TL; DR: I will be joining Uniqlo as Software Engineer at Tokyo, Japan !!!
I really wanted to title this post as Konnichiwa Japan in accordance with recent career news (not so recent, as of today, this is one week old !) but I thought of saving it for later for some other post. So, why I gave this weird title ? There’s a little background story behind it.
In my previous post, I had mentioned that I had interviews going on for almost entire February. Along with Google, I was in the interview process of another company called Uniqlo. Now, most of us don’t know about it as it has entered the Indian market at the start of this year. Honestly, I too didn’t know about it. It is a competitor to Zara and H&M, in simple words.
So, I didn’t make to Google this time, but I have been in Uniqlo’s process for around three weeks. It started in first week of February and finished by the start of fourth week of February. Let me give a brief of entire process. All rounds are elimination rounds and in overall six rounds before the final interview. The first is CV screening, after that an online test, first face-to-face technical interview, followed by second face-to-face interview, one online coding test and personality test(results combined for these two online tests). Now, the final interview was scheduled in Delhi, where the top executives had been flown from Japan to interview selected candidates personally. This was a clean slate interview, where your previous round results were all null and void. Call it a break it or make it kind of situation. Now, from here the story starts…
For the final interview we were flown to Delhi, an evening before the interview day. All arrangements were made by the company before-hand. A company representative received us and told us that dinner would be served by 8.30 pm. We checked-in, get key cards and make it to our respective rooms. Now, I began unpacking my bags to see if everything made it through airport security. To my horror, I see that cufflinks to the shirt I am supposed to wear the next day at interview are missing. At first, I thought they are somewhere in the bag as I remember specifically keeping them aside in a separate section. I search the entire bag. Once, twice, thrice but no result.
So, I think that the security has taken those from bag as the lock is broken, the cufflinks being metallic in nature. I am starting to panic, get anxious and angry at the same time. I start blaming the airport security (in my mind !). I go to dinner half hearted. After the dinner, I ask my fellow candidates if anyone by any chance has brought extra pair but no luck. I call my mom, narrating the entire thing to her. She calms me down, says get couple of safety pins and you’ll do fine tomorrow. So, I go to reception desk, grab a pair of safety pins to put in place instead of cufflinks. After this, I have a long chat till late in night with the HR Manager and Security Engineer over all possible things we could talk about.
Next day, I use safety pins in place of cufflinks. It does get uncomfortable but I need to live with these, courtesy of airport security (I am still blaming them !). My interview is first one after lunch, so I skip lunch. The pressure of having an interview, apart from the fact that I am not in my perfect self, doesn’t make me hungry at all. I go in the room at scheduled time, the interview goes great, probably one of the best interviews I have ever given. It focused more on cultural fit and HR questions, added with a little of technical. In my case, the technical revolved around recommendation engines and their working.
I get out of the room. I am feeling good and decided to call home to tell that interview went well. Just 5 - 10 minutes have gone by since my interview’s finished. I get a little tap on my shoulder. I move around to see the HR standing and this is the conversation we have -
HR: “You are getting out of India.”
Me: “OK.”
Me: “What ?”
Me: “Oh! Thank you very much !”
HR (to other candidates in the lobby who had received offers): “This guy didn’t understand at all.”
5 - 10 minutes after my interview, I get to know that the company is extending an offer and would explain the details later. And, in my mind, I thought it was quite fast and honestly, I didn’t think that I would get such a quick result (I thought maybe, by the end of the day, I would get to know).
Fast forward, I am sitting in airport for around 5 hours as flight is delayed, making calls to friends and family. I come back to Mumbai late in night and sleep the next day off. Next day, when I am unpacking my bag, I take out a t-shirt. Lo and behold, the cufflinks fall through that t-shirt.
Yes, yes after all this time. These have been in the bag but I couldn’t find them. I blamed the airport security (sorry !) for taking them out. I had them entire time and still couldn’t find them. Now, I think if on that day, what had been the result had I put the cufflinks instead of safety pins. Sometimes, the universe works in its own mysterious ways.
That all being said, I would be joining Uniqlo as a Software Engineer (team would be decided later) at Tokyo, Japan later this year once I graduate, where a new adventure awaits me. But for the time being, I seriously need a break !