Interview, The

Yeah, I had to write about it..Without wasting much of space I shall take you to the scene..I'll call myself X to avoid extreme embarassment and the interviewer to be Y..
(After the formalities are done and the questioning has started)

Y: Could you speak about yourself for five minutes...
X: yeah..

It was after a couple of more seconds I realized I had to say something about myself...People had warned me of this first up question and I had to some extent prepared for this one..
As soon as I opened my auto-biography he switched his focus onto something under his desk..I went on though uninterrupted for the next forty five seconds..

Y: Is that all?
X: Yes,Sir.

Y: Whats your favourite Chemical Engineering topic?

I told him heat transfer, to which he asked me to write some basic law in heat transfer.Fair enough....I wrote what I think is called Fick's law..but I think I wrote it wrong (I said "I think " because I still do not know the law perfectly)..He did not really bother though...

Y: what is A in the equation?
X: Area, sir.
Y: And that would depend on length right?

For some apparent reason I said no..He gave me a snarl..

Y: Explain..

I drew a neat cylinder and marked length and radius..
Y: Whats the area of the cylinder?
X: pi...r....l
Y:????

A small 25 W bulb began to light the place bright..It was covering the top part of my brain..

X: 2..pi..r...l
Y: What about the circular area on both sides?

The bulb gained wattage....

X: 2..pi..r...l. plus 2...pi....r...square.
Y: whats the area of a circle?

We did not need tubelights in the room anymore.

The place quitened for a moment or two..I took a deep breath and switched off the bulb on top of my head.
The next one was on octane number of petrol..I clearly told him I did not know the octane number of the petrol available in the common petrol bunks..Sometimes its better to say no instead of saying yes..But he dwelled on the topic for a couple more minutes and the question shifted to knocking of engine.

Y: what causes knocking?
X: All I know is that it causes wear and tear to the engine and a higher octane number petrol gives lesser knocking.
Y: Did you know knocking was caused by combustion after incomplete compression?

Someone switched the bulb on again...
A few more questions I managed to ward off and he finally setlled for questions on programming skills.I knew C++ was my forte and I was way ahead of most of my friends who had also qualified.I dared to switch off the bulb again. His first question was one of the first I had answered in "Computer Science " in school ( Pl. note I got a merit certificate for 99% in CS in my XII board exams)..

Y: whats the difference between C and C++?

The bulb was on again...and glowing brighter than ever.
After looking at some of the projects I had done in C++, and a couple of questions on them, he made a stand on my technical knowledge....

Y: I dont think you know C or C++..

He finished the interview as quickly as possible. He must have laughed his skin out after I left the room..I felt sick and disgusted.I plucked out Tushar Garimalla's tie from my chest and threw it on my bed angrily..

X: I probably don't deserve IBM.

PS: Tushar's tie had maintained 100% success rate till two interviews after I got into IBM India.