Least Marks Breakthrough

If you are preparing for a job what are hard things? You might say getting the job is hard, selection in the interview is hard, competition is hard, and so on. In some reference, you might be right but no! Hard thing is not preparing for the interview or passing an exam. A person with enough practice, time, and work ethic can crack the interview or the test with smartness. If you cannot prepare, it doesn't mean that the job is hard, especially if you are a fresher unless the job is CEO or a big post of a multinational company.
The hard thing is when you think you are prepared but you don't get any sign of success at all. The hard thing is your parents' hard-earned money is spent on your education but you are jobless with no answer left and you can't face them off. The hard thing is when your friends are getting a job, you think you deserve the job and you are left with nothing, even when you don't know where things are going wrong. Isn't it very devastating? I found this concept in the book "The Hard Thing About Hard Things" by "Ben Horowitz".
Well, I am damn sure about this scenario in my computer science engineering because I had faced similar hard things but the mouthful for survival is emphatic.  So there was the recession going down and mass layoffs were there, hiring freeze, market crash, and damage to the economy. For freshers, the number of opportunities drastically fell. There were many news, conversations, and analyses, opinions among different people and organizations. Alas! but there was a big hit in my environment and many were affected, like the number of jobs and job providers fell. I was also scared of this turmoil but told my heart I could somehow manage to do this.
Few recruiters were there in my institute but because of many factors including very poor online exam proctoring and exam conduction were very very poor and the competition was not for knowledge, it was for the one who easily searched the answer/codes on the internet or somehow managed to arrange the correct codes with peers. Students were at their peak of unethical practices basically it is cheating. How someone can cheat with the work and their job provider even if this work is gonna be their future. The proof might be, to collect all the selected students asking them to solve the same question again which they have solved in an online test with proper proctoring. I am damn sure only a few students can solve.
My friends were selected in a few of the companies but I was not getting to a destination also rejected by many start-ups for internships even though I would been happy to work for 2000- 3000 INR, but failed. During the initial days of placements, a very reputable German fin-tech company came to my institute they conducted their online test based on 3 data structures and algorithm coding problems. I thought that I'd do my best. At the last moment, I was able to solve all the 3 questions with honesty, and all the test cases passed. I was clapping for myself that I was definitely getting the job, after an interview after a long wait. I started to prepare for the interview. When the result was declared my name was not there in the list. I was not even qualified for the test I don't know hell why? I suddenly went to my nearest temple for peace because my mind was really bursting with frustration, anger, and sadness. At that time the back of my mind knew that I was very close and this is a positive sign, but my intentions were not positive at all. I was not getting the and have not gotten it to date why the hell I am not selected?
During that time I had a lot of fear and sometimes I even cried with tears streaming down my face, I sometimes called my friend and used abusive language (which I rarely use) to release my frustration. My work efficiency fell and I was on my knees. I wanted to be a trailblazer to create an impact! But here, my existence was fading. Also facing parents, teachers, and society was really hard although they wanted my wellness and success. I was lying at home that my institute was not giving me any job opportunities because I didn't want them me to see facing the failure and I didn't want to tell them that I failed I don't know how many times. The beast inside me was growling louder and louder. I might be near to quitting and running away but I decided to persevere because my dreams were and are larger than anyone else's, into a very higher orbit, I didn't have an option at all.
I remembered a few lines from Coldplay's Don't Panic song 
Bones, sinking like stones
All that we fought for
Homes, places we've grown
All of us are done for
And we live in a beautiful world
A few, days later we had a test for a service-based company whose motive is to generate impact, and I was able to clear its online test. The test was not based on coding but on computer fundamentals and conceptual understanding and was very easy an ample amount of time to search on the internet and chatbots. I also searched a few of which I was not sure. Although it is unethical I was compelled to do so because the fight was not for knowledge but for how many questions you managed to search. The next round was group discussion which was through online meetings and I was pretty bit well in these things and performed really well. Then we had the final interview. The arrangement was inferior! As I was nervous and the date of the interview was 1 month earlier by mistake, I was like please also provide me a time machine. Then interviewers were not admitting students to the meet or whatever the issue was, a few students wore formal shirts and waited from 8 in the morning to 8 in the evening or so living with the pressure of the interview, which may scheduled at any moment, and did not get entered into the meeting, the organizer said: "We don't have an update, once we had, we'll get back to you". Also, I had the intuition, that they may call you suddenly, you have to leave whatever you are doing and join the meet. Hence few of us had interviews scheduled for the next day. I was damn sure about my selection because I had a very miniscule competition. However, during the interview, the level of questions was far more difficult than the previous day. During the interview my performance in data structure and algorithm was good but the computer fundamentals especially SQL were awful. My question was performing a complex operation on 3 tables had 1 common attribute, and I was not familiar with this and took a lot of time. I was out again!
Yeah, I considered myself a cool guy who can handle pressure very easily but it exceeded my threshold. I was really burnt out! and lost hope for selection. I was in doubt about whether I was in the wrong place and had a wrong decision about my career path. I had disrupted my sleep cycle and faced insomnia. The start of my day became unproductive and procrastinating hence my days were in ruins. I talked to one of my mentors and told him everything honestly.  He told me that "you are at the age of 21 and have one year left for graduation, hence no worry in this. What would happen if you were rejected by a couple of companies, you still have a chance. I know a few of the examples who remained unemployed after graduation but then succeeded and did well. Of course, telling lies to parents or society is bad because you are putting yourself into the guilt instead of telling them to lie, focus on your preparation, and try your best! " I was just like 'the phoenix rising from the ashes '!
A few days later another NYC, US-based company came to my college for open hiring. The offering didn't matter to me at that time, what mattered was a job and financial security. I was literally ready to wash utensils for the job. At that time my parents were on a trip out of the station for the Raksha Bandhan festival to meet some relatives and I didn't join them in the shame that I was not getting selected and didn't want to face career or job-related questions that would be asked. I gave some reason not to go, I received an email at 11 in the morning that asked me if would I be comfortable attending something related to the company, of course, I answered yes. I went to the venue in my institute at the time and it was cancelled. I became very okay with such things although I faced worse than that. One of my batchmates had traveled 130 miles from his home after receiving an email, for this and came to know that it had been canceled. In front of him, my sorrow was nothing as it was inevitable.
We had a pre-placement talk, a few days later and I did not tell anyone that I was attending it. I felt uncomfortable to tell to my parents, only just got into a formal blue shirt, told my parents that I was having a presentation, and left my house. The pre-placement talk was delayed for 4-5 hours and the hall was really suffocated with almost 100 applicants. We also had this mental temperament test, the presentation may start at any time so we were not okay to go to the canteen and have some food. We just waited and they told us that presentation was going to start after lunch. We grabbed the lunch as quick as we could and got back to the room. After waiting for a couple of hours presentation started. The job description was remote and 3 profiles were going to be offered these were combinations of day and night shifts along with remote and on-site with different payment offerings. I aimed for the highest one and believed that I deserved it. The job requirement was my cup of tea. I dreamed that I had grabbed it. 
We had a good coder with us about everyone was sure that his selection was sure. I had also started coding because I was inspired by him. Also, my grades were least on the list of the candidates selected for interviews, hence the title for this blog is "least marks breakthrough !". I also made a list of candidates that were good in their work and analyzed something like if 10 tough candidates were there and 3 job profiles were there if only 3 candidates were selected, then out of 10 I have to make it into the top 2-3 or out of 3 I have to stand out at first and hence I have to beat only 2 candidates.
It was first going to take an offline pen-paper test based on data structure and algorithm followed by a few offline rounds of interviews. I felt very satisfied that all the things were done in a disciplined manner and I couldn't be rejected because someone else had cheated or copied the answer and performed better. On the day of the interview I had my mid-semester test for Deep learning and I had not studied anything at all. I asked my professor to reschedule it or to do something with it, but it won't work. So I had no choice other than not to appear for my exam and focus on the interview.
Ah, during the offline pen-paper test, I went on time, and after a delay of a few hours, it was postponed after lunch and we waited for a couple of hours. I discussed a few questions with my friends and the questions that were asked in other institutes were received by my friend so we judged the level, and type of questions and I felt that I could make it. During the pen and paper test, 2 questions were asked which were in the medium and hard category. The first was familiar to me so I did it without much effort, and gave my time to the hard question. I came to an approach and wrote it and last time during a dry run of sudo code, I made a mistake. I immediately solved it and later I found it was mostly correct except for 1 edge case.  I got selected in round 1 with 20 or 30 more candidates, and the next was an interview. On the day of the interview, I left my home as early as I could, did not tell my parents about the interview, and just prayed to god.
 The instructions in the mail for the interview were distorted and in 2 different places, instructions were not the same or clear. Let me give you one example. It asked me to bring 3 copies of my resume. I got them one day prior. On the day of the interview, my friends told me that we were supposed to bring resumes in colored format on bond paper. I didn't know what the bond paper was. I felt guilty and read the mail once again, and in a different section, this was written. I thought if I went to get it, it might cause a delay and I might miss an interview, but if I didn't, I could be rejected for not obeying the instructions. A few of my friends supported me and I went to take the print. The shop was not opened yet, I waited for a few minutes and a few other candidates also made the same mistake, and met me at the shop. Soon it opened and I got my resume. I rode as fast as I could to get back. I climbed 5 floors as the venue was on the 5th floor. Luckily I made it and the interviewers were late.
After waiting for a couple of hours because of the delay, the interview started, till then I had a discussion with my friends discussed what might been asked, and revised my concepts. My body felt rigid and cold. My heart was beating very fast and I got my turn for the interview. We got into the interview hall allocated to where 2 interview rooms were and I sat with my friend shaking my legs and trying to relax or at least look calm. I had an interview for an hour or so and somewhere I was very confident, I made a mistake and at some point, I was not sure how to answer. In the beginning, I was given a Macbook to write the code and I didn't know the shortcut for copy or pasting I asked the interviewer and solved it successfully. After that, there were questions of oops which I answered wrong, I missed a test case in a Data Structure and algorithm code, and was not sure about my DBMS answer. I thought That I ruined it. 
After the interview, I went to lunch and discussed with my friends about their experience. Then we got back to know the result, waited, and took some selfies on the stairs. During the announcement, my name was on 5 or 6th position, and it was a call for the next round of interviews. A new interview hall and room alloted to me I went in and gave the wrong answer for the very first question. I was thrilled that I was sure but the compiler was showing wrong. The interviewer tried to put pressure on me and I tried to be patient. As I knew it was my last chance, do or die. The data structure question I asked was similar to mine, but under pressure, I made a mistake in approach and then corrected it in a fraction of a second and explained it. The interviewer didn't understand me so I explained him once again. He then gave me a new test case and I made a calculation mistake and then corrected it and solved it correctly. I did it pretty well but I felt fear that it may impassed me. When I got back to my friend I found no one! They had rejected all of my friends and only 4 or 5 of my batchmates were remaining, I came to know by calling a friend. It thrashed me as I found that few bold compotators were no more.
I thanked god and gave my next round of interviews. It was a mixed kind of round and asked me miscellaneous questions firstly I thought that the guy was from a non-technical background but I was wrong. After giving answers to almost all the questions it had ended. After that, only one of my batchmates was remaining and I was talking to him and suddenly he got acknowledgment for rejection. I felt goosebumps as anything could happen and in the list, only 2 candidates were remaining. I talked to a friend of mine and waited for the result of the upcoming round for an interview. I was told that I could leave for home and the unofficial news was that I was selected (I was not sure). I felt sweat and tears while leaving the venue and had no expression on my face. I went home and told truth to my parents that I had gone for an interview and I was having a chance for selection. During the evening all the candidates were interested in knowing what happened and my phone rang rigorously and I had never received this amount of calls in a day, ever. I didn't pick at all because I was not sure about the result.
The next day everyone congratulated me and I told them that I was not sure about the result. I had an amazing experience. A few days later I got an offer for a night shift and remote internship. From my branch, I was the only guy who made it but also I had the lowest grades among all, hence I proved grades are not the single benchmark for a job or success although I coded really as hard as I could during my college days. My happiness was at its highest peak. I went to a restaurant with my parents to celebrate and told to my loved ones and received many calls and messages about receiving congratulations and blessings.