This is my first ever blog drafted sitting in office.
As most of you might know that I have been doing well being on bench from quite sometime. But it lasted not very long since I got identified for a new project as a production support engineer. Don’t worry, I still have to sit on a chair for hours in front of my desktop, browsing almost all known websites and making calls once only in every 15 minutes. As far as I am concern it is just project name that is getting changed. So, for this not so very exciting opportunity I had to nod my head in acceptance, which I did, and I was asked to check out for some of the areas to justify this role.
Accordingly, I got an email from my so called new PM in detail about this particular role to which I hopefully deserve or vice-versa (:P). It said a lot about pre-requisite skill that I have to be equipped with before appearing for a client interview and getting into this role; SQL Server 2005, CRM, Active Directory, Accounting, DTS, etc to name some of the listed in the email. For me, the only good aspect from this project is the onsite opportunity. Yes, it says, I shall be in ‘US’ onsite for about 7 weeks to learn and get practiced with client applications. Onsite opportunity did boost my interest to do well in the interview. So, I started my preparation for the client interview from the same day onwards.
I was digging in the websites, gathered information from friends & colleagues and did what not, took bulk of printouts to carry home as homework (as if I have no other work but to read those). PM came and was so cheerful to inform me that, I shall have my interview today in the evening. I was of mixed feelings inside then, because 3 full days were given and were proved not to be sufficient to gain atleast a fistful of confidence on those topics. I felt, I wish this interview gets postponed or may be they don’t interview at all (:P). Fortunately, I got a day more to prepare well for the interview because of the interviewers unavailability for that day. I pushed myself hard that day to cover every topic mentioned in the email and to uncover answers for their any question that may arise. I was well prepared with the spectacular deliveries of the answers to the predicted questions.
PM asked me to follow him towards one of the not-so-good conference room which we have. He dialed the number and then there went the ring to the counter people. He introduced me to the people on the other side and left the conference room. Then there were some moments which made me realize the meaning of "Pin drop silence".
I took a deep breath and finally broke the ice and started giving my introduction.
Q: how do I say your name? Is it sakkvear?
A: well, it’s Sukhveer.
Q: oh sukhvear
A: sukh veer, to be precise :)
Q: ok, sukhvear
A: I had no option but to say "that’s correct." :(
Q: How much do you rate yourself in SQL SERVER from 1 to 10, 10 being the best.
A: Somewhere between 8 to 9, I said (I asked myself ...computer provided or on the paper? If its given computer then I shall exceed 10 (:P))
Likewise there were so many generic questions asked. But I was waiting for my chance to answer much sophisticated question on topics like SQL Server Reporting services, Integrated services, Active directory usage, Business process, DTS implementation, etc.. That 1 extra day has really given a big chance to prepare well, I thought. But in the whole conversation there was not any single question asked which tallied my predictable questions. That obviously means I had nothing like spectacular deliveries of the answers to offer.
In fact I was taken aback by some simple questions and some of them are as follows:
Q: What actually is Business Intelligence?
A: (What the hell..!!!) It has everything to do with data. Maintaining data and using it as information for better predictions and analysis.
Q: Ok. And?
A: Well, Business Intelligence is nothing but a modern term for a Data warehousing (:D :D)
Q: Ok, Ok.
A: Yeah! (Oh lord, narrow escape)
Q: What actually do you expect out of a Stored procedure?
A: (this question made me realize how far is 'US' from India (:P)) I somehow managed to answer this too. I said, Stored procedure mechanism is such that it prompts user to give inputs and using which it does some logical manipulation at the backend and after processing it, it has a resultset of the data as an output.
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-also their accents/slang was of worth mentioning. Listening to them I learnt yet another lesson that listening skills are of equally importance to any other skills. But not to forget how it did concluded. They said, "Ok, sukhvear, hopefully we’ll see you in US!!". To which I responded in a very modest way saying "I shall be delighted !!". There were good laughs at both the sides after those words of mine and finally the call was dropped.
These were the glimpses of my client interview.
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