Friday, May 22, 2009

Pros and Cons

Wipro



Pros

Cons

I made some truly great friends

Salary was miserably low

Learnt my first most important lesson about the corporate world - People Will Cheat You ... So don't trust anyone!

Project did not meet any of my career aspirations

Had plenty of free time, which I could've utilized positively (But,sadly, I didn't)

Worked under a program manager who lied bare-face and played politics 24X7

Got an opportunity to directly interact with the clients

The company management was not transparent in matters related to promotions or compensation

Infrastructure facilities (ac, cabs, pantry, washrooms, cafeteria, etc) was good

No brand value


Never felt any loyalty to manager/team/project/client


Was very frustrated about my career prospects in the project


Benefits and Perks were myths


The company was not very people friendly


Existance of a "Must-Swipe-In-And-Swipe-Out-Everyday-At-Office" policy




Oracle



Pros

Cons

I made a few true friends - in every sense of the word

Work was monotonous. Especially after being in the same project for close to 2 years

Learnt a lot of things about a lot of things - technical, interpersonal, managerial, leadership - to name a few

In the long run, the position did not meet my career goals of moving into a Sales and Marketing position.

Had great mentors who always added value to your life and work

Pay revisions did not happen on time - leading to tensions and frustrations and rising tempers

Worked under a great leader and a perfect manager - Joshua Mahendran

Official team outings (Company Paid Ones i.e.) were far and few in between

The work culture was "picture perfect"

The 'HR Team' is a spent force

Has a strong sense of loyalty to my manager, team and company


Felt a strong sense of achievement in each and every task I performed


The team was very superior - both technically and personally - and were always ready to help one another at any time


The work culture fostered development of a "friendship" and "brotherhood" feeling amongst members of the team, which lead to better bonding amongst members in the team and thereby a better throughput in terms of productivity


Very employee friendly and employee centric organization


The perks and benefits provided to employees were very lucrative


The compensation offered - at the time of joining the company - was the best in the industry


Flexi-Timings


No Dress Code


Work From Home Option


Plenty of Holidays available


No "Must-Swipe-In-Everyday-At-Office" rule


Can maintain a healthy work-life balance


People are very professional in all aspects of work


Things always happen on time as per committed deadlines





TCS



Pros

Cons

Job Security

Lousy place to be if you're serious about career growth and monetary prospects

Lax worklife

Pathetic work culture

I was working off my hometown. That was a big plus

Moronic, bordering Illiterate, co-workers

No "Must-Swipe-In-Everyday-At-Office" rule

Waaaaaaaaaaaay too much Red-Tape in all departments

If you're benched - no need to come to office till you're alloted into a project

Too bureaucratic for my tastes


Claims never get processed on time


Travel requests never get approved till 10 minutes before your train/flight leaves town


Lousy Infrastructure facilities


A/C are switched off post 6.00 pm. If you need to work beyond that - try not to die off suffocation, as your company provided insurance policy doesn’t cover that


No cab facilities. Period!


Toilets don't have soaps, toilet paper, or for that matter water


Managers are plain mean


Project Leads are worse!


Lousy Pay Package


People lie and backstab a lot. Get used to it!


Getting a release from a project is tougher than getting a hard-on sitting naked on a hot tin roof!


Project and Efforts Planning is totally lousy if not stupid


You need to call people Sir and Madam, if you need to get something done. This is something totally alien in this industry




UST Global



Pros

Cons

The compensation offered is lucrative

Certain senior members in the project snub and insults you in front of others to push their point.

Potential upside of being able to travel onsite after completion of 1 year in the team

Certain senior members in the project are extremely stubborn, not open to negotitions or inputs from other team members, and duncical in all people management related aspects in a project

Job profile involves designing and maintaining OAF based applications - which is something I enjoy

Concept of classroom trainings is not promoted

Potential upside of being able to move into a sales and marketing capability after the completion of the current assignment

Things never happen on time

Learning a completely new product - which is a pretty interesting and resume-value-adding experience

People are not very professional

Presence of some very senior, experienced and knowledgeable colleagues in the project who ensure the rest of the team are bought up to speed on the matters pertaining to work

Promises are seldom kept

The work force, in general, is very youthful and friendly.

Company policies are often twisted and interpreted so that you always end up on the wrong end of a raw deal

The cost of living in Trivandrum is very cheap as compared to all the other cities I've worked in - vis-a-vis - Chennai, Bangalore, Cochin

Work timings are lousy (11 am to 11 pm)


No concept of flexi-timings (atleast in my project)


Infrastructure (cabs, ac, pantry, cafeteria, washrooms) sucks big time


Concept of having to attend meetings - even if you have nothing to do with them. Nett result, wastage of man-hours


Attrition rate is very high (In the last 2 month alone 5 people left - in a team of 25 i.e.)