The job of my dreams

This blog is dedicated to my Parents,my Lord Murugar and his Parents and to all my teachers and friends who have been my pushing force to reach all my heights.Last but not least also to Superstar Rajnikanth who is responsible for many of the principles i follow in my life.

This blog is about the unforgettable day in my life.The first day in my life when i had a fitting and peaceful sleep void of any nightmares which haunted me for months.This is about the day i got placed in a job of my dreams......SYMANTEC.....perra kettale chumma adhirdhula

I would be getting my offer letter in a few days, I just want to say this holding the offer letter in my hand

"इतनी शिद्दत से मैने तुम्हे पाने की कोशिश की है हर ज़र्रे ने मुझे तुमसे मिलाने की साजिश की है!!! कहते हैं किसी चीज़ को दिल से छाहो तो सारी कायनात उसे तुमसे मिलाने की कोशिश में जुड़ जाती है!!!आज आप सबने मुझे मेरी छाहत से मिला दिया, आज बहूत खुश इतना की I feel like the King of the world.आज इस बात का भी यकीन हो गया की, हमारी फिल्मोंकी तरह हमारी ज़िंदगी में भी end तक सब टीक हो जाता है "Happys Endings".और अगर end तक सब टीक न हो तो वो the end नहीं है दोस्तों." ज़िंदगी अभी बाकी है मेरे दोस्त, ज़िंदगी अभी बाकी है "

Ok tension agadhinga...i think the build up is enough.Coming back to the point.

I have already mentioned about my sorrows and rejections in dream jobs.After rejection in Nortel where even guys with less CGPA than me and joe got selected and without any idea of future dream jobs I was in an upset mood.It might have been our unlucky day at Nortel.Forget it.

A message came from Hari,my schoolmate and the current PR that Symantec is coming on November 5th pay is 5.5 lakhs.Who bothers about pay,all i need is a reputed dream job with a decent salary above 5 lakhs and Symantec seems to fit into my requirement.

A small flashback back to 5 months some sweet morning in june my senior Pradeep and I were chatting when i was interning at Aricent,then he had told he was shortlisted and got rejected in the interview of Symantec.And it was the best company which used to come late for recruitment and only lucky guys who though talented get rejected luckily by not-so-good companies get placed in Symantec......back to the present hmm maybe thats why my lord Murugar is delaying my dream placement....Lets see.At that moment nothing was running in my mind.All my focus and determination was to get placed in the last dream of this semester and to end the worst year of my life on a good note.Ya 2008 was the worst year in my life,the pillow on my bed knows my tears of rejection,the placement notice board knows my looks of anticipation.

November 5th happened to be the lab assessment for Component Development Lab.How could we attend Symantec placement??If we miss lab assessment we would lose 25 mark out off 100 for the subject and more than that have to face the wrath of our HoD for bunking the lab exam...I cant write any more apology letters.It was Novemeber 4th evening HoD was not in college,she had gone somewhere out.Me,Parthiban,Praveen and Vijay Vinod were waiting to get HoD's permission to postpone lab assessment.None of the other so called responsible persons of the class bothered to wait but thats not the case with me.My only focus is on getting placed tomorrow.Though I am successful in getting placed or not but i will put all my strength to try for it.

HoD came back,but our FA was missing...coz we could talk with her through him only.FA came back,HoD is missing....She is in Deans room along with EIE and ECE HoD and some 1st year and 2nd year guys for some ragging problem which turned to a fight and police issue.Now we are waiting for her to return.It is 7:30 p.m now.One by one the students were coming out.Its already 7:30,what will i be able to prepare for tomorrow's placement and I needed to be thorough in almost all subjects ranging from algo,dbms,os,oops,c,data structures,n/w etc this is what some of my seniors told.That seems to be impossible task to even revise these subjecs getting back home tired.But still I would nt give up and I still waited.Then something struck me,HoD might have directly gone to Grid Lab.....Eureka.....I checked up there..she is in...called up FA and the 4 of us went in....this is what happened

FA:Maam,nalaiku company edho varudhaam,pasanga lab xam postpone panna solranga
[we handed over the letter]
HoD:Symantec...Dream job ah?Eligibility sollaliya
Vijay Vinod:Innum sollala maam
Me:ppt la solvaanga maam
HoD:OK go ahead carry on..Exam postpone pannikalam...
HoD[to FA]:Friday freeya irukku illa...appo vechukonga

thats it we came out and matter over
Throughout these hour long waitings all i had been telling praveen and parthiban was "We have done a selfless act(ofcourse it has a tinge of selfishness) by staying so long for others including us to attend Symantec,we have done a punniya kaaryam.So i am sure one of us will definitely get placed tomorrow"

We came out and told to RN.Vinod,Sivakumar and Shanthakumar who were waiting outside what had happened.And soon i left home.Reached home by 8.And started off with some revision with notes i hav been collecting for placements.My determination did nt let me sleep,It is 2:10(i still remember exactly) my mom woke up and said,"Ippo thoongalana nalaiku interview thookam varum.Moonu varusham padikaadhadhaya innum moonu mani nerathula padichida pora....konjam neram rest edupaa"....What a fool i was???what will i gain by reading now..I slept and woke up at 7..got ready and left early by 8:30 but still could reach there only by 10:10 when the ppt was almost over.By the way I have a strange sentiment,I have got shortlisted in all companies where i was late to ppt.Hopefully i get shortlisted here too.

Frankly speaking the salary part in the ppt was the most confusing.They said fixed cash of 4.75-5.25 and then total salary from 5.5 to 7.25 and all salary are variable from person to person.Hopefully i ll understand after i enter Symantec

These Merittrac guys were going to conduct the tests.It was a solid 1:30 hr test and many where sleeping in this long test.I went ahead slow and steady solving the maximum.Since no negative marking atlast i marked all "C" for unanswered question there were only some 10 or 15 i had nt answered.Test over we came out.Some were teasing i will get shortlisted and placed..I heeded to none of their voices.My true friends who usually tease me understood my feelings and what was going in my mind and they kept silent.We went for lunch,free tea and mixture was given at vivekananda auditorium...Shantha and KK got a hand onto it,all 6 of us shared.went to lunch at madras university canteen,had lunch returned to CUIC.Results announced at 1.So soon!!!

Nearly 38 got shortlisted out of which from MIT IT,it was 5 of us me, joe, E.Sathish, rn.vinod, talat[NO girls!!!!].Interviews start at 2.I was in the 3 o clock batch.I left to have a face wash,my school friend Manoj messaged me that i was called.I was late,my name had been called earlier,so i had to wait till 3 o clock batch.In the meanwhile we had to fill up some form rating us in various domains and pin up our resume with it.My first interviewer was a cool guy,he introduced himself as fred.Later the next day i found more about him,his full name fredrick terrance,his wordpress blog,and he is owner of Symantec Chennai community.
The interview started at 2:50,

Fred:Good Afternoon Karthik.Have your seat
Me:Good Afternoon sir.Thank you.
Fred:When did you come Karthik
Me:Just now
Fred:Oh then you are late
Me:No sir actually i was waiting outside
Fred[going through my resume]:ok cool down first....What all companies came to ur college this year
Me:Microsoft,globalscholar,nortel etc
Fred:To what level have you been thru in these companies
Me:[told as mentioned in my prev post abt my rejections]
Fred:What was ur last company
Me:nortel
Fred:when was it
Me:a week back
Fred:so u r still in the interview mood
Me:yes sir
Fred:How good are you in networks?
Me:fairly good
Fred:[asked a simple network question i don remember]
Me:[answered]
Fred:Moving on to OS,What do u know abt virtual memory
Me:[told]
Fred:Ok,I have a system with 20 GB hard disk which is now fill with 19 gb data.I need 2 gb virtual memory,how will it be allocated
Me:[i answered whatever came to my mind at that moment....all concepts abt virtual memory,paging etc]
Fred:Lets move on to some DBMS,how good are u in DBA commands
Me:I dont know sir, i know sql well
Fred:[gave me to write a query]
Me:[I wrote it wrongly]
Fred:Correct it if u can
Me:[I could nt]
Fred:OK leave it,write a program for string reverse
Me:can i use extra space
Fred:u may if u want
Me:i wrote a very naive code using extra memory for the string[i saved the efficient in-place reversal for next improvement...but he did nt ask and was going thru my resume.....i did have a very impressive resume]
Fred:Ok let me ask u a puzzle.There is a tall building with spiral and uneven staircases with different heights,how will u measure its height,tell me 2 approach,1)a layman and 2)a scientist
Me:told whatever my mind thought at that moment....all about gravity,trigonometry,heights and distance,dropping a thread etc.,
Fred:Ok Karthik,I am done with my interview.You may wait now
Me:Thank You sir

Its 3:40 now
Though I did only fairly well,I was not confident with the result.In the meantime,I dont remember the guy from symantec who was coordinating the waiting candidates,he was taking a person out and said result to be announced tomorrow(Results tomorrow means that we are REJECTED........ethana company interview naanga paathu irupom).Hmm similarly would i also be sent out soon???...those where the illusions going in my mind.I was waiting patiently,many who came after me went for 2nd round.Finally around 4:00 the person called me and lead me to another person for my second interview[Phew!! atleast i am still alive in the interview process...i should thank Mr.Fred]

The 2nd Interviewer was different from others around,he was an elderly person and everyone there was wearing a red Symantec t-shirt,but he was wearing a blue t-shirt,may be someone speacial and experienced....I am caught with him......dunno what my fate would be....ippove kanna katudhe.I dont remember his name.The interview started at 4:40

Interviewer:Good Evening Karthik.Take your seat
Me:Good Evening sir.Thank you.
Interviewer:What is ur area of interest
Me:Data structures and algorithms
Interviewer:what is ur favourite algorithm
Me:[i knew a few but i did nt wanna get caught saying them and later not knowing in detail abt them]Actually i am interested in problem solving
Interviewer:ok
Me:Given a problem i like using concepts of algo and data structure to code them
Interviewer:ok,then let me start with a simple problem,i hav a large set of integers ..say 1 billion and ram cant accomodate more than 1 million integers,how will u count occurence of each integer
Me:I did nt understand this and said abt the method similar to merge sort
Interviewer:I think you are tensed,do u need some water
Me:No sir,cud u jus repeat the question
Interviewer:(he repeated)
Me:I said an approach similar to flag array
Interviewer:Ok gud.Now let me move on to another simple problem,given an array of words and a smaller array of words,you need to remove the words in smaller array from the larger array.
Me:I told various approaches to this,starting with n-square solution of searching each word in smaller array in the bigger array,and then a trie-based approach
Interviewer:what is a trie??explain ur method better
Me:I said everything i knew abt trie,my spell checker project and the solution for this problem
Interviewer:Ok nice cud u think of any other approach??why not hashing
Me:but it uses a larger extra memory than trie sir,thats y i avoided it
Interviewer:Ok what is problem with hashing
Me:told everything from hashing,collision,collision resolution,probing
Interviewer:ok then,what are the subjects you hav in this semester
Me:told grid,cryptography & n/w security,.....i was fumbling(dai karthi enna subject padikara kooda gnyabagam illaya??)
Interviewer:ok dont worry it always happens,we dont remember the subject names,how much is your interest in networks??
Me:fairly good sir,but i like cryptography which v r studying this sem very much(i like that subject,but my grades are nt gud in it[:(] )
Interviewer:oh thats nice,so which buk do u follow
Me:William Stallings
Interviewer:Oh,that black buk
Me:yes sir
Interviewer:I know that buk from the first till the last page [Vechutaanga Aaapu......I have turned the pages of the book only twice so far......on the nights before my two assessment tests]
[now the interview turned out to be a rapid fire round.....i dunno why it happened,but the interviewer was shooting out questions at quick successions,i too managed to answer them all,though questions were simple,but the speed was difficult to handle]
Interviewer:Why dont v use Des nowadays
Me:told abt key size etc
Interviewer:why not use a variation of Des
Me:told abt double des,triple des, and man in middle attack
Interviewer:Tell the importance of public key cryptography
Me:told whatever i knew
Interviewer:tell abt any hashing algorithm
Me:told abt md5
Interviewer:tell me the procedure of getting the md5 hash value
Me:but sir there is a block diagram in the book,which v only learn by-heart(mug-up) the day before the exam
Interviewer:(he laughed out) i think that should be enough,these entire cyptography questions,i was just teasing you
Me:(Gosh!!! why did nt i understand it before)
Interviewer:Tell me abt ur final year project
Me:Explained abt it
Interviewer:So what do u know abt Symantec
Me:told abt their norton,internet securing,saving millions of dollars through security to other industries
Interviewer:what is intrusion?
Me:Getting into a network or accessing a system without proper authentication
Interviewer:what do u know abt virus
Me:told
Interviewer:have u written any virus?
Me:no sir
Interviewer:I think u may have to wait until v announce the results
Me:I was smiling wide(coz those who were rejected were sent back,so i have a high probability of getting placed by this hint which my interviewer gave me)
Interviewer:(he smiled back)do u have any questions
Me:yes sir,if u wont mistake me i hav a queation abt norton antivirus subscription
Interviewer:go ahead
Me:jus by changing the system clock,v are able to by-pass the subscription settings and use the full version even after it has expired,why has nt this bug been corrected so long,i am sure u are aware of it
Interviewer:(he gave a smile)but if u change the date,ur antivirus wud be active,so u can download the updates,but it wont be updated,since ur system date is sometime in the past,only updates of that system date would be installed in ur system
Me:thats kool sir
Interviewer:any more questions
Me:will i have any more round of interview
Interviewer:yes u might be having a HR round,jus a formality,u will be informed,u might have to wait for some time till then
Me:Thank you sir,hav a nice day

Now the time is 5:30.......an interview nearly an hour long..
I waited till nearly 7 without getting any response frm the guys who were assigning us to interviewers,in the mean time talat and E.sathish had been rejected.I went for my HR which was conducted by Geetha Raman who is the Principal HR.As told before it was just a formality asking abt my personal information,some of the questions i remember were,
Geetha:Take ur seat
Me:Gud evening maam
Geetha:Gud evening.tell me abt urself
Me:told the pre-recorded speech which i repeat for all interviews
Geetha:Abt ur family background
Me:told
Geetha:Why Symantec
Me:Told abt job of my dreams,an organization which saves many other organization,its like the military defence in s/w industry......[lots of extra bit]
Geetha:What is your final year project
Me:told abt grid and ddos
Geetha:do u do it in a company or college
Me:in the grid lab in our college,we have a separate facility for grid with 8 clusters(apdiya?????? sollave illa)
Geetha:are you ready to join chennai
Me:without any doubt maam,i would consider myself lucky to join at my hometown itself
Geetha:would you prefer to join as a tester or developer
Me:It does nt matter ma'am.I prefer to get knowledge about all domains in this young age.So i dont have any preference now.After knowing about my expertise,it would be wise for me to have my preference
Geetha:Ok since you are flexible i would suggest u to know how is Symantec different from other companies.........She explained the works of developer,QA and that v can switch between them when v want and when the positions are available.
Me:[I was listening to everything]
Geetha:Ok Karthik that ends ur interview.
Me:Thank You maam

Came back,RN vinod and joe were waiting for their HR rounds,I came out E was waiting for joe,then all rounds were over by 7:30.We all went to CEG canteen for some refreshments and had a chapaathi.Results to be announced by 8:00 it seems.My Dad came to ceg in the meantime to pick me up since it had got late and he was on his way back home.He was waiting near canteen and we went to sit in front of CUIC office,the results were getting a bit late increasing our tension and its nearly 8:45 now.The symantec guys came with the list,it was given to the other guy(not Selvam) to announce.12 got selected.RN.vinod,joe...and my name was still not announced,it was the 10th in the list of 12.

"Late aa vandhalum Latest aa vandhuchu"

Thank you Muruga,you showed ur true grace for me by granting me a job in chennai itself.I did nt understand ur intentions and had even cursed you for not helping me in these troubled times. But after all i am a human soul who cannot understand ur noble intention to keep me under ur direct sight and to keep me as near to my parents as possible.Just by saying thanks i cannot conclude this,I owe you everything i have.Well Murugar's vital role in getting me what i desire throughout my life cant be explained in here,so i ll write a separate blog for his impact in my life.

"எல்லாபுகழும் என் முருகன் முருகனுக்கே "

Well out of the 12,
MIT IT-3......Karthik Ragunath,Joe,RN Vinod
MIT CSE-3.....Ganesh,Vidhya,Prabhakaran
CEG CSE-Srivatsan,Deepak Raja,Umai Selvi
CEG IT-Venkatakrishna,Durga
CEG MCA-Sivagaminathan

We were then called in to be addressed.And they introduced us our project manager under whose team we would be working.the project manager along with the person who did my 2nd interview gave us the red Symantec t-shirts.We posed for a photograph.Finally the HR maam gave us her business visiting card and said "Wish to see you soon at Symantec".

A sigh of relief

When we were exiting the cuic office ,i said this to joe "Oru vazhiya oru tholla vituchu da".The cuic guy who announced the results was sitting in the chair.We thanked him.Came out.Called up dad first who was just standing a few metres away and said "place agiten pa" and then called mom and said "Amma Symantec la place agiten ma".Came back and left home with Dad