Interview..I am glad

After many days, I felt good about my skills and my confidence. I handled todays interview very well. I was composed, answered the questions to maximum extent and confident.
At one point of time he was so impressed that, we got into a discussion about the intellectual property protection and how it is really difficult in emerging markets. He appreciated that and told that very few candidates think about that in interviews.
There were some pitfalls too. I did not think about the competition in one of the questions and he was waiting for me to bring that up but I did not. I cursed myself for my ignorance of so basic stuff.
The interviewer is a Harvard MBA and simply superb. He is with this company for about 20 years and handles Finance.
There was an interesting tale behind this interview. Around three months ago, I discussed my interest in the company with a second year student, who interned at this company last summer. He was very helpful and told that he had a great experience there and guided me on what should I do. Also, I spoke to a couple of Alums in key positions. But, this company does not recruit international students. It is their policy. So, I did not get into the preference list(interview short list). I contacted the second year student again and told about this. He asked me to write an e-mail to one of the alums I spoke to. I did that and the alum told that she is yet to get the list and will let me know if there are any free slots. After a couple of days, there was a mail: Attend the informational event on Sunday and interview with Finance. I met them for an informational chat on Sunday. Man, They are so down to earth. I can feel their feel for IU and I felt the warmth. It should be great team to be associated with, I thought.

I felt glad that my networking helped me. There are people who get a job without networking. I have a couple of close friends here who got into Deloitte consulting. One for Strategy and the other for Technology. They did not do any networking. But, I strongly suggest students to network with various companies. It helps you to understand various companies, their cultures and finally, you will know how to talk to people. I learned a lot of these through my networking. Now I can strike a conversation with anyone about Weather to the WTO issues.
My on campus interviewing ended today. I had 3 interviews till date in total and don't know if any one of them will convert to an offer. Now, I have to reach out to people outside.

Finally, I felt glad today. I may or may not make it. But, this feeling is good to feel and share. Congrats to all the round-1 admits and goo luck to all round-2 applicants.