Eligibility Criteria:

• BCA or B.Sc graduates (Computer Science/ Electronics/ Mathematics/ Physics/ Statistics / Information Technology / Information Science only)
• Candidates who have graduated in 2008, 2009 & 2010 with experience of up to 24 months are eligible to apply
• Simple average aggregate of 60% throughout Class X, XII & Graduation.
• Should not have participated in the Infosys selection process in the last 9 months.
• Should be willing to relocate and work in a 24×7 environment.

If you qualify the above criteria, email your resume to

graduates@infosys.com

on/before 23^rd July, 2010.

Short listed candidates will be informed via e-mail about the selection process.

If you wish to send your resume through employee reference, email your resume to us at

sridhar@interviewmantra.net

Imagine a project of building a skyscraper having 100 floors (highly unlikely as we don’t have so much patience to build 100 floors), we want to save all that money that goes for the compensation of dumb design engineers, architects and interior designers. So that we can use that money to hire more laborers who know to build walls. The laborers themselves will figure out with their experience how to build the building. After all those cheap laborers might have built so many buildings till now.

We like improvisation, we don’t plan our cities, we don’t plan disaster management, we don’t plan for critical risks. We (referring to Indian project managers) like using the word “proactive” a lot of times in a desperate attempt to motivate the employees and sometimes as an excuse to giving a bad appraisal to a hard working employee, also to suppress the voice of employees. But we are not proactive, we hate pro-activity.

Instead, we follow the nature’s law of reaction, Newton’s third law. We react to things as and when they come. “Chalega… Dekhlenge….” (translates roughly to “it runs…we shall see later”) is the perfect representation of our typical attitude. Where CAT exam fails online, where Bhopal tragedy happens unforeseen, where Maoists kill hundreds of policemen without any intelligence information, negligence , laziness and arrogance is not something new.

If someone insists us to plan a task or himself spends time in design, we call him a dreamer and a loser. Winner according to us is the one who works day in and day out, slogs at offices for 14 hours a day, sweats at work without having any idea of what he/she is doing, without any care for the quality of the product being built, completely ignoring the risks and repercussions.

May it be software, or politics, or municipal corporation, or public security, or public convenience or even a patient struggling for life! There is no interest shown by the authorities in planning.

Hey wait, having said all that, there is dreaming for sure. A lot of dreaming. Politicians loftily speak about making India one of the developed nations in the next 10 years (speak about realistic goal setting!), Realtors boast of their hastily built commercial projects as “state of art” building, not to forget the wonderful Sanskrit names they choose, IIT-ans claim that their startup will soon downsize Google, engineers claim that their plagiarized projects to become the next big thing in the world, sports coaches claim that India will get the most number of Gold medals in coming Olympics.

We want to go to Swarga(heaven in Sanskrit), but we don’t want to die!!!!

We want results, but we wont focus on high level management and execution!

Comments?

A day before attending a  job interview, I print a couple of codes that I have written and carry them with me. This helps me more than in one way to clear the interview.

By reviewing code what I wrote an year back, I get a chance to revise what I know. Many a time, we forget concepts that we already know, let alone new ones.

Another advantage is that I can show it as a proof of my proficiency to write codes. This will be a confidence booster to me as I’m not faking, the code is hand written(typed) by me.

Try this trick, it will never let you down.

Do you meet the following criteria? If yes, send your resume asap to sridhar@interviewmantra.net

• Possess 2 to 5 years of IT Experience.
• Education – BE or MCA.
• Programming experience in C/C++/ Java (Swings, Servlets, JSP, strong OO skills).
• Knowledge of Teamcenter ITK programming is a huge advantage.

Note that this requirement is for Indian National only.

You have to follow few simple steps to get an onsite chance in IT industry. In every project meeting, pretend as if you know everything that’s going on in project.  Though, technically you know nothing.

Just be your Project Manager’s pet. Take him out on parties, wish him Birthday even if it’s not his Birthday. The only key here is to have one skill — how to overshadow others, how to claim others work as yours.

The Project Manager or Senior Project Manager won’t know anything that’s going on in the project as he himself is concerned  about his appraisal rating. And his rating is dependent on the length of time he spends with the Delivery Manager. In every project party he’ll accompany the Delivery Manager and talk cute stuff to his kids, buy them Ice creams and stuff.

Project Manager himself is not sound technically to understand something. In a meeting, you can even say that we can use STRUTS framework in a .NET project, and he’ll clap for you and nominate you for an Award.

The best thing to do here is come and fly Kites, make Rangolis on reception floors. Write out slogans on how to save the planet and trees, go out and help the poor people.

Just do all these things for exactly 3 months, and I bet that you’ll be on a project with Swiss client and in the fourth month you’ll be visiting the client location that will be Vienna or Austria or may be Amsterdam.

I couldn’t stop laughing after reading this comment. Comment your views.

For most of the time, life of a software engineer is typical. One or two years in a company, then a chance to go onsite and earn some money. Then back home. Another 2 years and one becomes a team lead. After 5-6 years, a manager.

When you go onsite, you can earn up to 1 Lakh Rupees a month if you are a software engineer and more if you are an analyst or a manager. Few companies like IBM, Accenture, Sapient have few or no onsite opportunities. If you are an analyst after 4 years you can expect an offshore pay of Rupees 45 K a month. But offshore pay is hardly anything. It’s what you earn onsite that counts.

Work that suits you

Your engineering branch or degree of study is the last thing that would matter here. Even if you have done PhD in Robotics they won’t bother to put you in the project that suits you. In big companies you do not get to select where you want to work.

Technical skills vs Communication skills?

If you have good speaking skills and can project yourself well to your managers, you will grow. When you code only a couple of lines in a year, you would need to talk the rest of the time. Relation with your boss is very important.

The work is basically simple which almost anybody can do. The work does not involve too much skill of programming. Most of the projects will be related to some business such as Retail or Financial service or Insurance etc. And your managers have no idea about what work you have done. No one is going to be look into your code you wrote or the bug that you fixed. So your salary hike depends upon how well you project yourself and how well you contribute to the project.

Hifi Programmer

Don’t be in thoughts that you are going to become a hi fundu programmer. The only time during which you do some serious programming is during the training period. If you thought Windows Vista code was written in India, you are wrong. The Help documentation was done in India. Remember Indian software industry is not about creating new things. It’s all about client giving you work. Work that their IT team is NOT interested in doing. But you get money, work experience and a life called “White collar job”.

If you are in Mainframe stuff, you’re going to dig into some code written in 1970 and wonder half the time “How could someone write such hopeless code?” You need to add one or two lines into that code. Not more than 20 lines.

The Bench

There are many fresh trainees kept on the bench or given some boring projects. All software companies have to show Resources to their clients. That’s why they hire so many people. And not everyone who joins as a fresher ends up with good work. While you are “On the bench”, you aren’t working for any client and you are an unbilled resource who doesn’t earn any money for the company. Being on the bench for 1-2 months would be “pleasurable.” But any period beyond that will get you frustrated.

The Appraisal

You will get trained in some X technology but will get a project in Y technology (if you are lucky enough to get one!) for which you will be trained again for a month. You slog for hours for an year in the office and at the end your boss will say that your performance was not outstanding and you get an average performance rating in appraisal.

Enjoy your stay!

Reference: pagalguy.com

He does his best to ensure timely delivery matching reasonable quality standards. But from the past three years, his appraisal rating remained a constant 3 (on scale of 5), was never 1 or 2. Rating 3 out of 5 signifies that the work done by the employee was just OK.

When I had asked him what he thought was the reason for getting a poorer grade than that he actually deserved, he told me that he had no idea whatsoever. His philosophy at work was to deliver on time, try to do his work individually without interference and to silently accomplish the tasks assigned to him and wait for magical results.

He expects the boss to notice his work, acknowledge the efforts he puts in and appreciate him. In a very rare case, you will get to work with such an ideal boss who keeps his eyes wide open and constantly evaluates you based on the amount efforts you put in rather than on the high level results.

Do you find yourself in same position as that of this person? Read on for some tips that can boost your appraisal rating next year.

Give micro updates to your boss (every day)

Frequent & short updates are better than infrequent & lengthy updates. Update your boss with your progress via email or phone call or face-to-face chat. Giving updates is one of your most important untold responsibilities. Don’t wait until your Boss sends you an email or comes to your desk to find out your progress. Send daily updates to your boss. Make it a habit to go to your boss’s desk at least twice a day. Discovered something interesting, show it to your boss. Solved a critical bug, boast about it to your supervisor. Daily reports are more effective and powerful than bi-weekly or monthly status reports.

Stay late at work (at least till the boss stays)

In a typical Indian IT company, it is so important to stay late at office even after crossing the official work hour limit. The equation is clear; your performance is measured based on the duration of your stay at the office. Of course, more important than staying late, is to ensure that you get noticed when you are sitting till late. If you can’t fulfill their unrealistic expectations, you can at least show them that you are putting your best efforts by sitting for extended hours.

Change your seat nearer to the team

I can tell you out of my personal experience that I had a bad performance review just because of the reason that I was sitting in a cubicle which was far from where my boss and rest of the team sat. Though this was not the reason that was given by my boss in appraisal, it was the obvious to me why all my hard work went unnoticed. I spent most of the time in my cubicle and rarely met team mates or the boss face to face though they were on the same floor. If you are sitting in a seat which is away from where rest of the team sits, then change your seat immediately. Sitting in the proximity of the team helps in many ways. You can ask for help by just dragging your chair to the next desk.

Socialize with the team

Human relations are far more powerful than professional relations. Try to befriend your colleagues, specially your team lead and your project manager. Friends help you, they forgive your mistakes easily, they even cover your mistakes at times. But you can’t expect any such favour from your professional colleagues or your boss. Grab every opportunity you get to socialize with the team. Never miss a project party. That is the best time when you can see the human part of your team mates. Your boss will forget his superiority and will interact with you like your colleague. Joke, have fun and enjoy. Don’t feel shy to socialize in such events. These casual meet-ups make a great difference in the team, they build rapport between individuals and improve friendly relations.

Never say that you don’t know

I don’t know if this applies to the rest of the world, but I know for sure that in India, if you admit in public that you don’t know something, you are instantly classified as a fool. Being too straight forward and frank is a bane in India. If you don’t know something, you should never accept that fact. You should cover it up by either confusing others, or by diverting their attention towards something you already know or by asserting something that they can’t verify.

Volunteer to speak in meetings

May it be a daily standup meeting or a quarterly progress meeting or an annual meeting, grab the mike and speak. In any industry, extroverts are usually more successful than the introverts. If you keep it to yourself, people will think that you are an ignorant person. In corporate world, verbosity is a gift, reticence is a curse that hampers your career success. Given a chance, speak at every event. If you are team of three who works together for a specific goal, volunteer to speak on behalf of others in status meetings. Human tendency is to think that the person who speaks is the one who does the work. When Bill Gates speaks to press about a latest Microsoft technology, common people tend to think that he developed the complex product all by himself. The reality is that the technology was created by hundreds of brilliant computer engineers working for Microsoft.

Learn the technical jargon before the technology itself

Every now and then you will be asked to rationalize issues that crept up in your module. If you fail to use complex technical words in your explanation, your project manager and team will tend to think that you know nothing or that you are an idiot. There are so many people in IT industry who are covering their technical incapability with their gifted skill of twisting technical words into complex sentences. Simplicity is not ultimate sophistication in India. Obfuscation is ultimate sophistication here. Remember the scene in movie 3 Idiots, when Aamir Khan answers a question put by his professor? Aamir replies in simple words and the professor doesn’t appreciate his answer. That is the truth. Don’t be in a false belief that simple communication impresses people.

Learn to steal credit

This may sound unethical or immoral to you. But this works and this is how the whole industry works. Remember that if you don’t steal others’ credit, they will steal yours. Though this strategy is optional, when followed, this will effectively help you outrun the others in the team. If you are lucky enough to work along with an introverted individual who avoids public speaking, use every chance to claim the work done by both of you as yours. This world belongs to the fittest people. The fittest survives, others are crushed to death. You can’t apply the heavenly ethics and still expect good results from your performance review in the Earth. Choose one, your principles or a good appraisal.

Learn to hide amongst team members

When something goes right, use the word “I” – “I successfully tested the code”, “I delivered on time”. And when something goes wrong, use the word “We” – “We will look into the issue”, “We tried hard to solve the issue”. Taking responsibility of mistakes is not a great idea, at least in India. You are least appreciated when you come forward and say that you were responsible for something that went seriously wrong. If you are not confident about your ability to do a particular task, ask for more resources to work along with you. Try not to take the work alone. By working in a group, you can camouflage yourself.

Help others’ solving their issues (and highlight yourself )

Help others whenever possible. But do not entertain casual requests for help. Be strict to tell your colleagues to drop an official email copied to your team lead and/or your project manager. This is helpful in two ways – your boss gets to know that you are busy doing a task and your help will be noticed. If you don’t go through the official channel, you will invite trouble by getting stuck in others task. If the help or assistance is oral, then you can give it casually without any official request email. This will help you grow your importance in the team and build your brand in the team. People will remember that this person is dependable and can be approached for help. He is capable of helping people. Though you may not solve their problem, you will be remembered for volunteering to help them..

Give updates to your boss (not to peers)

This is one of the unethical sounding tip. But then, not following this tip is the biggest suicidal mistake that you can ever commit. This world is filled with smart people, who are waiting for every chance to steal your credit, claim your analysis. Especially the technically less capable ones who don’t know how to explain when there is an issue. Give update to your boss, and then to your peers. The order is very important. If you update your peers first, there are chances of them going to the boss’s desk faster than you and claim your analysis as theirs. You don’t want to allow charlatans to do such things to you. Do you?

Build rapport with your Lead

Some people exaggerate this friendship and crudely call it “boot licking”. I prefer to call it “rapport building”. Team Lead plays a key role in deciding an employee’s appraisal rating. He is the second most influential person after the project manager in your team. He can do wonders by giving a good feedback about you to the project manager. On the other hand, he can screw your salary hike by presenting you in a bad shape in front of the project manager. As the project manager does not directly interact with you, he has little idea about your performance and skills. Team leads are project manager’s eyes and ears. Befriend your lead.

Don’t feel shy to ask what you want

Tell in advance to your supervisor what you want. Do you want an onsite opportunity? Do you want to get the best rating in appraisal? Are you looking forward for a salary hike coming year? Are you wanting to get a promotion? Tell it straight to you project manager, an year in advance. This approach has several advantages. Firstly, your boss would know that you are going to be upset if he doesn’t give you what you want. So the risk of boss trying to fool you by giving you a bad rating in return for good performance is minimized by this approach. Secondly, it is like commitment with your boss that you will do a great job in return for the reward that you expect.

Ensure you are doing a happening task

This is the most powerful tip of this lot. Always work in a module which has direct impact on the live environment. Do not spend more time in tasks that have little significance in the project. Insist to work in the module that has great importance, that has client’s concern. A mediocre job done in an important module is more appreciated than a great job done in an unimportant one.

Encounter a problem? Escalate it asap

Remember the Exception handling mechanism in Java? What should a method do if it catches an Exception? It should delegate it to the next level so that top level code can handle the Exception. What happens if the exception is caught right inside that method and no action is taken? The application will act unusually as the Error dies before warning the user. The user of that application gets frustrated as he has neither has control of that issue nor does he have information of the error. Similarly when you encounter a problem which is not in your scope and power, immediately delegate it to the higher level of management. By delaying escalation you getting yourself into deep trouble.

Don’t wait for your boss to assign work

Like typical Indian project managers insist in a performance review discussions, “Be Proactive”. If no work has been assigned to you, jump to your feet and ask for work. Show your boss that you are interested in taking up a new task. Let him know that you are free. Though it is your boss’s job to keep you busy, he may blame you for not pro-actively asking for work. This can become a big minus.

Never quarrel with your boss

This sounds very obvious, but very few realize the true importance of not getting into any verbal fights with bosses. Remember this simple rule, “He is your BOSS.” He would be pleased to screw your ratings and sympathize you post appraisal innocently trying to help you. It is a well known fact that, there is no way that you can challenge the appraisal grades given by manager in India. In case you already have fought with your boss, all you can do to save your performance review is to pray. The best way to handle this is to avoid arguments in the first place.

Don’t put your boss in trouble

On the occasions when your boss counts on you, ensure that you don’t fail him. His failure is your failure. Remember one thing, any project manager in the world keep his appraisal goals above anyone else. His performance review is more important to him than yours is to him. If he does well at his performance review because of a good job done by you, he will give you a good review. Conversely, if your bad job screws his appraisal, he won’t spare yours.

Just give him what he wants

Don’t expect that your boss will give you One Minute Goals and define what good performance according to him is, like a One Minute Manager does. You should find it out yourself. Not just once in an year, but every single quarter. You should request him to tell you clearly what he is expecting of you. Every manager has a standard answer for this question. Try to extract his expectations beyond what he says. Patiently ask him to clarify his expectations from you. Once you know, just give it to him precisely what he wants.

I don’t know how it works in rest of the world, but this is how it works in India. I have articulated powerful principles, which I have collected over years in my personal experience, and from successful IT engineers who managed to get great grades year after year. These tips when applied for an year without fail will assure you a good performance review the coming year.

Apologize for not maintaining gender neutrality in the article. Though I used he/him/his, it was not intended to refer only to males.

Interview Mantra IT Community

http://www.interviewmantra.net/forum

If you are an IT professional, this community was built to serve you. We strive to make this community become a friendly place where you can get quick help related to daily issues in IT industry.

Not that this is the first forum of its kind, but that this is a special forum dedicated to the readers of Interview Mantra.

We have given a lot of thought about the forums and sub-forums for the new discussion board. We tried to extensively cover most the possible topics of discussion among Software engineers.

At the moment, you don’t need to register to that forum for posting or replying to existing posts. But do register to the website so that you can be notified of replies to the topics that you post.

To the spammers – No spam please.

Following this development, Software and BPO companies are on a spree to recruit over a lakh engineers all over India for matching the growing requirements.

This figure of hiring 1 lakh engineers is not new to India. Until 2007, industry gave employment to atleast a lakh and half every year. Owing to the deep recession hitting the west, recruitments had got stalled in the year 2009. However, relatively few people were fired from their jobs in 2009. Indian job market was in contrast to the job market in the developed countries where the unemployment rate shot upto 18.5%.

This news means a lot to the fresh graduates about to pass out in 2010. I personally spoke to many students who totally lost hopes on IT industry. They wanted a stable and secure job, so they preferred to join a Government agency or work for a core engineering job rather than computer job. There is a lot of hope also to the unemployed students who belong to the batch of 2009 passouts.

Is this an attempt to replace the high paid experienced programmers with a bunch of inexperienced ones? Discuss below in comments.