THE SP JAIN EXPERIENCE

the day starts with me going over early. i meet a few people. the first person i meet is a smart young guy ( i mistook him to be of my age..) he incidently is in the merchant navy for 8 years. is 29 years old and married since a year.... i was taken aback...... then met a few others. i realise that all people here are average aged 25 or more. and i am going to be the baby of the interview process.
I need to assert myself.They take us to a conference hall and provide us papers for the essays.First topic is " what is recession and what is the impact of recession on todays economy"... i dont know exactly what it means, but i just said when market slows down , and demand is much lesser than supply, the price of goods/stocks/commodities drops and as a result individual/entire economy suffer very grave losses. A recession in todays economy could greatly impact the developing countries including india... Lots of beating around the bush i did for the above two lines...

second topic is " list out three major accomplishments" i made up all three... ha ha. thats the best part and i made it look decent, i guess. then there is a case study, the topic being ' what would you do as head of ur organisation to curb financial irregularities"i am like, a company is composed of individuals and i l make sure each employee of the organisation has ethics and high moral values. i would also personally set an example of good conduct and ensure each transaction that my company goes through would be clean and would adhere to best norms. also citing social responsibility, paying proper taxes as an individual, as employees and as a company, i would ensure that my company is as respected as say an infosys is today... the GD ;topic is :is corruption the price for indian democracy :i take part in the conversation. add a few points. but i am in the average speak list of the GD.off the six , 2 spoke well and valid points. 2 were average and 2 were bad. so not too bad.

the interview starts. i am first asked introduce yourself.then asked why retail. i am like, when i started out in infy, i was completely new to retail, but i had a bench period of about 2 months, in which i developed a lot of interest for the domain, gave a couple of certification exams that the company proposes for employees. i was fascinated that how retailing, which i thought was just about storing and selling goods had sooo much to it, that all including layout of the store, placemtn of departments in the store, how the goods are placed and marketed, even the music that plays in the background all enthused me.the interviewer asks.. what kind of music should be played and why: the music actually soothes and relaxes the mind of the customer. afterall a cool customer would think more about what he needs and would shop more.then

what is ITs Role in Retailing., say specifically 3 areas where it operates: i am like, IT has its role in Retail just like in every spher of life, just making life simpler, tracking all the things. making accounting easier etc.what are challenges faced by IT today: attrition leads to lack of skills in the middle level organisation and lack of complete skill set as a result.tell me whats the turnover of Kraft (i said my project is in Retail in Kraft Foods). i am like, i am not sure, but i handle Kraft cheese and meat divisions, and i guess their turnover is around 10,11 billion dollars. So how big a company is Kraft: i am like it is the second biggest retailer after Nestle.]\but i thought Nestles turnover was about 70 billion dollars: yes it might be, as i said, Kraft is just behind Nestle and Kraft is worth about 10 billion dollars in cheese and meat alone, it must be worth much more , other products like chocolates, biscuits etc.but u said krafts entire turnover is 10 billion dollars: i as like. no i said only kraft cheese and meat is 10 billion, so he was like, you shoudl be clear on what you tell.i dont argue, but say, i tried to be clear, maybe i wasnt clear enough(phew, dont know how i managed this one, but probably that was the crucial thing. i got all figures wrong, all points wrong, but, to my mind i managed it alright)So what kind of a retailer is Kraft. i stutter badly at this one,, its a manufactorer as well as seller, but doesnt have its own outlets, has shops within a shop etc.

ok whats the turnover of infosys : 4.5 billion dollars.how much is it in indian rupee : i think for a while and say 1600 crores., interviewer smiling,, are u sure, i think again and say, yes sir 1600 croresthen which is the biggest IT company of india : its TCS, its worth about 5.5 billion dollars. But infy would beat TCS at it by 2010 or so...oh really.. what do u think the dollar rising and falling impacts the indian industry so much : yes sir, to counterbalance infy is looking to make deals in INR in which most employees are paid rather than in dollars so that, infy doesnt get impacted that much ( This is my worst answer, may be my killer)...ok Varun, had a good time talking to you, please wait outside and send th enext person.

i came out, was happy, though apprehensive. i know that a measure of success is how the assistant with my file returns and what she asks me to do next. she says, fill up the feedback form, i thought it was all over, i did that and then she says, u now have another interview with the director.i am tooooo happy, i know that the interivew i just faced was a elimination interview, i might have been eliminated if i stand no chance. but since i am called for the next round, i do have a chance. meet the entire batch up again. we do another round of intros. where are u from etc. exchanged cards etc. then we asked each other our marks.. that was my thriller. everyone was like, SPJAT-79, SPJ-81, CAT-92, SPJ-74 and when it comes to me, i am like SPJ-99, and all people are like,, arrey tu toh star hai...uske baad, everyone every sentence had a bash line. tu toh 99 hai, tereko kya interview lenge, tu jaaek bol, lena hai to loh nahi toh chod do and all that. the talk was centered around 99 for some time when one said, that he passed out school in 99, he has never got a 99 in any subject in life. it was fun. great interacting with people from different professions.

then the director intreview. Director was like, how was your experience since morning, how do you find the process, any change u suggest.then goes through my file, oh, so u have moved around india quite a bit, tell me how has been work with infy: i am like its been such a good learning experience. just a short while, but i know i have come a long way since been a college studentyou have been given a good appraisal in infy why do u think you have gotten it: i was like, since i was new to the team, i worked extra harder to blend in to the team, the project required working long hours, and i have worked 14-15 hours for weeks at a stretch without complaint. maybe that impresesd the managers.thats it.. ok, you have any questions? i am like. nope. nothing.ok, thanks for being part of the SPJain Evaluation process, the results you would know soon enough. thats all .

Quite an experience. Even if i dont get in, i would have learnt a lot from the entire experience in the least. i know i have a 50-50 chance but think that the one year expereince thing might weigh heavily against me. the interview and GD went quite decently