Till now, I have provided you with an overall idea about my SBI PO journey in Part 1, a detailed analysis in Part 2, Prelims guide in Part 3, Mains guide in Part 4 and Interview guide in Part 5. I have shared with you the complete journey from the preparation phase and covered each phase of the exam till the interview in depth. Now, it is time to turn to the post selection process. After you are selected, there are various attendant things to take care of before you land up at your designated Circle and LHO (Local Head Office). But first, I want to take you through the moment of my selection. Let us begin from where we ended in the last post.

The Wait Finally Ends

I had my interview on the 9th of September 2016 and by 11th September everyone in the country was done with their interviews. The day of final results was 30th September 2016 as per the notification but we didn’t expect SBI to follow through with the dates as they had missed the designated dates for Mains results (delayed) and Prelims results (had come early). However, yet again SBI would surprise, this time by delivering right on time. The SBI PO prep had taken a lot out of me and although there were highs and lows, overall, I had enjoyed the journey. I knew though, that the final day of reckoning would change a lot of things. Usually I don’t go into things without planning for them beforehand and as usual I made a plan for both eventualities by writing this in my notebook. 

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail -Benjamin Franklin

30th September, 2016. Mahalaya.

By the afternoon of 30th September WhatsApp and the other social media groups went into a tizzy. Apparently, somebody had called the recruitment cell and had received confirmation that results were going to come out “soon”. In Kolkata it was Mahalaya- a day of celebration, it signalled the mythological descent of Maa Durga from the heavens and the start of Durga Puja. But as my city was decked in festivities I was glued to the computer screen incessantly refreshing the SBI careers website. Incredibly enough, the same image that appears on this website today was there in 2016 too. A gleeful handshake was all I saw as I frantically searched the tabs for the final result. After being anxious all through the afternoon and into the evening I took a break as it was too stressful. Watched some YouTube and then fired up a Harry Potter movie to take my mind off the results. It was 7PM and I had almost given up the hope of result coming out that day as this scene appeared on my PC screen and my mobile lit up. 

10 Points to Gryffindor if you can guess which movie this screenshot is from. Comment down below!

WhatsApp groups were in a flurry of activity as many people started to excitedly announce that they were IN. The results were out! I tried to access the website immediately but it started to throw an HTTP error. The page just refused to load as more and more of my friends confirmed their selection. After some more tense moments at about 7:06 PM I finally got through and downloaded the PDF. Breathless, I pressed Control+C. Control+F. Control+V.

Ever been so scared to do a Control+F search that you heart’s pounding out of your chest?

Bazinga! My roll number was in the list! For a moment I was dazed. I searched the PDF 10 more times. Typed out the Roll number and confirmed. It was true. I had done it. I was IN. I was an SBI PO! After the long and arduous journey when you find your name in the final list the euphoria that washes over you is simply indescribable. After the bewilderment died down I picked up my phone and shared the news with my friends and fellow soon-to-be-colleagues. A lot of us had made it from our WhatsApp group and this made me even happier as we could share this moment together. What a memorable start to the biggest festival of Durga Puja!

Out of the 30 of us who prepared together over WhatsApp 17 of us finally made it through

The happiness that you see in the eyes of your parents after getting selected is something totally heart-warming. For most of us the struggles and sacrifices of our endeavours are borne not only by ourselves but by our families equally. To finally see us successful gives far greater joy to our parents than we can ever imagine.

Not everyone had a happy ending

It was only the day after the results came out that we could comprehend being among the chosen 0.1% of candidates who had crossed the finish line. You realize the gravity of your achievement quite slowly- when you wake up the next day and go through the daily motions. After weeks and months of the grind, to be on the other side feels unreal at first. You also begin to realize that this is just the beginning. Your journey hasn’t ended. It has only just begun. Bigger hurdles await you and the dawn of a new story beckons in the horizon.

You know that you’ve done something unique when even a normal sunrise looks epic to you

In the celebrations that follow us when we are selected we can often forget about the ones who could not make it. People who had worked just as hard if not more were thrown by the wayside.  I was starkly reminded of this the next day when I saw the follow post on Gradeup.

It is unnecessary to share his identity but quite imperative to share his message

The guy who wrote this was a good friend. We had prepared together and he was a well deserving candidate. Sadly however, his interview had taken a horrible turn (towards US politics) and due to his unfamiliarity with it he could not answer. After reading the post I was sure he would be successful in the years to come. And surely enough, he cracked the next exam and got placed in Allahabad Bank. Failure is a critical weapon in the arsenal of the elite competitor. To become truly successful a person must face failure. Accept failure. Survive failure.

My Final Marksheet

The next couple of days went by in a blur. Soon thereafter SBI released the full marksheet and we could finally understand our comparative performance. It was a very new pattern of the examination and 2016 would be the last year that sectional cut-offs were in place (removed since 2017’s exam). In Part 5 of this blog series I had mentioned how I bungled the GD and it was reflected in my score. I had expected a bit better from the interview as many got a perfect 30 but my score there reminded me that one can never accurately analyze one’s own performance. In the end you are at the mercy of the Panel, whose subjective views will determine your score.

My Final Consolidated Marksheet

On Providence

Successful people are often referred to as being gifted, born talented or as having special or even superhuman abilities. It couldn’t be further from the truth. All serious aspirants toil away equally. Were all the 2000 people who made it to the final merit list in 2016 truly deserving candidates? Not by a long shot. Talent is overrated. Cracking any competitive exam is a function of your hard work and providence. You can work as hard you want but in the end, for most mere mortals, you need an added push- a stroke of good luck, a moment of magic or some divine intervention. I do not for once undermine the outcome of honest hard work- no amount of luck can take you through unless you work ridiculously hard. But, hard work can only push you 99% towards your goal. The final 1% is destiny. Take my marksheet- we had to clear 6 sectional cut-offs in Mains and also the overall cut-off. I cleared the overall & 5 sectionals with ease but I was very close to being disqualified due to the Objective sectional cut-off of 70 marks. I cleared it by 0.75 & I know many others who cleared by even lesser margins. It was a matter of 2 or 3 deciding questions. Had I gotten those wrong, I wouldn’t be writing this today. Destiny does matter.

Newspapers also carry the news & give you a certain pride in your accomplishment

Circle Allotment & Communication

Circle preferences had been sought from us by SBI before our results were declared. Back then SBI had 14 circles (expanded to 17 after the Merger). My top 3 preferences were Kolkata, Bhubaneswar & Bangalore. Circle allotment letters were issued soon after results came out and I was placed in Bangalore circle. Having initially been lured by the word ‘Bangalore’ I would later come to rue the fact that Bangalore circle covered entire Karnataka. And oh boy, if only I’d known how hard it is to get posted in Bangalore city. Before joining our primary point of contact was the AGM HR at our LHO and getting accurate replies from that department proved to be quite an uphill task. I would write detailed emails to them asking about various complex matters and have to wait a long time to finally get a monosyllabic email which would not answer anything specific. Later on, I would find out that this wasn’t IT- at a public sector bank, email communication gets nothing done. People hardly even read emails on time. It remains an issue till this day and is a reason of great frustration to the young officers of our bank.

The Contentious Provident Fund (PF) Transfer

One of the biggest pain points for me after joining was related to my last job. I didn’t withdraw my PF after I resigned from TCS because the rules stated that any withdrawals would be fully taxable while transferring the PF to one’s new organization was allowed. Multiple emails about this issue were ignored by HR. They would only reference the “mail/letter” sent by them but those did not help at all. It would take me over a year after joining to finally resolve the issue. During this time I found out that EPFO does not maintain the PF trust of SBI and hence they would not be able to transfer my PF. Even TCS has its own PF trust which further complicates matters. After a long deliberation I had to get into touch with the TCS PF Department who helped me much more than my own HR department at SBI. I was paid the balance PF amount after deductions of relevant taxes. I would suggest you to not to delay this process. Rather, directly withdraw your PF at the outset if you are leaving any private organization to join a government undertaking. Saving on meagre tax amounts is not worth the heartburn.

Medical Formalities & Final Document Verification

On October 18th, 2016 I received an email with the details of documents which were to be verified and a list of medical tests that had to be done. The address mentioned was Bangalore LHO. This freaked me out. Was I expected to go to that centre to complete everything? To make matters more confusing the medical & doc verification was to be completed by 26th October, 2016 while the joining date was mentioned as 15th November, 2016. A lot of us were from Kolkata and really in a quandary because even emails were not being answered. Finally we got through to the relevant department via call and explained the situation. They emailed us the next day & confirmed that our verification centre was successfully changed to Kolkata and would be held on 25th October, 2016. SBI LHO Kolkata officials were very helpful and their HR patiently cleared all our doubts. We could complete the relevant tests from any registered pathology lab and carry the reports with us on verification day. The doc verification went smoothly on the designated day. However, we had to wait a long time before the medical officer came and signed off our medical reports. He didn’t take more than 2 minutes to examine reports for each of us but pocketed 300 rupees per person without providing any receipt in return. I later learnt that SBI empanelled medical officers are paid quite well by SBI in turn for providing part time services. Not one person complained. Would anyone jeopardize their job and do that? SBI did not reimburse any of the medical test costs (which was quite strange).

 The entire gamut of tests cost me over Rs 5000 at a Private Pathology Lab (I highly suggest you go for Sarkaari ones) 

SBI never fails to surprise

Everything was taken care of and we were poised to join SBI on 15th November, 2016. But on 8th November we received an email stating that the joining date had been suddenly preponed to 14th November. Now this was even more surprising to us because we had friends all over the country and their date remained unchanged. I’ll never know why they felt compelled to change it for our circle. Imagine having booked air tickets from all over the country to Bangalore and getting to know about a change in dates at such short notice. Many people had even booked tickets with their families as it was a very important moment in their lives. Hotels had been booked. It was utter chaos. My flight was to land on the afternoon of 14th November so I only had to take permission to be slightly delayed but many people were scheduled to reach on 15th itself. The HR people allowed a delay in reporting on 14th but did not allow reporting on 15th. So, countless people had to buy expensive air tickets (changing dates for long-haul train tickets at such short notice was impossible & airline fares had skyrocketed). It was our first brush with ultra-rushed timelines that are a norm in SBI. I thought at the time that such a monumental HR slip-up was only an aberration. Oh boy, how wrong I was… But, HR slip-ups are a story for another post. Let’s move on.

Sometimes 1 email can inject an inordinate amount of excitement in life

14th November, 2016

In 2016 SBI allowed candidates to extend joining by a couple of months but I didn’t avail of it. A couple of people I know did take it and actually ended up getting better branches than I did. I was under the impression that a loss of seniority wasn’t worth it. I had asked for and received approval to report with a slight delay on 14th November and by the time I reached the training centre the orientation had already begun. The AGM HR was on the dais and everyone had assembled in a small auditorium. The environment was informal and I went up and introduced myself and apologized for the delay. The AGM gave a brief speech and showed us a video on the history and legacy of SBI. The Chief General Manager (CGM, highest reporting authority in Bangalore circle) herself came and addressed us after a while. However, nothing of consequence happened after the speeches were done. By this time we knew that our trainings would start with branch assignments and the HR people assured us that we would be allotted braches the next day and we headed back to our hotels (stay arrangements weren’t provided).

15th November, 2016

We got our signed appointment letters, and were handed sheets which we had to fill up and sign to complete the joining formalities. The following documents were included:
1. Master Details (including personal & occupational details)
2. Bio Data (including Family details & Educational Qualifications)
3. Form A – Declaration of receipt of SBI Service Rules (the service rules booklet was later provided to us)
4. Form B – Domicile Declaration
5. Declaration of Fidelity & Secrecy
6. Letter of undertaking for Exclusive service to SBI & no other organization (this document also authorises SBI to withhold NOCs to accept the offer of any other appointment)
7. Statement of Assets & Liabilities (required of all PSB employees vide the Lokpal & Lokayuktas Act)
8. Details of Spouse & Dependent Children, if any.
9. Statement of Movable Property belonging to self.
10. Statement of Immovable Property belonging to self.
11. Statement of Debts & Other Liabilities exceeding Rs 1 lakh.
After this, we headed over to the PC Lab to generate our employee IDs and our SBI allotted email IDs. All the formalities were completed by lunch and the waiting game started as we sat there chatting away and speculating about which branches we would get. It got very late and evening rolled in by the time they called us to officially announce our branches. We were in for a jarring surprise.

Breakdown of the 2 years of SBI PO Training of a colleague (this now stands revised. Refer to Part 7 for details) 

A Final Surprise

The branch allotment was a grand affair. We assembled at the auditorium and the HR representatives called out each of us by name and handed us a sealed envelope. The branch that was allotted would be our home for the next 15 weeks. I was assigned to SBI Harihar, a branch almost 300km away from Bangalore. The “surprise”? We had to report the very next day, at 9AM. Panic ensued. When you read the words Bangalore circle you automatically think that you’ll get placed in and around Bangalore. But almost 90% of the batch had received postings in places outside Banglore. From the dusty plains of Gulbarga, to the briny shores of Uttara Kannada, PO 2016 batch was spread out across the expanse of Karnataka. But there was no time to mourn as it was already 7PM in the evening and we had just 14 hours left to report to our branches. This was a very rude shock. HR had never mentioned that we would be reporting the very next day. We went up to the HR people but they provided a standard reply to all our panicked queries- “You can take the overnight bus”. We literally ran out to our hotels to collect our bags and head off to our branches. I felt dejected but I was exceedingly sorry for others who were dealt an even tougher hand- a colleague of mine was posted to SBI Indi- a rural town on Karnataka’s Northern border almost 600km from Bangalore.

SBI Harihar lies somewhere in this picture. Can you find it? (taken on the day I reported there)

Life begins in SBI

As you chart out your life in SBI (or infact any PSB), you’ll soon learn how to deal with challenges such as these. And you’ll learn how to become resourceful and resilient. Since HR would not listen I directly contacted the Branch Manager of Harihar and explained the situation. He agreed to a delayed reporting on 16th. I took the early morning train to reach SBI Harihar on a hot dusty day. Many adventures happened there and I learnt a LOT. I joined when the scourge of demonetization had still not passed and you could say my initiation to banking was a trial by fire. The branch was always jam packed as it was beside the old Pune Bangalore highway. The SBI mega merger would signal the end of that branch and teach me a thing or two about branch consolidation. It was an exciting few months albeit a difficult branch to begin your career. For someone who had spent his entire life in a city, a rural branch is like diving headfirst into an ocean. You see Real India, her charms & frustrations, her diversity, her grit. When you must survive in a small town by yourself without speaking a word of the local language and attempt to serve the population there to the best of your ability, you understand what it really means to be Indian. In the early years SBI teaches life skills more than it teaches banking. In time, these skills are bound to come in handy. A valuable education that you will never receive in school. Notify me when the Final Part of this blog series is online!