The Wrong Number That Landed an Internship

Placement committee members have some of the best stories about how they managed a ‘crisis situation’ and ensured that they left no stone unturned to get an offer from a company. What follows is one such story. In case you want to know about some of the lighter moments that fill our hearts with hope, I think you should read on.

This is the story of a wrongly dialed call.

Last Thursday, I was caught up in a lot of meetings and could not really make all the calls that I had to make. In my to-do list were tasks like “call this CHRO, call that CMO,” and so on. It was around 7 pm at the time, and the Pcommers were flocking to the office, and questions and updates were being taken from everyone. One Pcommer had asked, what was the status with a certain company, and I had immediately picked up the phone, typed in the first name of the CHRO, and dialed.

Tring tring... Tring tring...

“Hello,” said someone on the other side.

Clearly not recognizing the voice of the person, I realized I had misdialed. I had called someone else who bore the same first name (Mr. Shrikant). But then, the number was in my phonebook, so this had to be someone I knew.

Instead of disconnecting the call (which is quite frankly an awful thing to do), I went on to speak while the Pcommers were watching me get really uncomfortable on that sofa.

“Hi Sir, I was trying to reach Mr. Shrikant, but I think I have misdialed.”

Extending this, I said,

“But then, your number is in my phone, so we should have known each other at some point.”

What followed was a quick introduction of me, and Mr. Shrikant too was very patient, and he listened and said it’s completely fine. The call ended.

Immediately after this, a few more students entered the room, and the Pcommers went, “Sir if you had spoken to him for 30 more seconds, we thought you would have converted him also for placements.” A round of laughter later, I cozied up on the sofa and decided to check Mr. Shrikant’s WhatsApp picture to see if I could identify him.

There was none.

After having been emboldened by the encouragement of my beloved Pcommers, I decided to do something crazy! I took a picture of myself and sent it to him on WhatsApp.

“Sir. This is me. Does this ring a bell?”

A blue tick soon appeared.

We were thinking he would think we were a bunch of weirdos at this point. He then replied.

“No problem, Karthikeyan :)”

What followed was a picture of himself with the caption, “This is me.”

As expected, I could not recognize him, and I immediately started laughing.

We then quickly started to get on to our business as usual, reviewing offers and things to do.

A few minutes later, I received a phone call. And the Pcommers were quick to recognize that this was the same, Mr. Shrikant.

Their volumes dropped, and I answered the call.

“Karthik. Let’s sit down and figure out how we know each other. Tell me once again about your profile and where you have been in the last 5-10 years.”

He also told me that he was on the car stereo and that his wife was also with him. We did figure out, after a ten-minute conversation, how we knew each other.

I had the good fortune of being in one of his lectures when I was in class. I must admit, I don’t remember the lecture or him right now. But then, the connection existed. We discussed people we knew, and we had many common friends. 

It was a phone call filled with reminiscence and joy. By the time the call came to a close, I told him that I was also serving as the placement chairperson at IIM Sirmaur and that I was looking for companies to place students in, and that was why I was calling the other Mr. Shrikant.

I thanked him for taking the time to talk to me. But then, there was one thing that needed to be done. I then told him what the Pcommers told me about the ‘what if’ situation of the call extending for 30 more seconds.

I asked him if he was on the lookout for interns at his firm.

There were no awkward pauses this time. “Yes!” he said.

My smile said it all. The Pcommers were jubilant, and there was a round of cheering that went on in the room. Mr. Shrikant and I had discussed the specifics of what he wanted to look for, and he then sent me a JD file. We discussed some more and then floated it to our students.

Hopefully, a few students of ours will have the pleasure of working closer to Mr. Shrikant come summer!

What should I say? This is just another day at the placement office - a place where we work together to make magical careers!