Shalin Jain’s Little Red Couch

This article should help students and serious career aspirants make a better decision for their future. This article specifically discusses the ‘trend’ of joining an Indian IT company. Last but not the least, I assume you are a kind of person who wants a (more) challenging and interesting job. So lets begin!

Candy: For the innocent
Coffee: For the grown up
Cocaine: It gets on you (or gets you on)

A typical fresher joins an IT company for exactly one reason, payscale. No one else offers an educated illiterate a 200k+ pa from day one. So if you are one those who has or are likely to start with that payscale, you probably think you have done your parents proud. I am sure by now you would be wondering ‘Oh! by the way, so what is wrong in taking up a job like this?’. Good question.

A candy is what typically a kid licks. He is not aware about the ingredients of it. He wants it because the other kid next to him has one. He wants a pink one in particular because that’s the most popular among them. And the kid with utmost innocence gets addicted to it. Your candy is your payscale. It makes you happy. But before taking up a job do you really know what exactly is your role. If you like to code which language will they put you on with? If you don’t like to code would they actually put you in a job role that doesn’t demand programming? On what grounds would you actually get promoted? How much of real technology would you learn? Of course many more questions. Most students don’t want to even ask such questions ‘coz they don’t want to risk loosing a 200k job. Even if you did, they won’t have an answer but they will still manage to sell you the job. Having said this let’s discuss some pitfalls and understanding of the industry.

Everyone is welcome
If you are an engineer from a decent engineering college you would have noticed the on and off campus recruitment figures of your seniors or your own batch. Wow, 75% of your class is either in TCS, InfoSys or Wipro. Now think about people in your class you thought was a good for nothing guy, seriously, while he did score he was actually just a bookworm. Think, how can the best of the companies hire all sorts of people?

Why is this mass hiring?
Like all other businesses, IT is also about demand and supply. As a new industry demand has been ever growing. To meet the supplies these companies make a projected resource requirement. They hire this resource and mostly they are the ‘buffer’ lot. They put you on training mode so that you feel you are not wasting your time. They will train you on almost everything, from php, c++, mfc to java, j2ee, unix. And then when the new demand arises you would be on a real project.

Bonds makes Bonded Labor
Single-sided employment bonds are very common among the best of the IT companies. Mostly freshers sign a bond and seldom know why the company wants to keep them bonded. It typically gets very frustrating when an employee is kept ‘on bench’. And it’s quite difficult for one to break such bonds using a legal course. Ideally, never sign a bond.

Innovation and technology
These words are best used by these companies outside the company. In media, annual reports and talk shows. Even for companies like Microsoft and yahoo it’s difficult to innovate because the company is busy managing 1000s of people that they have rather thinking about innovation. Google with a much smaller team re-defined search and email.

So, don’t fall for the candy.

Ofcourse, it’s a difficult situation to escape. To most there are hardly any other options available. So with a lot browsing, chatting, paper work and a little real work you get addicted to the coffee. At the best, you switch companies for a change. After over few years of drinking coffee you would realize two things: 1. You have wasted your youthful years (unexploited talent) 2. You are addicted to the coffee.

After about 4-5 years of service, dealing with useless boss and a under-talented team it’s becoming a boring job. You are also stagnant at 500k+ since quite a while now. Money starts becoming a secondary factor and quality work takes priority. The candy is lost out to a strong coffee.

With a family and growing expenses you feel it’s very risky to start something on your own. At the worst you can become a consultant to some company, maybe the same. At-least this way you can earn more, gain more respect and be able to fire employers whom you don’t enjoy working with.

Again most people don’t manage to get out of the coffee addiction. They have lost the risk taking attitude and also the creativity over the years. They in-fact reach the stage where they cannot loose their job at any cost. They are willing to compromise but not challenge the situation. You like onsite opportunities as project manager but don’t appreciate the kind of work you are given. You don’t like what the other project manager whispers in your boss’s ear. Ego makes friends. You end up managing people than managing the core project. You know it’s bad but you are addicted. Just like Cocaine.

Think out-of-the box before it’s too late. Lift up your benchmarks and stop behaving like a sheep in a herd. Make your own way. There is more to technology beyond outsourcing and head count business. Respect your talent.