A Week to Remember

Welcome Back! How is it going? I am fine thanks. It has been a crazy week, almost like a new adventure. Lemme start from the start. The day ..Sunday, time... 15.30 hours, place....my room. I was reading a book called Hitler and Churchill - Secrets of Leadership, good book. Like the name suggests it talks about Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny and their camaraderie....Zoinks!!? Naah, dont worry, just checking whether you were reading or not. Ok,..good. You should now be actually reading this and would have left all other activities. So back to that book. Yeah, as the name suggests it is about Hitler and Churchill and talks about their leadership qualities and other similarities as well as differences. Good read.

Ok, so I read about 10 pages and then felt like checking my email. I was expecting some guy to email me stuff about my project and was pleasantly surprised to see an email from Citigroup. I opened the page and was shocked to find some lady from Citigroup asking me to confirm my interview for the job of a Summer Analyst. I quickly went to the Citigroup website to check which days are available. I was hoping with fingers crossed (the ones I wasn't using to type) that I have more than enough time to prepare. Nope, as luck would have had it, the dates available were 15th and 16th of February which means I had 4 days to prepare. This was the First round of Interviews, so they said it should be ok. I was not ok. My first proper job interview ...I closed my eyes, listened to some songs and I was alright. I felt confident but was very nervous. I feel nervous for many things...it's like a habit now. I started preparing for the interview by reading the Citigroup website, and trying to absorb various bits of information in short periods of time.

Later on in the evening, I spoke to my parents. They were happy and wished me luck. I told my mother I was feeling nervous. She immediately rubbished my fears saying that I have to face it and that there will be many more to come. I felt better after the talk and then proceeded to chat with my cousin sister who has a problem for every solution. I mean, a solution for every problem. I told her about the interview and that I was feeling nervous. She congratulated me and then proceeded to give me a pep talk which made me more positive. Life was beautiful again.

Interview? What Interview? Child's Play...I passed my first interview when I was about a minute old. The doctor who got me out and held me upside down had this quizzical look on his face. "Are you going to wail or not? Coz if you dont..you know what's going to happen!!" I was barely awake, I had no idea what these guy's were looking at me for...so I did what any normal baby would do...I let out a wail. Success..I had passed my first interview. Well done..This interview would be a breeze too.

The rest of the week just flew by. I spent my mornings attending lectures, afternoons working on the project and the evenings reading for the interview. I had applied for an Investment Banking summer internship so I needed to read about basic economics and business. I already had a habit of reading The Economist and The Wall Street Journal so I was upto date with recent business events. My father gave me some advice about the questions they might ask, and one of his colleagues called up to advice me too. The help was helpful.

Finally the day arrived. My train for London was at 8.30 am. I reached the station, got in the
train, sat down on my seat and breathed a sigh of relief. I was on my way...until I realised that I had forgotten to bring the piece of paper on which I had written the address. But not to worry, I called up my friend and he succeeded in navigating through the highly confusing Citigroup website to find the address of my interview venue. The train journey was for 2 and half hours. I got out at St. Pancras station, caught a tube on the Picadilly(not sure) to get off at Green Park. Then, I caught the Jubilee Line tube and got off at Canary Wharf.

I found a guy who looked like he could direct me to the Citigroup building and asked him. He had this uninterested look on his face, reminded me of those crocodiles on Animal Planet who would just laze in the sun. Growl.. Anyway, he turned out alright and after a few repetitions of my question he understood what I meant. "Turn right, walk down the escalator, go through the glass doors and Citigroup is to your right". Thank you kind sir. I followed his directions and ended up facing a dead end. There was this huge wall in front of me! I was tempted to follow Gandalf and say the elvish phrase "Ballor" to see the wall open and lead me to Citigroup..but no..this wasn't the Lord of the Rings.

After consulting a few more people, I finally found the place. Canary Wharf was amazing! The whole atmosphere was out of this world. Posh huge buildings, and people dressed in suits walking past me. I had expected something like this..but this was great. To my right was Citigroup, to my left Lehmann Brothers, in front of me the Thames River, and to the side a giant news ticker displaying the latest business news and share prices. This meant "Business".
I still had 2 hrs to kill, so I went to Starbucks and sipped a cappuchino and nibbled on a Double Chocolate Doughnut...which was yuck. I spent about an hour and a half there, and stared at the people passing as I sat near the window. At 1 pm , I finally decided enough was enough and walked towards the Citigroup building. Got in , and informed the receptionist that I had arrived. While I was seated in the reception area, I met a girl who was also there for the interview. She was quite nervous as well and we chatted till the interview time. It was good as it sort of cooled our nerves. Her name was Asia..but she was British. She was born in Hongkong it seems. Kool.
We were led to the conference room upstairs and we met our interviewers. One guy was Pakistani called Womick, or Womik, no idea about the spelling. Nice guy, and the other was a Swedish fellow. Nice guy again. Asia was interviewed by the Swedish guy first , and I was interview by Womick at the same time. He asked me a few general questions at first and then proceeded to ask me some logic questions. "What is the angle between the hour hand and the minute hand of a clock when the time is 3.35?" and the second question was " What is 99x99 without using pen, paper?". I managed to answer them fine.

The other interviewer asked similar questions..and then by 3.30 it was over. I couldnt believe I had just finished two interviews...I know..big deal..but, my first proper job interview! I thanked the interviewers and left the building. That half a minute in the elevator was just amazing. I felt this nice feeling inside, and I suddenly felt more confident of myself. I then went and sat down on a bench on Canary Wharf...just to soak in the atmosphere. My train to Sheffield was at 7.30 pm, so I had about three hours to kill. I took the tube to Westminster and sat down on a bench beside the river Thames. Spoke to a few friends in London, and around the city. I then just roamed around the place, until it was time to get back to St. Pancras. Train arrived on time, went in and sat down at my seat...A tired man, but one whose confidence had definitely been boosted. I will know whether I go on to the next round of the interview by Wednesday(21st)..but whatever the result, it has a been a learning experience. And as my mother always says, its the experience that counts and what you learn from it.

Then came friday, saturday and sunday..and now I am writing this blog. I had planned many things for the weekend but I couldnt do them all..but nevermind. There is always another day. It's been a crazy week, but one that I will never forget.

Finito...