I even today laugh as I remember my first job interview questions.
Choosing right career was an exercise in career and personality match for me, which I did as per my aptitude and attitude at that point of time in my life.
I remember appearing for my first interview in Union Public Service Commission for the post of a scientist in the Defense Laboratories immediately after I passed my B.Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.
I was a fresh graduate, but the people who had come over there for the interview were all either experienced, or M.Tech., or else both. They were all anxious of what all job interview questions were going to be asked to them. In all there were 183 applicants who were sitting in the foyer for one single vacancy that was to be filled that day.
I was the least hopeful of getting selected for the same but I was just giving it a try in the spirit of playing a game that I was not intending to winning at all.
As I went in when my turn came, I saw 4 people sitting across a very long table, to the other side of which I was made to sit.
One of them was looking into my bio data and as he went down the columns, his eyebrows squeezed. Frowning at me he asked - "What's this you have written here in the column of State Your Religion as N.A.?"
"It means not applicable. Doesn't apply in my case." - I was very cool as I was under no psychological pressure of getting selected in the interview at all. I was also wondering if these were the kinds of job interview questions I was going to face over there.
"That we also know it means not applicable only, but how is it possible that it is not?" - he had a tone of certainty in his voice.
"Why is it not possible? I am sitting in front of you and it is not applicable in my case!" - I kicked the ball from my side again.
"You mean to say you don't belong to any religion?" - another one of them held the command this time.
"Yes, that's exactly what I mean to say." - I coolly stated the fact.
"No, it cannot be so. I have never seen a man like that and that too, of your age!" - this time it was the third one who took the lead in his hands.
"Why, is my age too small to tackle the questions of my own personal life?" - I was 20 years old then and I considered it to be quite a responsible age for that.
"How can you challenge the faith of all the people in society around you?" - the fourth one added his bit of piece into theirs.
"Did I ask them to part with their religion?" - I had started enjoying playing the game with them and the kind of job interview questions they were shooting at me.
"No, you didn't; but your action does!" - the one who said this looked very angry with me.
"Am I responsible for that or is their faith so shaky that gets challenged by a single person's no faith in what they have it for?" - I put my logic forward.
"But that will shatter all the social values we have! Are you trying to be anti-social?" - one of them played his trump card from his side.
"I am what I am. I am not trying to be anything. And if the social values are so fragile that they will go shattered by my existence beyond any religion on earth, we should better think of replacing them with a little healthier ones now." - I had started wondering about the narrow vision that they seemed to have.
"You are yet too small to talk so big." - they went coercive this time.
"You forced me to! Moreover I am not so small too. By asking the kind of job interview questions that you are doing, you are interviewing me for a gazetted post that is considered to be a responsible one as per the Government of India gazette that, being a secular one, has given me a legal as well as a moral right to live on this land respectfully without any religion tagged with my identity. Am I wrong, sir?" - this time I had shot an arrow, which they didn't seem to have any match for in their quivers singly or collectively.
"OK, let be it if you insist. What do you know about your subject? Do you... or..." - there was a sarcasm that was obvious in the first man's tone.
"It's for you to check, sir... with your proper job interview questions; and that's why I am here, and I think that's why you are here too." - I blunted their attempt at outsmarting me again.
"Come on, let us see if you know what an adder circuit is or not. If you do, draw it here." - I don't know why they were underestimating my academic/technical knowledge and asking such silly job interview questions for such an important post as it was. In fact all those job interview questions they had asked till now had boomeranged at them challenging their caliber rather than mine
"Well, I know but I don't remember it in order to draw it right now here." - I said smiling.
"You don't even remember the most basic of all the things in your subject?" - they were happy that they had got a chance to show me down now, at least once in the hands of their job interview questions.
"Why should I? Why should I keep my mind burdened with such pieces of information for no reason at all?" - I was still very cool that started surprising them now.
"What'll you do if you need it while designing your complex circuits anytime?" - they thought they would render me speechless now that they really wanted to do and I had not given them a single chance for.
"I'll deduce it right then and there." - I stated as if it was an obvious thing that everyone should have been doing this way only.
"How much time will you take doing that?" - they threw a winning smile at me.
"Say 20 seconds or so..." - I guessed.
One of them immediately gave me a paper and a pen, saying - "Your time starts now!" - and started looking at the seconds' hand in the clock.
I immediately solved the equations, deduced the results and drew the circuit on the paper; and as I handed over it to them, there were still 5 seconds left to be gone in the clock - "This was the best of all those job interview questions, I suppose." - I said handing over the paper to them.
They all kept looking at me in an awe without saying a single word to me, before one of them broke the silence, saying - "Did you really solve it here and now or was it all a scene created in order to impress us with your skills?"
"I wouldn't need doing that because I never thought I could ever get this job anyways." - I told them the truth.
"And if you get it..." - some of them had started changing their stance now.
"I'll simply join it. What else?" - I started laughing - "Is that one of those job interview questions too?"
I remember, three of them joined me in my laughter and the fourth one said - "Your interview is over. You may go now. God bless you."
I smiled again and went out saying - "Thank you for blessing me from God's side!"
Later I got the joining call and a few days after I joined, I came to know from a reliable source in the laboratory that I was selected for the post as I had got the highest marks in the interview, it being 150 out of 200 in which three of my interviewers had given me full 100%, i.e., 50 each.
The fourth one had given me zero out of fifty!
