My life at ITC Infotech

It's been one year now since I joined ITC Infotech, the day was 16th December 2010 when got the job as IT Consultant. Since that day many things have changed in me and my life. I am writing this blog not to tell you whether to join the company or not but to tell my experience in the company and to give an inside view of how the company utilizes its resources and .

I have done my B.Tech in IT from NIT Allahabad. The package offered was 3.75 lakhs. After I got the job I asked about the job location and probable profile that I will be put in. The answer was like the job location will be Bangalore and the profile depends on the performance during training period. So as everyone I was also excited about having a job in Bangalore and on 22nd July 2011 I joined ITC Infotech. On the first day I filled up a lot of forms, online and on paper both. Next day our induction started, it was mainly information about ITC Ltd., what it does, its products, only thing about ITC Infotech I learned was that it is a subsidiary of ITC and ITC InfoTech’s management structure. The induction process continued for one week which includes English sessions, motivational talks and information about ITC. So after the induction period the whole campus recruit batch was divided into SAP, Siebel, .NET, JAVA, PLM domains. I got .NET and I guess that is the time when my unlucky days kicked in.

We were twenty four guys in .NET and training manager came and gave a big speech about how great this domain is, how many opportunities etc.. Our trainer was Mr. Rao and he was a good trainer and a great guy. I was doing quite well in the training and was expecting a good project after the completion of training. In the middle of our .NET training we were interviewed by some project managers and I don’t know on what basis ten guys were shifted to IOS domain, which was I guess an experimental domain to increase the service domains of ITC Infotech and the guys were their “Lab Rats”. I don’t know it’s my bad luck or what all those guys who were from Kolkata were shifted to IOS domain and this thing affected me later in my career.

So after the completion of thirty days training we were put into another two months training to give us exposure to the real world. At that time we were given small dummy projects to increase our knowledge and I was doing well in that too. Then one day I was informed that a requirement for a trained .NET developer has been made by ITC Infotech, Kolkata branch and they have decided to transfer me to Kolkata because I am from Assam and they don’t have any .NET trained employee from Kolkata, all Kolkata guys were in IOS domain so I was their choice to be sent to Kolkata. I expressed my opinion that I was not willing to leave Bangalore, I was settled there, but when you sign the offer letter after that your comfort ability or opinion does not make any scratch on their decision and I didn’t had the gut to resign at time so I agreed to it. I was told that in Kolkata branch there is some big project they have got and there is an urgent requirement and they gave me a flight ticket of 8^th Nov 2011.

On 8^th Nov 2011 11 PM, I was in front of the gates of the main head office and the HR in Bangalore didn’t inform the HR in Kolkata about my arrival. Before leaving Bangalore the HR gave me the phone number of the HR Kolkata and told me to call him in case of any problem. He expected that I will call the HR in Kolkata and will inform him about my arrival but I don’t understand why he is taking the big salary if I have to do his part of job. As those days I was very frustrated about being transferred form Bangalore, calling the Kolkata HR didn’t crossed my mind. So around midnight on 8^th Nov I was on the streets of such a place which I have never visited in my life and authorities were not aware about me. I called on the phone number which I had and it was my unlucky day, he was out of the town. He gave me few numbers, I made the calls and thank God HRs of Kolkata were not like that of Bangalore. I really admire the HRs here that they made the arrangements for my accommodation in the guest house. The guest house was very good and the food was great, ohh I loved it. The next was my first day in Kolkata office and I reached there exactly on 9 am.

Early morning in the Kolkata office, filled up some forms and then I was sent to the reporting manager of that time. I could not believe what unfortunate thing happened to me again. My reporting manager called a lady and told me that she will be my manager and I followed her to her cubical. She asked me about my training experience and she started to explain me the concepts of SAP. I interrupted her immediately and said “I didn’t sign up for SAP”. I went to my reporting manager and explained him everything then he realized that he mistook me for someone else. Then I was sent to Legacy building, the SMIS team.

The Legacy building, I met the HR and she escorted me to the manager who is in charge of the .NET development in the whole team. He is a nice guy, an NIT alumnus, we talked about my training, my knowledge and what more thing I would have to learn. The real dilemma was that there wasn’t any available cubicle for me so for next one week I used to sit on the reception couch and read a .NET book; mostly I use to roam around and find my way out of the complex network of roads of Kolkata. After one week a cubical on another floor was allotted to me and that was my hole for next three months.

For three months I was on bench, I was frustrated with the city, frustrated with the company, frustrated with everything. Meanwhile two Kolkata guys helped me a lot, at least I use to enjoy the lunch time, ohh ya one thing the lunch in free in Kolkata branch. There wasn’t any day passed when I didn’t come to office with a thought of resigning that very day. It was a very frustrating time for me. Everything I had enthusiasm, excitement, knowledge, dreams, everything was crushed and juiced out of me. I stopped talking to others, just reply when something is asked, stopped laughing on jokes the way I used to laugh earlier. The only work that I used to do then was reading article from news site and Wikipedia. Then the day came when I was assigned a project.

The evening before the my project assignment day my .NET manager call me, I was at home by then and informed me that next day I will be allocated to some project. I was really happy, at last I was going to have some work to do in office. The very next day my .NET manager sends me to another manager and said he will be my reporting manager from now on. I met my new manager, he is a cool guy, a data warehousing manager, he asked me about my training and my area of interest and told me that I will be working on Informatica under him. Now my domain was changed to data warehousing, first location then domain that may remind you of me saying my unlucky days had started. I thought that at least now I will have some work to do. At first it was tricky but not as conceptual and interesting as .NET, slowly I grabbed the concept and it was very easy then. After few days working on the project I got good grasp over the tool and used to finish my assignment long before the deadline. Working on Informatica helped me improving my knowledge in database. But few months later when the work on the project was finished, I had to give support and that means again no work. Once again frustration slowly inched up my mind. I could easily detect symptoms of depression in me. I have faced very worst days in my entire life.

The only good thing about working in SMIS was that all the employees in the team are great, good natured, and funny. Sometime I feel that it is the best environment to work but most of the time only frustration covers my mind. Working in ITC Infotech will reward you with ample amount of time for your social life, the workload is low here but I can’t assure you about career growth. I think it’s a very good company to retire from. Although my .NET training batch mates are working on good projects, those guys whom I used to help during their training days and I am here, still uncertain about my future, good luck you guys, have a successful career. I am still working in ITC Infotech, I have no social life, have no friends, I daily go to office and while coming back I think of the lonely and useless life I am leading.

This was my experience with the company and I don’t say that these things happen with every employee. I just wanted to share my side of the story with others. You decide for yourself what you want to doJ.