103. Interview Anecdotes – 3

During my first stint in the earlier organization, I was approached by another Mumbai based company.  They were looking out for a senior person in marketing their products.  Now the difference between this company and the company that I was working for, was between heaven and earth😊, as far as work was concerned.  The company that I was working on, was focused on getting more sales at any cost.  The other company did not want to confuse the customer in buying their products.  They felt that they had a great product and the customer should buy it only when he was also convinced of the same.  The characteristics of both the companies was well known in the industry circle where both we operating in.

I got a call from the company stating that their VP of the Delhi office wanted to meet me.  I was told to post my profile to their office address and then they would let me know when I can come and meet them.  I just wanted to meet them and see what they wanted from me as I was aware that they will never recruit anyone from my company.  I met the VP.  He was very cagey about interviewing me as he was aware of the company where I am working.  He tried to put me in very awkward situations in the interview listing where all our company was going wrong and how it was all morally wrong.  I told him I have not come to listen to his grouses on my company as I am aware of the same.  He then told me that since I also work in the same company, I too would have the same scruples. I told him that I did not volunteer myself to come the interview and he only called me.  And moreover, since he had called me, he would have got my reference from someone.  And that someone would obviously have talked about me and my way of working.  And if he being the VP has called me over, it would only mean good things about me and not any bad thing at all😊!!

He started laughing and said indeed he had indeed gotten a very good review about me.  He told me his office in Mumbai did not want to recruit anyone from my present company, but he was sticking his neck out and wanted to recruit me and try me out and prove to the Mumbai office that I was a god recruit.  Finally, he made an offer that I accepted.  He then asked me to make sure that his neck was always safe from the Mumbai office😊😊!!

I joined the company in Business Development.  This company used to bring out a journal on the Indian Economy every month.  The VP told me that this report was supposed to be read by each person in the company so that when we meet customers, we should sound knowledgeable.  So, I also started reading the report every month.  While reading the report I saw many spelling mistakes in the report.  Just to tell the VP that I had read the entire book, I started noting down the spelling mistakes in the book and sent a mail to him stating which all pages had mistakes, and what those mistakes were.  Without informing me, he just forwarded the mail to the MD of the company.  Later he jokingly told me that he had sent the mail to the MD.  I told him I had sent it to him just for fun!!  He said no problem and he will take care in case any problem comes.  Next week he told me that I have to go through the report each month and point out the mistakes regularly and he asked me to send the mail directly to the MD, with a cc to him😊!! 

After a couple of months, the MD visited our office and I was hesitant to meet him.  Since he was the one who had told the VP not to recruit any person from my previous company and moreover, I was also pointing out the mistakes made by others in the company who were supposed to make and publish the report!!  The meeting went off well and he told me to continue sending the mistake-list to him.  He further said that he had a session with his team in Mumbai and had told them to ensure no spelling mistakes should go out in the report.  Later on, the mistakes came down to 1 or 2 in the entire report from around 20-25 when I started observing the mistakes.  After that my VP told me to stop making the report and just read it😊!!

Cheers till the next blog!!

Today’s Daffy Definition

Dictionary – The book from which one plagiarises without any acknowledgement!!