Exams and Jobs
- Sometimes life feels unbearably boring—nothing to do except overthink. And then, suddenly, opportunities arrive all at once, forcing you to choose.
- Choosing is easy if you’re not a multitasker.
- ⸻
- A Few Days Back
- I realized something strange: among my FEA friends, I’m the only one who hasn’t started working yet. They all managed to land their first jobs at some point, while I’m still waiting for my MCA exams and ITI to finish.
- “You want a government job, don’t you?” Lemta ma’am asked gently, her tone as polite as always.
- “Yes, ma’am,” I lied.
- “You have skill. Why are you here?” Yogesh asked later.
- “Passing my time…” I gave him half the truth.
- The full truth was different. I was there only to avoid depression.
- That realization hit me hard: just one month left to decide what to do with my life. Anxious, I shared my thoughts with Sobhit.
- “There’s a job offer in Rajasthan,” he said, “Twenty-plus salary and stay facilities.”
- “Ok. Great. Lock it.” I interrupted before he finished.
- The salary didn’t excite me half as much as the “stay” option. What I craved was freedom—freedom to make mistakes, to learn without fear. Something my mother would never understand.
- ⸻
- A Few Days After a Few Days Back
- A notice appeared in our official Steno group: Nokia, Samsung, and Myntra were coming to ITI with placement offers. Data entry jobs, electronics assembling jobs.
- I didn’t believe it at first. Then they confirmed.
- “Fourteen thousand,” one of them said.
- “And for assembling work?” I asked.
- “Eleven thousand.”
- I frowned. “But assembling should pay more. Besides, I have an MCA degree—equivalent to B.Tech.”
- “We are hiring only ITI qualified” They won the argument.
- It wasn’t an interview, really. More like an “ask-me” session. The candidates were already hired, all we had to do was clarify our doubts.
- My interest leaned toward the assembling job, but their responses cornered me into choosing data entry. Walking out, I argued with myself—should qualifications really matter in skill-based work? One placement member handed me his number. “Send me your résumé,” he said, assuming me an exception.
- My résumé still waits for his response. Huh.
- ⸻
- Thursday, 17th July
- MCA exams—done. Hopefully, no backlogs this time.
- I even reached the exam hall on time, unlike last time when I was still at home studying while others writing in exam hall. I’ll never forget that day: I stood up at 1 PM, checked my admit card, and realized the exam had started at 10 AM. Not my fault though—this exam was an exception.
- I’ve hated accounts and banking since Class 8. CP, SP, interests—no interest at all.
- “It’ll take a month to learn the balance sheet,” Sohit had told me.
- But I crammed it in one day—just before the exam. And the paper? Surprise! Not a single balance sheet question. Only general theory.
- (Sohit, by the way, is an MSME entrepreneur, my former manager at BMC Institute, and currently my freelance client. I were supposed to discuss business plans in our meetings, but instead I’d pretend to be serious while enjoying the free fast food he offered. Lately, his restaurant has shut down. I still wonder why.)
- ⸻
- Flashback
- I remember learning Tally in Class 10. It took me days, messing up the software, pressing all the wrong buttons despite my teacher’s instructions, deliberately asking her to explain debit and credit again and again. Once she used a strange example:
- “When a mother throws a slipper at her child’s face…”
- “That’s child’s account debit to chappal account,” she said.
- In school, I used to flex my ledger-making skills instead of maths. “This is what commerce people do,” I’d say. I even snuck into other batches to practice GST. But the truth? I never really understood debit and credit. And soon enough, I forgot everything about Tally.
- Edit: I still passed accounts!
- ⸻
- Back to the Present
- Before I can face any job, I have to face my ITI final practical exam tomorrow.
- To be continued…