I felt inspired to restart my job search in the new year. I was able to identify my mistakes, which resulted in an impatient boomerang (in hindsight, the company I left within one week is doing well to this day), and devise a strategy.
Once again, the peer impact boosted the employment hunt. Four of the six workers who were left behind in the core tech team began seeking to work together. We assisted ourselves in interview preparation and referred to probable positions whenever someone had any information.
I began interviewing in the middle of February. I applied to several firms, but Nutanix was the first to contact me. My first round was telephonic, which I aced. I was summoned onsite for the next few rounds. I went on a campus tour and had lunch with the plausible team. I had two rounds that day, and both of them went disastrously in my opinion. I was told I was done for the day and asked to go. It’s what happens when they don’t want to face you down. I returned home depressed and unsure of myself!
Anuj called me in the evening to find out more about the interview, but I was in no mood because I was feeling terrible about it, but he persuaded me to drag myself to a nearby coffee shop. My confidence had been absolutely crushed after the interviewer had stepped all over me. While I was telling Anuj about my ordeal in my own words, I kept getting calls from Flipkart HR. I was in no mood to talk to her since I assumed the interview would be another snub. Anuj in his style - “Abe uthao na phone, Kahe aise kar rahe ho?“. HR invited me to come in for a drive the next day over the phone. After the call, Anuj again - “Abe tumse tumahri koi job thodi cheen lega interview me, jaake ao, dekho kya hoga!“. I wasn’t convinced because I had previously failed a Flipkart interview, but I nevertheless got dressed the next day to make a fool of myself (or so I thought).
The following day, in the Flipkart office, it was time for a 2-hour machine coding round. I wasn’t in the mood, but I managed to do the job. By 11 a.m., I was ready to return to my office, but HR requested me to wait for the results. I hung out in the office for a while until I was called in for the code review of the assignment. I explained the reasons behind my approach and the items I couldn’t finish due to time limits - he seemed convinced by my explanation, and I felt good about it. I patiently awaited the results. I advanced to the following round, and it was UI tech’s turn. I enjoy this branch of engineering and excel at it. I had regained my confidence by this point, and then something miraculous happened: I received a call from Nutanix informing me that they wanted to proceed. They were unable to complete the rounds since the panel was not accessible yesterday. I was like, “Wow, wow, wow!” In my mind, I was thinking that if I hadn’t listened to Anuj and hadn’t gone to Flipkart’s interviews because I was nervous about the outcomes of Nutanix’s interviews, which had gone poorly, I would have cursed myself. By this point, I had completed Flipkart’s two rounds and was waiting to be interviewed for a manager’s round. It also went quite well. It was the end of the day at 10:30 p.m., and we were all fatigued. I was amused by my luck as I drove back home. I was overjoyed to have taken Anuj’s suggestion.
I chose to return to Nutanix the following week since I needed to manage my absence from the workplace. The following rounds were rather straightforward, and I met with the director on the same day. It is a good sign that I finished all of the interview rounds successfully, and yes, I received confirmation from HR the next day. Meanwhile, I was waiting for the offer, and I had two rounds with Flipkart that were still outstanding. I dread the DS/Algo questions since I believe I am lacking in them, perhaps because I did not study them in college or because I do not practice them enough…
I celebrated my birthday, traveled to Mumbai for my niece’s birthday, and returned to begin my preparation. I’m not sure how I got a PDF of the top 40 DS/Algo questions, but I just woke up early on the interview day and went through it. I was asked five questions, and I answered four of them correctly. It was an awe-inspiring experience for me! The following stage was the Product sense round, which was unique to Flipkart but is now more often referred to as the System design round. I was in a system design round for the first time in my life, with the most authentic person to take it. It began as an interview but quickly devolved into an argument with an unusual tone. We were arguing in local Hindi, “Yeh karna kyun tha?” “Tum to customer se jooth bol rahe ho apni website pe?” “Mughe nai lagta ki tum samjh rahe ho mere questions ko!” This interview was supposed to last one hour but ended up lasting two. By the end, I realized I had made a mistake - I should have kept my cool!
Nutanix made me an offer, and I negotiated extremely successfully. Following that, I received the Flipkart offer and performed admirably. I thought so, but at Flipkart, I was demoted to ‘UI 1’, which is akin to a Software Engineer, not a Senior. I discussed it with my pseudo-manager and realized that it is easier to advance within the firm than from the outside, so I accepted the offer.
It was time to say goodbye once more. As I already stated, this time was different because my manager, his manager, and his management did not attend my farewell, and the pseudo-manager had already resigned, so it was over quickly. Later that night, Anuj and I went out for drinks. My manager’s parting words have stayed with me because they hurt me.
Flipkart’s onboarding is a two-day event that includes a presentation, laptop distribution, and lunch on the first day, followed by a warehouse tour on the second day. Walmart purchased Flipkart within my first week on the job. For the corporation, nothing changed. Flipkart’s office is massive, colorful, and well-lit from every angle. I liked the ambiance around the establishment. I was initially a member of a sub-team that worked on developing a tool for customer service representatives. Furlenco’s scale was drastically different. I used to own everything around the website at Furlenco, but at Flipkart, my entire team owned a small portion of the website. This was unfamiliar to me. Nobody interfered with anyone’s business because the development was federated.
My organization, CX, which was part of the Fulfilment and Service Group, was in charge of Flipkart’s post-order flow. On Android, iOS, and the website, it includes My Orders, Order Details, Order Confirmation, and a Helpcenter section. It appeared insignificant in comparison to my obligations at Furlenco, but it was overwhelming. I swiftly progressed from agent dashboard development to customer-facing development.
Flipkart’s Big Billion Days (BBD) began just before Diwali began, making these days particularly significant. Participating in BBD sales is an extraordinary opportunity. Each member of the organization was assigned a 12-hour shift to work at the office on a specific day. Team-based games like poker and company-wide ones like dancing to the DJ got everyone involved and kept morale up. Lighting and little tuck shops would be set up all over the office, making it feel like a college party. The sale date’s midnight opening was especially important because it was a time-sensitive window for Mobiles and other Electronics. When the clock strikes twelve and the amount of orders coming in per second is projected on the projector, it is exhilarating to witness more than 300 individuals in one room roaring with excitement. The highest order rate I’ve seen is 2,600 per second, and even that rate slowed to a crawl after 7 or 8 seconds.
I was at the office most of the time during the week. After work, most things stay the same, except that Karan moved back to Pune. I would walk around Koramangala on the weekends to keep myself busy. I would also sit in a cafe or pub and work, which wasn’t much different from what I did at home except that I was drinking coffee or beer.
I took my health a little more seriously now that I had so much time on my hands. I could only go to the gym every day, work hard on the tools, and move the weight. It wasn’t the best, but it was done in good faith.
After the BBD sale, office work starts to slow down, and it’s party time. I was not going to miss going home for Diwali this year. I liked being home for two weeks.
This year, Harshil came back to Bengaluru to see me, and we spent New Year’s Eve together. I was getting pretty good at BBQing by this time. The motto of life was “Good friends and good whisky.”