Krit has been out of job for almost six months now. It’s been a roller coaster since. Applying for jobs, going for interviews and then getting to know of the subsequent rejection, has been really a tough phase for him.
If things go on like this, it would really be difficult for him, now that he has a small baby to take care too. Sara, his wife, gave birth to a baby girl last month and Krit has had a lot of expenditures ever since his daughter arrived. From paying the hospital bills, to buying all the essentials for the baby, Krit has almost exhausted all his savings.
‘The market isn’t good for jobs, Krit; you shouldn’t have left your previous job like this, after all engineers like us are not required by the companies at all. It’s the IT engineers who are reaping all the benefits, who cares for instrumentation engineer these days?” said his friend, Sayan, over the phone one day.
“But how could I know that the company that promised me job, even gave me the offer letter, would eventually put my candidature on hold? I have never heard such a thing happening to anyone in my life. Don’t know why this needed to happen to me.” said a vexed Krit.
“Anyway, man, all the best for your job search, let me know if I can help you in anyway.” Sayan finished the call with these parting words.
“Nobody can help me, I know that for sure. All are here to just give me unsolicited advice on what I should have done or not done. Useless bunch of people.” Krit thought to himself.
Sara had been very supporting as a wife and has stood like a rock beside Krit. Throughout her pregnancy, despite not being well herself all the time, she has meticulously taken care of his needs. Is the shirt pressed well for the interview? Has he taken a proper printout of his resume? Has he eaten his meal on time? These are things of which Sara made sure, not Krit.
After almost seven rejections, Krit is very heartbroken today. Early morning that morning, he got the email of his seventh rejection. Nothing seems to perk him up right now, not even a job interview. His confidence has been shaken completely. He just feels like smoking the tenth cigarette of the day to while away time.
In desperation, he applied for twenty-five jobs after receiving the rejection mail this morning and was hoping against hope to get at least one call back from one of those applications. At the same time, thinking of the past failures, his mind was rocking him up and down.
Ping!
His phone flashed with an email icon. His fingers linger over the phone, unsure whether he should open it or not. May be its one of those newsletters from a website, to whose blog he must have subscribed sometime, or the latest deals in Amazon, or notification of discounts at the local mart. Anxiously, he opened the mail. It was a mail from a recruiter and it read:
“Dear Krit D’Souza,
Your profile has been shortlisted for the position applied and we liked the projects that you shared as work samples as well. Our management wishes to meet you in person this coming Tuesday at around 10 am. Let me know if that would be fine with you.
Regards,
Rosy Pereira (HR manager)
A gush of happiness flowed through him, his heart thumping with hope and relief. He quickly stubbed the butt of the cigarette on the astray and held the phone with both his palms. He clicked on the ‘Reply’ button of the mail and started typing his response to the HR manager.
