Reconstructed

I will do my best to accurately reconstruct the interview moment.

I am playing Temple Run in my phone while waiting for the interview, for being relaxed. A candidate
leaves the interview hall. I close the game. My name is called. I switch off my phone; wipe my face
using a kerchief and quickly check my attire. After a minute I am asked to enter the room.
I open the door gently.
ME:

Excuse me sir.

HR:

Yes, come in.

I open my folder and give it to the HR.

HR:

Take your seat.

I sit gently.
ME:

Thank you sir.

The HR goes through my resume.

HR:

Have you started your final year project?

ME:

We have chosen our project sir and we are doing further research on it...

HR:

What is your project about?

My eyes are glued to his. I am staring at him!

ME:

Our project is Toxic Gas Early Warning System for tanks containing molasses. In sugar
factories there are tanks that store molasses. Manual labour is employed for cleaning and
maintaining these tanks. These tanks have poisonous gases in it and a number of people
have died because of gas attack. Our solution is to install gas sensing and ventilation system.
The presence of unsafe levels of gas will make an alarm to the person who attempts to enter
or has entered the tank. The ventilation system will run continuously while the person is in
the tank.

HR:

What are the gases your system will detect and how will the alarms be issued?

ME:

Sir our system will detect the presence of hydrogen sulphide, carbon monoxide and carbon
dioxide. The alarms will go on when the detected levels are more than preset safe limits. We
are researching on fixing this preset limits.

HR:

What is the formula for hydrogen sulphide?

ME:

H2S

HR:

Carbon monoxide???
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Reconstructed
ME:

CO

The HR asks with a faint smile...

HR:

The other gas????

ME:

Carbon dioxide is CO2.

I am feeling more comfortable now!

HR:

Have you done any mini project in your college?

ME:

Yes sir we have done a Water Level Controller...

HR:

Were you the team leader?

ME:

No sir, my friend Ameer Jan was the leader...

HR:

Now for your final year project are you in the same team?

ME:

Yes sir the same batch.

HR:

What will you do if you have any arguments within you? Were there any such situations?
If so how did you come to an agreement?

Impulsively I say...
ME:

Yes sir.

I couldnt recall much. I should have said no. But I try to manage by saying one such instance...
ME:
Um... I remember once there was such an argument... I had suggested the limit switch... for
the controller... my friend had suggested a digital encoder type... and the other guy was fine with...
whatever we come with... We started discussing. I said the limit switch would be ... simple and ...
inexpensive... and there would be less wiring than the digital encoder. Finally after my points... my
friend agreed.
I get a feeling of being unsettled.
HR:

So finally you ended up with your solution?

ME:

Yes sir, we did the limit switch.

The HR turns the resume leaf and goes through the remaining leaves in the folder. After few seconds
he asks...
HR:

Do you know about any software?

ME:

Sir, even though I am electronics and instrumentation engineering student I have great
interest for computers... I was introduced to computers at an early age... in my fifth
standard. I could still remember ... in my class 11 computer laboratory... I was playing with
the Turbo C IDE. I was looking through the context help... um... the library functions help and
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Reconstructed
I happened to see the sound function and copied the code and executed it... I could hear
the sound from the speaker inside the CPU and I remember a teacher who was sitting
behind me annoyed by the sound... asked what did you do?! Turbo C is a great tool for
learning.
I regain life. Meanwhile the HR has his eyes glued to something in my folder. I continue after a couple
of seconds...
I had assembled my own PC. I bought the components from Flipkart and local stores...
The HR asks with his eyes still glued to the file...
HR:

You bought the motherboard, ram.... and other things and put them... together???
It was a great learning experience from finding requirements to start running the PC. I had
to replace a damaged hard disk, so I contacted Flipkart and got it replaced. It was a very
good experience.

The HR asks curiously...

HR:

What is this program? Can you explain it?

I knew he would ask. I had placed four sheets (refer Appendix) in my folder after my resume.
This, I believe to be the highlight of the interview, the one that got me the job!

I place my arm on his table pointing my finger to my folder, in an attempt to make him show that
program to me so that I could explain it. He lowers the folder and tilts it so that I can view it.
I had prepared for it and I answered confidently and happily.
Looking at the second page I say...
ME:

One of my friends had sent a PDF file and asked me to convert it to a word file so that he can
edit it. I tried software such as NitroPDF and other online converters but I could not. I tried
copying the PDF content to a text file but the result was this... strange characters in the
previous page.
...the HR turns to the first page.
I told him I couldnt do it. He urged me to help him. So I told him I will try and send the file
to him the next morning. There were about 24 hours. I was looking at these strange
characters and I was able to observe a pattern.

The HR seems interested and as expected he eagerly asks...

HR:

What was the pattern?

ME:

Sir, every character in the PDF file had 29 subtracted from their respective ASCII values. So
my solution was to add 29 to the ASCII values of... encrypted file content.

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Reconstructed
I was learning about files and streams when my friend had called me. So I got an idea... Why
not do the job using C! So I learnt more and wrote this code.
...the HR turns to the program (third page).
As I was reading through the book, I found a new concept called stream redirection. Using
stream direction I could use files as if they are input and output streams. So I implemented
the solution using stream redirection.
Finally I executed the program and got this output (pointing to the fourth page). It was about
95% recovery...
The HR asks swiftly...
HR:

So what was the remaining 5%?

I did not anticipate it but was so happy that I felt, whatever may be the result I had completed the
interview well! So I answered confidently. I read a positive note from the HRs face.
ME:

Sir, the remaining 5% were header and footer and other special characters...

HR:

Did you research further?

ME:

Um. No sir. At that time I had other tasks that I did not spend time in researching further...

HR:

Now? Will you research?

After a 2 sec pause.

ME:

Yes sir, I will do.

I begin to tell more about my software knowledge...

ME:

Sir, we had organized a symposium recently. Our teacher had asked us to minimise paper
use. So we decided to put an online form. I was assigned this task. I developed a form using
Google Forms. The advantage was that, the filled data will automatically be added to a
spreadsheet. There were several teams ... the paper presentation, the project presentation
team... and we shared and edited the files online through Google Drive. It got simpler! We
had the advantage of sharing, editing and accessing from different locations. This was my
first exposure to cloud computing.

The HR smiling and looking interested asks after some seconds...

HR:

Any questions for me?

After thinking for 2 secs.

ME:

...No sir.

HR:

Any location constraints?

Nodding my head I say assuringly.

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Reconstructed
ME:

No sir. None...

The HR greeting me with a wide smile...

HR:

Well ... Okay... Thank you....

ME:

Thank you very much sir. It was nice meeting you.

The HR cheerfully nods and says Yeah it ....

I leave the room cheerfully; if I am selected mission accomplished; if not I did not suit them
Whatever may be the result, it was a great experience!
The end.

Thank you - TDP cell, trainers, and my dear friends!

V.Vishnu Ganesh
Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering,
Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology,
Virudhunagar.

Appendix
See next 4 pages

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