Street Hawk

STREET HAWK

Street Hawk was my favourite serial when I was a young kid. It epitomizes raw speed and nothing else. 5…4…3…2…1… Gooooo!

Now, u must be thinking as to how Street Hawk is related to this post. Well just like the way street hawk flies past the roads and highways, similarly, the last three months have flown past me. Towards the fag end of November I took CAT. This was immediately followed by a taxing end semester exams. An equally taxing and exhausting project evaluation culminated my ninth semester at this Indian Institute of Torture. I returned home for a few days as my father had to go undergo an operation. Thankfully, there were no complications and he is well on his path to recovery.

I have finally returned to kgp for the placements. No engineering student will disagree that the placement season is the most important as well as nervous time in any engineering course. Almost all come to IIT with the hope of an extraordinary job somewhere deep inside them.

Placement season is the most important phase in a kgpian’s life. If u can get a job in the first few days, then there is nothing like it. They are the most sought after companies similar to the day 0 companies of B schools. The fact is you don’t need to do an MBA if u get such jobs. But alas! Only a lucky few get it.

What plays the most important part in getting a good job from IITs?

Is it CGPA or the extracurricular activities what is the attribute which helps one to bag a good job if not a great one.

If u ask a five yr kgp veteran like me, I will say luck is the sole largest most important deciding factor. Many people have the wrong notion that being good in acads is a gateway to a great job. I completely disagree. Yes, for extremely high profile jobs like Mckinsey etc, cgpa is very important. But not for the rest. of the companies.

What about extra acads?

Well if you are a gymkhana post holder there will be a beeline of companies for you. An interiit is also valuable. However, anything less than that is of negligible importance.
During my stay in kgp I have seen both the extremes. People with pathetically low cgs getting high profile jobs which are always the domain of the toppers, as well as people with zero extra acads walking away with jobs meant for the all rounders.
Usually you get about 15 minutes if you manage to reach the interview process. Any sort of question might be thrown at you. A topper might be asked to define a term he has never heard in his entire life, while the last ranker might be asked a very easy question. The result, the topper is rejected. In other cases, the interviewer might just not like your face and hence reject you. Often having a high cg is a disadvantage, for the companies believe that people with high cgs are all going abroad for higher studies.
For the academically weak ones, they always have the wrong notion that they cannot get shortlisted for the big ones. However, luck can move in any direction. So all engineering students, just pray that when the day of reckoning comes calling, lady luck with all her charm and smile is on your side. As for me, lady luck is as far away as the Indian captaincy is for Sourav Ganguly.
One more thing, I don’t know why girls often walk away with a good job even though, in many cases they do not deserve it. Many readers of the fairer sex will staunchly disagree with me and brand me as a male chauvinist, but ask anyone who has been in an engineering college. The details of it is reserved for another post.