No knowledge without college

It was on 9^th October I got a mail that I have been short-listed for Microsoft Student Partner(MSP) program by Microsoft. I prepared little bit for MSP test which was to be conducted by Microsoft on 19^th of October. The test was basically of C-programming, analytical ability and knowledge of computers.

I reached Bangalore on 18^th October in the night and stayed there in a hotel. The next morning we had the session by Microsoft and it was among some of the best I have attended. We had the Mr. Anil W. , recruitment head of Microsoft India. He came to hall 15 minutes before the presentation was to start. As soon as he came he asked us “ How many of you are Hostellers?” We were wondering the reason of his to ask such a question. Next after getting the answer for first question he asked “How many of you are their in college sports team”? For this question he did not get a very good response ( but not bad even). Next question of his appeared quite logical to us was Why he asked first two question? After some wild and incorrect guesses by some of the students he told the answer. For first question he quoted a statement of General Electronics(GE) CEO “ When I am recruiting people and I have two person with equal qualification I will choose the person who have been hosteller”. The reason behind this he stated that a person who have stayed in hostel have good adjusting capability. He meets a diverse kind of people, stays and learns to adjust with them. Such a person has good adjusting ability and more chances of being successful as a team player. He even gave a good example from his college life. He told during his college he had some NRI friends. Whenever their parents use to come they used to bring exotic soaps with them. They generally used lifeboy because it never used to end despite of how much you use it and the way you use it. It could be used for bathing, washing clothes and some other not worth mentioning uses. If their parents used to come in the morning, give them the gifts and use to go to some interesting place for visit, by the evening they used to arrive in the evening everything used to get finished. People who never used to take baths for weeks would then take a bath and even three times a day. This is where the hostel life comes and holds the most interesting part. We learn to adjust with different kind of people, work more efficiently as teams, enjoy and share things. That why they preferred people who have been hosteller.

For next question he told that their are many incidents of suicide by many young people. Why is it so? Because these people cannot accept defeat that much easily as other people can. While playing sport the best thing we develop is the ability to accept defeat and also to work in a team. It is among some of the best things to be learned in life.

Later on he told us different things in his college life. He told us the benefits of participating in different events and tech fests of college. When we participate in college tech fest we do actually develop our organising skills. He told in his time, they had a difficult time to get things work from Carpenter and other staff of college who is not at all interested in working for you at free of cost. They used to have tough time with those people and even the most interesting one. The thing we learn in college is “learn and share, share and learn”.

After that we had our test. I qualified the written test which was much simple and had GD as the next round. Before GD we had the chance of meeting and discussing with other MSPs and had lot of fun. We discussed a lot of things with them and learnt a lot. In GD, the topic I got was “Do social networking sites actually help in developing social skills” . I don't know how many times I read the topic before speaking but did not speak the right points over there. As soon as the GD got over I got some really good points in my mind. But every thing got over by then. Anyway it will work as a motivating source for me to do more better in future. It is generally a better idea to think big and start small.