Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Rewind'2007 - Tribute to 5yrs of service @SAP Labs

30th March'2007

Around 10:00am
Voice: Hello, Is this Arpit?
Arpit: Yes, may I know who is speaking?
Voice: Hello, I am Om Band from SAP Labs and have received your CV for post for Developer.
Arpit: Yeah. I had applied through consultant company and they had informed me about probable interview...
...continued my interview with Manager from SAP Labs. For me it was a strange as he asked almost nothing technical, difficult as I was giving first interview in 2yrs, since I have joined Infosys and upto some extent relieved that every question he asked me about the project I have been working for the past few months.
At the end of the call, I was informed to wait for response from the Management team. 

Around 1:00pm
"Let us go and watch a movie", I asked my friend over the phone.
"What happened to your interview?", questioned my friend. 
"The phone call went fine. Now the management will call...all I can do is wait. Still if we hurry up, we can watch the 300 movie show @ 3.", I replied... 
...and our batter continued till we agreed to meet @Symphony theater. The conversation was really in North Indian Hindi, most of which varied from where to eat and which of the friends in college who were couple are no longer together!!!
   
Same day around ~6pm
"Hey keep the phone with you and in case it rings, let me know while I drive." I asked my friend, while I dropped him to his house. 
"Yeah, sure! Hoping you get that call", replied my friend.
...20mins later, at Jewels D'Paragon traffic signal, as we crossed towards the mink square, the phone rang...
Arpit: Hello?
Voice: Hi, I am Ms.xxx speaking from SAP Labs from the HR Recruiting team. We have selected you for the face-to-face interview. Would you be able to come for the interview tomorrow?
Arpit: I am working in graveyard shift in Infosys, so it will be hard for me to come tomorrow, can I come on Saturday, 2nd April?    
Voice: That is fine. Please make sure you are here by 9am? 
...and so the conversation was over and I was so much excited for the call from SAP Labs. For the reason I don't find import to share, I had to change from Infosys! This was the first company I had applied and was still thinking whether to apply anywhere else. I got the call and was exited. 

2nd April'2007
...The interview happened in three stages. Two technical and one HR round. The first interview was taken by a lead (who name I have forgotten sadly). I was happy with the first interview, because the experience in Infosys not only helped, but one of the technical problem which we faced in our 'Kraft Procurement System' was asked to me during the interview! 
The second round was again by Om Band (yes the same person who took the tele-interview). He came up with the standard Manager-asking-technical-question. What is difference between so-and-so? What has higher performance? etc etc
The fun-bee was the manager round by Abhishek. After the general questions about what he thought of me (read between lines: Am I insane enough? Or insane overboard) I was asked to told my three good and bad things. I had already prepared five (even though some of them weren't completely true). The last part was funny though, when asked if I had any questions, I asked tongue-in-cheek, "What is the dress code in SAP Labs?". As coming from Infosys, which keeps it's developer in FULL FORMALS for 4 days a week (including 2 days with Tie), it was more out of curosity. Abhishek replied, "Yeah there is a dress code - Please wear something and come."...took me a little 5-6secs to really react to it.

9th May'2007
...First day in SAP Labs...Scared & Relaxed at the same time! Mostly spend the day loitering in the campus and learning about the policy. Induction was on the way and we were taken to 'Palm Meadows' for the beginning of our journey!

9th May'2012
...Beginning of the 6th Year in SAP Labs. Entered office with my regular time of 9ish am. Got occupied immediately, fire-fighting the same way as for the last 5yrs. Left late in the evening...seeing the changes that has happened in Labs and in my life, I walked to the back gate, where my wife came to pick me up! Life has changed, we have grown old! 

Time Flew!    

No comments: