Rejection That Leads To Selection! (Part - 1)

Published date: 02/01/2025

Hey guys, this is Anupam Shukla welcomes you in my story. So finally, i’m writing this. In this site, i wanted to write some true stories but was confused like from where to start and then finally i asked myself, why not from myself.

So here i’m with a story of my rejection and beginning of something thing new which is also new to me as well - “Rejection That Leads To Selection”

So, let’s get start from the beginning...

I was in final year of my post-graduation when i saw a post while surfing net. That post was related to Google internship 2020 program and obviously when its Google, everyone wants it especially when someone like me wants to become a developer. I quickly went into the link to see how to apply. At that time i was in-touch with a Microsoft developer who helped me build my resume efficiently. So while filling the form i attached my resume with the application and clicked the submit button. (i guess i submitted the application in the mid of August)

After that i waited for the response for 2-3 week but didn’t get any response from Google. At that time i thought, might be my resume was not strong enough to clear the resume filter stage of Google because i heard this that not everyone’s resume is selected by Google. So, thinking like my resume is rejected i redirected my mind to my research paper on which i was working at that time. Then something happened in the next week.

Google responded me through mail. In the excitement of getting response from Google, i read that mail three times, yes it was a mail from Google. Wow...that’s great...that means my resume has got selected.... hurray....

The mail was regarding the discussion date on which we’ll discuss the further interview process for getting into Google.

I choose a suitable date and responded back. After giving the date, although they haven’t mentioned any telephonic interview on that call but my mind was thinking from their side at that time. And i was getting thoughts like what if they ask me any technical question and if i was unable to respond.... this will be a bad impression and might become the reason of my rejection. So, i started preparing for it. And i was aware of the interview process like first telephonic interview and if they satisfy with that then only, they will call for on-site one.

On the discussion date, to avoid unnecessary noises at my room i went to an open playground of my college. At that time, other branches in my college are having their mid-term exams so there was no one playing in the ground and was very calm environment, so i went there. I waited there for around 4-5 hours but i didn’t get any call and then returned to my room with a lot of anger like why Google didn’t called me after agreeing to the given date/time.

I don’t know why i was getting angry. Is it might be because i wanted to be in Google ya fir mai bhavnao me beh gaya tha (or i was flown in the emotions)?

I controlled my anger and convinced myself that they might be busy in some work that’s why they didn’t called me for discussion. I sent an email to Google HR for formal reminder of the discussion that we both were having that day.

They responded me the next day and then we again fixed a date for interview process discussion.

So now, we (I and Google HR) decided the coming Sunday to discuss the interview process. As my college exam was also about to start at that time, on discussion day, i waited for the decided time but i didn’t received any call from Google so i thought that.... again, HR might be busy in some work and then i kept my phone in silent mode, upside down and started my preparing for my exam.

But suddenly, without any thought i flipped my phone up and saw 1 missed call. I opened my phone lock to see the missed call number and guess what...it was a call from Google...GOOGLE!!! and I missed it!! and the missed call is about 2 minutes ago. I literally got full of anger like how can i missed it. But fortunately, Google HR called me again after around 2 minutes and i quickly picked it up but at the same time i was very nervous too...but HR told me not to hassle, it’s not an interview...just a discussion call about your interview process for Google.

This whole sentence relaxed me a bit like...” okay there’s no technical questions right now”

Then HR explained me all the interview steps which i was knowing already from Google website. At the end, HR sent me an email with a document which contains all the major topics from which my interview will be taken and in return asked me my first interview date which is the telephonic interview.

First i choose a date which is after 3 months but according to HR, i should supposed to choose a date earlier than that ..so this time i choose a date with a 2 months of preparation time. I know, you guys might be thinking like 2 months of preparation time just for telephonic interview...but yes because at that time i was having my college exams and also I ws not confident on my DSA skills so i opted for 2 months and HR was also okay with this time duration.

So, guys, after 2 months, on my interview day... i was very confident on my technical skills as i have prepared myself from all scenarios. My interview was scheduled for 45 mins from 4:30 PM – 5:15 PM.

You know guys, if you work hard to achieve something and your destiny don’t want you to achieve that thing, you probably will not be able to achieve it. And this is what happened with me on that day.

My internet was working fine the whole day. And for the interview, i arranged everything perfectly like pen/pencil, papers on table...checked proper internet connection and also tried to avoid all the possible noise for that particular period of time. But the biggest mistake i made in this is ... i was using my cellular data as the only connection source to the internet. I know, you might be thinking like yes you should arrange another alternative for this...but as i said my internet connection was on its best ...then how come this? I also don’t know this...

Click here for "Rejection That Leads To Selection (Part - 2)"