The Calling of the Names | Accenture Placement

It seemed as though our lungs had collapsed, caved in on themselves, and our hearts had expanded to four times their normal size. Breathing had become exponentially difficult and every pulse had quickened. Adrenaline surged through our veins, energizing every nerve in every body to the point where the air in the presentation hall seemed to crackle with an electric intensity and the entire room seemed to vibrate with the beating of our collective hearts.

The tension mounted by the second, where each second was made up of a thousand different thoughts of dreams, hopes and fears. Some amongst us prayed, some fidgeted, some had their fingers crossed while some waited calmly (as calmly as possible at that point of time) with want of some better to do with themselves. Not one person smiled. It's hard to smile when the sum result of the sweat and tears you drain across four rounds of written tests, group discussions and interviews over five days rounds up to the direction your career takes, or does not take, in under five minutes!
Any attempt at a smile ends up a parody of a grimace underlining constipated bowel movement!

After a thousand false starts and another thousand scares, it finally began, the calling of the names:

"As I take your name, please stand:" said the HR Manager, "Abhay. . . Anchit. . .". The names rolled off her tongue and their owners stood up slowly, as though in a daze, "Fahd. . . Jharna. . . Manmeet. . . Pranay. . . Priyanka. . . Rohan. . . Sheena. . ."

"Wouldn't it be funny if she asks all the people who have been made to stand to leave, that they have not been selected and thank you for coming?" I asked Jharna.

She showed me the flat of her hand as though to slap me. It was OK to joke at that point, we'd made it.

The selected candidates celebrated their happiness by cheering loudly and calling home, where anxious parents were waiting for the news. The rest went home empty handed, teary eyed and bitter.

"Winning is giving it your best", they say. Try telling that to someone who gets rejected in the Third Round for the second time after having given it his/her best along with everything besides that and what 'they' say will suddenly seem like a crock of bull!
I know because I've been there myself.

The important thing is not to lost heart and to keep at it because Lady Luck only thwarts for so long.
And not to forget that in the end it's not what you have lost, it's what you have gained.

The following are good places to begin with and hone your skills in attempting papers and interviews:

www.freshersworld.com
placementpapers.net/helpingroot/
www.techtribe.com/splash.html
www.ittestpapers.com/

6 July, 2008