Namaste
“Namaste” greets a soft tender voice, as the door to the reception area opens up and a slim, pretty lady walks in. Although she is wearing regular Western casual wear, and not a traditional outfit, one can tell she is Indian.
Mike-O had decided to use his background in IT to secure a “side gig” for himself while trying to put his DJing and music production act together. He had sent out some applications over time and finally got himself a mail from Horizon Tec, who found his application interesting.
Mike-O has come out here today for a physical interview after passing a virtual test stage, and being asked to attend a live interview. The company has taken it upon themselves to handle his transportation costs- something Mike-O had never seen or heard of before.
He can now see from the ambience, that the company takes pleasure in making their staff and visitors feel relaxed. He has picked a copy of Tech Digest, a monthly publication on all things technology and IT related, and has seen the company mentioned somewhere as one of the fastest growing IT companies around.
“Namaste” Mike-O smilingly responds, with a slight bow, to the lady, who smiles back and motions for him to follow her. He walks behind her up the stairs and to the left of the top floor at the end of which there is a door. The lady opens the door, and they both walk in.
Mike-O steps in and greets everyone present, including two young Indian men and a white man with light brown hair. “Please sit, Michael” asks one of the young men, as they all settle into their seats.
One of the Indian men then begins to speak. “You’re welcome Michael”. Mike-O replies with a “Thank you” and quickly notices that there isn’t as much of an accent as he would have expected. Another thing he notices is that one of the Indian men, the one addressing him, and the Caucasian man, are wearing semi formal shirts with sleeves up, while the other Indian man is wearing a short sleeved buttoned shirt.
“Omo they really took this casual thing serious o”
The Indian continues “My name is Arjun Agarwal, I’m the CEO at Horizon, to my right, is my cousin Aryan, the COO and to my left, your name sake, Mike Troy, our CTO. Also, there is Anaisha, my sister, whom you have met. She wears a lot of hats here at Horizon”. They all let out a brief laugh at the last statement.
Arjun continues “We were all born in India, but my sister and I grew up in the UK where my dad is a physicist and professor at the University of Birmingham. I also studied Computer Programming while in the UK before pursuing a graduate degree at MIT, which is where I met Mike. Aryan grew up in South Africa but joined us later in the UK for studies. So, you see, we are very family oriented here”.
There is some more conversation between the interviewers and Mike-O, where Mike-O shares some aspects of his background as well, in order to give a better idea of who he is. During the course of the interview, some refreshments are served, much to Mike-O’s delight as he had attended the interview on an empty stomach.
After the interview, Mike-O is asked to leave a contact address at which he can be communicated of further developments. He is not told expressly at the interview that he has been selected, but on his way out and down the stairs, the lady, Anaisha, smilingly says to Mike-O in a low tone “We’ll be seeing you again soon”, followed by a wink.
Mike-O does his best to contain himself and not act overexcited over something that hasn’t completely materialized yet. But then, he knows that he has more likely been selected for the job and will be receiving official confirmation soon. He thinks of how much this could mean for him: he could start making some decent money with which to augment his music dreams, and with Timmy’s new gig at Showtime records, they could be on their way out of Abule soon.
He fills his name in a register just before exiting the building, and as he finally makes his way out, he turns to Anaisha with a smile, definitely resulting from the experience he has just had, and with his hands put together, he says in a tone that expresses a hint of confidence, “Namaste”. Anaisha smiles back at him as he exits through the door.
By Oluwamayowa Akinyemi
Oluwamayowa Akinyemi is a digital and web content developer with experience in web content development and management as well as research and writing. He is an avid reader of random subject matters and a sucker for movies and video games. He is also passionate about youth empowerment and is a global affairs analyst and enthusiast.