Whew! What an evening. Suffice to say I had what seemed like a very long evening but in reality it was just 3 hours or so. I was contacted on Friday evening for a job opening and had two rounds of telephonic interview (one on Friday & one on Tuesday) and then yesterday I was asked to come to their offices in Kakkanad for 2 rounds of face to face interviews at 7:30 pm! Ok, I would have preferred that the interview be during the morning or afternoon hours but since they start work at 7pm there was no option. So I got ready by 5:45 pm and lucky that I left early because there was a huge traffic block and it took me 80 minutes to reach there when it should take only 30-35 minutes.

Once there I had to sign at the gate and call in and wait till someone from HR cleared me. I was led to a lounge area on the 5th floor and then waited for 10 minutes for the interview to start. It was 2 people for the first round (one of whom I had had the telphonic round with) and then I was taken to meet their AVP who heads this particular process for both Kerala & Tamil Nadu. I had about 20-25 minutes talk with him and I have to say that it was pretty casual and no one had any airs about them. I also got to meet a former schoolmate, who was 2 years my senior and who is now heading their IT department. He recognized me on the spot before I could place who he was – and we haven’t met since 1990!! Wow, what a blast from the past!

After the interview I met a former colleague, who I had trained for his job back in 2006 and we walked out of the offices together. HE guided me to the auto rickshaw stand just outside the building premises and I took a ride back home. It was just a matter of 3 hours but it felt almost like a whole day. And now that dinner has been eaten, time for bed.