Day Zee - Continued...

Well, the day carried on like that. By the end of 2 hours from the start, most of the people were a harried lot, constantly jumping from one interview to the next, with little or no gap in between, mouthing tailor-made answers to standard (and stupid) questions like 'Why this bank?', 'Where do you see yourself 5 years from now? 10 years?', 'What are your long-term goals?' ......blah-blah (yep, such questions are actually asked. After all these years, one would think companies would have learnt. But, nopes, doesn't look like it).

Personally, I was in a bad-bad state. After the end of couple of interviews, the stress was starting to get to me. No company had shown an interest in me (read 'made an offer'....I was later to learn that all this was bull-shit. A certain i-bank supposedly made mock offers or at least asked questions like 'If I were to make an offer to you right now, will you accept it?' to everyone who interviewed with it).

As usual, I had not eaten anything since the morning (I can't have anything on 'big' days). With a big headache and a couple of aspirins in me, I entered the next interview (Citigroup - the only company so far that was kind of bullish on me, it was my 2nd round here) and lo, in the middle of the (40 minute long, hard-core techinical interview- yep, they asked me my engineering), I forgot where I was. Not kidding, I actually forgot what I was saying and asked the interviewers what I was saying. For a brief moment, they looked totally shocked and didn't say a thing. However, they soon started laughing and said that such things happen. Fortunately, the interview went on well and after it, the HR lady actually came to me and told me to relax. She actually said that 'I felt so horrible for you. I can understand the stress you have to go through ......blah, blah.' Looking back at it now, it seems so damn funny but back then, I actually believed her.

Anyway, so, the day continued. By evening (when I had had a total of around 10 interviews), I virtually knew I was getting an offer from one of the banks and a second one was kind of interested too. So, I was a little more relaxed.

Well, I did tank a couple of interviews after the job offer (more on tanking later) and so, the day ended. By the end of it, though, the feeling was not one of elation, nor of joy..........it was more of relief, relief to be out of the process finally.