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I received an email with subject 'Urgent Opening for PHP Experts in Ahmedabad' on 2nd August.
I got lots of email with this kind of title also before, but mostly I neglected.
I always wanted a job in PHP Technology.
Lot of companies are here in my city, which can give me a job as a PHP Developer, but most of them are not kind of which I wanted.
Although there are 2-3 biggies with good reputation are here, they also are nice place to work, I was just planning for an interview for those companies after some days.
As I was kind of a five point someone guy, I was never allowed for campus interviews in college from IT Giants of India.
So It was the time I had to prove myself by doing some hard work, that I can show to others.

In between I got the email which I mentioned above.
It was from the Magnet Technologies, Mumbai.
They were going to open another dev. center in Ahmedabad.
The recruitment drive was organized for the Ahmedabad Center.
The day after I asked one of my friend having a job in a well known firm in Mumbai through Yahoo IM about the company.
He replied positively, also mentioned that its having very good reputation in Mumbai.
I thought I should appear for an interview.
After that I found the community of this company on Orkut, I asked 3-4 people about the company, all of them replied +vely.
But one guy mailed me to know his thoughts about Magnet:

Its a GR8 company for me and a dream company of mine in India. Its founder and current CEO is Mr. Nirav Mehta. He's genious. Check out http://www.mehtanirav.com/ his blog.
If you understand FREEDOM in software i.e. you like and support OSS and like ethical hacking. Then its BEST to go to Magnet, where you're not an employer, you're a Magneteer. You're innovations and hacks are always appreciated.
I suggest that if your purely dedicated to OSS. And one more thing you can check before deciding for going to Magnet.
How do you coin the word COMPUTER PROFESSIONAL? A] A well dressed person in formals with tight tie. B] a person in coolt-shirt with lots of brains.
If its A search another company if B, Magnet is best for you.

Although I do not have any aaukad to describe Magnet Tech. But still telling you. I'm sure you'll let me know what you decide.

After reading that, I decided. I must to go there and be selected in Magnet.
I have seen Nirav Mehta's interview before on CNBC TV18 in the program 'Young Turks'. He's a very intelligent man, he's Genius.

Interview was on the 5th August in Ahmedabad.
I reached there in the morning. I was the first person to reach there.
I came into the building. A guard guided me to the room, where the candidates should go.
I was just on the way to the room, passing outside of other rooms, suddenly a person called me from my backside and guided me for that room, I saw his face, he was none other than Nirav Mehta, I thought he might here for taking interviews or might be just for presentation.

I was just sitting in the room alone. After 1-2 minutes, other persons also arrived as the time passed. I also notice some aged persons having much experiences in PHP. Most of the people I think were for the post of Sr. PHP Developer.
I realized very less no. people were there like me having no Industrial Experience in PHP.
The fact is: Here in Ahmedabad most of the people are just mad for making career in .net ( sorry, The .Net ). But why?
Why they want be the monopolist in future? .Net having very good demand in IT Industry. But why all the people are running for it? Even just passed out freshers having big zero in technical knowledge choose .Net and never think about other Open Source Technologies. Ok fine, just leave this fact here.

Back to the main thiing, It was a 30 minutes written test of about 18-20 questions, all of them was from PHP, only one was related to CSS.
It was not an easy test, kind of I had thought, same paper was given to freshers as well as the experienced people. I attempted most of the questions, left 3-4 questions.
Just after completing the test, candidates were sitting in chairs nearby. I was just talking with other guys, suddenly Nirav Mehta came with phrase 'Who is Jignesh Patel ?'. He asked me to follow him for an Interview.
Nirav Mehta, the Chairman of Magnet was supposed to be my interviewer, I never expect this kind of situation to be happened. The first interview of the life with personality like him! Also it was a first interview for the candidates on that day, and god choose me for the first one.
I mean, I was just planning like asking to other people who might have completed their interviews before me like 'Hey kya pochha?, Kitni der lagaate hai?, only php hi puchhte hai?, database me se kya puchhte hai?'. But it was the god's selection for me to be appear the first for an interview.

Interview started, I explained about my self, also explained about my site. He wrote the URL of the website. I was thinking, he must watch my work in it, should not consider my five point someone aggregate.
He asked me few questions related to PHP as well as from database, but most of the question was on the concept you think.
One of them was "How will you make a clone of Google Search Engine ? not technically, but think conceptually", I explained the concept very well as I can.
Other question was "There are lots of PHP companies in ahmedabad, then why you choose Magnet over them?". I explained the reply from my friend as well as from that guy who mailed me about Magnet.
One silly question from database confused me also.
He also asked me about my area of interest in Web Technologies, I replied that "I'm interested in Rich Web Applications", also explained the general concept of the same. I knew that company is very good at that.

In the last, he allowed me to ask questions to company.
I said "I have no questions for company, but have a question for you", he allowed me.
I asked him, "I have seen your interview on TV, I noticed that you have done B.Com. means you have a non IT background, then what motivated you to came into the IT field ?"
He replied, "After meeting Bill Gates, at the age of 17, I decided to start my own firm".

All over, The Interview was good (not much good), from my point of view.
After that, I attended the presentation by Ashok Karania, I was impressed. I also like Mac, also have a dream of buying a Mac Book one day.

I came outside the building, there was a surprise for me, I met one my best friends, working on PHP in some other company, also came there for an interview. He was my project partner once in the academic projects.
I reached home at about 12:30 pm. It was a Sunday, I was in tension for that silly database question, but the day passed on.
On the Tuesday evening, I was doing taking the fresh air with my friends on the terrace of my apartment.
I got the call from my friend, (who had an interview in other well known company before a month, not yet got the confirmation from that) he said "mali gai", I said, "su mali gai?". He replied, "job mali gai", That means he got the job, just before calling me he had a call from the HR of his company. It was about 7:00 pm.
I congratulated him for that, was happy about him, but with tension about myself.

I reached home about 7:30 pm, opened my mail account at about 7:45 pm, and noticed, I got new email with subject 'Interview Status'. It was a confirmation that I selected for Magnet Technologies. The confirmation email was arrived on 6:46 pm, just before the call from my friend.

I called back to my friend and said, "mali gai".
It was the co-incident that I got the email from HR of Magnet at 6:46 pm, my friend got the call from HR of his company at 6:52 pm. The day was just so nice for both of us.
Now me and all of my friends have nice jobs, no more struggle, life is just perfect now-a-days for all of us.

So, it was the first job interview of my life, and I got selected in the firm, kind of I was looking for !

Thanks to timesjobs.com through which I got the call for an interview. It was the keyword 'php' which I have put in my profile at timesjobs.com, done all this.

5 comments

  1. Rajesh  

    "Mali gayi" => this was the word will always remember both of us, yes might be u think right i m the second guy mention by him.

    gr8 start jaggsr.

    will waiting for u r another blog !!

  2. Gaurang Patel  

    i really got inspiration to write my own blog after reading this,

    great .......:))))))

  3. jignesh kadvani  

    just superb...
    very inspiring...

  4. Unknown  

    Dear Jignesh Nice to read this account..

  5. Dharmesh Chauhan  

    Great friend !!
    I didn't have idea that you are so good @ writing non technical stuff.
    Why you're never informing me about your blog posts?????

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