This had to go on my blog! The gist of it all: i got a job with Oracle Corps. as an app dev. Its been a month, actually more than a month since i got placed. And the overall experience was really nice. Even now that i look back at that day, i feel as if it were one of the happiest moments i can recall, the only thing which comes close enough is the time when i had received my AIEEE result some 3 years back.
So the Oracle story began during the summer holidays, when the news of oracle visiting our campus for recruitment was confirmed. I did start my preparations, made a list of topics to be brushed: ds, algo, c, c++, OS, dbms and mysql. By the time the first round: an online test came round the corner, i was almost ready.
Round1: Online test
The first round was a common online test (as in common to all appearing for a job with Oracle), which consisted of 4 sections: a english section (which was the easiest), an aptitude section, a basic computer knowledge section and an advanced computer knowledge section. The later two where based on primarily data structures, in my case trees. This round went pretty pathetic. I was sad, and i gave up all hope. I didn't even prepare for further rounds.
A couple of days later, i found myself outside the auditorium 8 o' clock in the morning.
After the pre-placement talk (which i didn't listen to with much interest as i knew i wouldn't get through) the results were put up on notice board. Surprisingly they had selected a huge number of students (not all, but everyone i can recall). I was happy, just the fact that i hadn't prepared for interviews was worrying me. But this was the first time i was appearing for any interview ever, i didn't have much expectations, the only thing that i wanted at that point of time was to get through the first round so that the shame of not having cleared any round would not fall on me. A form asking for preference branch to join was given. I filled them in the order of apps dev > server tech > ofss.
Later that noon, i was sitting with another 33 candidates in the waiting hall for my turn to appear for the interview. And the interviewer or sometimes one of the placement coordinator would come to the hall, call out a couple of names and take them in for interviews. As time passed fear started getting the better of me.
The candidates who went for interviews, either returned or were held back, i didn't know what was going on.
As far as i knew, there should have been 2 rounds : a technical followed by a HR.
at around 3 o' clock or so, i was called for interview.
Round 2: Technical round : part 1
I knew that the first round was a tech round, and i had faith that i was technically strong, so i went in the room settled down, and the first question fired at me was "write a program to sort n numbers". And i was like "wow, thats easy!", so i started with quick sort, but i was scared to death, i could not recall the algorithm and how to code it, so i thought "lets go for merge sort, its got a nice time complexity of O(n log n) also it is easy to write", my hands were still not working, the more time i sat still, the more fear started getting the better of me. In the end i ended up coding the selection sort. The interviewer inquired "what have you got there" and i said "sir, this is selection sort" . "It has time complexity of order of n square irrespective of arrangement of elements in the array" i added. I knew i am done for, "Selection sort? what the **** of all the sorting algorithms all i could think of was selection sort, i am done for!" i thought. But that wasn't the end, the next question was one on stack: "using a minimum number of stacks, sort the contents of a stack", i was cool now, given that i wasn't thrown out after my first solution, so i developed an algorithm to sort it using 2 stacks, then a question on tower of hanoi was asked, got that one the last question was one from maths, didn't get that one. The interviewer asked me to go outside and wait. And so i did...
Round 3: Technical round: part 2
So i thought to myself "yea, i already knew i am technically strong, got through the tech round, the next is HR, and i know my way around words, i'll get through! even if i don't i have achieved my primary objective of getting through the 1st round". But soon i realized that the next round was not HR but another technical round, i still had confidence, this time entered the room with confidence, some 3 -4 questions on coding, programming languages some logical reasoning and a maths question were asked answered all but the last one, which was on maths. Following the same protocol i was asked to wait outside once more, i knew i was through this one. Now i had a burning desire to get through all the rounds and grab this job for myself. I could see my friends some waiting with me, some returning back. The same thought of easily getting through the HR crossed my mind, and the same fact that more tech rounds are to be tackled
came to my notice.
Round 4: Technical round: part 3
This was like an aptitude/mind bender/HR round, no coding was asked in this round but a couple of mind benders and some aptitude questions were asked, also typical questions like "which is your dream company", "why apps dev and why not server tech" "do you have any intentions of going for higher studies" etc where asked, i hadn't prepared (which, i think rather helped me) so i gave no witty answers, just whatever came to my mind. Finally the interviewer asked me to follow one of the other interviewers for the HR round. My heart totally elated, i felt like i was almost through. So i happily followed, hardly holding back my grin.
Round 5: HR
This was too easy (after all those tech rounds), the interviewer just wanted to make sure that i was interested in the job and didn't have any attitude problem etc (which i didn't and don't have :) ) after this round i was asked to wait outside, and so i did.
The result
The results were declared at around 11 pm in the night, not having ate anything all day and having been on my toes all day, i was tired and feeling senseless, but when my name was called out as one of the selected candidates (and the first name to be called out that night) i didn't know how to respond, to be myself and shout out of happiness or to be the formal being shake hands smile and say thank you to all those who where greeting me. Chose the second way. It took many days for the happiness to sink in. And as i stated in the beginning, it still makes me happy.
