In the silence of the waiting room, I could hear the thuds
of my own heartbeat, the whirring sounds of the fan above my head and the
grinding of the coffee machine in the cafeteria across the waiting hall. The
weather was pleasant and so was the aroma of coffee, but what wasn’t was my
head. A familiar feeling of worry and fluttering of butterflies in my stomach
engulfed me. All that ran in my head was everything! Rightly said, silence is
the most dangerous expression of fear!
9th September, 2016 – I was attending an interview
for Amazon, my first interview for a full time job. I along with two other
friends, there we were sitting in the horizontally long waiting hall eagerly
anticipating the sound of our names. The only time we were waiting to be called
in public. Sharing an art of synchronized panic, the three of us were a bundle
of nerves. Everything that usually distracted us like Game of thrones, Santosh
Dhaba and cheese burst pizza, failed that day! All that we could think of was
the interviewer we had to face. 36
people around us, all from our own college, and yet there was apprehension! A
feeling of newness and a feeling of responsibility. Although, I have no idea
what I felt responsible for. For me,
attending a job interview was something I didn’t expect to be doing so soon. No
big deal for many, but for me it was a thing so huge that I felt compelled to
write about it and save it in my memory for a long time. One of my firsts! J
After a strenuous wait for nearly 3 hours, we were called in
for an online test that decided our presence in the next round. Opting for a
position that requires good communication skills, our online test was purely
English Grammar and I almost felt like I was in school again. Passage reconstruction
and dictation, something I haven’t done in the past 4 years, got me excited
like a little kid. Grammar has always been my strong point and I was sure to do
well. And fortunately, I did do well. Although, during the test I felt time
sometimes is both a boon and a bane. With the clock ticking away, I suffered
from keyboard dyslexia for a few minutes. Mixing up letters and funnily searching
for the delete tab caught me cursing myself. Definitely not very good sign in
an interview. In this fit of rage, nothing could calm me and only I know how I finished
that test. Walking out of the hall, my heart was thumping and I knew it was
time to go home. I looked at my friend seated at the other corner of the hall
and telepathy came into play, we realised both of us screwed up the same things
and we both knew, we were done for the day! No talking happened and just
silence and despair filled us up that moment. We weren’t ready to give up that
easy anyway. And yay we didn’t have to. We both cleared the round and were
asked to wait for the next. Oh the look on our faces, and the reverberating
Hi5, no beating that!
Amidst this happiness, creeped in the terrible thought of
waiting for a few more hours for the next round. As a trio, anxiousness dwells
in our blood and in the air around us. Clearing our phone’s memory and swiping
through the same old pictures was the only thing we could do in there.
Squeezing in a few lame jokes and hustled giggling combined with dozens of
bottles of water and frequent visits to the restroom we realized we could kill
just an hour. Letting out sighs of frustration and glares of irritation, we
prayed to be called and realized we were the last two people in the queue. And
there was luck slipping away too! Patience is one quality I lack the most, and
that day was a true test. My anger reached its saturation point and I was never
more glad to have my friends beside me that day!
“Meghana Lanka”, I heard his voice. No more fear and no more
anxiousness, just the thought of getting done with the whole thing and going
home to a cosy bed. 15mnts in the interviewer’s room and I did my best,
answered, explained and pretended to forget how tired and annoyed I was.
Amidst all this multi thinking, reality hit me and I figured
I said something that contradicted my previous statement, and I knew the series
of questions that would come up would drown me. And perfectly acting out the
ideas in my head, they did, though I managed to answer them. I had this strong
gut feeling that it didn’t go well, and this time I was right. Though it felt
good to hear my name called twice in half an hour, it came along with the news
that I couldn’t clear the interview. The sinking feeling lasted quite long. The
only thing that was the saving grace was a little relief of attending an
interview ((TRMS and Seller support) that wasn’t in my field of study, and
maybe that helped me take it up in the right spirit. Honestly, I realized only
if I were a little patient and focussed, I would have done way better and only
if I wasn’t distracted during the interview, this write up would have had a
happy line to end it.
Nevertheless, this was truly a learning experience and now I
know the stuff I shouldn’t be doing in my next interview. All that I wish for
is for my friends to be around the next time too, because if it wasn’t for them,
who else could have handled the restlessness, the continuous chatter I do when I
am tensed and the lame jokes that cracked me up at least for a little while. In
fact, in the recent past, it was the longest time I hadn’t used my mobile (lack
of signals) and if interviews can make me achieve this, I’d be there each day!
