The Barry interview...I'm not sure how it went. There were two interviews, a technical interview and a HR interview. The technical interview went kinda well. I was asked to explain how sea water could be used to generated electricity, so I drew a tidal plant. Then the interviewer said that if he had a small toy car on a black surface and there was a white line running on it, how would I get the car to run only on the white line? This I could answer too. Then came the surprise question. He gave me a big smile and asked " Why are man-hole lids circular in shape?". I thought hard, tried to relate it to area occupied but I said I didnt know it in the end. Other questions were mostly on my project. The interview went on for about 30 minutes. I was offered coffee but I politely refused( I didnt want them to see the cup rattling in my hand from nervousness). 2 minutes into the interview, the interviewer knocks his own cup of coffee over and coffee runs all over the table, drenches my resume and my appraisal form. A stream of coffee rushes towards me, comes right upto the edge of the table and then mercifully stops. The interviewer apologised so profusely, I felt embarassed.

After this, I went down to the reception and ran into my friend Poorni who works over there. I asked her the man-hole lid question. She thought for a while, laughed and said " Man-hole lids are circular because Man-hole's are circular!!!" DUH!!! I went for a technical interivew, not a Poor-Joke interview! I was annoyed!

What I'm really scared of is the HR interview. The lady interviewing me was very friendly and made me feel nice and comfortable. I think she did this to loosen my tongue. She asked me what my hobbies were and I told her about my writing, showed her a Colleger issue. She read the sports article and laughed. The interview went on for close to 35 minutes and mostly only my writing was discussed. When it was over and I rose to leave, she asked " Why not a career in journalism, why software?". So I said I enjoyed writing as a hobby and I would never enjoy it if I had to do it full time. She seemed to accept my explanation and I left. What I'm really scared of is that I might have given the impression that I was not suited for the position. I shouldnt have blabbed about how much I enjoyed writing, should have said I loved to program(white lie, but hey I need a job). She said she'd let me know by monday. Keeping my fingers crossed...