One of the best experiences of working with an organization like Prozant is being able to work with a diverse set of people from all across the country and at times with folks from different countries as well. The swanky campus, awesome glass structures, being able to work with clients from all over the world, predominantly from US and UK, five day work weeks have a real charm.
Typically there are two kinds of hiring in the industry – Fresher entry (from Campus interviews and through offline fresher hiring) and lateral entry (skill, experience based hires). Freshers are taken directly from Campus while lateral entrants are experienced resources recruited from the market – external hiring as they are called. Colorful people and personas make Prozant the Prozant. I sketch some employee types as I have seen in my decade long tenure, accept the hits and misses here and there.
- GG – Go-getters (Let’s change the world types):
- The guys who are forever enthusiastic, always on the forefront, willing to learn and perform well. They continually strive to get the P1 rating during performance appraisals. The kind of guys you would like to give your top priority tasks to be completed reliably. There is an old motorcycle ad in India that used to say about its fuel economy – ‘Fill It, Shut It, Forget it. Well, in all probability these are the guys who fit this description. They may have a good respect or respectable fear for authority. Gels great with management.
- NL – I do ‘as much as I am paid for’ (No loyalty guys):
- They will do as much as required and will seek opportunities outside of his/her current assignment or out of the organization on the slightest pretext or they are the ones who are forever active in online job boards. Their phones does not stop ringing. No work beyond 5PM – per them they are forever not paid enough for any work after 5PM or at weekends (even if required). You still need these guys in the team, though.
- BB (Back Benchers – whiners, Gossipers, Rumor mongers):
- If you want to know which project is not going to complete, why the customer is not going to renew the contract, where customer escalations are happening, which engagement has highest number of attrition and why, where the office romance or the scandal is, how much % hike you can expect and why no promotions will happen or why someone is being chosen for an onshore overseas tour ignoring others – find one of these guys. They are mostly silent in a meeting or group gatherings, but once they come out of those events, they are the most vocal. Typically P3 or threshold performers in performance appraisals. They make great drinking buddies for they are always full of (mis)information all the time. They whine, crib, complain – but stays put with the organization. Takes frequent coffee breaks or makes frequent visits to the cafeteria – usually in a gang!
- SG (Sad and Gone Cases):
- They somehow managed to get in, they do the basic minimum or at times they struggle – seemingly unhappy souls, lays low most of the times, never shows any level of interest on anything. They are the loyal ones to Prozant. Typically needs hand holding or needs extensive coaching if they are required to step up – either in project or in career in general.
- ON (Onshore-ers):
- Very special category of people with no career ambition or no true affinity for anything – they only love to be at ONSITE (overseas customer locations where they get paid in local currency per the local labor laws, which inevitably much higher compared to the salaries in India). They are flexible to do anything just to be at ONSITE. Promotions are not happening – that’s okay. Work is not inspiring – that’s no problem. Growth is stagnant – no problems. You are required to work in India/offshore – that’s the fucking biggest problem. Dollars – oh my savior!
- RG (The rebel geniuses):
- They are the Steve Jobs could not be. You are most likely to bump into one of these in architecture or design meetings or in ideations. They provide handy solutions or provide great insights, but will withdraw on slightest provocations. Not consistent on anything – they will always talk big and complain about how Prozant is insane and technically not competent at all. Once their part of the job is done, they will never be found. They are forever late to meetings, has a swagger but essentially with poor productivity. Most managers find difficulty in handling them unless the manager is equally technically competent to tackle logically. Their only love is short overseas trips for proposal defense, presentations, and conferences or for customer escalations. Typically loved by sr. executives when customer goes awry.
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