Sep -11- my infosys Interview

----- Original message -----
From: "elavarasan"
To: 4futureengineers@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 04:40:56 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (PAPER) Sep -11- my infosys Interview

HI friends

This is Elavarasan, I thank u all for
Ur help. When I got the call letter I had no hope of
doing it, but the valuable information that u all gave
made me to clear Infosys Aptitude test, but…I didn’t
do the Interview well, sorry not even fine! All bcoze
of my carelessness. In this mail I am giving u the way
how I prepared for the written test and along with
that my Interview questions. I hope u all would have
got enough "aptitude test" question papers so I am
leaving that.

Preparation
I got the hall ticket on 31st August
2005. A week before that I went through about 100
puzzles in Shakuntala Devi’s "Puzzle to puzzle you". I
found that very boring and took many days to go
through. As soon as I got the hall ticket I send a
mail requesting for help to all my mailing groups. I
received lot of help from the groups. I seriously
prepared for the exam for about 4 days. In that 4 days
I finished two books of Shakuntala devi ( "puzzles to
puzzle you" and "more puzzles" ). Then I took George
Summers’ puzzle book. It was very tough and I lost my
hope and concentration. I spent 2 days in George
Summers, but I was able to go through only 17 problems
in that. Then I had four days left. I started to
prepare previous year question papers. I first started
with the latest one i.e., 2005 papers, then I worked
out 2004 question papers. I noticed many question were
repeating and gave an extra attention to the repeating
questions. I also went through R.S.Agarwal for
problems on age, time and work, time and distance and
clock. This is all I did.

The Exam
My exam venue was at Meenakshi
College, Chennai. When the question paper was given I
found most of the questions were from previous test
papers. I was able to answer many questions without
solving them (but I neatly presented the steps in the
paper), because I solved those questions many time
while I was preparing for the test. But even then it
was highly impossible for me to answer the entire
question set in time. I left 3 questions. The English
section was very easy and I completed that very
quickly.

The result
I didn’t have any hope of getting
selected. But to my surprise I found my name in the
notice board and time for the Interview was printed
next to that as 2:00 P.M. As it was very crowded, I
just saw my name and the time, but didn’t see the
Venue!!!!!

Interview
For interview, I just went through my
project. The next day I dressed well and went to
Meenakshi College exactly at 2.00 P.M for attending
Interview. Only after going there I came to know that
the venue was at Infosys campus which is about 30 K.M
from the college. I felt "Oh my God, I made a very
big mistake!" and immediately phoned Infosys but both
the phone numbers were busy! Without knowing what to
do I dove to Infosys campus (In the heavy traffic of
Chennai city). After clearing the security I went to
the interview block. I was 1hr late for the interview.
I met the coordinator for 2 o clock batch and
apologized him for my mistake. He was very kind and
spoke to me calmly. Then came a senior officer (He
must be a senior HRD manager), He was very angry on me
and he didn’t seemed to be convincing. I was already
scared about the interview, added with that his
tension made me feel very bad. I was immediately
called for the interview (I didn’t even have a second
to wash my dusty face or comb my hair!!).
In the interview panel there were two
ladies. Here I use L1, L2, and ME, for the
interviewers and me.
And… here is my interview.
ME-- Good Evening mam.

L1 and L2-- Good Evening.
ME-- I am extremely sorry for being late. I should
have been here by 2 o clock but I taught the venue was
at Meenakshi College and I went there, only after
going there I came to know that the venue is here,
that is why I am late mam.
L2-- Didn’t you see ur venue yesterday?
ME-- Mam there was heavy rush at Meenakshi College
yesterday, so once I saw my name and my interview time
I left.
L1-- didn’t u consult with any others?
ME-- no mam.
ME—just now I came here so may I have some water mam?
L1—sure have some and make comfort.
ME—Thank you mam
L1—So, Ela..va…rasan Ariv….ala…gan, is this the way
others call u?
ME –Yes mam, but few of my friends call me as
"Prince".
L1 – Prince! Why?
ME – because... (L2 interrupted and said to L1 that
the word "Elavarasan" in Tamil means Prince)
L2 – Ok Elavarasan, tell us about you.
ME – I started with my home town, then about my
family, then about my education about my hobbies and
finally the prizes won in competitions.
L2 – What do u think as ur greatest strength
Elavarasan?
ME – I think, my greatest strength is my commitment to
work. If I am committed to do something I make sure
that it has completed. (After a pause) I don’t care
about the amount of work I have to put forward or the
amount of time it takes to complete the task.
L2 – So, ur greatest weakness?
ME – mam I think it is time management. I concentrate
much on fine details and always leave time.
L2 – Have u faced any problem because of that?
ME – yes mam, even while preparing for my exams if I
struck up in a topic I wouldn’t move to next topic.
L1 – Elavarasan, let us think that u have joined the
company and after joining the company you are asked to
go to California, where there is a threat that Bin
Laden is going to attack California. All the seniors
don’t want to go because of the threat so you are
chosen, because you are a fresher. So, what will u do
in such a situation?
ME – I’ll go to California.
L1 – what? Is that practical? Be pragmatic are u ready
to risk Ur life for a company?
ME – mam I am practical. If the death is going to come
for a man it will come to him, no matter where he is
even if he stays in India he will face death.
L2 – Then you are ready to go into a burning house?
ME – mam it’s a burning house, I know it is burning
so, I will not go in. But going to California is not
like that, there is a threat that’s all. It may happen
or it may not happen.
L1 – Will ur parents accept this and send u to
California?
ME – mam we all do believe in God. If he is my
protector then I believe that he will protect me at
California too.

(After a while)
L2 – Think of a scenario in which u are the only
person in ur college selected to do a project. That
requires a lot of preparation and work. If u do that u
will gain a lot of technical knowledge. At the same
time you are chosen by ur principal to do another
project which is not very important for u but very
important for ur principal. He wanted u to do it. Both
of the project requires heavy work and heavy
preparation, and u need to submit a report about Ur
projects daily. What will u do in this situation?
ME – mam, firstly I’ll talk to my principal and will
tell him about my situation.
L2 – If he is very adamant that u must do that
project?
ME –I’ll take both the project and try to do them,
that’s all I can do
L1 – How can it be possible to allocate time in such a
tight schedule between two different projects?
ME – I know it is very difficult but there is no other
go, so, I have to do that so...
L1 – Won’t u try any other method?
ME – no, mam first I’ll speak to him; if he compels me
I will do the work.
L1—try to solve this puzzle (she game me puzzle in a
small bit of paper)
The puzzle read like this " Starting with 1 half cup
of coffee and 1 half cup of tea, if u take 1 teaspoon
of tea and mix it to the coffee and then u take a
teaspoon of that mixture and mix it with the tea. At
last what will be more coffee or tea? ". It is very
easy puzzle; the answer is both the content remains
same. But I taught in a different way and answered
wrongly!!!
ME – mam coffee will be more.
L1 – (with a smile) Justify it.
ME – If u takes a teaspoon of tea and put it into
coffee… (I shouldn’t have used "put" here) tea gets
diluted. If u take a teaspoon of that mixture and add
it to tea, that would have had more coffee in that
than tea.
L1 – try this puzzle.
She gave me another simple puzzle "If the only
sister of your mother’s only brother has only one
child then what is the relationship between u and that
child?" Can you imagine a simplest puzzle than this?
But my mind worked in a different way and answered
completely wrong. The actual answer is "yourself",
but I in a hurry answered "my cousin"!!!
ME – mam , it is my cousin.
L1 and L2 – what? (At the same time)
L1 – may be u have to read it again Elavarasan.
ME – (After a while) I think it should be my cousin.
L1 – how?
ME – If my mother’s brother had a sister then, she
must be my mother’s sister too, hence her child must
be my cousin.
L2 – (with lowered voice as if I have done the
interview badly) Elavarasan, do u have any question?
ME – Hmmm no mam.
L1 – Ok , you may leave now.
ME – Thank u mam (and left the room, I was about to
close the door, some think blinked in my mind only
then I realized that the answer to the last puzzle was
just "me", I again felt "Oh my God another big
mistake")
After my interview was over I was asked to sit in a
place and my ID was taken to get signed from the HR
manager. He was no other than the person who was angry
at me when I went late. He went to my interview panel
and spoke for a while with the interviewers. This made
me sure that I would not be selected.
After a while he came with the very same angry face
and gave my ID to my coordinator. He called out my
name and asked me to return the ID to the security.

My Advice

So, friends, don’t ever be careless
like me and loose a valuable moment in your life. It
will be a very big lose.