Monday, May 28, 2007

A complaint can get you a job!



Failed to get through the interview? Was it because the interviewer was a complete nut job? Don't worry. You can still get the job. Just send an e-mail.

An Email complaining about the interview process actually got me a job offer in an IT company in Bangalore. (BTW this could apply only to IT offshore services companies)

Don't believe me. Read on.... (I will also attach the actual email sent, with the names changed, of course).

To cut a long story short. The series of events

Background:
I was called for an Interview to one of the many offshore software services company in Bangalore. The position was for a "Lead" .

So this was going to be a breeze. Wrong!
  • Introduced to the interviewer, lets call him NJ.
  • Interview starts, slowly I realise everything is going wrong. I'm asked not to shake my legs, all my answers are contradicted and some of them are laughed at.
  • At the end, he makes me look like a joker. I'm astonished that my temper was in check. Hell I'm not a guy who sits quietly. I say a polite good-bye and leave.
  • My roommate advices me not to waste time sending an email to the consultant. He says "Nothing would come out of it. This is an Indian company.....".
  • But I send the email anyway, a very powerful and a professional email expressing my strong displeasure at the interviewer and azzz.
  • But just before I send this big email where I spent an hour to compose, the power goes off in my house. Damn! Bangalore , Damn the politicians, Damn me for not saving a draft.
  • Very soon the power comes back, and I log into my Gmail account. Thank God for Gmail!! There is an auto save feature, I love these guys man. So I finally sent that email on a weekday to my consultant.

Post Email. Everything changes...

  • My consultant calls me within 1/2 hour of receiving the email. Gets all the details and promises to do something about it. Hmmm...i'm actually skeptical.
  • He calls me back and says all hell has broken out in Azzz. My mail was the cause for that and it was forwarded to all the senior mangers in azzz. WOW! Just a mail?
  • I go back to azz to start my interviews fresh. The recruiter from azzz meets me to apologize and thanks me for coming back. He loved the mail and tells the issue has been escalated all around.
  • This is great. The company has actually taken my side. Was the mail that good?.
  • So I go though another three rounds of Interview and they are still not sure if they need me. But they want me, from what they read in my email.
  • Now they have offered me some decent things. But I cannot join a company like this and work with people where everything is about ego. Also I have an offer from ThoughtWorks!

I just wanted to prove something - Don't sit quietly, you can make things happen. All it may require is one single email.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Lolz. Dude, you're amazing. Respecto, bro.

Damana Madden said...

Good for you for speaking out and right choice taking the TW role :)

This kinda proves that there are people who should not be in control of other people's lives - through interviewing or otherwise.