Infosys, TCS, or Wipro?

[Dhruv Tayal]

nfosys, TCS, or Wipro?
Sometimes students get placed in two or three major Indian IT
companies and they find it hard to decide which one to join. "Infosys
or TCS?" is one of the most common questions I have faced from such
students. The answer is much simpler than they think it is.

"Neither."

This blog post is about some very unpleasant facts about these major
Indian IT companies that you wouldn't know unless you have been a part
of it, and I am not going to mince words while writing this. You have
been warned.

Let me start slaying the different myths that exist about these
organizations one by one.

Training: People think that these organizations are good for freshers
because they get a lot of training which they wouldn't get in other
organizations. I must remind such people that attending trainings is
not equivalent to learning. Indeed these organizations provide a lot
of training to freshers but only about 1% of the trainees actually
absorb the knowledge. The 1% that do absorb the training do not stick
to the organization for a long time because sooner or later they
realize that want to do some real engineering. The figure '1%' isn't
merely a guess. This is my observation across various trainee-batches
that have been trained in one of these organizations. Think about it.
Can you learn a new programming language in just 3 days? If your
answer is "no", you shouldn't join one of these organizations. If your
answer is "yes", you shouldn't join one of these organizations.


Engineering: Engineering doesn't happen in these organizations. For
those of you who work in one of these organizations and are offended
by this statement, please go and open your engineering textbooks
again. Try to remind yourself what you studied and what you learnt.
Consider what you do now.


Engineers: The number of engineers in these organizations are very
very few; perhaps only 1 in every 200 is an engineer. This is a guess,
albeit not a wild one. "But isn't the minimum qualification to get a
job in one of these organizations is bachelor's in engineering?", you
might ask. It is. Yes, all of them have a degree in engineering or
computers of some sort but only about 1 out of 200 is an engineer. The
rest 199 do not understand why a bitcount of 1's complement of bitwise
XOR of two variables would give you the number of similar bits in
corresponding positions in both variables, why one can not create a
regular expression to match only strings with balanced parentheses, or
how to find the shortest chain of connections between two friends in a
tiny social network. Note that I have used 'or' as the conjunction and
not 'and'. They may be good computer users or good "software-tailors"
who can create software by stitching together many library functions
but they aren't engineers.


Culture: One of the worst cultures you can find in the whole of
software industry. Very few are busy trying to learn a few things
mentioned in the previous paragraph. Some employees are busy figuring
out ways to impress their female colleagues using the resources
provided by the organization rather than learning and solving problems
in a better way. Others are busy cribbing. Here is a shocking piece of
information for those who have never worked for one of these
organization. One can also manage to find mud-slinging in company
forums once in a while. Professionalism is at its worst here. But they
convince themselves that they are professional because they speak
English fluently and know how to wear a tie. Employees feel their
salaries are pathetic. I feel they are overpaid. How much should a
good computer user earn?


Onsite: Contrary to the popular belief, the number of trips to foreign
lands isn't a measure of one's technical prowess. It is a measure of
how dispassionate one is about engineering and his profession, and how
greedy one can be for wealth. Some of the best engineers I have met in
these organizations were never eager to go onsite, never went, joined
an organization where they could put their knowledge and skills to
better use and then flew to a foreign land because their knowledge,
skills and understanding of technology were needed there.
So, my answer to the question in question is : Neither. That's not
very helpful. Here is a more helpful one.

One could try applying for an organization where he or she can get an
opportunity to solve some engineering problems. One can't learn
engineering and programming merely by attending trainings. One can
learn it by doing, solving problems, observing what experienced
engineers do, experimenting, screwing up a few times and reworking,
talking to good engineers, etc. One can try looking for an
organization where the leaders of projects are very good engineers.
Start-ups are more likely to have them. Software companies which
develop famous and successful products are more likely to have them.

So, how does one figure whether a certain organization is an
organization of engineers or an organization of good computer users?
The clue is: Interview.

Remember the questions they ask in an interview. Think about them
later. Try discussing the questions with your friends who are known
for solving tough engineering problems. An interview is not only an
opportunity for an organization to evaluate an applicant, it is also
an opportunity for the applicant to evaluate an organization.

There is however one case in which one might want to join one of the
organizations in question: if one is only a good computer user.