Beware- Trespassers will be recruited
Ques- What warning sign is written on the boundary walls of the TCS office in Madras?
Ans - ‘Beware Trespassers- If you are not careful, you will be recruited’
That was a common joke for us, way back in 1996, when I graduated out of my engineering college. At that time, TCS was the only Indian software company which used to hire by the truckloads. But now, it is getting stiff competition from the likes of Infosys, Wipro, IBM, Accenture etc, all of whom are hiring armies of engineers every year. Every fifteen days or so, you get to see headlines like these (I have become immune to these headlines now)
Rediff : Infosys will hire 25,000 people this year
Zdnet : 30,000 job vacancies at TCS over the next 12 months
Without being biased, I must say that such headlines are great news for a lot of people. For instance, it is great news for Infosys or TCS; it is great news for these companies’ investors; and it’s also great news for NASSCOM or the Indian Govt. But software engineers (specially those who are particular about the kind of work they want to do) should be a trifle careful before taking these headlines at face value. Here’s why-
- When a company has to hire 25000 engineers in a year, it’s impossible for it to hire 25000 quality people. It will hire just about anybody, who is acceptable, and who they can get their hands on; which means that if you, (a fresh engineer) are getting hired as one of those 25000, you are going to a place that has lowered its standards considerably. You are being hired by a body shop, which, when you leave that company, will simply replace your body with somebody else’s body. Infosys is in fact, experimenting with hiring BSc graduates in place of engineers. The feeling of being part of a herd will surely be a huge blow to your self esteem.
- Secondly, when you join a company along with thousands of others, this could have stunting consequences for your future career progression. You will have to compete with all those people for every promotion decision, every opportunity. Its a very scary thought.
- Thirdly, most of the companies that hire these huge army of engineers are not necessarily doing very challenging or rewarding work. They are simply encashing the business oppurtunity created by labour cost differentials in different parts of the world. Which usually means that they are doing low grade work. Next time you go to face an interview at Infosys or TCS, ask your interviewer this simple question- How much intellectual property does your company actually own? I bet, he will want to hide behind the curtains than answer your question.
- Fourthly, don’t get shocked if you are asked to work on 1980s software platforms like COBOL, Pascal etc. Many of the business applications that these companies service and maintain are of that vintage. I am aware of a few cases where employees left in sheer desperation because of these issues. Its a small chance but it could happen to you.
In all honesty, there are definitely lots of advantages in working for these large firms. But while deciding on these issues, don’t fall for these glitzy headlines, but take a informed decision.
18 comments
I completely agree with you. In fact, it is a scary prospect which, I, as a future engineer will have to face.
I have always told myself that I must join somewhere where they recognize my talent and not just be part of the herd. However, increasingly almost all the companies that visit a typical engineering college for campus interviews are body shopping companies.
I just don’t think that the freshers can do anything else than slogging it out there for atleast the first few years for the sake of experience. So there is indeed no chance for many students to take any informed decision. They are not even briefed about their potential job scope. One just gets randomly assigned to some technology, regardless of whether he/she likes it or not.
I don’t think body shopping will help Indian companies to have a greater role in the world IT market. As you said, we are just doing low labour work. If some other country comes along with cheaper labour, then that’s it. In fact, this is what happening in the call centre business. Some European countries are offering cheaper rates than the Indian companies, and the so the business is shifting elsewhere.
While it is true that the work is not challenging for the most part, I don’t think the prospect of competition is that scary. It’s true that finding good people becomes very hard at that scale, but it also means that the quality of the competition isn’t that great.
As someone who worked at Infosys for a year and a half I can say that as an employee the big problems are -
1. The lack of freedom that a big company brings with it. With so many people the rules and policies are very rigid. It’s understandable as any loose ends will be taken advantage of by a few thousand people. But it gets really stifling.
2. Because managing people at that scale is such a huge problem, it’s like a government office. Even small things take forever to get done.
3. The actual work itself as you mention. This is the single biggest problem and one that will not go away soon. You can consider yourself to be very lucky if you get to write your own code all the time, rather than fixing code written by others.
But, at the same time there are a few advantages to working in a company like Infosys too -
1. The training - I would still encourage a fresher from a non CS background who wants to work in the IT industry to join Infosys just for the training. The four month course definitely helped me. Rarely do you get to learn with excellent facilities and get paid for it too.
2. Growth opportunities - Because these companies are growing so fast, there is a huge dearth of managers/leaders and somebody has to step up. People who show potential are quickly given opportunities to lead teams.
3. Opportunities to learn - This may not always be the case, but if you’re lucky you can learn a lot during work even if the actual work you do isn’t very exciting. For example, I was at the Nortel OSDC where I got to learn about telecom networks, their architecture, the nitty gritties of how mobile telephony actually works, where the technology is heading in the future etc.
To a fresher, my advice would be…make sure that the company actually adds value in some way… and you don’t walk away without gaining anything positive, and don’t worry too much….because not many companies are doing great work in India anyway.
Kishore,
From your comment, you seem to be exactly the kind of person for whom this article was meant. My post was not meant to scare budding engineers or malign the big companies, rather to help people make informed decisions.
Thejo,
Thanks for adding your views to the discussion. You have correctly added the positive points in working for the biggies, something I wanted to do in the post itself but didn’t for paucity of time and lack of perspective .
amit
Amit,
Agree with the post. Also, as I said in our brief encounter in Delhi MoMo, things are changing.
Cheers
Aditya
Rightly said Amit. I graduated last year from REC-Trichy, and joined CTS. I can’t tell how frustrated i felt. But, stuff works for many other guys, who want to take these jobs just as a stopover measure and are not serious about making a career in programming(not IT).
Many of my friends, took the job so that they can prepare for CAT and all that stuff.But the loop is vicious, many other got comfortable there and will probably stay there forever. Chance of being sent to on site is another big crowd puller.
Thankfully, I am out of that loop now.
[..]..There are, however, significant drawbacks to working for a small company.
1. The likelihood that your family and friends will know the name of the company that you are working for is close to zero.
2. The pay is usually lower at small, unknown companies.
3. The benefits are usually not as good as they are at large companies.
4. The dangerous of a small company going out of business is generally higher than a large company going out of business.
The benefits of working for a small company are:
1. You’re a name, not an employee number.
2. The excitement of helping to build a business is enormous.
3. Seeing how your work affects the growth of that business is an even bigger high.
4. Working at a small firm helps you develop a sense of camaraderie that goes deeper than the relationships you can develop at a large firm.
5. You could be learning and contributing much more in a small company than a larger one if you prove that you’re a doer not a talker.
6. There’s more work and less politics at a smaller firm….[..]
[…] Amit Ranjan warns us that even though IT companies might be recruiting truckloads of engineers every year, it may not be ultimately beneficial for an employee [hat tip: Devesh]. […]
Hi
I am surprised by the irreverence with which you dismiss the Indian biggies like TCS,Infosys,Wipro et al.These are companies which have garnered a significant pie of at least the global IT mindshare(I ma saying this becuase in revenue Terms whave still a minuscule share)
Coming to the quality of work and the kind of jobs these companies are offering.just take your time to answer these simple question
1) In which branch of Engineering you are qualified in.
2) Are you ready to forego the works that go with a job in an IT company,like getting an astronomical sum you are getting for the “work” by your own admission you are doing…an occassional world tour at the cost of the clients..for a job in an enginbeering compnay which will offer you that exciting intellectual property stuff?
So let us get to the point straight…
We are all rather happy with this work becuase it pays and you can say you are a software engineer working for a BIG SOFTWARE company…
What is so bad about cost differenctial??That is how market works.If you have the same or better quality at the same price,what you will take?
Then coming to the facilities,’beuracratic” delays…
Arent we demanding too much..
Hey…that said Enjoy your stay in that much maligned Indian IT Biggie.They are not as bad as it is touted to be …
Hey Renjith,
One suggestion to you “Read the post again”. This is for people who want to think twice before becoming part of a herd and for whom fat pay packets and foreign trips alone dont give a high.
I think one needs a lot of courage to think beyond the conventional - famous company- big money- foreign trip offer. and thats what this post makes you think. I dont think that this post is irreverent in any way!!
You seem to have missed the very point this post has tried to make - i.e are your ‘techie biggies’ doing enough to improve the tech scene in India or are they just servicing their overseas clients. Lets face it, innovations come from small start ups or entrepreneurial ventures (e.g - it took a small group of people to make skype, all ebay did was to buy it out). ‘Indian Biggies’ (in your words) have the money and have good indian brains at their disposal, wish they can be more innovative in putting these brains to original work, rather than writing other peoples’ code.
Good write up Amit! Hope to read more such stuff from you.
Vikram
i am fresher 2006 passed out from VTU .my bransh is info.science &looking for a job &most interested in networking.pls reply me
well said,
i remember joining such company and leaving on third day itself.just because i dont wanted to work as a cheap alternative to someone in usa.i preffer starting my own venture and so far i m doing good and satisfied with wht i always wanted to do
from my college tcs recruited “786″! stud offerin startin salary of rs 3.17 per annum..next day cts took 300 ,likewise infosys took another 300 or so…so total 1400 were recruited witin 3 days…remainin waitin for wipro etc to come..wat te hell r they gonna do wit us!!…
Always looks like pasteur is greener on the other side. Saw a lot of people who think that thinking non conventional makes them more intelligent. Yes!! agreed they may be recruiting like an animal herd. But guys if u dont know, then I want to tell u this story.
A non engineer in 1995, had to go towards biological sciences, did B.Sc, M.Sc, worked for a couple of years at 30yrs old. Doing a post doc. but paid absolutely peanuts, just shit. get irritated at what I have to make at this level of knowledge and skills. Employed at the University even now. My wife, an IT project manager(consultant), just an engineer from a local college in India. 6 yrs exp. employed in one of the biggies. onsite. salary > 4 times mine. 3 yrs younger to me. Interacted with her colleagues, some cannot even speak good english. makes me sad that they get paid more than me. Just cant help. market economics. Dudes!!! wake up, be happy with what u have. see what the biggies have done. created jobs for millions directly and indirectly. reducing poverty by creating jobs. Yes the standards will be low. But can u imagine any other sector providing so much opportunities. Seen a lot of people thinking differently, wasting money and doing some other degrees…ultimately landing as broke financially at 35 yrs of age. Best thing abt IT biggies: have a job, may need not even have to do anything. if u want work for a couple of yrs and then do something else. Look at lesser people and be satisfied.
well.. this thread was very helpful but confusing also at the same time.. please help me out people.. i have jobs in cts and infy from campus.. i too am confused regarding whether to join a small company or a big one.. am seriously considering a company called caritor.. i have good managerial and communicational skills n am not a natural inclined towards programming but also would hate to be benched..what should i do?
to start a softwre developing industry in india,what r the basic require documents one must posed and ,
WHAT IS THE PROCEDURE.
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good luck
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good luck
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