New Delhi: It was an emotional reunion for Google CEO Sundar Pichai at IIT Kharagpur campus, as he returned to his alma mater after a long gap of 23 years.
This was his first visit to the campus after he completed his B.Tech in 1993.
However, soon, the conversation with students became more fun-filled. In a heart-to-heart conversation with IIT-Kharagpur students Pichai talked about various things in his college life, ranging from his girlfriend, bunking classes, India's prospects in the technology world, getting a job in Google to mess food.
Pichai recounted that he was interviewed at Google on April 1, 2004. It was the same day that the company launched Gmail. Pichai said that he thought Gmail as an April Fool's prank. But, after a bouts of interview sessions, he realised that Gmail was a real thing.
The pun-side of Pichai came out while he said that he was one of the first employees at Google not to be interviewed by (Google co-founder) Larry Page. He said he always tells people that's why he got the job.
Another mathematics student, whose core subject was not computer science, asked Sundar Pichai how to get a job in Google. The interview moderator asked stuedents to raise their hands if they wanted to work with Google –most of the hands went up.
To this Pichai funnily said, “ May be we should open a campus in Kharagpur.”
Pichai told him not to worry, “ It's easier to train a good mathematician the coding parts, than to do it the other way round.”
“I actually think that you are on a good path. Keep doing that!,” Pichai quipped.
