1. How did you get your first job?

 This is a tale that revolves around my first job, although the job itself is not the highlight. The job was with Hindustan Computers Ltd., (HCL) in 1978, as a field Engineer, and I got the job after a day-long series of tests and interviews on campus.

Campus was the College of Engineering, Guindy, in Chennai, India, established in 1794! HTTPS://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/COLLEGE_OF_ENGINEERING,_GUINDY
HCL was founded in 1976, I graduated in Electronics Engineering in 1978 and was recruited by HCL as part of the very first batch of ten Engineers to support their newly developed computer for running business finance systems. HCL was a pioneer - the first Indian company to design and build their own computer - all other computers in India at that time came from IBM, Burroughs and the like. HCL is now a behemoth with over 200,000 employees: HTTPS://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/HCLTECH.
HCL was one of the first companies to recruit on campus, and at that time I had applied to MBA & MS schools, but not for any jobs yet. As it turned out, I got the job, with an unheard of starting salary that crossed into 4-digits, Rs.1028/month. At the same time I was accepted into one of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) for an MBA. At that time IIMs were relatively new, and there were only 3 - ABC - Ahmedabad-Bangalore-Calcutta; today there are ~20 IIMs. Of the ABC, the hierarchy was A, then C, and a distant B, the newest. Entrance was via a national written test, followed by interviews for those who made it through. Seats were assigned based on your rank and preference. I got B, although was hoping for A or C.
So I decided to take the HCL job, which started with a training session at the HQ in Delhi, with later potential posting to Delhi, Mumbai, or other cities being planned. This is where the story gets interesting.
My father’s youngest brother, Bhaskar, was then the top Police officer in the state of Karnataka, where Bangalore is the capital. He is in his eighties now, retired, and doing well (He was absolutely excited to attend the wedding in Chicago, but visa-backlog prevented that, just like for my sister, Manju). He is a very dynamic and social personality, and has always been a favorite uncle for all of us siblings. When he heard I got into IIM, he was ecstatic. When he heard I was turning it down, he was shocked!
So of course he called us in Chennai and tried strongly to change my mind. I told him of the HCL job and he wasn’t impressed. When he didn’t make headway, he then took more steps. First he tried to find out everything about HCL (pre-Internet days); found that they were just opening a one-man office in Bangalore and decided to pay them a visit. He did; and then booked an overnight train to Chennai and showed up at home! He said HCL was an unstable, new company, that could disappear overnight. IIM was an opportunity I absolutely should NOT give up.
Anyway, to cut the story short, I stayed my course, he gave up and returned to Bangalore, and I went onto Delhi to join HCL. Later on, I found out that the core founding team at HCL were from IIM-C; and when they heard I gave up IIM-B, they strongly encouraged me go back! So in the next year’s cycle, I applied again, and this time got IIM-C, which I then joined, much to my uncle’s joy!
To complete the story of my first job: I finished my training in Delhi, then was posted to Mumbai. After about ~3 months, HCL opened an office in Chennai and I was offered a posting there, which I took. My boss in Mumbai was very gracious and sent me to Chennai by air, an absolute luxury in those days of train/bus travel. I spent less than a year in Chennai before moving to Calcutta.
And in the light of all of the above, the end of this tale is also in the same vein: I quit IIM-C after the first year and moved to the US to pursue MS in Engineering at the University of Texas!

Here's a pix of my uncle at Mayu's dance performance, Chennai, 2010.