I applied for PQM Apprentice 2026

There were only two selection rounds mentioned in the JD.

Round 1 F2F Interview at Alcon Bengaluru

Basically asked question related to my resume. OOP concept, Rest APIs, Coding, debugging and many more. The whole interview went on for more than 60 min.

The interviewer was sweet and actually gave me enough time to think and answer. He was supportive. I was very happy to answer almost all questions.

This was my first Off campus interview F2F in this year.

Five days later I got a call from HR that I have moved to next round

Round 2 Virtual 30 min

I joined the zoom. I was excepting an Indian for a foreigner popped up. For a second, I thought I was in the wrong call and surprised too. Didn't know alcon was global.

He asked about my intro and projects I worked on.

Alcon motto is to help people see brilliantly and I did an academic major project on eye-related device so I pitched in my project(I worked diligently on that project alone for 3 months doing the literature survey, hardware integration, documentation, debugging and testing)

He said ,"We should assign you in our marketing team because you are so good".

Thank you

Asked why I am interested in eye care specifically

Shared an anecdote how Me and my siblings are myopic

Asked about other projects

I hesitated because I felt my other projects were just GitHub repos and backend projects.

He asked my view on AI if AI is gonna replace dev roles

I answered how as a student I am thrilled knowing AI would help me with assignment and Scared how there have been layoff's happening because of automation and more.

I concluded that AI helps automate tasks and can't completely replace humans.

After that We spoke about the roles and responsibilities

Any questions for me

I was curious which country he is from?

German

Ohh, That's nice! you are the first German I am talking too.

He said about how is working on this company for 30 years now and more

I agreed and asked if he has visited Bengaluru

Yes and I love it and Hope to see you at the office the next time I come

I was happy thinking that he wants to see me at the office?( It was positive sign, right?).

At the end. Do you have any questions? We only have five more minutes left.

I was silent and was talking about something else.

At last, he asked me why should we hire you?

I said I am a quick learner, great team player with strong analytical skills ,, blah blah blah.

I felt my answer wasn't coherent hence said Sorry (out of habit)

He said no no You are doing great , Your communication is great.

I asked for feedback

You did great

Byee

I said Bye and was waiting for him to end the call .

Byee

Thank you and please take care.

I also asked when can i expect the result or update for which he said the HR will update me.

I felt great knowing I totally nailed that interview.

Gave up my leetcode grind and was chilling.

Week went by, no update

I waited for 10 days and sent a follow up message

Another week went by

Sent another follow up message.

I was hoping for the positive response

Ghosted.

I connected to a third person who told me that I wasn't selected.

I was almost there but things didn't work out.

The HR was unprofessional didn't even bother to send an rejection mail.

Lesson learned. This job ain't for me.

I still think about it like how my life now would be different If I got in.

I know off campus fresher hiring is brutal and back to day1 whether I like it or not.

Hope to get my first job soon.

Fighting!!

I saw a job listing for web developer role so i sent my resume via email.

For context I am a fresher(BE grad 2025)

I got a call in two days asking if i can do F2F which I agreed and asked him about JD. He said there will be lot to learn once joined and they can offer 20k which I agreed.

F2F interview

I introduced myself and he explained about the current project he’s working on(Built using claude)and want someone to do whatsapp automation which seemed great. Whole thing happend for 5-6 min. I asked for JD no clear answe.

Then He took me the other guy(His higher up who I’ll name as x)

This x neither introduced himself nor asked for my intro.

Long gap

x : What you know?

me : I know java, sql and springboot. Worked on projects...Listed my projects.

x : Hmm What is your 5 year plan?

me: I want to be working in an org where I can grow both professionally n technically. ( Honestly I excepted questions related to my project. I didn’t think of any better answer.

x : what is your 10 year plan?

me: smiling awkwardly ( remembered the guy ending the 5 min interview with do you want to be entrepreneur?) said “ Maybe I want to have my own startup which Idk blah”.

x: Went on dry explanation on how Indian education system is built to be slaves…blah ..blah

If you are not financially stable we can provide you some any role to you.

me: (inside my mind whatt? should have said I am leaving now)

Now x goes on full on investigation mode

Inquires about my family background(what my parents job, my siblings studies like literally how old are they which college n what they are studying, my family income )where I am currently staying, which PG? who is paying for it?

He asked if i did any course?

i said yeah

Is it paid?How much? Why didn’t you get job what were doing all this time?

I couldn’t tailor my answer because I have no f idea what job I am interviewing for.

I had to bear with him because I am one need of money.

The whole vibe of x was looking down on people . I can’t comment on x because i don’t know his educational qualification or his accomplishments

Sure his slang was insulting and arrogant that’s how I felt . I stared at him with disgusting look when he intentionally stressed on some que about my family details which I felt uncomfortable to share.

All that was running in my mind was Dammit I came for wrong interview. Leave as fast I can.

At the end He gives me task that I have to come up with five brilliant startup ideas. If he is satisfied he would support me and also want to know what am I good at too.

He also said there is fresh batch that will start working from next week. You can join them.

It ended. I thanked the first guy that interviewed me and left.

I already decided that I won’t be going back there when x said I can work there for any role(I am not some charity case)

My self respect >>>

I told to myself that today didn’t happen.

on my home, I was kind sad, so sad I cried out.
Said to myself “There is better job for me waiting”

The thing I regret the most is I couldn’t stand up for myself. I let myself down. I shouldn’t have answered him when he asked about my family income. in return I should have asked him “How is my family income related to this job?”.

x was bossy. I should have walked right away. I was too polite. I obviously had anything to lose even if I questioned him.

It’s been 10 days I still think about how I stayed silent and let him take the advantage of my situation.

I hope to have to the guts to stand up next time.

I saw a job listing for web developer role so i sent my resume via email.

For context I am a fresher(BE grad 2025)

I got a call in two days asking if i can do F2F which I agreed and asked him about JD. He said there will be lot to learn once joined and they can offer 20k which I agreed.

F2F interview

I introduced myself and he explained about the current project he’s working on(Build using claude)and want someone to do whatsapp automation which seemed great. Whole thing happend for 5-6 min. I asked for JD no clear answe.

Then He took me the other guy(His higher up who I’ll name as x)

This x neither introduced himself nor asked for my intro.

Long gap

x : What you know?

me : I know java, sql and springboot. Worked on projects.

x : Hmm What is your 5 year plan?

me: I want to be working in an org where I can grow both professionally n technically. ( Honestly I excepted questions related to my project. I didn’t think of any better answer.

x : what is your 10 year plan?

me: smiling awkwardly ( remembered the guy ending the 5 min interview with do you want to be entrepreneur?) said “ Maybe I want to have my own startup which I can’t tell”.

x: Went on dry explanation on how Indian education system is built to be slaves…blah ..blah

If you are not financially stable we can provide you some any role to you.

me: (inside my mind whatt? should have said I am leaving now)

Now x goes on full on investigation mode

Inquires about my family background(what my parents job, my siblings studies like literally how old are they which college n what they are studying, my family income )where I am currently staying, which PG? who is paying for it?

He asked if i did any course?

i said yeah

Is it paid?How much? Why didn’t you get job what were doing all this time?

I couldn’t tailor my answer because I have no f idea what job I am interviewing for.

I had to bear with him because I am one need of money.

The whole vibe of x was looking down on people . I can’t comment on x because i don’t know his educational qualification or his accomplishments

Sure his slang was insulting and arrogant that’s how I felt . I stared at him with disgusting look when he intentionally stressed on some que about my family details which I felt uncomfortable to share.

All that was running in my mind was Dammit I came for wrong interview. Leave as fast I can.

At the end He gives me task that I have to come up with five brilliant startup ideas. If he is satisfied he would support me and also want to know what am I good at too.

He also said there is fresh batch that will start working from next week. You can join them.

It ended. I thanked the first guy that interviewed me and left.

I already decided that I won’t be going back there when x said I can work there for any role(I am not some charity case)

My self respect >>>

I told to myself that today didn’t happen.

on my home, I was kind sad, so sad I cried out.
Said to myself “There is better job for me waiting”

The thing I regret the most is I couldn’t stand up for myself. I let myself down. I shouldn’t have answered him when he asked about my family income. in return I should have asked him “How is my family income related to this job?”.

x was bossy. I should have walked right away. I was too polite. I obviously had anything to lose even if I questioned him.

It’s been 10 days I still think about how I stayed silent and let him take the advantage of my situation.

I hope to have to the guts to stand up next time.

I'm a 2025 engineering graduate from a tier-3 college.

I got placed through campus placements, I’m not sure what happened — they’ve gone completely off the grid.

In the meantime, I've been applying off-campus consistently, but my resume isn't getting shortlisted. I'm getting little to no callbacks despite applying to a lot of openings.

What confuses me is seeing so many other 2026 graduates getting placed by my college which barely placed students from my batch.

Duh!!

I genuinely don't understand what's happening.

Is the market really that competitive? Are most people getting jobs through referrals? Is my resume likely the problem, or is this just what off-campus hiring is like for freshers right now?

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who was in a similar situation or recently managed to get an off-campus job. What made the difference for you?

Right now, it honestly feels like everyone else is finding opportunities while I can't even get my foot in the door.

I graduated last year with a job offer, but after a few months the company completely ghosted me. To keep moving forward, I enrolled in a paid online course to upskill myself. Now, 18 months later, I’m still jobless.

This has been a very rough phase. As a fresher, I’ve been applying relentlessly, but I haven’t received any callbacks. I’m trying hard, yet nothing seems to work.

Last night, my parents told me they feel embarrassed to say their child is jobless. Hearing that broke me. I paused—I had anticipated this moment—but my heart shattered when it actually happened. It feels like even after 10 years I’ll still be jobless. Why did nobody warn me about this reality back in college?

Last night, I was thinking about what my life would look like if I got married, and I imagined a husband's face (I just received a marriage proposal). But all of a sudden, the face turned into my school crush, whom I last saw in 2019. Honestly, I can't even call him my crush. He barely had any interest in me. He was the popular kid, while I was just an average girl chasing ranks. I was the one who always started the conversations, whether it was through talking or texting. I remember wishing him a happy birthday three times, but he never wished me a happy birthday even once. He speaks sweetly to everyone else but me. I hate it that I still like him. I was shocked to remember him after many years; when I was imagining my future husband, it was just weird. Any suggestions on how I can let him go?