eSign Word for HR Myself

They used false “help wanted” ads to fire their own employees that were looking for a new job.I worked for a lead generation service which sold qualified lists of homeowners (and their telephone numbers) to financial advisers. Then, they sold those same financial advisers a telemarketing service that would call those homeowners and arrange appointments with them. There is so much that is “shady” about this company that it is impossible to bring up one questionable act without first explaining several previous questionable or downright illegal acts. (UPDATE: if you want more details about how bad it was to work for this place, check out John Hursey's answer to What is the most ridiculous reason for which you have been fired?)After a particularly horrifying series of events right around the holiday season, I decided to begin looking for a new job. I got on craigslist, and I found several positions in customer service and data entry that were available right in my city. I sent them a quick email with my resume attached, and waited for a response.The next day I was called into the President’s office. He invited me to sit down. His mother (the vice president of the company) was standing behind him. He asked me if I was happy working for him.Luckily for me, I knew this was a trap of some kind and answered honestly. I told him that I was interested in having more free time with a more flexible schedule and that it would be impossible to do so with my current job, so I was in the process of looking for something else. I also told him that I had informed my direct supervisor of my intentions last week, and that I would give the company adequate warning—at least two weeks notice—before I quit.He and his mother looked at each other. Well, he said, it turns out that one of the companies I had applied to was the very same company I worked for now. I thought that was odd, because I don’t have any intellectual disabilities or mental impairments that would indicate I would apply to the same company that I currently worked for. Nevertheless, I told him that I suppose this was good news, since perhaps I could simply transfer to whatever this open position was and still maintain my employment with his company while working the schedule that was most convenient for myself.Not so fast. It turned out there wasn’t any positions available in those departments. Their strategy was to entice applicants with positions in data entry and customer service and then during the interview inform them that those positions had been filled; those applicants were then offered much less pay and schedule flexibility as a salesman. In addition, current employees that applied for these jobs were summarily fired for being “disloyal.”A month later I was terminated, for reasons I still do not fully understand. I applied for unemployment, and when I explained the series of events leading to my termination the lady at the unemployment office literally scoffed at me and told me that my story was unbelievable. She even called me personally at home to tell me that the company was contesting my unemployment filing and that she expected me to lose the arbitration process.The day of the hearing I got a phone call from the same lady, in tears. She apologized profusely for how she had treated me. She had just completed a five-minute interaction with the president and his mother, confirming not only my story but also her worst fears about humanity in general.

I think I have possibly done every crazy stuff in an interview. It just makes me so nervous that I can't control my self and do stupid things. Some of them are listed down below. I had a video interview. It was really new to me so I read the rules. It said " A video would be sent to you. you have to answer the question in the video and make a video of you answering the question. You have a time limit of just 30 secs. Best of luck "       I read this and I was like shit only 30 secs for an answer. I have to keep it short and to the point. I chanted " short and to the point "," short and to the point"," short and to the point " over and over till I sat on the chair to answer the question.They started to ask me questions and I started giving the answers. They asked tough questions but I answered them all very confidently. But, god had other plans for me. The interviewer asked me a very tough question which I had no clue how to answer. Stunned I was starting to get nervous. I didn't want them to think that I was nervous and didn't know the answer to that question as it was the most important question and it was like the decision making question for the job title.Nervous as I was at that time, I thought quickly. I pretended to be like a statue just so that they should think that the Internet connection froze the video.I did it for like 15-20 secs of the whole 30 min video. Before they could say what the hell are you doing ? I searched for the answer on the computer and they replied soon after that they would like to do the interview on Skype.I hesitantly agreed. They skyped me. I was sitting 3 feet away from the computer, just so that they can see my whole body and they should not think that this man was nervous and not shivering or shaking his hands or legs. I got through that level and was called for an in-person interview. At the In-person Interview.I wore these new pure black leather shoes that my dad bought for me and wanted me to wear them for the interview. He told me before going there, go and wear these, please don't travel in these. I said " Ok! cool?!"As I signNowed I was greatly taken care of. As I was near the building where the interview was gonna take place, I was called from behind. I turned and saw a beautiful girl calling me. She was the interviewer. I accompanied her to her office, but the stairs to her office almost screwed me.They were spiral stairs. they are the one with one side small and the other one bigger. They looked something like this but they were even more smaller at the railing side.​So, as she was really sexy, I was trying to look cool and we cracked jokes from the building's main gate to the stairs and I was walking beside her and didn't notice the curve.Thanks to my new shoes, I slipped real bad but what happened next was really scary.I grabbed her hair trying to maintain my balance and took her down with me.We rolled down some 20-30 stairs. Still managed to grab the job and the interviewer. Yes she is my wife now ;) edit:1 Okay so many insisted that how can this thing happen. This is fake. You are making up stories just by seeing a very uncommon stair.The reasons I didn't elaborated the whole story was because :I was really tired as I wrote the answer on my way from the airport to home.It was about 3-4 in the morning and I had a 12 hours jet lag.My driver just took a right turn and I could see my home right in front of me so I was bored to write more.So that's why I kept it short. Here is the way it went.I joined the company around 3 weeks after the interview and she was placed to train me. The training lasted for around 3 months and after that we ended up doing 4 projects together which added to around 1 and half years of togetherness. In this period we started to date. We left the employer together to form a Internet startup. As we completed 2 years of that startup, I proposed to her and she happily agreed. We have founded 1 more startup since then and we both are really happy. And No! the fall didn't make our love story but that job did.Both of our startups are very successful and earn us around 120000$ each. I don't think that falling on her and pulling her hair did something to make her to fall in love with me, instead our friendship did.

As a startup founder of three years myself, I can relate to how legal housekeeping can be messy. Once a year, I have our own lawyers go through and do an audit of all of our legal paperwork (which costs a couple thousand dollars to be extremely thorough, but it’s worth it). Luckily, there are now many ways to easily manage and track all of your legal, financial, and HR documents via third-party sites that specialize in these management proceedings. I wrote a blog post about this awhile back titled “5 Ways to Save Time Dealing With Documents” which highlights certain sites that can be very beneficial depending on what paperwork you’d like to track or manage. They are as follows:1. GroupDocsGroupDocs is a new, comprehensive online service for document creation and management. It has multiple features, including a viewer for reading documents in your browser, an electronic signature service, an online document converter, a document assembly service, a feature for comparing different versions of a document, and an annotation feature. An individual plan is $10 per month for limited storage and 500 documents, while a group plan for up to 9 people is $19 per user per month. Based on the number of features and pricing, GroupDoc is a good-value purchase for a small business. As you’ll see below, GroupDocs can be cheaper than a service that offers only one such feature.2. signNowWhen you’re closing a deal and need to get documents signed, the last thing you need is a slow turnaround due to fax machine problems or the postal service. The solution is to use an electronic signature service such as signNow, which is one of the most popular e-signature companies in the world. This service allows you to email your documents to the person whose signature you need. Next, the recipient undergoes a simply e-signing process, and then signNow alerts you when the process is completed. Finally, signNow electronically stores the documents, which are accessible at any time. As a result, you can easily track the progress of the signature process and create an audit trail of your documents. The “Professional” plan is recommended for sole proprietors and freelancers, and costs $180 per year ($15 per month) for up to 50 requested signatures per month. The “Workgroup” plan is geared towards teams and businesses, and it costs $240 per user per year ($20 per month per user), for unlimited requested signatures.3. signNowsignNow is another e-signature service. Similar to signNow, signNow allows you to upload a PDF file, MS Word file or web application document. Next, you can edit the document, such as by adding initials boxes or tabs, and then email them out for signatures. Once recipients e-sign the document, signNow notifies you and archives the document. signNow offers low rates for these services: a 1-person annual plan with unlimited document sending costs $11 per month. An annual plan for 10 senders with unlimited document sending costs only $39 per month.4. ExariExari is a document assembly and contract management service that assists in automating high-volume business documents, such as sales agreements or NDAs. First, the document assembly service allows authors to create automated document templates. No technical knowledge is required; most authors are business analysts and lawyers. Authors have a variety of options for customizing documents, such as fill-in-the-blank fields, optional clauses, and dynamic updating of topic headings. They also can add questions that the end user must answer. Once you send out the document, the user answers the questionnaire, and Exari uses that data to customize the document. Next, the contract management feature allows you to store and track both the templates and the signed documents. Pricing is based on the size and scope of your planned implementation, so visit their website for more information.5. FillanyPDFIt’s a hassle having to print out PDF forms in order to complete them. Fortunately, FillanyPDF is a service that allows you to edit, fill out and send any PDFs, while entirely online. This “Fill & Sign” plan costs $5 per month, or $50 per year. If you subscribe to the “Professional” plan, you can also create fillable PDFs using your own documents. With this service, any PDF, JPG or GIF file becomes fillable when you upload it to the site. You can modify a form using white-out, redaction and drawing tools. Then, you can email a link to your users, who can fill out and e-sign your form on the website. FillanyPDF also allows you to track who filled out your forms, and no downloads are necessary to access these services.  The “Professional” plan costs $49 per month, or $490 per year.Switching firms can be a hassle. As a former startup attorney, I have a bit of advice about finding the right attorney for your business: it’s best to focus on the specific attorney you’ll be working with. He or she should have a solid understanding of the ins and outs of your business industry, a deep knowledge of the legal issues your startup may face, and previous work experience with startups to ensure a quality and efficient work product. This is absolutely key when matching our startup clients at UpCounsel to attorneys on our platform who can perform their legal work and hash out their legal projects in a timely manner. We also allow clients to store any and all of their legal documents directly on UpCounsel so they don’t have to go searching in alternative places for the correct paperwork. It’s proven to be a free and lightweight way to store legal documents that our clients love. Here's what it looks like:As I’ve mentioned, it’s more important to find the right attorney as opposed to the right law firm. And seeing as you’re a startup, our own startup clients typically save an average of 50-60% on their legal work, since the attorneys don't include overhead fees (a.k.a. the fees included for doing business with the firm itself) in their invoices.Hope this gives you a deeper look into what other sites and services are out there. If you have any questions or would like more information on how best to handle your legal housekeeping/ attorney matters, feel free to signNow out to me directly. As a former startup attorney at Latham & Watkins, I’d be happy to give you some guidance.

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.

Because the stereotype still exists.A great parallel here is Therapy.  We all need therapy, and if you say you don't then you're a flashing neon sign beaming I NEED THERAPY.  Everybody needs someone to talk to.  Everybody needs help reflecting on themselves (in some sense).  Everybody needs more inward thinking, more self development, more work on themselves.But why then, even as I write the above, do I get the sense that my words fall upon deaf ears?Because of the stereotype.  Therapy is for "damaged people."  Therapy is for "the crazy ones."  Therapy means "you're broken/insane/mess...

I am working in TIL currently. I am posting it anonymously so that it does not feel like I am sucking up to top bosses.   TIL is a very good company to work for. Period. I have been here for 8 years and not because I did not have options outside. It is really an entrepreneurial company. I am like CEO of my vertical. I have huge power to change things in my vertical and I feel that I can do anything I want. I am responsible for deliverables to Satyan and that's about it. It is like a startup I am running ( of course, there is no upside in terms of more money if startup succeeds ) and I feel very excited about it. Yes, there are few issues in terms of our hiring, HR practices  and sometimes we tolerate people more than we should. We are slightly reluctant in letting people go.  Sometimes we are also not sure where the entire company is going i.e. communication within the company. Support functions like Finance, Legal are living in another slow-paced world while businesses are trying to work at Satyan pace ( just means to say that he is demanding which is good to my mind).   Yes, there would be few issues for other people if their boss is not good but it is like working in a startup. It has its own set of good things and bad. We value meritocracy. Good people go high very fast.  Ask me more questions, if you need to and I will answer with as much honesty as I can. ( PS: I am working at TIL and have been with Times group for last 8-9 years. I am leading a particular vertical here)

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.

I'll share with you my personal experience.May 15th 2011 - As a college student while visiting my relatives along with my dad, I get my Naadi read in a place called Srirangam in Trichy district. After giving nothing but my thumb-print a gentleman had a palm leaf from which he first asked questions (which needed to be answered only as a Yes or No), ranging from my education, overall well-being, number of siblings I have etc. At no point, however, does he ask for my name or any other personal detail. These questions went on for sometime, and after asking them all, he tells me my name, my father's name and my mother's name. I've given the man nothing but my thumb print and here he is, reading out my life history as though it's already written. He spoke about my past, present and also spoke of my future and gave a glimpse of the kind of person I will become and made a passing mention of Pariharas (corrective Pooja/Prayer) which I need to perform but did not mention what they were, owing to some actions which I committed in my previous life. I was just 20 going to turn 21 and didn't really think much about it. The gentleman who read out my story gave my father and I a notebook with whatever he read out written on it in Tamil.Fast forward five years from then - I'm a successful HR professional in an MNC afyer having received my education in one of the finest colleges in the country and decide to go on a road trip in Tamil Nadu. After having stayed over in a place called Chidambaram, I left on the morning of the 16th of April to Sirkazhi and from there I went to a place called Vaitheeswarankoil. Just before visiting the temple, I saw a lot of stores outside one of the entry ways, having the words Naadi Jyotisha sprawled across. Curious enough and remembering my earlier experience in Srirangam, I walked into one of the stores. A gentleman in a white veshti (traditional south Indian dhoti) comes with a set of palm leaves and asks me to sit. Just like the Srirangam episode, he starts asking me questions to which I am to answer only as a Yes or No. After sometime, just like the earlier gentleman, he tells me my name, my father's name, mother's name and all my other personal details, ranging from date of birth, time of birth, birth nakshatra, sun and moon sign, etc.He asks me to wait for 15 minutes, after which he comes back and tells me "You've had the Naadi reading done before as well" and tells me the exact date when I got it read the previous time. The gentleman goes on to read my chart in detail talking about five major things - A. My current situationB. What I did in my previous life which is affecting me now and how I can mitigate that along with the Pariharas which I need to perform.C. My progeny, their overall health, well-being and my own work life and how it will shape upD. My relationship with my wife, parents and the wealth and general well-being of my immediate family membersE. General characteristics about myself and when will be the next time I will come searching to have my Naadi readHe gave a heads-up to some of the major events i can expect every two years and how my life will shape up and what I can expect when and how.Now that my narration is over, I want to highlight a few things - 1. The history behind how and why Naadi astrology came into being is quite interesting. I would definitely recommend people to take the time out and read about it from whatever sources are present on the internet2. Having said that, there are people who believe very strongly in what these gentlemen have to say and there are those who debunk it and choose not to believe in them as well3. The inscriptions on the palm leaves are in a form of old Tamil called Grantham. This is said to have been passed on for many generations by the saint Agastya to his disciples and so on. The gentlemen who read from these palm leaves are said to have had 10-15 years of training before they read out the lives/histories of others4. Vaitheeswarankoil is known as the de facto head quarters of Naadi Jyotishas as most of them have grown in and around the Vaidyanathaswamy temple in that town5. I like to state this interesting quote from Lenny in Ocean's Twelve when he's talking to Terry Benedict and says - I pay money to people to get my future right and sometimes even they get it wrong6. Believing or not believing in these methods of astrology is merely a matter of choice and nothing more. While some involve guesswork and observations, some like the Naadi Jyotishas may claim to be eliminating improbabilities to arrive at the final possibility/inevitability. Hope that answers your question. Cheers