eSign Presentation for HR Later

Originally answered - Shilpi Roy's answer to Should I choose signNow or Goldman Sachs (India)?The answer is gonna be really long. Grab some snacks as it could take a while.I was the happiest person the day I was selected as a FTE (tech analyst position) at GS - a reputed fin-tech company which mostly hires tier-1 students, a dream for many. I heard from many people that GS offers package as high as 32lpa which was quite a big deal for me - or for anyone who might have been at my place.Then came the HR’s call. She offered me semester long internship in GS! I was glad that I don’t have to spend my last semester in college and will also earn some money. With the stipend as high as 75k and stay at Hilton hotel during intern, anybody is likely to go crazy and say “YES”.And so I did.The beginning (GS-Bengaluru office)Soon came 7th January. Day started off with amazing orientation and office visit. Then came the lunch buddy - GS assigns a buddy from your department to have lunch with you the day you join, let’s say he was Raghav (name changed).Raghav seemed to be a really smart guy. I asked him a few questions about GS being a fin-tech, is it easy to switch and other questions. He seemed to be out of place, not interested. A guy came who was an intern in a team in which Raghav used to work. He kept talking and giggling with him, completely ignoring my presence. Cool, maybe Raghav is a bad guy - who cares?Met with my manager and two other interns who were in the same department - GIR. He seemed like a chilled-out and thoughtful person. Let’s call him Rudra.Our whole department used to sit in a middle sized cabin which accommodated around 32–35 employees of GIR. My happiness knew no bounds! Great team, small cabin and friendly manager - what else could I ask for?Then came the next day. We were introduced to our team and had a lunch together. Oh no! Lunch here was not free - no big deal. Only 80rs/- per plate is affordable when you earn 75k per month, I thought.After having lunch, we began installing softwares required. Wait, you can’t install some softwares without manager’s permission. Fine! I messaged my manager and he granted the permission. He came later in the evening and gave 3 of us an interesting machine learning problem to solve - in a week, till we get our projects.He had three projects in mind, and he left it for us to decide which one we want to take. I took the one which I thought was more impactful and cool, also because we had a member of our team working for the project. My task was to integrate the backend stuff he wrote with the UI I was going to create. Also to help him with some of those backend stuffs later on.“You can take help from Varun, in case you need” said Rudra.So it began!1st MonthI started learning React.js for the UI I was going to implement from various websites. There were tons of tutorial there. After understanding some theory, I clicked on ‘try it on codepen’ - online editor.“You are restricted from using an external website - no permissions”What? I can’t even use some online editor. Okay that’s fine - we have pretty sensitive data in GS. Since it’s a finance based company, we have client data with us and user may copy and paste it online - someone might steal the data! All this made sense. ‘It’s fine, I’ll bring my own laptop tommorow’, I thought before leaving.I could see two teammates standing behind me from my peripheral vision. One who was writing the backend stuff for the project I was working upon, let’s call him Varun.Varun was a silent and sober guy - a hardworking one who speaks only when required. Another guy standing beside him was Raghav.“Hey!” I said in a low tone.“Did I do some crime? Why are these two here?” I wondered.“You brought your personal laptop, is everything fine here?” they asked.I told them about the restrictions. Raghav took my work PC and sent Rudra, my manager a request to approve codepen.I waited. One hour. Two hours. Codepen still not working. Fine for me since I have my own laptop. No worries.After 2 weeks Varun called me and started assigning tasks to do for the UI. I was full of enthusiasm and paid full attention to what he wanted. I started looking out for the cool libraries out there and found - material-ui.‘Perfect!’ I exclaimed.Started with the tasks, and was able to achieve the target next evening. It looked damn good! Varun will be happy. And so, I showed it to him.“Okay, font-size is a bit huge. And please change the app’s name - ELEGANT USER’S APP” (name changed). And so I did.“E-L-E-G-E-N-T U-S-E-R—S A-P-P”What a funny name, I thought. (The real one was funnier than the changed one)So days went, 1..2…3 and I completed 5–6 tasks. The basic UI (20%) was done. Then came Varun -“Shilpi, you did this using which library?”“Material-ui! It’s really good and..”“Okay, but make sure you can use it. Only specific libraries can be used at GS. Search xyz site and ensure if we can use it. If yes, proceed. Else use GS UI library”What did he just say. I worked on the UI for 2 weeks, and he is telling me now that I may not be able to use the material-ui library! No way..With my heart beating fast, I typed..X..Y….Z …..gs..comCtrl+F“M-A——T-E—-R—I—A”Boom! It’s there. I was delighted :)The next day I was late. I saw a message pop up. It was from Raghav.“Hey” it said.“Hey” I replied.“Please try to attend the daily standup. If you don’t, mail Rudra about your update :)” He replied.There hasn’t been a single day I was late. But okay, FINE.Then came the 5th day - friday. I got a message from Varun.‘Hi Shilpi, can you make another UI using GS-UI?’Oh No!. Again?.‘Just for the feel…we’ll show it to Rudra next week, he’ll choose which one we can use’*Slow Claps*Well played Varun. Why did he approve the material-ui one if he wanted it in GS-UI - I wondered.It’s fine, I can do it. I encouraged myself and went to the internal site - gs-ui-library. (name changed)Okay, fine. This looks good. Okay. Cool. Documentation.. documentation….uhmm.I searched for the whole day, no documentation. Just few codes and examples to understand how to display some component.Way uglier than material-ui - I thought. And a minute later, an evil idea came to my mind..“What if I make the UI using gs-ui-library so ugly that Rudra and Varun both reject! That would be great!”The next week on friday, I was done with gs-ui-library. My code was asked to be removed from codesandbox by Varun - it’s illegal to put GS’s internal code there. I could hear Rudra laughing about how he is afraid of the interns bringing personal laptops here, and what will happen if someone names a variable as “GIR” and put it on github.I showed Rudra the material-ui one. He was impressed.“This looks good! But don’t keep the name as ‘ ELEGANT USERS APP’, instead keep it as ‘THE USERS SEARCH APP’ ” (name changed)“But Rudra, Varun has asked me to..”“I will ask him. We will decide and tell you”Fine. Keep the name as ‘The bla-bla app’. I don’t care.Varun was already gone by the time.I smirked. I won’t show the UI I made using gs-ui-library to Rudra!Next day Varun was on my desk. He asked whether I showed both the UI’s.“No, actually I forgot to show the other..”“See, the people above us will probably ask why we didn’t use GS-UI. That’s why I am saying so. I have no problem with material-ui. Just ask Rudra if he is fine with it. Rudra…”“Yes, Varun” replied Rudra.And then he showed both the UI’s to him. The ugly one. The good one.“I think it looks great - the ‘gs-ui-library’ one!” Rudra exclaimed.I shouted in my mind - “How can he..!”“See Shilpi, we don’t have any problem using material-ui one but the people for whom we are making the app will ask why we didn’t use the internal-gs library. Okay, tell me one thing - it does have all the components you require, right?”“Yes, Rudra” I sighed.“Seems like Shilpi wanted to use material-ui, haha” Rudra giggled and looked at Varun. I could hear the giggling from one if the two interns from behind - Tejas (name changed).He was also working on a UI, along with some backend stuff. He was using ‘gs-ui-library’ from day one. And so, he giggled.Rudra -1 .. Shilpi - 0This was the first time I went home feeling sad. Why didn’t they tell me 2 weeks ago? Now I will have to work on the other one. And the library has no documentation.Next week , Varun decided to keep the name as “ELEGENT-USERS-APP”. He refused Rudra.Varun -1.. Rudra- 0So I went back to my desk and began.“g-s-u-i-l-i-b-r-a-r-y” I typed.Gs-ui-library was a really terrible library. No documentation, made by mixture of other available libraries online. It was like an accidental product of some cross-breeding. A scientific failure.Anyways, I somehow learnt basic features which I could implement using the library. On the other hand, my machine was damn slow - for a reason I didn’t know.“Why are you using vs code? How did you get it!” asked Rudra who saw me coding on vscode.“I like it- it’s really good for react. Installed it from the store.”“Haha, use intellij, okay!” Rudra said in a serious tone.Wow. After making me work with the gs-ui-library, now he is snatching away the editor I love. Cool.I still continued with vs code. Varun was totally fine with it.I went to drink a glass of water. Didn’t bring my bottle that day. So took a ‘visitor’s cup’ from inside the drawers.“Ma’am, you can’t drink in that. It’s only for visitors” said a staff guy who saw that I was about to drink water from the visitor’s cup.I looked at him in shock.“Oh, it’s ok for today you can use it..Ma’am” he replied.Great. Block websites - facebook, gmail, codepen. Take my material-ui away. Don’t allow me to use vs-code. And also, don’t let me drink water at peace!I was pissed off. Huh!2nd MonthSo I started working on the integration part. Meanwhile we used to have meetings in which we were told about GIR and it’s functions. Rudra used to tell us about how fun the NAPA training is going to be, and how we will start hiding our id cards after the event.I completed the integration part in a week or so. Gave a weekly demo to Rudra.Next week was going to be a demo with Monica’s team (name changed). The finance guys for whom we were building the ‘ELEGANT USERS APP’. Varun was happy that I had completed the integration part and added 2 more features to implement.- feature1 & feature2Before the demo, we had a meeting with Monica just a week before. Rudra, Varun and I gathered in a room.“So Shilpi, how’s the work going? Are you liking it - the UI stuff? Aren’t you bored?” Rudra asked.“Hehe.. Actually yeah it’s a little boring. I hope backend stuff starts soon!” I honestly replied.“You know UI people make the most money.” Rudra smirked.“No, that’s a lie. Backend people make more money.” I replied.“Shilpi, that’s the case of technical firms. In financial firms like us, UI people earn more bonus.” said Varun.Soon came Monica. Varun and Monica proceeded on what she wants and what actually we have. It was a debate between them and I listened.Since the lunch time was over, Rudra and I went to the food-court outside to have one.“Shilpi, you know I was like you. The silent guy in the room. If someone else was at your place he would have asked a lot of questions! ”“I think it’s better to listen Rudra, than argue. I didn’t have much idea about what they were talking and the talk was mostly concerning Varun.”“See..it’s good very good. But to be at a place like GS…you know! The world is very mean, Shilpi. You need to speak more than you do work here! Many people don’t know much but they’ll get ahead of you because they speak. I was like you when I joined GS. In the group discussion round, when everyone was debating.. I just sat at the corner. HR came and asked each of us individually. If she hadn’t done that, I mayn’t be sitting here today”I gave it some thought. He was right.Some days later feature1 stopped working. I had no idea why, I was using an excellent library for feature1, of-course an external one. Varun himself has asked me to use an external for that case since we don’t have a gs library for that.But now. It wasn’t working.It took me a week to include the library - react-bootstrap-table2 with the project along with the features it had, and use it. And some magic happened. Now feature1 stops working. Damn!I woke up the whole night - till 4 am to make the feature1 work. The remote desktop worked very slow. In GS, we are not given laptops for security purposes. So we have to use remote desktop.It was damn slow but I was patient. I kept on trying and trying till I fell asleep early in the morning. Woke up around 12.An hour before demo with Monica’s team, I told Varun about it. He said it’s fine, we will show the demo without it.Tik…tikk….I wasn’t satisfied. I worked damn hard for 45 min and was able to make feature1 work!We went to give the demo. Varun pulled out a chair and sat before a PC.“Hi Monica!”“Hey Varun!”And so it started. The demo. The UI I made. The features I implemented. The integration. My two month’s hard work.All of them was presented by our VP, Mr.Varun!“Uhm…but we don’t need feature 1 and 2, Varun. You can remove it” said Monica.W-H-A-T! What did she just say. I went an hour back in time.I am sweating. I can feel I am nervous. This has to go good. I know well about the project, and I will make the feature-1 work! I will!Yes, I did. Only to lose the presentation as well as the feature.I rushed out of the room with the unhappy face which no one bothered about in the meeting room. I was silent and in hurry, it was weekly demo too today.“Haashh.. It went great!” exclaimed Varun who barely ever talked to me. Since like 1962!“Okay, but we have a weekly demo too!”The weekly demo got cancelled. Varun proceeded to tell me how we don’t need feature-1 and all the new features which Monica wanted. I remembered them all. One of them was a feature-X which was not possible technically. I tried making Varun understand and he did, after quite a while.Then came the mid-semester exam and I finally got a break!3rd MonthI went to my home after holidays. After 2 months, 1,40,000 was credited to my account. I bought clothes for mom and dad. I was delighted and ready to go back!Came back to office happily. Compiled the code.React-bootstrap-table2 library code - gone. Whole UI code changed in a week. My 2 week’s effort - 1 week for the library and 2 nd for other features went to ashes.Just in ONE SINGLE WEEK.~Varun committed the code 2 hours ago~~Varun committed the code yesterday~~Varun….~And so on.Varun started using an internal gs-ui-library library instead of react-bootstrap-table2. Instead of giving proper review comments, he changed my code by himself. Some backend stuff also came to me.I fetched the code from repo, the one Varun had implemented. And tried to understand.“You just have to implement feature-b-xyz, no need to go through whole code” he said.Fine.I added a new feature. Compiled and checked. Everything was working fine. Committed the code.Next day I came. Compiled the code.‘EXCEPTION THROWN’‘FAILED’And my PC hangs. For no reason why.I checked the code - it was changed. The integration part was changed. Feature XYZ was changed. And it stopped working.~Varun committed the code an hour ago~Why did he commit a code that fails? I wondered.This started happening daily. I had no idea why was this happening.The next series of days started with me coming late - 11:50, 12 or later than that. I used to mail Rudra about the update. Sometimes I was able to attend standup, sometime I wasn’t able to. My health started deteriorating.Everyday, Varun used to commit some changes. And it took a hell lot of time to update the project in intellij, go through his changes and do other changes. I was pretty much frustrated.Took 2 wfhs in 2 weeks. Logged in late many times. Had to push myself from bed everyday. Devoted my time to video games than gs work. Lost interest.Then I was given some backend part. I took WFH a day I wasn’t feeling well and learnt about apis stuff. Still some part of me wanted to do well and take interest in the work genuinely.We - all 3 interns received a mail from Rudra which we could never forget. Rudra had showed his ‘Rudra’ roop. The mail said -“You guys are not taking the work seriously. WFHs are not to be taken for granted. So many WFHs and late loggings. Not at all serious about your work. You guys need to have deliverables by the end of this month.I don’t care, work for your career not mine.”I was shocked. The friendly, giggling Rudra! I remembered the first time I met him. And the mail was quite a shock to all of us.Late loggings were targeted at me.WFHs for another one.But… Tejas? What did he do?As far as I remember, he was a hard working guy. Always on time. Never missed a standup. What did he do to receive the mail?Days after that, Varun took four wfhs in a row. Rudra was quiet. Nisha only came like twice in a week, Rudra said nothing.Why us? Why the interns? I wondered.One day I stayed at office till 8pm. I could hear Rudra talking about ‘The Elegant User’s App’ over a phone call.“We are building it again since the last UI was in angular. We wanted it in React.” he said to somebody over the call.Throughout my whole intern, I had one doubt in my mind.The app on which I was working upon was already built by someone and was functional too. But my manager wanted it to be built again since he wanted us to use a new technology.What’s the difference even if angular was used? What’s the need of rebuilding the app again from scratch? I wondered.And the next words I heard shattered me.“Yeah, Varun is working with some intern on ‘The Elegant User’s App’.”What did he say?The last two months were fully devoted to the UI. I went back in time.“Shilpi, if you want any help - Varun would be able to for this project.I was made to believe that it was an independent project, which it never was. I worked my ass off for three months only to hear that I am ‘some intern’ working under Varun and helping him building the UI.I got depressed.It was Holi’s festival - the festival of colours. I never really celebrated holi, hated to be coloured all over. We had a group for our department, and I wished everyone a “Happy Holi!”.Tejas replied with a “Happy holi” too.“Happy Forest Day” - stated an image I received on whatsapp. It was from Rudra. On the whatsapp group. This was his reply for “Happy Holi”.It's okay, don't respect our festival. But atleast don't disrespect it. Why was there even a need for reply?Needless to say, I didn’t go to office that day as sign of rebel (we didn’t have holiday on holi). Varun was already doing WFH. The “Happy Forest Day” frustrated me.Why Rudra why. You are better than that.“Niharika (name changed) is leaving GS” somebody whispered.Niharika, a very smart lady was in our department. She was mentoring an intern and sounded quite knowledgeable. Her sudden decision of leaving GS came as a shock to everyone.I had a last chat with her only when everyone was away for lunch. She had refused her farewell too I guess. She came to me and we had a decent chat. I asked her the reason of leaving. She wanted to switch the team maybe but it was taking a long time. Sweet and smart is all I could say for her. She had done work with JPMC & Morgan Stanley (US) and held a green card. A dedicated worker.After the lunch, she had a long meeting with Rudra. She was too firm with her decision.After she left, someone told me she bitched about many people in the team - specially Rudra. I was really sad. GS lost a good employee that day. And maybe, due to politics.Next day, GS was having an orientation for all new campus hires. It was one hell of a day. World-class hotel stay and world-class orientation.Varun was going out to the new office for 2 weeks. For some work.4th monthBefore Varun had left for the new office, he had asked me to attend telephonic standups for our team from 3–3:30. Now I used to attend 2 standups - the department one, and the team one. Full time waste activities!He had also asked me to get details of a task from Raghav and get it completed. I messaged him and he said he will be there at my desk in 5 min. Well, he never came. I asked him 2–3 times more to which he sent me a random link. I was disheartened and had nothing to do for 2 weeks.One day Rudra called me to fix some errors which he wasn’t able to fix by himself. He said he spent the whole night trying to fix those but didn’t know how to.I came to his desk. Those were linting errors!After having 10 years of experience, and you don’t even know what they are! Even if you know, please try to google. He was not getting what those line numbers represent. I explained him everything and fixed those.Soon, we got mails from hr regarding our joining dates and NAPA training, which is held in New York. I told the HR about my case, that I have courses left in college and I won’t be able to join on 3rd june.“Can I go to the training and join later after 12th july - when my courses are done” I asked.“No, you need to join as FTE. We will process your visa in june and you’ll go during july first week”“Okay” I replied.“Try to make your college understand, it’s important” is all she said.Next day, I refused. My college will never agree for me to take 2 week vacation during summer term.Rudra received a call from HR. I knew it was regarding me.He took me outside the cabin and asked why did I opted out of NAPA training. I told him everything - how my degree would be affected. He was ready to give WFH for 2 months. I was shocked. Again.Rudra was the most unpredictable mysterious guy I ever met. He was good and bad, at the same time. 2 months is a long time - and he agreed to give me WFH! He earned my respect.Then there was second meeting with Rudra. He told me everything - the work I’ll do as an FTE. Also, he never left a single moment he could get to brag about himself.“You will be working under Varun. He will be the team lead. Your work is XYZ-AHSH-PPOS…..”“Be as mature as me. I can make complex things simple easily. Learn it from me.” he said.Varun. No!!The silent guy. Who took away all the presentations. Even during our team standups over calls, he used to answer when some guy asked me about the project. My code was changed everyday. All the torture I faced last month. And now- I’ll be working under him. Wow.I told Rudra - how my code was changed everyday, how I was not told about the changes Varun did in the backend and still expected my code would run successfully. He listened to me for a while and then said -“When I was a NAPA, I used to ensure that I get 0 review comments”“I don’t get review comments, Rudra. My code gets changed, and it’s hard to understand it everyday without help of Varun.”“It’s a good thing, right? You will learn something from what the change he does. It’s good for you.”Cool. I have to look at the new code and somehow “learn without doing”. Interesting.I worked till 9 pm that day. Before Rudra left, he smiled at me sarcastically.“Shilpi, still working?”“Yeah Rudra, I came little late today.”“Varun changing your code and you changing his code.!”“Yes. That’s what is happening.”And then, he laughed maniacally.This was not the first time he did this. He used to laugh at me sarcastically many times after giving me the UI project.Next week, Varun was here. My virtual desktop was not working and I had no idea why. Called help-desk 5 times that day.“REBOOT!”“TRY IT FROM A DIFFERENT MACHINE!”“IT SHOWS ‘AVAILABLE’ ON MY MACHINE!”was all the response I got from 5 different help-desk-assistants.Took a day off the next day. Saw a mail. Varun had given presentation to our MD that day. UI presentation, which was supposed to be given by me.Next week, same schedule. Help-desk people failed miserably.I tried remote desktop and was able to open my outlook. My inbox was full of -“DISK CAPACITY OVER 95%! CLEAN IT!”I got it. But in order to clean it, I had to login to the virtual computer which I wasn’t able to. It was a deadlock.Soon I was assigned a new virtual computer. My whole local setup - was erased.My whole enthusiasm had turned to ashes at that point. Came late, went early. Stopped attending stand-ups. Late Loggings. WFHs. OOO. No updates. No weekly updates. Nothing to do next since Raghav didn’t help. Frustrated as hell.Our department was hiring more and more people. I had nowhere to sit. No one to talk to.The only friend I had in bengaluru left 2 weeks ago.Please note that I’ve nothing against GS. The management there is really good, they care about their employees. I don’t think any company could’ve given me 2 months WFH and I do respect Rudra a lot for that!The experience may vary from person to person, someone may find GS a very good place, based on the traits he/she has or the team he is working with. But for a shy person like me, who loves to code sitting at the corner of the room - GS is not the place. It was me who was not able to adapt to the culture there.This answer was written by me when I was still an intern. I had no idea what this could do to my life.Next day after I wrote this, I was called by the Head HR of Employee Relations in GS - Devika. I thought she had called me in order to discuss why am I choosing signNow over Goldman but this wasn’t the case.“I read your answer on Quora about Goldman..”“I’ll remove it!” I replied with the speed of light.“No..I don’t want you to take it down, Just tell me the issues you had”And she pretended to listen. Both of us knew why she called me here - to take the answer down.“See, these days many people are on social media and it is affecting how people see us. Probably, some interns wouldn’t want to work with us after reading the answer. Therefore I want you to remove it”“Also, please remember this meeting is confidential. DO NOT tell anyone from your team about it!” she said just before I left.And that was it. I deleted this answer.I saw Rudra’s text on my whatsapp. He asked whether I have a desk to sit, and when will I signNow on my desk. I knew something was fishy since he never ever bothered about.I finished the work and went home.The next day, I woke up to 10 calls from the HR and lots of messages. I asked what happened.I told her I have already deleted the answer, but there was something else. I wasn’t able to login from home. My remote desktop was taken away from me and I had no idea why.And then, came Monday.13th May 2019The day started off with my phone full of Devika’s texts. She insisted that I directly come to the meeting room first instead of going to the GIR cabin.I went to her cabin where she was sitting. And soon the harassment started.“What was your motive behind putting such kind of answers on quora, tell me what was in your mind”“I am sorry, Devika. I’ve already taken them down.”“Didn’t you knew about the firm’s policy? You knew it very well right? Still you put the experience on Quora?”“I was frustrated. So much that it didn’t occur to me at that time. But yes, I knew it.”She wrote it down on a paper.“You put it on social media, and don’t expect your manager to read it? Wake up! Everyone in your dept knows what you did okay! You are always saying that ‘don’t inform my manager about it’.. you know what, infact Rudra only informed us about this. He was the one who forwarded the answer.”I sighed. He knew about it the whole time. Still acted as friendly on thursday.“You can take action against me if you want to. I can’t say anything else.”“We are a very big firm. Many people are there writing these kind of negative - one sided answers. We don’t care”If she didn’t care, why was I sitting here?“I have talked to both Rudra and Varun. Now I know about their perspectives too. Did you inform your manager that you were on leave? No, you didn’t.”“Yes, I was really depressed and woke up at 5 eve..”“You were completely one-sided in your answer. Such a judgemental answer it was! You never wrote what you did!” she exclaimed.“Devika, I did. I wrote I was depressed and was late for standups. I wrote that I took WFH and..”“That was completely in another way!” she interrupted.And then she gave me a tough look.“I have tracked down your whole information, when do you come and leave, wfh etc. I don’t think it’s too much. You were also 1 hour late on the GS event, I heard”I wasn’t. What was she saying?“No, I was a minute late. You can ask my friend who was sitting there.”“Also, you were absent on 4 presentations Varun gave, right?”I was shocked. What did she just say? I was present in 3 of them, I remembered. Now I felt something was really wrong. Varun probably gave her false information about me.“No, I was there for 3 of them” I replied in a low voice.“And you weren’t allowed to give?” She raised her eyebrows.“I didn’t ask him, neither did he offer.. he just took the chair and..Did Varun said I was absent? I wasn’t!” I defended myself.“Oh yes you weren’t, I know. When did I say you were absent? You are just misunderstanding me” she replied and wrote down some points.And now she started lying too about things she said earlier! I was shocked to the core.“They said bad things about me, didn’t they.” I asked.“No, infact they praised you for technical aspects. ‘She did all her tasks which we assigned.’ ‘Used to find solutions of the problem till the very end.’” she read it from the paper she had.But what about the other aspects? I was sure they had said something worse about me. I wondered what was that except me coming late.“GS-UI-LIBRARY!!” she exclaimed.“This is what you wrote about the library. Seriously!”I looked down. I couldn’t say anything except sorry.“Rudra even let you choose jersey for cricket match, didn’t he?”“Yes he did.” I sighed.“What you think what made your experience bad? Was it yourself? Why put it on social media, and didn’t contact us. What about the HCM?”I was late and silent. The only faults.“Does anybody in your team knows about it?” she asked hoping that nobody knows.“No, just me and the interns.” I replied.“And what did you write? Niharika left because of politics..? Did you talk to her? Who told you?” she almost shouted.“I got to know that from a teammate.” I replied in low tone.“So you will put anything you hear on social media??” she tried to overpower me.“If I were your signNow HR and I read this answer on Quora.. you know I’d have..” Devika scolded in a rude tone.She would have taken my offer back. That’s what she meant.“I have already deleted it , Devika. I said sorry, what else can I do? ” I almost cried.“These things never happened with me at signNow. But people here..”I broke down. Couldn’t speak much.“What even if you deleted? 1000s of people saw it. All the people on your floor saw it. They may have copied it, downloaded it. It had so confidential information!”“And yeah, put this conversation there too!!” She said in a very rude tone.“I won’t. You know I won’t.” I whispered.“Anyways Shilpi, now it’d be too awkward for you to go there. We have already stopped your remote access. We don’t want you to work anymore. Since you’ve already rejected the offer too, no discussion related to it. You can submit the id card to me.”“Okay.”I cried a lot in the cab. Rudra knew it all the time. Why didn’t he himself fire me instead of sending a rude HR. And those two also lied a lot about me. The tone of HR was totally different when I met her on Thursday. And today she was really harassing me.It took me a while to understand - all this was planned by Rudra. He choose the rudest and senior-most HR to deal with my case and harass me, just to get back at me.2 interns were joining today and space was very less in the small GIR cabin. And he knew very well I completed all my work the last week itself. Win-Win situation for Rudra!Varun and Rudra lied to HR. It was evident from the way she treated me. I was made to be feel like a garbage - just because I was late at the office!I cried for an hour. And then, I edited and restored this answer.Next day I came to know none of the interns or people in my team knew about this! I was fired secretly. The HR lied the whole time.All because Rudra didn’t want to see my face in GIR!Do I fear them? Not at all.“I will survive, Tracy thought. I face mine enemies naked, and my courage is my shield.” ― Sidney Sheldon (if tomorrow comes)Many people want me to take this answer down or go anonymous. I have done nothing wrong. Those who have, they should hide their faces behind “anonymous” mask.If GS has some problem with the answer, they are free to take action against me. I am not bonded by any legal agreement and atleast deserved decent exit process.

Had written this answer for another question: What is it like to work as a Software development Engineer at Dream (CS Product based) companies? I believe the same should answer your question as well.I joined Morgan Stanley as an IT Associate after completing by B.Tech from NIT Warangal. I worked there for almost 4 years from August, 2008 to May, 2012 before deciding that I wanted to get back to student life again. So, I'll offer my perspective on working at Morgan Stanley. While some of the aspects I describe may be unique to Morgan Stanley, a lot of them are consistent with some of the big firms that you've mentioned. I'll describe my journey in Morgan Stanley and hopefully, along the way I'll be able to answer your queries. RecruitmentI was recruited by Morgan Stanley way back in July, 2007. The process lasted for 2 days and was pretty rigorous. There was an online aptitude test in the beginning to be answered in either C, C++ or Java (the choice is yours). This was followed by 2 rounds of technical interview (each almost 1.5 hours long), a group activity and finally, a professional fit interview (which was 1 hour long too!). As I came from an Electronics and Communication Engineering background, I wasn't grilled much on the finer aspects of programming, but was tested more on the basic aspects of programming in languages that I knew (C++ and Java mostly). In both my interviews I was asked to write codes and algorithms on basic problems, which involved data structures as well. Additionally, I was also asked a lot of puzzles and vague scenario questions to test my thought process as well as logical and analytical reasoning capabilities. And that's what they are looking for - people with clarity in their thought processes and displaying strong logical and analytical abilities. Yes, it does help if you are an excellent programmer, but the interviewers won't sideline you if you have the aforementioned qualities with just basic programming knowledge. There is a 4 months training process that you have to undergo post joining and what they are looking for are students who can be trained easily for their respective roles. From an interviewer's point of view, easy trainability and culture fit are the prime determinants for selecting or rejecting a candidate.Note: This only applies for campus recruitments. For lateral recruits, the interviewers are looking for depth in programming and functional knowledge depending on the level and area of work experience. Joining and Training The first day at work was pretty much as expected. Orientations, HR policies, introduction to trainers and the like. The next 3 months comprised of a comprehensive training course that encompassed training in various languages (C#, Java, Perl etc). There were also weekly tests, with grades and individual reviews by the trainers. The sessions were easy to understand with hands-on experience to enable one to learn faster. In the final month of training, we were divided into groups of 3, each allotted to a team from the various different silos and verticals to work on a project for 1 month. Starting from scratch, our first task was to understand and negotiate requirements with the teams as our project completion deadline was very short - just a month! The next task was to build workflows and prototypes and obtain a sign-off from the teams and trainers. The final task was to actually implement the project. This process of a "project implementation" within the training period was our first exposure and peek in to the world of our actual jobs. Another unique feature during the training period was what can be called "internal placements". Under this process, teams with vacancies from various divisions and silos give presentations to the new recruits, a process which lasts about a week or so. The new recruits can then decide which teams they are most interested in and schedule interviews with them. As far as I recall, one had to interview with a minimum of 8 teams, but that might have changed over time. After all the interviews are done, there's a matching algorithm that matches the preferences of the teams with those of the candidates and accordingly, the trainees are allotted to respective teams. I found this process to be very useful and meaningful as it presents a lot of autonomy to both teams and candidates alike, thus resulting in both being satisfied. This is very unlike the conventional or traditional method of allotting candidates to teams, without giving either a fair oppportunity to assess and find a best match for themselves. Do note, however, that this training program is only for new campus recruits and does not apply to lateral recruits. On the jobI shall now discuss the various aspects of the actual job as under:Challenges: The challenges in your tasks and projects are quite dependent on the teams and projects that you are working on. It is therefore essential that one is careful and does a good amount of research before applying to teams during the "internal placement" process. Managers also play a huge role in the degree of autonomy and challenges that you face at the workplace. Since technologies change and become obsolete at a very rapid rate combined with the fact that in a financial services company like Morgan Stanley, speed and efficiency are paramount in the design and components of trading, accounting, reporting systems etc., there is always scope for improvement. It's up to you, your manager and team on how well you manage changes as well as scout for new avenues and thereby, be a determinant of the kind of challenges you face at the workplace. Personally, I enjoyed a relatively high degree of autonomy and got some good, challenging projects to work on that greatly enhanced my learning curve. Which brings me to the next aspect - learning.Learning: At Morgan Stanley, the scope and opportunities for learning are immense. There are a lot of periodic training sessions, knowledge wikis and videos for you to learn and expand your technical skill sets, learn about best practices & programming models as well as to enhance your knowledge horizons on functional and business aspects. On the soft skills side as well, there are a number of frequent and periodic sessions. For technological concepts, materials are often presented with examples for you to gain a clearer understanding.Career Development: In addition to the scope for learning and personal development, there are several avenues for career development as well. One can monitor the internal job openings within divisions, across divisions as well as across countries. This information is open and easily accessible to employees and you can apply to job openings that you are interested in. Quite often, teams prefer to scout for employees in-house rather than from the job market outside as it saves on a lot of time and effort. Additionally, there is a also a system of'referrals', whereby employees can refer people for different roles and openings and HR will follow up if they find the profiles suitable.Compensation, Promotion and Recognition: The compensation levels are generally higher than the average in the industry at most levels. The focus of compensation, like with several other banks, is generally on "Total rewards"(fixed + variable) rather than on fixed rewards. Promotions are primarily dependent on 2 factors - relative performance and visibility. The process is fairly standardized across all divisions, though variations may exist. There are various forums at intra and inter divisional levels to recgonize and promote the work of employees. Outstanding work and projects may also be awarded and recognized in the various award ceremonies at different levels (global, country, intra and inter divisional)People and Culture: From my personal experience, you'll find that you are surrounded by a bunch of highly diversified, talented, intellectual and smartpeople. It's quite easy to find experts in nearly any topic and signNow out to them. People are generally forthcoming, friendly and helpful and you'll find that there's a lot that you can learn from their experience and knowledge. There's usually aopen-door policy with managers and you can directly meet and discuss issues, suggestions and apprehensions without any hierarchical procedures or beauracracy.Culture is something that's emphasized on and one of the reasons for the rigorous recruitment process is to ensure a professional and cultural fit. Team outings, special occasion celebrations and intra as well as inter division events are quite frequent.Benefits: Some benefits that come to mind are:a) LTA, Medical insurance (for self and spouse/parents), medical reimbursements, maternal and paternity leave policy.b) Home drops for everyone from 8:30pm onwards.c) Yoga and aerobic sessions in the evenings on alternate days on a paid basis.d) Carrom and Table tennis for recreation.e) Work from home option and flexibility.f) Flexible work timings (may depend on your work and team though!)Hope this helps!

The answer is gonna be really long. Grab some snacks as it could take a while.After interning at both signNow and Goldman, without a blink of an eye I can say - choose signNow.Going back a year before, my answer was different. Probably because I was unaware of how Goldman would turn out to be.I was the happiest person the day I was selected as an FTE at GS - a reputed fin-tech company which mostly hires tier-1 students, a dream for many. I had heard from many people that GS offers package as high as 32lpa which was quite a big deal for me - or for anyone who might have been at my place.As for signNow, I wanted a PPO since I really worked my ass off there - and was given one 6 days after I got offer from GS. I couldn’t be any happier.Soon came the phase of deciding - what should I choose? I didn’t know about the salary of GS but I had an idea that it definitely pays more than signNow. And that was enough for me - a reputed firm with lots of money!Then came the HR’s call. She offered me semester long internship in GS! I was glad that I don’t have to spend my last semester in college and will also earn some money. With the stipend as high as 75k and stay at Hilton hotel during intern, anybody is likely to go crazy and say “YES”.And so I did.I decided to take my decision after completing the semester long internship there, whether to go with signNow or continue with Goldman.The beginningSoon came 7th January. Day started off with amazing orientation and a beautiful office visit. Then came the lunch buddy - GS assigns a buddy from your department to have lunch with you the day you join, let’s say he was Raghav (name changed).Raghav seemed to be a really smart guy. I asked him a few questions about GS being a fin-tech, is it easy to switch and other questions. He seemed to be out of place, not interested. A guy came who was an intern in a team in which Raghav used to work. He kept talking and giggling with him, completely ignoring my presence. Cool, maybe Raghav is a badass - who cares?Met with my manager and two other interns who were in the same department - ZIR(changed). He seemed like a chilled-out and thoughtful person. Let’s call him Rudra.Our whole department used to sit in a middle sized cabin which accommodated around 32–35 employees of ZIR. My happiness knew no bounds! Great team, small cabin and friendly manager - what else could I ask for?Then came the next day. We were introduced to our team and had a lunch together. Oh no! Lunch here was not free - no big deal. Only 80rs/- per plate is affordable when you earn 75k per month, I thought.After having lunch, we began installing softwares required. Wait, you can’t install some softwares without manager’s permission. Fine! I messaged my manager and he granted the permission. He came later in the evening and gave 3 of us an interesting machine learning problem to solve - in a week, till we get our projects.He had three projects in mind, and he left it for us to decide which one we wan’t to take. I took the one which I thought was more impactful and cool, also because we had a member of our team working for the project. My task was to integrate the backend stuff he wrote with the UI I was going to create. Also to help him with some of those backend stuffs later on.“You can take help from Varun, in case you need” said Rudra.So it began!1st MonthI started learning React.js for the UI I was going to implement from various websites. There were tons of tutorial there. After understanding some theory, I clicked on ‘try it on codepen’ - online editor.“You are restricted from using an external website - no permissions”What? I can’t even use some online editor. Okay that’s fine - we have pretty sensitive data in GS. Since it’s a finance based company, we have client data with us and user may copy and paste it online - someone might steal the data! All this made sense. ‘It’s fine, I’ll bring my own laptop tommorow’, I thought before leaving.I could see two teammates standing behind me from my peripheral vision. One who was writing the backend stuff for the project I was working upon, let’s call him Varun.Varun was a silent and sober guy - a hardworking one who speaks only when required. Another guy standing beside him was Raghav.“Hey!” I said in a low tone. Did I do some crime? Why are these two here.. I wondered.“You brought your personal laptop, is everything fine here?” they asked.I told them about the restrictions. Raghav took my work PC and sent Rudra, my manager a request to approve codepen.I waited. One hour. Two hours. Codepen still not working. Fine for me since I have my own laptop. No worries.After 2 weeks Varun called me and started assigning tasks to do for the UI. I was full of enthusiasm and paid full attention to what he wanted. I started looking out for the cool libraries out there and found - material-ui.‘Perfect!’ I exclaimed.Started with the tasks, and was able to achieve the target next evening. It looked damn good! Varun will be happy. And so, I showed it to him.“Okay, font-size is a bit huge. And please change the app’s name - ELEGANT USER’S APP” (name changed). And so I did.“E-L-E-G-E-N-T U-S-E-R—S A-P-P”What a funny name, I thought. (The real one was funnier than the changed one)So days went, 1..2…3 and I completed 5–6 tasks. The basic UI (20%) was done. Then came Varun -“Shilpi, you did this using which library?”“Material-ui! It’s really good and..”“Okay, but make sure you can use it. Only specific libraries can be used at GS. Search xyz site and ensure if we can use it. If yes, proceed. Else use GS UI library”What did he just say. I worked on the UI for 2 weeks, and he is telling me now that I may not be able to use the material-ui library! No way..With my heart beating fast, I typed..X…Y….Z….gs..comCtrl+F“M-A——T-E—-R—I—A”Boom! It’s there. I was delighted :)The next day I was late. I saw a message pop up. It was from Raghav.“Hey” it said.“Hey” I replied.’“Please try to attend the daily standup. If you do, mail Rudra about your update :)” He replied.There hasn’t been a single day I was late. But okay, FINE.Then came the 5th day - friday. I got a message from Varun.‘Hi Shilpi, can you make another UI using GS-UI?’OH NO!. Again?.‘Just for the feel…we’ll show it to Rudra next week, he’ll choose which one we can use’*Slow Claps*. Well played Varun. Why did he approve the material-ui one if he wanted it in GS-UI - I wondered.It’s fine, I can do it. I encouraged myself and went to the internal site - gs-ui-library. (name changed)Okay, fine. This looks good. Okay. Cool. Documentation.. documentation….uhmm.I searched for the whole day, no documentation. Just few codes and examples to understand how to display some component.Way uglier than material-ui - I thought. And a minute later, an evil idea came to my mind..“What if I make the UI using gs-ui-library so ugly that Rudra and Varun both reject!” That would be great!The next week on friday, I was done with gs-ui-library. My code was asked to be removed from codesandbox by Varun - it’s illegal to put GS’s internal code there. I could hear Rudra laughing about how he is afraid of the interns bringing personal laptops here, and what will happen if someone names a variable as “ZIR” and put it on github.I showed Rudra the material-ui one. He was impressed.“This looks good! But don’t keep the name as ‘ ELEGANT USERS APP’, instead keep it as ‘THE USERS SEARCH APP’ ” (name changed)“But Rudra, Varun has asked me to..”“I will ask him. We will decide and tell you”Fine. Keep the name as ‘The bla bla app”. I don’t care.Varun was already gone by the time. I smirked. I won’t show the UI I made using gs-ui-library to Rudra!Next day Varun was on my desk. He asked whether I showed both the UI’s.“No, actually I forgot to show the other..”“See, the people above us will probably ask why we didn’t use GS-UI. That’s why I am saying so. I have no problem with material-ui. Just ask Rudra if he is fine with it. Rudra…”“Yes, Varun” replied Rudra.And then he showed both the UI’s to him. The ugly one. The good one.“I think it looks great - the ‘gs-ui-library’ one!” Rudra exclaimed.I shouted in my mind - “How can he..!”“See Shilpi, we don’t have any problem using material-ui one but the people for whom we are making the app will ask why we didn’t use the internal-gs library. Okay, tell me one thing - it does have all the components you require, right?”“Yes, Rudra” I sighed.“Seems like Shilpi wanted to use material-ui, haha” Rudra giggled and looked at Varun. I could hear the giggling from one of the two interns from behind - Tejas (name changed).He was also working on a UI, along with some backend stuff. He was using ‘gs-ui-library’ from day one. And so, he giggled.Rudra -1 .. Shilpi- 0This was the first time I went home feeling sad. Why didn’t they tell me 2 weeks ago? Now I will have to work on the other one. And the library has no documentation.“g-s-u-i-l-i-b-r-a-r-y” I typed.Gs-ui-library was a really terrible library. No documentation, made by mixture of other available libraries online. It was like an accidental product of some cross-breeding. A scientific failure.Anyways, I somehow learnt basic features which I could implement using the library. On the other hand, my machine was damn slow - for a reason I didn’t know.“Why are you using vs code? How did you get it!” asked Rudra who saw me coding on vscode.“I like it- it’s really good for react. Installed it from the store.”“Haha, use intellij, okay!” Rudra said in a serious tone.Wow. After making me work with the gs-ui-library, now he is snatching away the editor I love. Cool.I still continued with vs code. Varun was totally fine with it.I went to drink a glass of water. Didn’t bring my bottle that day. So took a ‘visitor’s cup’ from inside the drawers.“Ma’am, you can’t drink in that. It’s only for visitors” said a guy who saw I was about to drink water.“Oh, it’s ok for today you can use it..Ma’am”Great. Block websites - facebook, gmail, codepen. Take my material-ui away. Don’t allow me to use vs-code. And also, don’t let me drink water at peace!I was pissed off. Huh!2nd MonthWe were having a cricket match on saturday! Rudra asked me if I want to play - since he wanted a female player as per the rules. He just wanted me to throw the ball for an over or so since it was the rule. I agreed - afterall he was my manager.I came back home, exhausted. Wasn’t allowed to bat :( even when the guy players were noob too. Whatever, I don’t care. I said to myself.So I started working on the integration part. Meanwhile we used to have meetings in which we were told about ZIR and it’s functions. Rudra used to tell us about how fun the NAPA training is going to be, and how we will start hiding our id cards after the event.I completed the integration part in a week or so. Gave a weekly demo to Rudra.Next week was going to be a demo with Monica’s team (name changed). The finance guys for whom we were building the ‘ELEGANT USERS APP’. Varun was happy that I had completed the integration part and added 2 more features to implement.- feature1 & feature2Before the demo, we had a meeting with Monica just a week before. Rudra, Varun and I gathered in a room. Varun and Monica proceeded on what she wants and what actually we have. It was a debate between them and I listened.Since the lunch time was over, Rudra and I went to the food-court outside to have one.“Shilpi, you know I was like you. The silent guy in the room. If someone else was at your place he would have asked a lot of questions! ”“I think it’s better to listen Rudra, than argue. I didn’t have much idea about what they were talking and the talk was mostly concerning Varun.”“See..it’s good very good. But to be at a place like GS…you know! The world is very mean,Shilpi. You need to speak more than you do work here! Many people don’t know much but they’ll get ahead of you because they speak. I was like you when I joined GS. In the group discussion round, when everyone was debating.. I just sat at the corner. HR came and asked each of us individually. If she hadn’t done that, I mayn’t be sitting here today”I gave it some thought. He was right.Some days later feature1 stopped working. I had no idea why, I was using an excellent library for feature1, off-course an external one. Varun himself has asked me to use an external for that case since we don’t have a gs library for that.But now. It wasn’t working.It took me a week to include the library - react-bootstrap-table2 with the project along with the features it had, and use it. And some magic happened. Now feature1 stops working. Damn!I woke up the whole night - till 4 am to make the feature1 work. The remote desktop worked very slow. In GS, we are not given laptops for security purposes. So we have to use remote desktop.It was damn slow but I was patient. I kept on trying and trying till I fell asleep early in the morning. Woke up around 12.An hour before demo with Monica’s team, I told Varun about it. He said it’s fine, we will show the demo without it.Tik…tikk….I wasn’t satisfied. I worked damn hard for 45 min and was able to make feature1 work!We went to give the demo. Varun pulled out a chair and sat before a PC.“Hi Monica!”“Hey Varun!”And so it started. The demo. The UI I made. The features I implemented. The integration. My two month’s hard work.All of them was presented by our VP, Mr.Varun!“Uhm…but we don’t need feature 1 and 2, Varun. You can remove it” said Monica.W-H-A-T! What did she just say. I went an hour back in time.I am sweating. I can feel I am nervous. This has to go good. I know well about the project, and I will make the feature-1 work! I will!Yes, I did. Only to loose the presentation as well as the feature.I rushed out of the room with the unhappy face which no one bothered about in the meeting room. I was silent and in hurry, it was weekly demo too today.“Haashh.. It went great!” exclaimed Varun who barely ever talked to me. Since like 1962!“Okay, but we have a weekly demo too!”The weekly demo got cancelled. Varun proceeded to tell me how we don’t need feature-1 and all the new features which Monica wanted. I remembered them all. One of them was a feature-X which was not possible technically. I tried making Varun understand and he did, after quite a while.Then came the mid-semester exam and I finally got a break!3rd MonthI went to my home after holidays. After 2 months, 1,40,000 was credited to my account. I buyed clothes for mom and dad. I was delighted and ready to go back!Meanwhile, an acquaintance of mine who did intern at signNow called me. She also had an offer from both the companies but was unable to decide. I told her all pros and cons, and how I was going to join GS. Being a Delhite, she wanted to join signNow.After a while, I thought. I should maybe negotiate!It was a disaster. The HR told me clearly that they pay all the FTE’s equally regardless of how many offers they had. I asked him about the work I’d be given but he didn’t tell.After 8 days, I refused. Probably the biggest mistake I did.Came back to office happily. Compiled the code.React-bootstrap-table2 library code - gone. Whole UI code changed in a week. My 2 week’s effort - 1 week for the library and 2 nd for other features went to ashes.Just in ONE SINGLE WEEK.~Varun committed the code 2 hours ago~~Varun committed the code yesterday~~Varun….~And so on.Varun started using an internal gs-ui-library library instead of react-bootstrap-table2. Instead of giving proper review comments, he changed my code by himself. Some backend stuff also came to me.I fetched the code from repo, the one Varun had implemented. And tried to understand.“You just have to implement feature-b-xyz, no need to go through whole code” he said.Fine.The next series of days started with me coming late - 11:50, 12 or later than that. I used to mail Rudra about the update. Sometimes I was able to attend standup, sometime I wasn’t able to. My health started detoriating.Everyday, Varun used to commit some changes. And it took a hell lot of time to update the project in intellij, go through his changes and do other changes. I was pretty much frustrated.Took 2 wfhs in 2 weeks. Logged in late many times. Had to push myself from bed everyday. Devoted my time to video games than gs work. Lost interest.Then I was given some backend part. I took WFH a day I wasn’t feeling well and learnt about apis stuff. Still some part of me wanted to do well and take interest in the work genuinely.We - all 3 interns received a mail from Rudra which we could never forget. Rudra had showed his ‘Rudra’ roop. The mail said -“You guys are not taking the work seriously. WFHs are not to be taken for granted. So many WFHs and late loggings. Not at all serious about your work. You guys need to have deliverables by the end of this month.I don’t care, work for your career not mine.”I was shocked. The friendly, giggling Rudra! I remembered the first time I met him. And the mail was quite a shock to all of us.Late loggings & WFHs were targeted at me.But… Tejas? What did he do?As far as I remember, he was a hard working guy. Always on time. Never missed a standup. What did he do to receive the mail?Days after that, Varun took 4WFHs in a row. Rudra was quiet. Nisha only came like twice in a week, Rudra said nothing. Why us? Why the interns? I wondered.One day I stayed at office till 8pm. I could hear Rudra talking about ‘The Elegant User’s App’ over a phone call.“We are building it again since the last UI was in angular. We wanted it in React.” he said to somebody over the call.Throughout my whole intern, I had one doubt in my mind.The app on which I was working upon was already built by someone and was functional too. But my manager wanted it to be built again since he wanted us to use a new technology.What’s the difference even if angular was used? What’s the need of rebuilding the app again from scratch? I wondered.And the next words I heard shattered me.“Yeah, Varun is working with some intern on ‘The Elegant User’s App’.”What did he say?The last two months were fully devoted to the UI. I went back in time.“Shilpi, if you want any help - Varun would be able to for this project.I was made to believe that it was an independent project, which it never was. I worked my ass off for three months only to hear that I am ‘some intern’ working under Varun and helping him building the UI.I got depressed.It was Holi’s festival - the festival of colours. I never really celebrated holi, hated to be coloured all over. We had a group for our department, and I wished everyone a “Happy Holi!”.Tejas replied with a “Happy holi” too.“Happy Forest Day” - stated an image I received on whatsapp. It was from Rudra. On the whatsapp group. This was his reply for “Happy Holi”.Needless to say, I didn’t go to office that day as sign of rebel ( we didn’t have holiday on holi). Varun was already doing WFH. The “Happy Forest Day” frustrated me. Why Rudra why. You are better than that.“Niharika (name changed) is leaving GS” somebody whisphered.Niharika, a very smart lady was in our department. She was mentoring an intern and sounded quite knowledgable. Her sudden decision of leaving GS came as a shock to everyone.I had a last chat with her only when everyone was away for lunch. She had refused her farewell too I guess. She came to me and we had a decent chat. I asked her the reason of leaving. She wanted to switch the team maybe but it was taking a long time. Sweet and smart is all I could say for her. She had done work with JPMC & Morgan Stanely (US) and held a green card. A dedicated worker.After the lunch, she had a long meeting with Rudra. She was too firm with her decision.After she left, someone told me she bitched about many people in the team - specially Rudra. I was really sad. GS lost a good employee that day. And maybe, due to politics.Next day, GS was having an orientation for all new campus hires. It was one hell of a day. World-class hotel stay and world-class orientation.Varun was going out to the new office for 2 weeks. For some work.4th monthBefore Varun had left for the new office, he had asked me to attend telephonic standups for our team from 3–3:30. Now I used to attend 2 standups - the department one, and the team one. Full time waste activities!He had also asked me to get details of a task from Raghav and get it completed. I messaged him and he said he will be there at my desk in 5 min. Well, he never came. I asked him 2–3 times more to which he sent me a random link. I was disheartened and had nothing to do for 2 weeks.I mailed the tpo of my college, he was ready to talk to signNow’s HR and get my offer back. I was relieved.Soon, we got mails from hr regarding our joining dates and NAPA training, which is held in New York. I told the HR about my case, that I have courses left in college and I won’t be able to join on 3rd june.“Can I go to the training and join later after 12th july - when my courses are done” I asked.“No, you need to join as FTE. We will process your visa in june and you’ll go during july first week”“Okay” I replied.“Try to make your college understand, it’s important” is all she said.Next day, I refused. My college will never agree for me to take 2 week vacation during summer term.Rudra received a call from HR. I knew it was regarding me.He took me outside the cabin and asked why did I opted out of NAPA training. I told him everything - how my degree would be affected. He was ready to give WFH for 2 months. I was shocked. Again.What will I do now! Rudra was the most unpredictable mysterious guy I ever met. He was good and bad, at the same time. 2 months is a long time - and he agreed to give me WFH! He earned my respect.Now I was in dilemma. signNow. GS. signNow. GS.What to do?On the other hand, I made my tpo talk to signNow’s HR. And now, Rudra is turning to be a nice guy. I will choose GS. I was firm this time.Then there was second meeting with Rudra. He told me everything - the work I’ll do as an FTE. Also, he never left a single moment he could get to brag about himself.“You will be working under Varun. He will be the team lead. Your work is XYZ-AHSH-PPOS…..”“Be as mature as me. I can make complex things simple easily. Learn it from me.” he said.Varun. No!!The simple guy. Who took away all the presentations. Even during our team standups, he used to answer when some guy asked me about the project. My code was changed everyday. All the torture I faced last month. And now- I’ll be working under him. Wow.I told Rudra - how my code was changed everyday, how I was not told about the changes Varun did in the backend and still expected my code would run successfully. He listened to me for a while and then said -“When I was a NAPA, I used to ensure that I get 0 review comments”“I don’t get review comments, Rudra. My code gets changed, and it’s hard to understand it everyday without help of Varun.”“It’s a good thing, right? You will learn something from what the change he does. It’s good for you.”Cool. I have to look at the new code and somehow “learn without doing”. Interesting.I worked till 9 pm that day. Before Rudra left, he smiled at me sarcastically.“Shilpi, still working?”“Yeah Rudra, I came little late today.”“Varun changing your code and you changing his code.!”“Yes. That’s what is happening.”And then, he laughed maniacally.This was not the first time he did this. He used to laugh at me sarcastically many times after giving me the UI project.Next week, Varun was here. My virtual desktop was not working and I had no idea why. Called help-desk 5 times that day.“REBOOT!”“TRY IT FROM A DIFFERENT MACHINE!”“IT SHOWS ‘AVAILABLE’ ON MY MACHINE!”was all the response I got from 5 different help-desk-assistants.Took a day off the next day. Saw a mail. Varun had given presentation to our MD that day. UI presentation, which was supposed to be given by me.Next week, same schedule. Help-desk people failed miserably.I tried remote desktop and was able to open my outlook. My inbox was full of -“DISK CAPACITY OVER 95%! CLEAN IT!”I got it. But in order to clean it, I had to login to the virtual computer which I wasn’t able to. It was a deadlock.Soon I was assigned a new virtual computer. My whole local setup - was erased.My whole enthusiasm had turned to ashes at that point. Came late, went early. Stopped attending standups. Late Loggings. WFHs. OOO. No updates. No weekly updates. Nothing to do next since Raghav didn’t help. Frustrated as hell.Our department was hiring more and more people. I had nowhere to sit. No one to talk to. The only friend I had in bangalore left 2 weeks ago.And then came end-term exams.5th monthStill no mail from signNow. What do I do.I mailed the HR.I don’t care about my ego now. I just can’t work like this. A place where I am depressed everyday.And I got a positive response.I’ll be joining signNow in july. I don’t care about NAPA training. I just don’t.I am happy with less base salary.Why did I write the whole story? What’s the point of writing the whole experience when I could have just compared both the companies?Because I wanted you to feel the way I felt at each moment during my intern, why did I take the decision I took. Why did I take a rejected offer back.From my story you are well aware that -GS is a company for people who are confident, who may lack in technical terms but if they speak about their work just like Rudra told me, they will be successful in long run. You can’t sit at a corner desk everyday without networking and grow in GS but you can, at signNow. One of the main reasons of me leaving.Tejas was working on unapproved project. The project may not be approved by the MD and his struggle for 4 months could turn to ashes. This could never happen in a tech company like signNow where we have approved projects.Forget free food, they don’t even provide glasses to drink coffee/water. On the other hand, signNow has free food and glasses too.People focus on deliverables, no learning in my case. During my intern at signNow, more focus was on learning.You won’t receive appreciation. Tejas worked his ass off only to get scoldings from Rudra. While at signNow, I was really appreciated for the work I did by both - my mentor & manager.People focus on stupidest things - “ELEGANT USERS APP” v/s “THE USERS SEARCH APP” is more important here. Whereas at signNow people devote their time to efficiency and readability.Meetings, meetings and more meetings! A signNow part of the day goes in meetings at GS. Not the case in signNow, they respect developer’s time.Strats position -32lpa. Tech analyst-22lpa. No more words! At signNow, we get equal salary - 22lpa as fresher no matter whether we are an iitian or not.Varun, a person totally noob in react used to review my code. Sometimes it was really hard to make him understand. Never happened at signNow where my mentor knew Javascript & C++ in depth.No help from peers - everyone busy in their own world. Raghav was the smartest person in my team. He could’ve helped me but he didn’t. Never happened with me in signNow - people were more approachable and ever-ready to help.Features changing - worked my ass off on feature1 only to get it removed later on. Only if Monica had told earlier she doesn’t want one. In signNow, it rarely happened that a feature which we don’t need is implemented.Too much into internal code - “use gs-ui-library” “use intellij”. I want freedom. Which is there at signNow.Restrictions - can’t do much without manager’s permission. Not the case at signNow.No recognition - all the work I did was presented by Varun at last. While at signNow, I gave 2 badass presentations and was much appreciated by manager.Blocked sites - gmail, facebook and some coding sites are blocked.The only pros were - less working hours & luxurious hotel stay. And of course the huge stipend of 75k!Please note that I’ve nothing against GS. The management there is really good, they care about their employees. I don’t think any company could’ve given me 2 months WFH and I do respect Rudra a lot for that!The experience may vary from person to person, someone may find GS a very good place, based on the traits he/she has or the team he is working with. But for a shy person like me, who loves to code sitting at the corner of the room - GS is not the place. It was me who was not able to adapt to the culture there. The reason being - having a previous internship experience at signNow, which taught me what freedom is. If I didn’t have any previous experience, maybe I could’ve adjusted there assuming - “This is how it is everywhere, and this is how it works!”Irony is, the question was asked by me about a year ago. And today, I have appropriate answer to it!This answer was written by me when I was still an intern. I had no idea what this could do to my life.Next day after I wrote this, I was called by the Vice-president HR of GS - Devika. I thought she had called me in order to discuss why am I choosing signNow over Goldman but this wasn’t the case.“I read your answer on quora about goldman..”“I’ll remove it!” I replied with the speed of light.“No..I don’t want you to take it down, Just tell me the issues you had”And she pretended to listen. Both of us knew why she called me here - to take the answer down.“See, these days many people are on social media and it is affecting how people see us. Probably, some interns wouldn’t want to work with us after reading the answer. Therefore I want you to remove it”“Also, please remember this meeting is confidential. DO NOT tell anyone from your team about it!” she said just before I left.And that was it. I deleted this answer.I saw Rudra’s text on my whatsapp. He asked whether I have a desk to sit, and when will I signNow on my desk.I finished the work and went home.The next day, I woke up to 10 calls from the HR and lots of messages. I asked what happened.I told her I have already deleted the answer, but there was something else. I wasn’t able to login from home. My remote desktop was taken away from me and I had no idea why.And then, came Monday.I went to her cabin where she was sitting. And soon the harassment started.“What was your motive behind putting such kind of answers on quora, tell me what was in your mind”“I am sorry, Devika. I’ve already taken them down.”“Didn’t you knew about the firm’s policy? You knew it very well right? Still you put the experience on quora?”“I was frustrated. So much that it didn’t occur to me at that time. But yes, I knew it.”She wrote it down on a paper.“You put it on social media, and don’t expect your manager to read it? Wake up! Everyone in your dept knows what you did okay! You are always saying that ‘don’t inform my manager about it’.. you know what, infact Rudra only told me about this. He was the one who forwarded the answer.”I sighed. He knew about it the whole time. Still acted as friendly.“We are a very big firm. Many people are there writing these kind of negative - one sided answers. We don’t care”If she didn’t care, why was I sitting here.“I have talked to both Rudra and Varun. Now I know about their perspectives too. Did you inform your manager that you were on leave? No, you didn’t.”“Yes, I was really depressed and woke up at 5 eve..”“And what did you wrote? Niharika left because of politics..? Did you talk to her? Who told you?”“The intern who knew her told me”“And you put it on social media??”She gave me a tough look.“I have tracked down your whole information, when do you come and leave, wfh etc. I don’t think it’s too much. You were also 1 hour late on the GS event, I heard”I wasn’t. What was she saying?“No, I was a minute late. You can ask my friend who was sitting there.”“Also, you were absent on 4 presentations Varun gave, right?”“No, I was there for 3 of them”“And you weren’t allowed to give?”“I didn’t ask him, neither did he offer.. he just took the chair and..Did Varun said I was absent? I wasn’t!”“Oh yes you weren’t, I know. When did I say you were absent? You are just misunderstanding me” she replied and wrote down some points.“GS-UI-LIBRARY!!” she excalimed.“This is what you wrote about the library.Seriously!”I looked down. I couldn’t say anything except sorry.“You didn’t write about any wrong you did, completely one-sided answer. I got to know about other people’s perspective after talking to them.”“Yes I was late sometimes, and didn’t confront anyone.”“Rudra even let you choose jersey for cricket match, didn’t he”“Yes he did.”“What you think what made your experience bad? Was it yourself? Why put it on social media, and didn’t contact us”I was late and silent. The only faults.“If I were your signNow HR and I read this answer on quora.. you know I’d have..” Devika scolded in a rude tone.She would have taken my offer back. That’s what she meant.“I have already deleted it , Devika” I almost cried.“These things never happened with me at signNow. But people here..”I broke down. Couldn’t speak much.“What even if you deleted? 1000s of people saw it. All the people on your floor saw it. They may have copied it, downloaded it. It had so confidential information!”“And yeah, put this conversation there too!!” She said in a very rude tone.“I won’t. You know I won’t. ” I whispered.“Anyways Shilpi, now it’d be too awkward for you to go there. We have already stopped your remote access. You can submit the id card to me.”“Okay.”I cried a lot in the cab. Rudra knew it all the time. Why didn’t he himself fire me instead of sending a rude HR. And those two also lied a lot about me. The tone of HR was totally different when I met her on thursday. And today she was really harassing me.It took me a while to understand - all this was planned by Rudra. He choose the rudest and senior-most HR to deal with my case and harass me, just to get back at me., 2 interns were joining today and space was very less in the little cabin. And he knew very well I completed all my work the last week itself. Win-Win situation for Rudra!Varun and Rudra lied to HR. It was evident from the way she treated me. I was made to be feel like a garbage - just because I was late at the office!I cried for an hour. And then, I edited and restored this answer.Do I fear them? Not at all.“I will survive, Tracy thought. I face mine enemies naked, and my courage is my shield.” ― Sidney Sheldon (if tomorrow comes)

Result : Selected, All India Rank - 4 (ISRO 2018)I want to give not only a very detailed experience but also some tips from my side. I have tried to write in such a way that you feel as if you are in interview hall. Because of all this you might feel this interview experience is a bit long but it's only for people very serious about ISRO. Going through the full experience will definitely give you a competitive edge. My contact informations including my whatsapp number is given at the end. Feel free to approach me. Now let's begin.  It was 17th August 2018, 8:00 am ISRO guest house, Chennai.  This year there was no interview center at Bangalore, only Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai and all who had written test centers at Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerela, Andhra Pradesh and maybe Orissa had their interview center at Chennai.  I was wearing a white shirt, a black pair of trousers, black belt, black pair of shoes with plain black socks and a plain and sober grey tie. Please put on a tie, this is what candidates don't understand, ISRO is almost like a private firm. Here looks, appearance, proper dressing sense and smartness matters, that is why in interview panel there are members from HR present. Without tie, it is not formal, your top button is not closed and your collars are not properly upright. First 10 minutes are deciding for any interview and for first 10 seconds all they are going to observe is your appearance. Candidates who do not take care of these tiny details will say tomorrow that their luck was bad. Its not about luck, it's about taking care of the tiniest details.  My name was first on the list on that day so I signNowed 15 min before the time mentioned in call letter (7:45am).I expected 8:00 to be time for start of verification of documents just like in case of BARC, but ISRO people are not playing around, they do not have classic government job mentality of working 9 to 5 and 5 days a week. So they actually started the interviews 10-15 minutes before 8:00 as few students arrived as early as 7:00 and completed the document verification before me so even though my name was first on the list, 6-7 candidates got interviewed before me (Actually, I liked it... I didn't wanted to be the first but also I didn't wanted to wait for 4-5 hours). So sometime before 10 a.m. I was asked to get into the interview room. Even for me who has already cleared BARC last year, who has already spent days and nights among biggest scientists of this country for the past one year, it was a cereal moment when I slightly opened the door and saw the world on the other side. I got the first glimpse of INDIAN SPACE RESEARCH ORGANIZATION. That moment I'll never forget for the rest of my life. I know a lot of you folks are confused, if I already was in BARC then why did I go for ISRO? Right? See it has something to do with passion. I know exactly what I want, I know exactly which field of engineering fascinates me. It is aerospace engineering and rocket science. This was never possible in BARC and that is why even after failing twice in ISRO written test(May 2017 & Dec 2017) I went for ICRB exam the third time and this time I made it happen. @ the door Me: May I come in sir? I3: yes please (from now on interviewer 1=I1, interviewer 2=I2 and so on) I went and stood near the only chair on my side. It was a gigantic hall. A completely different setup than BARC interview panel. There was a giant rectangular table between me and all the interviewers, there was atleast 7 feet distance between me and the closest interviewer (12 o'clock),so they had a mic for every person attached to the table. There were around 10 interviewers out of which one was a lady but I think including her, two were from HR, because they were monitoring the way I speak and the way I present. I teach a lot about how to be confident, how to have good speaking skills and body posture on youtube so I had a good idea of how to present myself (so those two were continuously impressed and were smiling). I2: Ashish Ramj... Ranjo... Rajm... Me: Sir, Ashish Ranjan. I2: Ok Ashish, please sit down. I sat down (I had my documents left outside), I only had a pen in my right pant pocket which I had borrowed from a very humble fellow candidate because just in the rarest occasion of you need to wright or sign something you should not be in a position where you do not have a pen. Unfortunately this thought did not came to my mind when I left for interview center but fortunately I found a good person who had an extra pen. I2 : Ok Ashish please introduce yourself. Me : Sir, my full name is Ashish Ranjan (exactly like I introduce myself in my unacademy introduction videos but fortunately I leashed myself from saying the next line I say in my videos, "I cleared BARC 2017....", that would have raised a lot of unnecessary questions and I wanted most of the questions from technical side so that I can show my skills in engineering and not my background because I knew that's what the majority of the marking out of 100 is going to be for) I was born and raised in Ranchi, Jharkhand. From there I did my schooling. In 10th standard I got a CGPA of 9.2 and in 12th I had a percentage of 75.5 percent. Till then I did not had much direction in my life but when I started my btech in Sikkim Manipal Institute of technology something changed. I found engineering very interesting, I started to spend more and more time in learning more about engineering, by the end of 4 years I had a CGPA of 9.57 and a bronze medal from my university (by now they are so interested in my story of how an average student became a topper and so impressed by my high CGPA that it slipped their mind that I hid one very important fact.... I never mentioned which year I passed out or which year I joined b.tech. I was 2016 passout, I didn't wanted to mention that I worked at BARC but then I had a more than 2 years gap and that wouldn't have looked good). Throughout my btech, I never wasted time, I was hungry for knowledge so I utilised all my semester breaks to do internships. By the end of 4 years I had done around 5 internships and also I did classes on some designing softwares.(All along I was making eye contact with each of the interviewer, the "light house effect" and the "spot light effect" which I talk about in my videos, because no interviewer should feel left out, this is something that I learned by giving 8-10 viva sessions in my days at BARC training school. You must understand that interviewers are also humans at the end of the day and wherever there are humans there are emotions and remember this: "humans take decisions emotionally and justify them by logic" so I wanted to make every interviewer feel good because I knew everyone had some percentage of my marks that would get me in. Now I took a look at them and tried to find by their expression if they wanted to know more. Everyone looked interested. I knew if they were bored they would have interrupted me. So I continued with my hobbies) I am also a lot into public speaking so I like to enhance my communication skills and I like to work on it everyday (at this point of time making spotlight eye contact with HR lady. She smiled) and I'm also into sports (making spotlight eye contact with the male HR) like track and field. Male HR: What sports?(with a smile)  Me: sir track and field like 100m race, 400m race.  He looked at me like he wanted to know more, everyone is looking at me to know more. I knew I had them. Now it's time to play my ace. That's when I dropped the nuke.... Me: I also have been a lot into martial arts. I am a black belt in shotokan karate(with a smile)  Done! Now everyone has my attention. Male HR : (smiling) That is great Ashish. Female HR: (smiling) we would have never guessed that. Me : (smiling) I know mam.  Remember it is very important to smile. Do not act like a scared student over there, act like a confident and friendly future colleague, because that's who they are looking to hire.  I2: Ok Ashish what are your favourite subjects? Me: Sir my favourite subjects are Fluid Mechanics, Strength of Materials, Machine design... also I'm comfortable with Theory of machine and material science....and also heat transfer. (I knew that in ISRO interview there is one member from each subject, even theory of machine, material science and manufacturing. So I wanted to involve as much interviewers as possible.There is a probability that there will be 2 difficult (abstract) question out of 10, 8 questions will be easy textbook type. So if everyone is saying 4 favourite subjects and getting 2 difficult questions, you can say 6 favourite subject and get 3 difficult questions. Probability increased as now there is a higher chance that atleast 1 will be from one of your stronger subjects and you'll be able to answer it and that would definitely impress them. Plus on top of that you are getting double the number of easy questions, so for more number of time you'll be playing on your front foot. If you are not able to answer questions from one subject but show smartness and confidence, other interviewer might think let me test him/her with my subject, maybe he/she is good at that. But all of it will work only if you spent time working on all subject for a month. It is a difficult path but it is the only sure shot path to ISRO and the only way to deal with the uncertainty that is associated with every step of ISRO. What all of these will do definitely is that it will make your interview last longer (my interview lasted for over half an hour, which is very unusual for ISRO as most of the isro interviews go upto maximum of 20 minutes). Now what longer interview does is that it reduces the luck factor as longer you are infront of them more is the chances of you being able to show your skill in engineering. Female HR: (giggling) lot of favourite subjects.  Me:(with a smile) I like mechanical engineering. (rehearsed line to show them I am an all-rounder and comfortable with inter-disciplinary tasks which is what all core companies want)  Till now everything was rehearsed, I rehearsed that I would say these things 5-10 times infront mirror as I knew these two questions they would definitely ask. I knew from this point onwards rest of the interview is all about engineering skills and improvising, but doing this first step perfectly ensures that now they are looking forward to hire you, now all you have to do is not make a blunder. I2: Ok Ashish, please go to the board. I saw a 6ft. by 4 ft. white board behind me with a chair left of me on which two marker pens and an Eraser/duster was kept. As far as what I remember about the surrounding, the lighting of the room was not very bright, not as bright as it could have been, but above the board there was a white light which was making that area very bright. All this was increasing the feel in me that this is it... I worked for it for one and a half year and now I'm here, I'm in control and time to show them what I've got. I took care of how I stand, made sure that I'm standing up straight... Chest out, back straight but just enough to make it look natural. These are things that I practiced infront of mirror few days before the interview and also something that I've always been attentive about. I2: Draw two vertical lines. I did. I2: draw two horizontal lines in between them. I did I2:make vertical lines as fixed supports.and upper horizontal line is steel, lower horizontal line is aluminium bar. Tell me the stresses in them if temperature is increased from 20 C to 100 C Me: (writing all the information he was giving me on board, I wrote delta T=80 C) Sir due to increase in temperature this bar will try to elongate but the rigid support will not let it so there will be compressive reactions applied by the supports so there will be compressive stress. (while writing on board) sir, thermal stain epsilon =delta T*alpha so thermal stress will be alpha *deltaT*E, E being the Young's modules.  I2: so what is the value? Which of them will have higher stress? Me: Sir that depends on the values of Young's modulus and thermal expansion coefficient.  I2: what are the values?  Me: sir Young's modulus of Aluminium is 69Gpa( this number was easiest to remember for obvious reasons ;) ) for mild steel it is 200 GPa. I don't remember the exact values of thermal expansion coefficients for these materials but I know that it's of the order of 10^(-6) and for steel it is around 10.I don't remember for aluminium.  I2: take it 3 times the thermal coefficient of steel and take Young's modulus of aluminium as 70 and that for steel as 210. Me: Ok sir now we can compare. Let's first find for aluminium. (writing on board and speaking simultaneously) so stress in aluminium is alphaA*80*210=3*alphaS*80*70=16800*alphaS(on the side I did the calculation very quickly, I wrote 21*8 and directly wrote the answer as 16800 within fraction of seconds)  I3: Why did you Wright 21?what is 8? Me: Sir 7*3=21. I2: what is 8? Me: sir I have taken 8 from 80....I'm just doing the calculation.  I4: Oh.. Final answer likh dia isne. They were surprised that I did this calculation so fast, they forgot that this is nothing compared to the proficiency in hand and mental calculation we need to clear written exam.  HR male : (smiling) Ha ha sahi kr raha hai. You continue.  Me: so now the stress in steel bar. Stress =alphaS*80*210=16800alphaS I was a little confused seeing that the value is same.  Me:Ok sir so what we have is that Young's modulus of steel is three times...(was interrupted)  I2:Which one has more stress?  Me: Sir, stresses will be equal.  I2: OK. (looking at I3, indicating him to ask his question)  I3: Ok, do you know what keys are.  Me: Sir, keys are mechanical elements used to have constant velocity rati... (my voice fading)  {It was a very easy topic for me because it is the second chapter I teach on unacademy in my course of machine design but for some reason I got tongue tied but I pulled my self back, I gave myself time to breathe and think but at the same time made sure that interviewers don't have to wait, so I started to draw a shaft-hub assembly on board} Me:(while drawing) So if I have a shaft and over it we have a hub like a gear or a bearing then if we add a key then both shaft and hub will have same angular velocity, there will be positive drive which means there will be no slip.  I3: How do you design a key?  Me: A rotating shaft transmits torque to hub through key. Key will have tangential force. So we consider what we call a "sunk key", that means it is inserted within groves in both shaft and hub (drawing and explaining simultaneously) then let us consider a rectangular key of length l, width b and height t(I drew a fresh isometric view of key alone). Now we can design it by both crushing and shearing. So designing it by crushing first, let us say that sigmaC is the crushing strength of the material then crushing area will be this (showing on diagram) i.e. l*t/2. So cruising strength will be sigmaC*l*t/2,this is the maximum tangential load the key can take based on crushing, if we multiply it with radius of shaft, we will get the maximum torque it can take, if we again multiply it with angular velocity we can find out the maximum power it can transmit.  {for this 2-3 minutes, I forgot about the rest of the world, I completely got into my teaching mode, nobody questioned anything, they were all just nodding and smiling, it was an easy question but it doesn't matter what the question is, it matters how well you explain it. I've said this before in my BARC preparation videos, these are top scientists of this country you are dealing with, for them everything is easy like ABCD, for them design of key is easy and so is finite element method, so explain any question you get to the fullest}  I3:Ok ok(looked very satisfied)  {But I didn't stop, I thought let's finish it perfectly, 18 months of preparation, 6 years of struggle, I'm not taking any chances, I'll present my 100%} Me: We can also design it based on shear, so for that the tangential force will be same but shear area now will be(showing it on diagram) b*l, so we have to know the shear strength of the material and we can again find the maximum tangential load and subsequently maximum torque in similar manner.  I3:ok ok.  I4:have you studied engineering drawing?  {this is the thing about ISRO, they can ask questions even from subjects you didn't mention as favourite subject. I mentioned 6 subjects but still they went for 7th. What they didn't knew is that I was prepared for 11 subjects. I had already prepared engineering drawing along with all of production, refrigeration and air conditioning, engineering mechanics and obviously thermodynamics, in the last 2 months. You see the contrast in BARC & ISRO interviews? In BARC you say 5 subjects and you prepare for 4 according to my strategy that I shared on youtube. In ISRO on the other hand, you say 5-6 subjects and prepare for 11-12 subjects.}  Me: Yes sir.  I4:Why do we need engineering drawing?  Me: Whatever a designer designs, engineering drawing is used to convey it to the manufacturer.  I4: Suppose you have to produce this glass (there was a glass on my side of the table) how will you do it? What will be the engineering drawing? Show us on board.  Me:Sir should I draw the projections? top view, front view etc.?  I4: Yes.  Me: (Drawing and explaining) I am going to use Indian standard. In India we use 3rd angl..sorry 1st angle projection so I'm going to draw according to it.  I4: What?  Me: Sir, we use first angle projection in India.  Male HR: Is it so? (with a big smile on his face) Me: Yes sir, Indian companies use first angle projection and American companies use third angle projection. (they looked satisfied so I turned back to the board and continued drawing and explaining) So according to first angle projection, top view will be below front view and right view will be on left hand side of front view. So the front view will be like this (drawing a rectangular shape with its lower edge touching the horizontal plane. I also drew the hidden lines to show that glass has some thickness and that it is a hollow cylinder, drew projection lines towards left hand side plane to draw right view but stopped knowing that it will be same as front view and I didn't want to waste their time as I knew what they wanted to see are the front view and top view)  Some Interviewer from back: It would be same right? (talking about the right view)  Me: (without turning) yes sir.(continued drawing, drew two concentric circles using projections of front view and stopped).  I4: So how will you show concentricity?  Me: Like this sir(I drew two mutually perpendicular center lines, those with alternate long and short lines) I5: So how will you show a concentricity tolerance of let us say //some value I do not remember // microns?  Me: (thinking for a second) sir it looks like this (drew two small concentric circles. 2 years ago when I was an intern at TATA Cummins, my guide forced me to go through geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, but it was impossible to remember all that now) I do not remember completely, I studied this a long time ago in Geometric dimensioning and Tolerancing (I later found out that the symbol I drew was actually correct, its just that it was a bit incomplete)  I4:Ok ok(looked satisfied)  {Till now it was perfect and I knew that if you are giving perfect answers to normal questions, they are going to get into more advanced and abstract questions because now they would like to push your limits. Honestly the easy questions lasted longer than I expected. By now I knew I had done more than enough to get in, the interview is over, I am selected, if they continue, it will be only be because they want to have a little fun}  I1:You said material science right?  Me: Yes sir.  I1: In what way do we classify materials?  Me: (A little confused about where to start? as this question has infinite number of answers) Sir, we can classify materials as ductile and brittle.  I1: and?  Me: (Thinking for a second or two) and we also classify it as isotropic and orthotropic.  I1: and?  Me: There are lot of ways to classify Materia...  I1: have you heard of metallic and non metallic materials?  Me: yes sir, metallic materials have free electrons in it where as non metallic materials has no free electrons.  I1: Can you give me some examples of both?  Me: Sir examples of non-metallic materials are plastic, polymers, ceramics.  I1: and non metallic?  Me: Steel, copper, aluminium etc.  (such a silly question, I think by the end of me answering, he also realised it 7 so he said along with me)  I1: Cooper, steel etc right?  Me: yes sir, copper steel, aluminium etc.  I1: can you draw the stress strain curve of mild steel, cast iron and aluminium?  Me: yes sir. (turning towards the board and going to the left most part of it) so first I'll draw for mild steel.  I1: No no.. In same graph.  Me: ok sir (drew x and y axis at center of the board) on x axis we will have stress...Engineering stress (I didn't wanted to play that game of I'll say stress then you'll ask which stress then I'll say engineering stress then you'll ask what is other kind, what is it.... And so on... Because this interview had already gone way longer than I expected. At that point I just wanted to show all the excellence I have. By directly writing engineering stress, I had answered all those 6-8 questions perfectly in fraction of a second in their head, thus my impression improved and their time saved. It's a win win trick you play only when you know you are already on positive side because now they are confident about your skill in engineering, now they won't even ask... They'll just assume that you know it. That is the difference between 9/10 and 10/10. If you are 9/10 people will think there's something else you might not know and if you are 10/10 people will think you know everything. So I continued drawing, without wasting any time I drew three curves.  I1: Now where will concrete lie?  Me: (I drew a line near cast iron but with a larger slope)  I1: will it be stronger than cast iron?  Me : No sir, it will depend on young's modulus. Slope of this line is young's modulus.  I1: so is it stronger than cast iron?  Me: No sir(drawing a line with lesser slope) all I am saying is that concrete is brittle so it will have similar curve... There will be no yielding.  I1: So where will it lie?  Me: Sir it depends on young's modulus of concrete,I don't remember the value.  I1: OK.  I6: you said heat transfer right?  Me: yes sir.  I6: draw a pipe?  Me: (drew two parallel lines)  I6: no the other side.  Me: front view?  I6: yes.  Me: (drew two concentric circles)  I6: there is hot fluid passing. Tell me the modes of heat transfer.  Me: convection-conduction-convection.  I6: Now put an insulation.  Me: (I did)  I6: Now tell me the modes of heat transfer.  Me: convection-conduction-conduction-convection I6: Now remove the insulation. Now this pipe is buried underground. Soil is maintained at 25 C. Tell me the modes of heat transfer.  Me: convection-conduction-conduction I6: No, that pipe wall is maintained at 75 C.  Me: There will be conduction taking place as soil is solid. There is no chance of convection. Since the temperature difference is large there might be considerable radiation. (this was an abstract question, these questions have no answers, you have to show your thinking capacity here, that's it)  I7: Ok coming to fluid mechanics.  (At this time I was surprised by the time they are investing on me)  Me: yes sir.  I7: have you seen air balloon? Why does it fly?  Me: it is because of the buoyancy effect. The weight of the air it displaces is more than the its own weight.  I7: So it will keep on going up into the outer space?  ( A long time ago I had heard this question when I was still undergraduate, I knew it will stop at a particular height but never gave it a thought on why it will stop)  Me: No sir it will stop at a particular height (with full confidence... hoping he doesn't ask why)  I7: Why?  Me:(thinking for a second, pretending that I'm gathering my words) Sir as we keep on going to higher altitudes the air becomes thinner and thus we have lower density, thus at some point weight of fluid displaced will equate to weight of balloon and it stops.  I7: so have you seen that we use heat source placed at the bottom of balloon?  Me: yes sir.  I7: Why do we use it?  Me: To heat the air. Hotter air will have lesser density.  I7: That hole is made very small. Why? Why can't we have a larger hole?  Me: Sir, so that we don't have to heat a lot lot of air.  I7: No we are heating the same amount of air anyways.  Me: (paused for few seconds, thinking) Sir I'll have to think about it.  I7: Why can't we have it like a parachute?  Me: (thinking)  I7: why cant we have a big hole?  Me: (Drew a semi sphere, convex upwards) like this?  I7: Yes, exactly.  Me: (Thinking. Somehow I knew I was taking more time than what they have, but they were unexpectedly giving me time to think and kept giving me hints, this was because of the strong base I created and also they were considerate about the fact that I have been standing and explaining for the last 30-40 minutes, I must have gotten tired) It will be difficult to manufacture (just didn't wanted to be dumb so I said something. This is very important, if I stood dumb for 10 more seconds, interview would have ended right there and what's worse? It would have ended at a bad note. So I said something so that they might think that I am trying)  I7: We don't care about manufacturing cost. Have you studied about stability of a body?  {Now that's all I needed}  Me: Yes sir, ok I get it. For stability of submerged body of center of buoyancy should be above center of gravity of the body.  I7:why?  Me: If we tilt the body in any direction, there will be a restoring couple (showed it with diagram). So this principle is used here.  I7:How?  Me: Making a spherical shape must ensure the balloon to have G below B.  I7:(looking for more)  Me:(thinking for a second and then I finally got it, I got the answer. A submerged body can only be unstable if it has a differential density. What a smaller fire hole does is that it decreases the region directly in contact with the fire, i.e. it reduces the volume with sudden drop of density. Thus it helps in maintaining a relatively more uniform density so that the balloon remains stable in case of winds and bad weather. All these were running in my head. I forgot that I was in interview room, I just found the question amazing and was thrilled that I was able to get to the answer. That's when I exclaimed at a voice louder than any they had heard by me in the last 45 min...It was like a 'Eureka!' ) YES (took the marker pen and turned to the board) If I have balloon in the shape of a sphere (Drew a strong circle quickly, as soon as I did this, they knew that I've got it)  I7: Ok Ashish you can go. Me:(nodded, kept the pen on chair) thankyou everyone (I exited from the door)  I checked the time, it was way past 10:30. A guy (another candidate) followed me, he asked "what are they asking?" I said it all depends on your subjects. He said "your interview lasted very long". I asked, "how long?". "much more than half an hour" he said. I replied "it didn't feel like it, I have to go upstairs to return this pen". I returned the pen and went out thinking time to get some highlights in my hair. The interview lasted crazy long when compared to how long ISRO interviews usually last (10-20 minutes). I didn't see time before getting in but with my experience in previous interviews and taking a look at how much time they spent only on introduction and then the fact that they asked questions from SIX subjects that too lengthy ones, I think it was easily close to an hour. I was very confident I'm getting selected just like the day I was when BARC 2017 interview was over. One thing I'm sure of is that you cannot fool yourself, after the interview you either know you got selected or you know you didn't. There's nothing in between and that day I knew that I did it. Being in BARC for 1 year made me realise one thing... that I'm not a scientist.... I do not shine the brightest when it comes to Engineering. Where I excel is in making a full proof strategy for beating one of the most difficult competitions. That's how I cracked BARC and that's how I cracked ISRO and I want the world to know that anyone can do it if they have a proper strategy, dedication and a little bit of craziness.  If you went through my full interview experience then obviously you are very serious about this job. Find more of my guidance videos on my Youtube channel : Torq4712 Feel free to approach me at : Instagram, twitter, unacademy at : ashish_torq Gmail: torque4712@gmail.com  Whatsapp: 7042830765 (please don't call without messaging first) All I want to do is help my juniors. I want to bring the most authentic knowledge to all interested aspirants for free. This path is tough and I appreciate everyone who has the courage to travel it. All the best.

Well, I'm not an IITian, but did join Morgan Stanley as an IT Associate after completing by B.Tech from NIT Warangal. I worked there for almost 4 years from August, 2008 to May, 2012 before deciding that I wanted to get back to student life again. So, I'll offer my perspective on working at Morgan Stanley. While some of the aspects I describe may be unique to Morgan Stanley, a lot of them are consistent with some of the big firms that you've mentioned. I'll describe my journey in Morgan Stanley and hopefully, along the way I'll be able to answer your queries. RecruitmentI was recruited by Morgan Stanley way back in July, 2007. The process lasted for 2 days and was pretty rigorous. There was an online aptitude test in the beginning to be answered in either C, C++ or Java (the choice is yours). This was followed by 2 rounds of technical interview (each almost 1.5 hours long), a group activity and finally, a professional fit interview (which was 1 hour long too!). As I came from an Electronics and Communication Engineering background, I wasn't grilled much on the finer aspects of programming, but was tested more on the basic aspects of programming in languages that I knew (C++ and Java mostly). In both my interviews I was asked to write codes and algorithms on basic problems, which involved data structures as well. Additionally, I was also asked a lot of puzzles and vague scenario questions to test my thought process as well as logical and analytical reasoning capabilities. And that's what they are looking for - people with clarity in their thought processes and displaying strong logical and analytical abilities. Yes, it does help if you are an excellent programmer, but the interviewers won't sideline you if you have the aforementioned qualities with just basic programming knowledge. There is a 4 months training process that you have to undergo post joining and what they are looking for are students who can be trained easily for their respective roles. From an interviewer's point of view, easy trainability and culture fit are the prime determinants for selecting or rejecting a candidate.Note: This only applies for campus recruitments. For lateral recruits, the interviewers are looking for depth in programming and functional knowledge depending on the level and area of work experience. Joining and Training The first day at work was pretty much as expected. Orientations, HR policies, introduction to trainers and the like. The next 3 months comprised of a comprehensive training course that encompassed training in various languages (C#, Java, Perl etc). There were also weekly tests, with grades and individual reviews by the trainers. The sessions were easy to understand with hands-on experience to enable one to learn faster. In the final month of training, we were divided into groups of 3, each allotted to a team from the various different silos and verticals to work on a project for 1 month. Starting from scratch, our first task was to understand and negotiate requirements with the teams as our project completion deadline was very short - just a month! The next task was to build workflows and prototypes and obtain a sign-off from the teams and trainers. The final task was to actually implement the project. This process of a "project implementation" within the training period was our first exposure and peek in to the world of our actual jobs. Another unique feature during the training period was what can be called "internal placements". Under this process, teams with vacancies from various divisions and silos give presentations to the new recruits, a process which lasts about a week or so. The new recruits can then decide which teams they are most interested in and schedule interviews with them. As far as I recall, one had to interview with a minimum of 8 teams, but that might have changed over time. After all the interviews are done, there's a matching algorithm that matches the preferences of the teams with those of the candidates and accordingly, the trainees are allotted to respective teams. I found this process to be very useful and meaningful as it presents a lot of autonomy to both teams and candidates alike, thus resulting in both being satisfied. This is very unlike the conventional or traditional method of allotting candidates to teams, without giving either a fair oppportunity to assess and find a best match for themselves. Do note, however, that this training program is only for new campus recruits and does not apply to lateral recruits. On the jobI shall now discuss the various aspects of the actual job as under:Challenges: The challenges in your tasks and projects are quite dependent on the teams and projects that you are working on. It is therefore essential that one is careful and does a good amount of research before applying to teams during the "internal placement" process. Managers also play a huge role in the degree of autonomy and challenges that you face at the workplace. Since technologies change and become obsolete at a very rapid rate combined with the fact that in a financial services company like Morgan Stanley, speed and efficiency are paramount in the design and components of trading, accounting, reporting systems etc., there is always scope for improvement. It's up to you, your manager and team on how well you manage changes as well as scout for new avenues and thereby, be a determinant of the kind of challenges you face at the workplace. Personally, I enjoyed a relatively high degree of autonomy and got some good, challenging projects to work on that greatly enhanced my learning curve. Which brings me to the next aspect - learning.Learning: At Morgan Stanley, the scope and opportunities for learning are immense. There are a lot of periodic training sessions, knowledge wikis and videos for you to learn and expand your technical skill sets, learn about best practices & programming models as well as to enhance your knowledge horizons on functional and business aspects. On the soft skills side as well, there are a number of frequent and periodic sessions. For technological concepts, materials are often presented with examples for you to gain a clearer understanding.Career Development: In addition to the scope for learning and personal development, there are several avenues for career development as well. One can monitor the internal job openings within divisions, across divisions as well as across countries. This information is open and easily accessible to employees and you can apply to job openings that you are interested in. Quite often, teams prefer to scout for employees in-house rather than from the job market outside as it saves on a lot of time and effort. Additionally, there is a also a system of 'referrals', whereby employees can refer people for different roles and openings and HR will follow up if they find the profiles suitable.Compensation, Promotion and Recognition: The compensation levels are generally higher than the average in the industry at most levels. The focus of compensation, like with several other banks, is generally on "Total rewards" (fixed + variable) rather than on fixed rewards. Promotions are primarily dependent on 2 factors - relative performance and visibility. The process is fairly standardized across all divisions, though variations may exist. There are various forums at intra and inter divisional levels to recgonize and promote the work of employees. Outstanding work and projects may also be awarded and recognized in the various award ceremonies at different levels (global, country, intra and inter divisional)People and Culture: From my personal experience, you'll find that you are surrounded by a bunch of highly diversified, talented, intellectual and smart people. It's quite easy to find experts in nearly any topic and signNow out to them. People are generally forthcoming, friendly and helpful and you'll find that there's a lot that you can learn from their experience and knowledge. There's usually a open-door policy with managers and you can directly meet and discuss issues, suggestions and apprehensions without any hierarchical procedures or beauracracy.Culture is something that's emphasized on and one of the reasons for the rigorous recruitment process is to ensure a professional and cultural fit. Team outings, special occasion celebrations and intra as well as inter division events are quite frequent.Benefits: Some benefits that come to mind are:a) LTA, Medical insurance (for self and spouse/parents), medical reimbursements, maternal and paternity leave policy.b) Home drops for everyone from 8:30pm onwards.c) Yoga and aerobic sessions in the evenings on alternate days on a paid basis.d) Carrom and Table tennis for recreation.e) Work from home option and flexibility.f) Flexible work timings (may depend on your work and team though!) Like I mentioned earlier, many of these aspects are common to a lot of companies that you've mentioned in your question. Raghavendra, in his answer, has tried to portray the differences between working for a startup and a MNC. While I believe there's some truth in his answer, it cannot be held as a generalization. There are pros and cons of working in either and what one chooses is a very subjective call. But that's for another discussion!

Rank : 58Attempt No : 1stBoard: Professor H.C. GuptaDate: 9 June 2015Time: 4:30 pmAcademic Background: B.Tech, Electrical IIT Delhi (2013)Job Experience: RBI & Samsung (both intern), Estee Advisors (current)Hobbies: Learning language, chess, teaching.-------------- (Chairperson) ---------CP: So are you working ?Me: Yes sir. CP : Where and what are you doing?Me: Sir, I am working as a technical analyst at Estee Advisors Private Limited, GurgaonCP: What's your role.Me: Sir, I write softwares for High Frequency Trading platform.CP: In which stock exchanges does your company trade?Me: NSE, BSE, MCX, CME, SGCX, DGCXCP: Recently the govt has launched a scheme related to gold. Do you know about it?Me: Yes sir. It is called Gold Monetisation Scheme .... details followed.CP: I think it's a completely useless scheme. People are emotionally attached to their jewellery and therefore they would never put their jewellery in bank. Me: Sir we can offer higher interest rate and moreover all our gold is not in the form of jewellery.CP: (not convinced by my answer). It's the bureaucrat like you that give such nonsense suggestions. Tell me some measures to improve the scheme.Me: (.. gave some measures).CP: (again not convinced). The steps suggested by you have been tried earlier in many different forms. If they did not work in past then how will it work in future?Me: Sir, it's better to have hope than be pessimistic.CP: Do you think having hope will run the country ? CP suggested to other members to ask questions.------------------------------------------ (Member - 1)  ------------------M1: So Bhavesh, tell me what's a blue water navy?Me: I told him the definition etc.M1: What is India doing in this regard ?Me: Told him about our PMs visit, navy rescue efforts, joint exercise, upgradation etc.M1: He asked me about some warfare ships imported from Russia.Me: Sorry sir, I don't recall the nameM1: Your hobby is language learning. What languages do you know?Me: Sir, I like learning scripts and I can read and write in all major Indian languages.M1: Can you write your name in Tamil .Me: I wrote my name in Tamil.M1: So your name is Bhavesh and not Bhaavesh.Me: Yes sir !Lady Member (from Bengal): Write your name in BengaliMe: I wrote my name in Bengali Lady Member: Great, this guy can be posted to any corner of the country.M1: Why are you learning these languages.Me: Told him about my project to digitise all Indian texts from ancient to medieval era in a searchable format.---------------------------------- (M2 : Lady Member)  --------------------M2: So you have worked in RBI?Me: Yes ma'am.M2: Do you think RBI role is as important today as it was 20 years.Me: Gave some standard text book answers.M2: Why 21st century is called Asian Century.Me: A standard reply follows ...M2: Give some reasons why Bollywood will supercede Hollywood in 21st century.Me: Large diaspora, diversity, music, huge population etc ...M2: Which was the last book you studied?Me: Surely You're Joking Feynman - Richard FeynmanM2: What's it about?Me: Told her about the life of great physicist etc....---------------------------------- (Member - 3)  ------------------------------M3: Why our agricultural policy is flawed?Me: Gave a very long reply - compromising on long term gains vs short term benefits etc. .... M3: Did India liberalise too early?Me: Again a long answer followed. I gave ample data both in favour and in against ...----------------------------------------------- (Member - 4) ----------M4: Tell me something about John Nash. Which disease was he suffering from?Me: Narrated his life history in detail .............M4: Who gave the concept of Game Theory first?Me: Sorry sir, I don't recall the name.M4: How many Nobel prizes have been awarded in the field of game theory.Me: I told him 6 but 11 was the answer.M4: Why IITians don't join DRDO?Me: Gave a long reply ............. M4: I will have to talk to DRDO !!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chairperson: Thank you Bhavesh, your interview is over.My Assessment:I really had a fun time in the interview. Contrary to what others tell, the board members are extremely cordial and friendly. Prof H.C. Gupta is a genius. He did his PhD at the age of 20 / 22 years !!Although he seems intimidating at first but he actually tries to put you through stress test.Overall I was quite satisfied with my effort. Now waiting for marks; although UPSC is known for giving very less marks even if you think that your interview went fine.EDIT: I got 209 / 275 marks !

As CEO of a startup that helps provide legal services for other startups, I think I can shed some light on this one. Here is a non-exhaustive list of important practices for a startup to follow:Hire a good startup lawyer in the very beginning. Look for someone that provides the insight needed to understand the everyday stressors that you face (in other words - hire an attorney who has worked with startups before!). Typically it is a lawyer who understands that risk can't be eliminated, but rather it must be managed strategically from a cost-benefit point of view. The lawyer should understand the company’s culture and objectives and be committed to gaining the trust of the startup’s key personnel. Most importantly, the lawyer must be committed to being available when needed.Incorporate your startup. This can be combined with my first tip if you end up hiring an attorney, who will surely take care of this for you. If you can figure out how to incorporate on your own great, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s easy to make mistakes and if those mistakes are made, you’ll end up paying an attorney much more in the long run. A common mistake is incorporating as the wrong business entity. An attorney is the most apt to advise you on the right business entity for your startup. I urge you to incorporate as early as possible in order to gain the personal protection that comes with it; it would be very difficult to sustain your startup if your personal assets are at risk from a lawsuit.Protect your intellectual property (IP). When you are establishing your startup, it’s vital that you obtain any relevant trademarks, patents, or copyrights before your IP is out for public consumption. The obvious risk you run by not doing so is that, if unprotected, your creations are fair game for competitors to steal. Other IP agreements are super important to have depending on your industry. These agreements include protections against trade secrets, confidentiality agreements, and non-compete agreements. Lastly, it’s imperative for your startup to have these agreements ready to go when hiring new employees, talking to investors, consultants, and possibly even distributors.Draft all other relevant documents. It’s hard to say which docs you’ll need as that will depend on the business entity and what state you’re in. This, again, is something an attorney will help you with.Stop by LawTrades where we help bootstrapped startups find sound legal advice from experienced startup attorneys. Our mission is to provide startups with an experience atypical from that of the traditional law firm experience by offering alternative payment options, free consultations and price quotes, all done completely through the web. Good luck!

By "technical domain" I assume you are talking about coding/programming skills? If no, then my answer is off subject. My bad.On Japanese mainstream media you often hear that there is a "lack of IT technicians." According to NHK morning program ohayō Nippon, 87％ of IT companies say they need more IT technicians. It is specially true in startups (ventures) because Japanese people still prefer to secure a job in a big Japanese company (social pressure and reputation is high when it comes to once company’s name).In addition, the Japanese IT world suffers of so called "3K" reputation. In Japanese, 3K stands for きつい、帰れない、給料が安い (Kitsui, Kaerenai, Kyūryō ga yasui) or, in English, "hard, unable to go back home, low salary". There are unfortunately a lot of unscrupulous "black" corporation in the IT world.Therefore, there is a brain drain in the Japanese IT world. There is even a wikipedia page about it: IT業界離れ - Wikipedia One solution is to outsource in east Asia, Vietnam, Tailand, India or even Philippines. Another solution is to hire foreigners. In the NHK morning program above, the interviewed company says it enrolled Vietnamese freshers. Regarding this last point, there have been quite a lot of contestations from insiders on Internet. According to Japanese IT worker, it’s not a lack of IT professionals but a lack of cheap IT pro:A while ago, it was Korean technicians, then Chinese one and now Vietnamese. In short, the 'lack of IT technicians’ is a ‘lake of cheap labourers!’Source: https://news.careerconnection.jp... Is it really that bad?Yes and no.I, myself, work in an IT company. I’m a fresher, therefore the salary is not high yet but I don’t wear myself out, nor work until midnight.It will sound silly but it really depends on the company. If you look at companies such as DeNA, CyberAgent or Line, there is no chronic shortage of personnel there. On the contrary, despite being ventures (actually, mega-ventures) a lot of freshers apply there every year.During job hunting, I came across a lot of different company. Some where amazing, other where so black the guy in charge of the presentation almost burst into tears…How to tell appart black companies?Turnover in black businesses is abnormally high. If in the first three years, 30% of freshers leave the company, it is suspicious. The main reasons are:Overtimes are not paidTough working conditionsSalary is comparatively low (and doesn’t increase) Regarding salary, sometimes it is lower than expected but you should also check welfares. In my case, the salary is a little bit lower than average but I have apartment rental allowance, full subway allowance, self-investment allowance (they pay for diplomas and the books/courses I need to pass them), complete insurance and so forth.Fast employment process. Employment process for freshers is slow in Japan. There are several interviews and tests. If it seems abnormally short, that could be a red flag. However it is not necessarily the case. Some company, specially young one, doesn’t have time and ressources to conduct eight interviews like in bigger companies.The interviewer's physical condition. Like I said, if the interviewer or employees seem really tired and/or sad, this doesn’t look good. It could be a bad cold or hay fever but generally you can tell appart. Use your guts.Office is dirty. During the company’s presentation or the interviews, look for signs of dirty office like dust. Ask to use the toilets. Toilets in Japan are almost always immaculate. If it smells bad, it doesn’t smell good for you either.Death from overwork and suicide. Big red flag. I know suicide rate is high in Japan (especially among men) and it could be not-work related but most case it is. Don’t waste your time and knowledge to help this kind of murderers.No follow-up after the job offer. I received a job offer by mail from a company that never ever contacted me afterward. I sent a hand-written refusal letter and still never heard a single word from them. It means you are just a number, they don’t care. In comparison, another company which gave me a job offer invited me and the other prospective employees for a official introduction and lunch with the employees. Even after I sent the refusal letter, they responded with a kind email and we are still on good terms as of today. My actual employee sent me a first email to avouch the job offer and a reminder email to know whether I made my decision to join in or not. You are a person, they do care about you and really want you to join in.One or more criteria above could be a red flag but this is not necessarily the case. Use common sense and, last things, rely on other people experiences. Search it up! If there are suspicions of unethical practices in a company, it sure is on Internet. Use keywords like the following:company_name ブラックcompany_name 2chcompany_name 悪徳company_name どうよcompany_name  口コミ (I used this one a lot, it’s broader than just distinguishing black business)By the way, I said above that some companies are looking for cheap labourers. If you are given a lower salary because you are not Japanese, tell them to find someone else. Especially if they tell you "it’s still better than in your home country", this is highly unethical.How does one apply for jobs in Japan as a fresher? I already provided the beginning of an answer here: Alexandre Mercier's answer to How is the job prospects for foreign graduate students from University of Tokyo? However, I feel I should make a more exhaustive answer.Japanese job hunting doesn’t work like most country. You don’t wait until you are graduated to start looking for a job. During last year in university, Japanese student are expected to do two main activities: finding a job and write your graduation thesis (and keep up with your grades, of course). This mean that once graduate, s/he is expected to already have a job. However if you are not enrolling in a Japanese university right now, it won’t matter but keep it in mind and don’t be astonished if most people you meet are students.Now about job hunting schedule can go up to one year and half but it is mainly for information gathering and you can find a job way faster. I gather information in my home country for several months (maybe 3, I’m not sure) and did find a job in 5 months.In addition, the job hunting schedule varies by company. Ventures tend to start earlier than small, middle and big companies. But that is not necessarily the case.  You need to gather informations in a proactive manner. However, inscriptions on the two main job hunting websites MyNavi and Rikunabi starts the 1st of March. You can, however, check companies’ informations beforehand.Job hunting schedule by MyNaviBefore the big rush in march, Japanese students do one or more internship and gather informations about themselves (self-analysis and evaluation) and about industries that interest them. Self-analysis and evaluation will help you being appealing in your résumé, applications forms and answering questions during interviews. It also helps you imagine whether you see yourself in one company or not. It is pretty basic: strong points, weak points, interests, values, how did you change in the past, where do you see yourself in several years etc. MyNavi offers an online personality diagnosis and a profession diagnosis that will perhaps help you sort it out.Now that you are ready and knows what you want to do, what is the next step?Applications! エントリーYou need to get in contact with the companies you want to apply to. If you already know the name of some company, go to their home page and look for 採用情報. Most Japanese company’s HP has that kind of page. If you can’t find it, just type "company_name 新卒採用" on Google.However if you don’t know which company you want to apply to, use an employment informations website. Here is a non-exhaustive list:http://job.mynavi.jp/2017/ 新卒採用を実施している企業を探す｜リクナビ2017 就職活動の日経就職ナビ | 新卒・既卒学生(2016・2017年卒)の就職活動支援、求人情報サイト 就活ラボ 就活・就職サイト｜中小・ベンチャーの採用情報は朝日学情ナビ【あさがくナビ】 就職活動応援サイト〜ダイヤモンド就活ナビ〜 新卒アドベンチャーズ2017 | 就活・就職情報サイト Goodfind 次代を創るビジネスリーダー／アントレプレナーのためのキャリアサイト グッドファインド https://www.passion-navi.com CFN|海外留学生、日英バイリンガルのための就職・転職サイト。外資系から海外のポジションまでグローバル人材の求人情報はCareerForum.Net Personally, I started with MyNavi and Rikunabi but shortly shifted Nikkei Shūshoku Navi and later Shinsotsu Adventurez, Goodfind and PassionNavi - where I found my job. The first two are good but there are so many companies and informations that I grow tired of it. Goodfind and PassionNavi are my favourites because it’s startups/ventures-oriented and they organise helpful forums. CEO of both company are really kind as well. Shinsotsu Adventurez also organise good seminars/forums. Their "Digital Advisers" really helped me learn about the Japanese market, digital revolution and job of the future. They gave me insightful informations about the job market and data to use during interviews. Do recommend.I’d say CFN is more internationalised, if that is what you are looking for. Also, note that MyNavi and Nikkei holds big information center and seminar for foreigners. (Last year events: マイナビ2016 - 外国人留学生特集 - トップページ & 外国人留学生ナビ／就職活動の日経就職ナビ2016<就活支援+就職情報>)Register to several websites and see which one fits you best.Processus is pretty straightforward: once registered, you apply to one company, respond to questions if asked and you will start receiving informations related to the company. It will notify you about seminars and briefing sessions.Company briefing sessions! 企業説明会Those briefing sessions are organised by company (sometimes several at once). The goal is to give you an overview of the company, its employee, its vision, results and the industry it evolves in. At the end of the briefing session, sometimes there is a first selection (group work or group interview) and/or you have to fill in an Entry Sheet (application form) if you are interested in the company.I spent countless hours sitting on a chair listening to companies briefing sessions. Sometimes it was very boring but most of the time it allowed me to grasp informations about an industries, its main players etc. It also helped me improve my Japanese listening skills and, in addition, I made friends from Okinawa to Hokkaidō!Tests & Interviews! 試験・面接As some companies receive thousands of ES, they need tests to decide between participants.Aptitude tests: to measure an individual's job aptitude and tolerance for stress and for HR to know whether you will fit in one corporate culture.Pro tip from Japanese friends: don’t answer based on what you think is right but what the HR thinks is (check the website and interviews of employees).General knowledge tests: questions are based on various themas including social studies, Japanese, English, culture, mathematics, science, and current affairs.It is very tough.Composition and essays: tests in which you have to write about a given topic.Sometimes it was hard, sometimes it was fun ("Would you like to do chonmage hairstyle and why?")Web tests: mostly the thing above but on Internet (on goddamn 90’s HTML that doesn’t run on modern web browser or freaking Java grrrrrrr!!)Pro tip from Japanese friends: do it with you friends. Everybody does and top-rank university even have the responses to most tests (life is unfair)There are others tests but those are the principals.If you do well at the test, you’re in for the next steps: interviews. Again, there are several types of interview and usually there are two to four interviews (sometimes even more!) with each time even higher-rank interviewer, before a job offer is issued. The types of interview are:Individual interview (with one ore more interviewer): the most classic type of interview. It roughly follows the same pattern: knock two times, says 失礼いたします before entering, wait to seat before being invited to do so and wen asked, say your university, your major, your full name, tell why you are awesome, tell why you’d be awesome in the company and finish with yoroshiku (actually, 本日はよろしくお願いいたします). Next steps, interviewer(s) will ask you several questions. If you prepared well, it shouldn’t be very hard. It’s almost always the same questions (strong points, weak points, interests, values, where do you see yourself in the futur…). Well, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t prepare for tricker questions!Group interview: it is like individual interview but with 2 or more participants. In that case, listening skill is important. Therefore if you can say something like "like Tanaka-San, I am blabla…" or "contrary to Nakamura-San, I think that blabla…", while giving a strong impression, it should be okay!Group discussion/work: a given topic is given to several participants and you need to speak about it or work something out of it. The goal is to see if you can work in group, if you are assertive, if you can respect deadlines etc. Nothing is set in stone but there are role-plays that you can try to follow such as leader (takes the initiative to hear everyone’s opinion, conduct the discussion/work), writer (write down everyone’s opinion and rephrase it), time master (sets the allowed time for each task and reminds everyone of time left by checking watch/smartphones; probably the easiest role). You should equally listen and speak.Presentation interview: I did only one myself but it’s like school: a topic is given in advance and you have to prepare and present it in front of interviewer(s) and/or other participant(s). You should uphold your opinion.Job offers! 内々定That is it… If you perform well, you will be reward with one or several job offers! Congratulations!You will first receive a call from the company, be thankful and say "yes I’d be glad to receive the job offer, thank you very much" even if you already know that you are not. They will then send you a declaration by mail that you will have to sign and return. (mind the deadline!) If you receive more than one job offer, you will meet the struggle of choosing a company. In my opinion, it’s even harder than job hunting itself. Which one is better? Where should I go? The salary is better here but this looks cool? Welcome in first world problem. Be wise! Ask friends, relatives, people you trust, learn about the companies, make a pros and cons list… Then flip a coin. Once in the air, you will know where you want to go.The declaration is not legally binding therefore you can continue your job hunting.I don’t like to say it, but if the deadline is near and you are not totally sure yet, sign it and send it back anyway. You will be able to send a refusal letter later, if you find another job. It’s really frustrating for the company but keep in mind that you are looking for a job for yourself! However, for the sack of common courtesy, avoid it if you can and send a hand-written job offer decline statement as soon as you are sure of your choice. Remember what I wrote above and don’t take it personally, if they don’t acknowledge your response, be glad you did not go to that company.There are many many more things to know about job hunting in Japan but I have confined myself to your question "how to apply in Japan as a fresher?" Briefly, you will need a two buttons black suit with a not-flashy red, blue or green necktie and white shirt (as a suit lover, that was the hardest part for me haha). If you don’t know what 尊敬語、謙譲語、丁寧語 stands for or don’t know how to use it, grab a book and train as soon as possible. You will also need to learn telephone etiquette, e-mail etiquette, writing etiquette, bowing etiquette, how to enter an examination room, how to seat etc.Seems tough? Fear not! as the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO)  did a guidebook for international students with a lot of ressources in English and in Japanese. Read it, but don’t be obsessed with this guide.I mean, you can learn everything there is to know about job hunting in Japan but you won’t really know what’s up until you go out into the world and embark on this rite of passage. I fully prepared back home and felt like I had to relearn most things when I was in Japan.For exemple, my first interview was in winter, it was raining and I entered with my winter coat on. In Japan this is a no-no situation! I learnt it when I saw people undressing beforehand, in front of the company building.I won’t lie to you, it was hard. But it was 100% worth it. I learned so much, met so many amazing people and grow up so much that if I had to do it again, I certainly would.Good luck with your job hunting! Feel free to comment if you need more help.

Proof that Ecommerce in India is rapidly growing:India is ditching offline commerce at an alarming pace and switching to Ecommerce for most, if not all purchases. Below are 5 solid reasons that leave no doubt about how Ecommerce in India is growing uncontrollably:Internet Users signNowing Critical Mass:The government of India has tried very hard with the ‘Digital India’ campaign to convert its population largely belonging to remote areas into active Internet users. And it looks like their efforts are starting to pay off since the number of Internet users in India is rapidly increasing by the day. With smartphones now available at throwaway prices, and ISP’s offering affordable Internet plans, online users are turning into customers every other day. Almost everyone in India uses the Internet for searching nearby services, social media, and for minor or major purchases thus ensuring that Ecommerce is India is headed in the right direction.Middle Class is the new Rich:It won’t do to underestimate the Indian Middle Class any longer. Most people belonging to middle-class families can now afford necessities along with sufficient luxuries, especially through online purchases. With the rise in modern jobs that offer incredulous salary packages, the barrier between the middle class and the upper class has thinned. Ecommerce in India is and should target the upper-middle class with wealth to spare for luxuries. In fact, there are several luxury online stores selling high-end brands at affordable prices online.Streamlined Payments and Logistics:Payment Gateways are slowly moving towards one-touch payments, instant transfers, and e-wallets, making Ecommerce and Mobile Commerce a breeze. The average Indian user is no longer struggling to remember several different passwords and security answers. With enough support from Indian banks towards streamlined and safe online payments, there is no more struggle to search, find, and buy the product or service of your choice online. Logistics in India is becoming streamlined as well, given the immense population and heavy traffic on Indian roads. Ecommerce companies are brainstorming for clever ways to deliver your goods bought online by setting up nearby logistics services, that can quickly procure packages and conveniently deliver them to your location at the time of your choosing. Ecommerce companies also have GPS tracking applications in place which have tightened the noose around logistics companies to co-operate with E-commerce companies to the fullest extent. Ecommerce in India is now successfully processing international payments and shipping around the world, thanks to streamlined payments and logistics.