I see a STD phone booth right across the road. I cross the busy road and get to the phone booth. There are a few people waiting to make calls. I wait in line for my turn to come.
Let me rewind the clock a bit.
I have been trying to get a foot in in the software development field. With my background in Civil Engineering, it’s been a difficult journey. Those days IT companies preferred Electrical or Computer Science engineers. Being a Civil Engineer it has been hard to get a call for an interview let alone getting a job.
The year is 1995. After much trying, I have accepted a job at a IBM training center in New Delhi. My job is to teach students software development on a certain platform. My salary is around 4000 INR/month. But my actual take home pay is even less. I live in a sublet. In Delhi, Govt employees rent out a room of their subsidized 2/3 room govt housing to make some extra money. That kind of a rental room is called a sublet there. You get one room, the landlord’s family lives in the rest of the house. There is one common bathroom that you share with the family. You have little privacy. Rain or shine you always go out to eat as you don’t have a kitchen to cook in. I hate this living arrangement, but with my salary that’s what I can afford in an expensive place like Delhi.
I get word that a software company is looking for programmers. Those days private agents used to work with companies to fill vacancies. The agents would run ads in newspapers, gather applications, shortlist them and send them to the hiring companies for job interviews. If someone they send gets hired the agent gets paid. If no one gets hired, the agent gets nothing. So it’s in their best interest that they send the right candidates for interviews.
I call the agent who is dealing with this company. I am desperate to get a software job. I tell the agent, if he can arrange an interview for me, I guarantee that I will get hired. I teach students who later go on to become software developers. In an interview, there is nothing that I can get asked that I won’t be able to answer. The agent laughs at my overconfidence but says he will get me an interview and he does.
I go to NOIDA for my job interview. The hiring manager is out of town. So I get interviewed by a senior programmer who reports to the hiring manager. After a few days I get a call from the agent that the hiring manager wants to do a 2nd round of interview. I go to their office again. I am told that the manager is in Hyderabad and he will call soon to do the interview over phone. At that time their brand new office is still being set up. I am given a chair right next to the receptionist in the lobby and asked to wait for his call. I have my interview in the lobby, out in the open, while everyone is walking by, asking questions to the receptionist. The interview lasts for about 30 minutes. Then someone tells me to go into a room and wait.
A gentleman with a paper in hand enters the room and asks me what my current salary is. I say 4000/month. The paper he is holding is my offer letter but I don’t know that yet. He says if they offer me 10,000, will I join. I am overjoyed. Not only am I getting into software development, I am also getting a big raise. I think for a moment. Gathering all the courage, I say I want 12,000/mo. He shows me the offer letter and says this one has a 10,000 offer.. Let me print you a new one, don’t leave without taking your offer letter.
After a while I step out of the office with an offer letter in my hand. I need to call my Dad to tell him that my struggling days are behind me now. This call has been long overdue. I imagine my Dad waiting by the phone to get this call. There are a few people still in line in front of me. It feels like I have been standing in this line and waiting for my turn to come for years when others have been passing me by. I can’t wait any more. Every minute I stand there waiting feels like ages.
