A day at work

I was to report for work early morning and was late by fifiteen minutes. As I rushed towards my designated table under the board 'Panel -3' , I saw that most candidates had already arrived and were all quietly, nervously seated in the lobby. Hurriedly I set aside my bag and looked at the other two panels to figure out how exactly to begin the work. We had all been briefed in detail about how we have to go about the first level of document verification and criteria evaluation. I took out the checklist and arranged the biodatas in order. There were 40 candidates in the first session and 40 in the afternoon session.

I glanced at the waiting candidates and remembered that I was there seven years ago. These candidates had cleared the written examination of SBI-PO and had come for the GD and interview. Each one nervous yet hopeful, anxious yet confident. I could feel that they were all looking at me with awe, hope and dreaminess. I was a personification of thier dreams, I was there where they all wished to be. Knowing this I had taken special care to dress up well today and will I for the remaining nine days till the recruitment process continues.I could feel that the girls were especially looking inspired by me.

The first candidate was sent and sat right in front of me. I cursorily went through her biodata and checked all the documents as per the checklist provided. There were quite a few documents to be collected and the eligiblity criteria was quite elaborate. Every paper had to be scrutinised carefully as any overlooking could result in PIL (public interest litigation) againts the bank or even stalling of the entire process as has happened in the past. Hence we were required to be extra cautious and yet fast.The whole place looked full of activity even three hours before the usual office time.

Today was the interview for the SC category candidates who have some relaxation in elegibility but they all had such excellent eductational records that not even one of them availed the relaxation. Just a two minute glance at a biodata created most impression. By the time second candidate came to me, I had got into the flow of what all I had to check. As I looked at the marksheets, they all showed marks above 90% , I looked at the young unassuming boy. I could not help but compliment him on his meritorious performances till now, this made him feel a bit comfortable and confident I think. A fresh engineering graduate had got placed in Wipro but will interested in joining the bank.

Most biodatas relfected a sincere and hardworking personality. Almost 90% were already employed either as PO in some other bank or in clerical cadre in our bank. Also inspite of the fact that the minimum eligibity was plain graduation, all of them were post graduates some MCAs, MEds, engineers etc. It was a good mix of people from all backgrounds. All had given details of the other competitvie exams that they had appeared for and most cases the list had atleast six-seven tests that they might have taken. In short they were all struggling sincere students with dreamy eyes full of hope and anxiety. Its definitely a heart warming experience to be on the other side of the table and the least I could do was to make them feel comfortable with smiles and wished each of them good luck.