Dealing with the placement mental pressure
I had been mentally preparing myself for facing the tough placement season boldly since months. Having given multiple interviews previously, both with Indian and international organizations for various roles I was pretty confident I wouldn’t atleast face the wrath of nervousness.
Off goes my first technical interview, I am wearing a crisp white shirt, given that whole of the world was under the cover of Covid it was a remote interview. I was excited to start and a little bit nervous (which is healthy), it was my first technical interview of the season. The interviewer joins the meet without his video on and asks me some theoretical questions which I could answer, then next he asks me a question which needs to be coded, so he asked me to share my screen and start coding. The question was a simple one, its logic was one I knew clearly, but the moment I started typing, my fingers literally started shaking, I was sweating while thinking of the logic to solve the question. There! All my interview experience went down the drain.
After it was over I wondered how unprepared we can be even if we think we are prepared, I didn’t have any other option but to learn from this and not repeat it again.
I faced multiple rejections over the entire placement period and each rejection shatters you, especially the ones which are dream jobs/companies. The lower package ones don’t hurt much but certainly do pinch you a bit. There were interviews which I aced and yet got rejected, there were people less deserving still they got offers but I didn’t. You’ll feel jealous, you’ll feel hurt, you’ll feel broken but you don’t have to give up. And trust me its easier said than done.
Each time you saw a Whatsapp status with a congratulations pasted onto another friend’s placement I felt a little insecure inside, but deep inside I knew, I had to believe in myself because in the past it had paid off. Never settle for less, a principle I live by. Only settle if you don’t have any other option or your family is entirely dependent on you. I had my aim on a good well-funded startup with a strong team whose ideals resonated with mine, because joining a company is somewhat like marriage, you can always keep switching jobs but I didn’t want to do that. Jumping jobs every year just to earn more money while having no attachment to the product you’d be building? Nada, I can’t do that.
There were moments when my friend questioned me why I was skipping interviews of service based MNCs and to have some sort of backup, these were the moments when I started doubting myself whether I was right in not wasting my time sitting for these interviews, but my inner self kept me strong and I went on with preparations and interviews for startups.
In short you need to believe in yourself, especially if you have goals like preparing for higher studies, govt jobs, etc. in which it doesn’t make sense to prepare for placements. From what I have observed in my friends, people get derailed and distracted when you see your close circle keep getting jobs while you are spending time reading books, but you need to understand that it’s a long term game and you are sacrificing your short term happiness for achieving what you really want.
To feel the difference let me ask you something, suppose you want to do MBA.
You have your placements going and all your batchmates are placed with various packages, would you also want to get job instantly so that you can also celebrate with them?
- I am sure the answer would be Yes.
Now, let me rephrase the question.
You have your placements going and all your batchmates are placed with various packages, would you also want to get job instantly so that you can also celebrate with them while your preparations for CAT goes offtrack or would you keep focused on your preparations without getting any instant job and crack IIM 6 months from now?
- I am sure you would pause and think now.
I won’t explain further, but keep in mind two important things -
1. Keep deep belief in yourself
2. Play the long term game
Also, rejection doesn’t always mean you’re not qualified, most of the times it means your skills and the job description don’t fit, you maybe a perfect fit for another job.
For example — I was rejected by a recruiter for not having NodeJs experience and the interviewer asked me to implement my Python projects in NodeJs, fast forward 2 weeks and another interviewer was impressed with my Python projects and told me there won’t be problem when I work on NodeJs, he told me any skill can be learnt provided you have the calibre and eager to learn it.
Both the recruiters were from Tier-1 colleges and running their own startup.
I would rather choose a happiness which is farther away in the future that makes me happy from inside, than something which makes me happy now but more in the eyes of others than myself. These are times when sometimes you wouldn’t even feel like talking to your friends because they’re in the same spot as you, neither your family because they would be expecting a lot of things from you. But its best to have someone close with whom you can share your thoughts, try to keep taking breaks and remember never give up, and keep working hard.
To conclude it, I would like to mention that while writing this post I have had my biases and please take a decision which is best for you, your circumstances may be different than mine. But don’t let society define your future, they won’t pay your bills, try as much as possible to not let their expectations and comments get inside your head. Sometimes even your parents can expect things which may not help your career, being a grown adult you should try to make them understand and take a decision which is good for your career, not bow down to their pressure, they always think good for you but its from their viewpoint which may not match yours hence its ok to disagree, because you’ll be losing your peak 20s while they have already lived it.
Plus take care of your mental health, I won’t advice you to meditate and stuff, because I never did that, I follow my own different mental health care ways. But see to what helps you calm down and follow them.
