TCS - Day # 1

Today (06-Aug-2008), was my joining date at TCS. I reached the office 15 minutes ahead of the stipulated start time of 9.30 am. There were 7 of us who were joining on the same day. All of them looked pretty senior as compared to me, and after I took the onus of introducing myself and getting their credentials out of them, I realized that they were indeed pretty senior members. Everyone else - except me - had a work experience of upwards of 6 years, making me the youngest guy in the conference hall. But, to my credit, I was the only guy from a World Class Company (Oracle). The rest of the crowd was from some "naam-ke-waaste" or the other.

Anyways, lets go on with the story.

So, a good 10 minutes after we were herded into the conference room, we were greeted by 2 HR ladies. One of them, I had already met. The other lady, a slighty dark one, was new to me. Let me call them as HR-1, and HR-2 respectively.

HR-1: "Good Morning Everyone. So, does everyone have their Forms ready?"
Everyone-Else: "Yes Maaaam ..." (In a musical kind of way. The sort that you hear in Class VI.
Me: "Nopes ... I didn't get any forms!"


Well ... Let me explain what that was all about:

TCS HR folks had sent me an e-mail on 05-Aug-2008, asking me to fill a host of joining related forms. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to take printouts of the same (as I was busy chatting away with Farhana, Sarah, Ravi Etta, Sameer, Milan, etc). It is only when I returned home, around 9.30 pm, that I realized my mistake. But, by then, it was too late to go out and get printouts (Cochin sleeps at 9.00 pm). So, I figured that my best bet would be to go to the TCS office and tell the HR that I didn't get any mails. I figured that they would buy that story, and would give me a copy of all the forms the had mailed me, and I could fill them up at office.

Now, back to the story.

HR-1: "Oh ... Sharath ... We had mailed everyone the forms yesterday. Didn't you receive them? Everyone else seems to have received them!"
Me: "Well ... I've been travelling a lot over the last two days. I didn't get a chance to properly rummage through my mail. I guess it might be there in my SPAM folder. I'll have to check to confirm though!" (Please note - I said this in a totally matter of fact manner. It takes years and years of practise of lying to mom, professors, and these days - the equivalent of both - managers, to pull of a stunt like that!)

I could tell that she bought the story. After all, why would someone with a background like Oracle lie about something like this. Especially on their joining date!


HR-1: "Oh ... In that case ... Sharath - You please wait for a few more minutes. I'll be right back. In the meanwhile HR-2, you start collecting the documents from the others!"

With this said, she walked out. 10 minutes later, she came back into the conference room.

HR-1: "Sharath ... I've mailed you the forms again!"
Me: (Totally confused!) "What?"
HR-1: "I've mailed you the forms again. Please take printouts of the same when you come tomorrow. We'll handle the joining formalities for you separately tomorrow. It shouldn't take more than 1 hour. Fine?"

I had expected her to come with a bundle of forms, not tell me that she had re-sent the e-mail to my mail id. I was, honestly speaking, totally stumped by the response. Especially, after working in a company like Oracle, where everything is so totally professionally driven, this was a totally lack-lustre and lacking gusto sort of reaction.



Me: (Too stumped to react) "Okay. So, what do I do for the rest of the day?"
HR-1: "You can go over to the Tejomaya building, and meet Sharat!"
Me: (Even more confused) "Come again ..."
HR-1: (Laughing as if really amused) "You need to meet a person called Sharat. (seeing my bewildered look) Yes - He's Sharath without a H... He sits in the neihbouring building. He is a member of the MATC. He will tell you which project you be working on and whom you will report to"

That sounded interesting.

For the benefit of people reading this and who're feeling totally lost. TCS has occupation in two office - Vismaya (the office I was in now), and Tejomaya. MATC (or whatever it is actually called)

I was told that Tejomaya was pretty nearby. But, nearby, in this case, meant a good half a kilometer away. Anyways ... I bore the brunt of that walk, and met up with Mr. Sharat. And guess what, the only thing he did was ask me to go meet a certain Mr. Rejin at the Vismaya building, and that he would be my Manager moving forward. That's it.

Again, another gruelling half a kilometer walk later, I met up with a smart and well-informed lady Ms. Smitha, who debriefed me about the project that I would be working on. I am not at a liberty to tell you the name of the client or anything else for that matter, but, all I can say is that the project involves a lot of fundoo technologies, and most importantly, there was no onsite opportunity in that project. I must confess, I was very very let down when I heard that. But, I always liked to believe - "That Everything Happens For A Reason".

After that, I had to get my access card. For which, I had to make yet another trip to Sharat's office at Tejomaya, and back to get a sign from HR-1. (Another 1 KM trip) As a follow on to this, I had to make runs between the Admin, IS (Information Security), and Facilities teams so that I could submit a scanned copy my photograph for the ID Card. Sadly, I wasn't able to complete the process.

Another task which took a few more grueling minutes of interaction with the Admin folks was getting the Vehicle Pass Forms. I intend to fill the same and submit it tomorrow only though.

The whole walking around trying to get signatures and approvals kindda reminded me of my last day at college (NITC) when I had to run around from pillar to post (read as department to department) to get all the No-Dues clearances from the concerned people before they left for their vacations.

At Oracle, or even Wipro for that matter, things were a lot more organized. One phone call, or e-mail was all it took to get approvals, and data. But, unfortunately, at TCS, the only way out is the one practised during the Pre-British Era. Run from person to person and grovel for whatever you need.


Honestly, the responses I got from the various departments and the lack-lustre manner in which everything was handled reminded me of the defunct and dusty systems in place at Government Offices in the country.
Seriously, is this how things are done here?
I narrated this experience to a friend of mine, who - for the record - has been with TCS for 3+ years, and this is what he told me - "Welcome to TCS buddy. A place where things never happen on time!"


I was left wondering - "What the hell have I landed myself into man!!!"