Love Takes Time {Completed} {#Wattys2017}

23. Dream Job

                                                          More than 5 years later

            Shanaya was visiting her cousin in Mumbai for a few days. She had come to see her uncle who had undergone heart bypass surgery. Shanaya's dad himself wasn't keeping well, so he told her to go and see her uncle on their behalf. It's not like she was close to them but the loving and obedient daughter that she was, she agreed to go.

             Shanaya had come back to India only a month ago. After college, she flew to USA to do MS in Robotics at Oregon State University. After MS, she was doing her PhD in same from the same university when her dad fell very sick. Her mom was finding it difficult to take care of him single-handedly since her brother was also in USA  studying MS. Shanaya decided to take a break from her PhD and return to Trivandrum to be there for her parents. While her dad's condition was improving, but it wasn't absolutely stable. He often landed up in hospital for a day or two every now and then as a patient of diabetes.

               Shanaya's father had taken loan from bank to pay for the kids education in USA. Despite, Shanaya getting fellowship and her brother getting some fee concession, accommodation, food and travel  in USA did cost a lot when converted to Indian currency. Shanaya was completely devoted to her studies and didn't do any part time job to support herself. That is how her dad wanted it to be. He wanted them to be focused in studies and not to do any job until they had finished their studies. Shanaya thought it would be better for her to take up a job while she was there in India.

            She was looking for a job in Chennai as she thought it would allow her to travel to Trivandrum on weekends. She had posted her resume in the carers tab of all the big IT companies in Chennai. She was disappointed to find that there weren't any jobs in her field of specialization. Moreover all IT jobs asked for experience. She had no experience, only degrees on her resume. At that time of the year, there were almost no openings for freshers. She desperately wanted a job as she wanted to start helping her dad pay back the loans he had taken for her and her brother's education abroad. She was sure, sooner or later she would get a good paying job in a big IT company, but she doubted it would have anything to do with robotics, the subject she was doing PhD in.

               Late morning, Shanaya picked up Times Ascent lying on the center table of her cousin's living room. She read all the job ads and found some 'walk in' interviews for freshers in marketing and call centers. It wasn't for programming. She got curious to find if walk in interviews were frequent in Mumbai's job scenario and if there were any for programming jobs in IT. She looked for the last Wednesday's Time Ascent. She found it in the pile of newspapers on the bottom of the center table. She was quickly reading through each and every ad when she saw the walk in interview for experienced and non-experienced engineers from Computer Science, E&TC. It said anyone with knowledge in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence will be preferred. She couldn't believe there was a job that needed candidates from her field of specialization. It felt like she found her dream job. Nothing like working in one's field of specialization. Real time work in Robotics was only going to help her more in her thesis.

              The company's name was Infinity Technologies Pvt Ltd. The company provided consulting and software solutions to complex business systems. It looked like a some small start up. She hadn't heard of it but she was tempted to try it out since it said they were in Robotics. She decides to go for it. She knew, she might not be able to take up a job in Mumbai, but she anyways wanted to go for an interview. She checked the time and dates. It was on Tues, that was yesterday and Wed which meant today from 1 pm. She checked the clock it was 11:30. She hadn't even showered. She noted down the address on a paper and asked her cousin how to reach there. She quickly took shower, and found she hadn't brought her favorite kurtas with her. She slipped into one of the kurta chudidaars in suitcase. It wasn't formal enough for an interview but she never planned to go for an interview in Mumbai. She wore her kolhapuri chappals. Luckily she had her resume in a USB drive. She took a print out of it in a nearby cybercafe. She wanted to go through the company's website, but she had no time. She thought she can use 3G on her mobile to browse their website on her way to office.