the office, and the people who took interviews and also the biscuits offered! And I just hoped that I don’t start feeling weird about anything which might lead me to mess up stuffs! But the thing which got messed up was the system on which I was giving my techs, resulting in the interview lasting for such a long time. In spite of it being exhaustive and tiring, I was finally happy about giving an interview where I felt like delivering. After that day I dint feel that I might not end up having a job, and now after two years I feel maybe it was in my destiny to work here!
Image Courtesy: Google Images
I should mention, If I made any of the interviewer think that I carried someone else’s portfolio (after watching how I goofed up things!) I am clarifying I always carried my own work, and am quite against plagiarism of any kind – it was just that the little creative eye that I have refuses to open up at times!
