Of jobs and interviews

Yeah, the job culture sure is a bit wierd -- that much can be figured out from the interview process itself.

So, I'm looking for a job; sort of half-heartedly. I don't want to seem like I'm not looking, but I'm not over-enthusiastic about it either.

My parents-in-law, after knowing that I might be interested, quickly accelerate to fourth gear, while I'm still on neutral, contemplating whether or not to move my car to first. They call on their favors, and put me in touch with many people from different kinds of newspapers.

First up is Deccan Chronicle. I learned that whenever you ask someone for any job opportunity, the first thing anyone says (before even looking into whether or not there IS a job), is "Come and see me/him/her."

So, on a tip ("recommendation") from a reporter (who my parents-in-law might have misconstrued as the sports editor; but I had no heart to tell them), I was on my way to meet a woman who had the very basic information on me. I had nothing on her.

So I made my way to her office, met my informant (recommender), and found myself in the office of a young woman who probably had half the experience in reporting that I did. She didn't seem to understand what I wanted. She said I could start off as a reporter, and I nearly laughed. Not because I didn't want to report, but she had prefaced it with, "Like any person fresh from college..."

Not sure if she read my resume, but as we spoke, I realized the job I would be perfect for, with my experience and background, was hers! She was in charge of the Chennai-specific supplement of the paper.

Any case, after a few questions like: How well do you know Chennai? Tamil? (Turns out she's a Telugu from Hyderabad who knows no Tamil --hehe), we parted ways, with promises of resume forwarding. That still hasn't moved forward, but I had an eerie experience at another newspaper, the doyen of Chennai's journalism.

I met a really nice gentleman, who asked me, again, to "come meet me," or "post me" my resume. He was going on vacation the next day onwards, and was nice enough to go through my particulars. After telling me there were several options available to me, he asked me to fill in my personal details at the end of my one-page CV.

Write your date of birth and marital status, he said. I was tempted to ask how this was all relevant, but held my tongue. In any case, I left with high hopes. He also called me right away, and said there were openings in their sister publication as well. I contacted the person in charge there, and he said the same thing -- "I'm not the person making the decisions, but you can come see me."

Why would I go see him if he cannot make a decision? Not sure, but I did. He gave me some gyan on the general industry etc., and left me sort of hanging. He was supposed to tell the editor-in-chief about me, so that I could call him.

When I called the editor a couple of days later for an appointment, he apparently said, "Who's this Miss Meera?" Not a good sign!

Anyhoo, later!