The Core Of The 50K+ Employees Org – The ‘Employees‘!

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.

[JOKE] Day In The Life Of a Programmer!

Disclaimer – These are taken from the internet. The first one rather a very old IT industry joke (time when Sharon Stone was still hot ;-)) that has been doing the rounds over emails perhaps from early 2000s and the Second one (the pic) is also from Internet which may have been around for long. Just sharing once more 😉

A day in the life of a busy hotshot programmer I:

7:00 Wake up. Decide to do some really path-breaking work today.
9:00 Reach office. Sign in. Switch on terminal.
9:05 Check email.
9:15 Start replying to accumulated emails.” I really hate being popular.”
9:40 Send email to occupant of next to next cubicle. ” Want to go for the new movie tonight ?”
9:45 Log into CyberSpace / M-Net / whatever.
9:50 Start searching. There must be some girls logged in.
10:05 Ask a girl for a date.
10:10 Refusal!! Heartbroken.
10:20 Recover equilibrium. Search for coffee. Anybody going to cafetaria ?
10:50 Back at desk. Decide to really start working now.
11:00 Realize that the required manual is in the library. Will have to withdraw it.
11:15 The spare library card was here somewhere. Where is it ?
11:30 Give up on library card search as a bad job. Of course I can do the stuff without the manuals.
12:45 Something written. Should get compiled.
12:46 How can 40 lines of code give 283 lines of error ? Must be some typographical mistake. Will check it after lunch.
13:15 The food was really good today. Why don’t they make this often?
14:05 OK. Now the hard part comes. Do I debug the code or filch somebody else’s library card ?
14:06 Looked over the cubicle. Guy in next cubicle has almost completed his module. Homicidial thoughts.
14:15 No, I should really do something about it. Start debugging the code.
17:45 Continuous GPFs. It would have been easier to kill the guy.
17:50 Take a break. Recurrent daydream : “Why are blonde girls so pretty ? ”
18:05 Start Netsurfing. Search for Sharon Stone.
18:15 Found the location. Start downloading the pictures.
18:20 No space. Save it in the server ?
18:21 Do I dare to do it ? OK, what the hell, DO IT!!
18:35 Start experimenting with fonts, cursors and prompts. God, I was really made for this stuff !
19:25 Where is everybody ? Finger!
19:30 Time to pack up and go to the movie.
23:50 Back from the movie. Consider today a day well spent. Long live the I.T. industry.
0:00 Turn in for the night. Resolve to do some really path-breaking work tomorrow.

A day in the life of a Programmer II :

 

Working hours – Flexible –Aha!

I reached the floor and was to meet Rahul Oberoi, the guy who interviewed me. I walked into the door, swiped my access card (meant only for that floor, for that customer that I am going to work for) and went to see Rahul. Rahul was a Project Manager and he had a cube of his own facing the floor – he keeps an eagles watch on rest of the employees and so are the other managers on the same line seating. There are around 100 employees sitting next to each other in cubes with very low walls separating them. Facing them were the managers – the dreaded folks who run the show for Prozant’s end clients. Here I am now.

This is the time for companies like Prozant to show their might to the world – which they have come far from being a “bodyshopper” – providing low cost labor to perform IT tasks at a low cost or staff people to perform IT tasks. The Y2K bug did not break any systems, but it created an avenue for these firms to move into different areas of involvement and that growth spurted multiple companies across different Indian cities and client based significantly increased from US to other parts of the western world such as Europe, UK, Australia, New Zealand and then to Japan and Korea as well. Not only IT or software work, the boom of business-process outsourcing (BPO) in India was close to a phenomena – growing exponentially everywhere. The golden period of IT after the dot com bust when IT jobs almost dried up. But Y2K created the route – the juggernaut keeps on rolling from thereon. Now, here is my turn to be part of this experience.

I was told I will be having flexible schedule or timing of work. Most important to me is the 5 day work week, this was relatively new in the industry. Most of the traditional industries work 6 days or 5 and half days a week, at times providing alternate Saturdays as holidays.

Within the first few days, I could at least see how the flexible time actually works across employee groups –

• On Time Guy – S/he will report right on time to work and generally love to go back home on time, potentially s/he takes the office bus to and from home. Most likely to crib about others being late at work. Most likely to be highly effective.
• The Flexible Guy – knows the meaning of flexible, may come late but will stay late to compensate, if required willing to spend a few odd hours post work. Most likely to be highly effective.
• Married To The Job Guy – He is most devoted, always available, be it day or night. Will come to office at 8 and never seem to leave. Kids at home most likely to call him uncle at home and he is most likely to be promoted in next appraisal cycle.
• The Late Nighter Guy – This guy is like the owl, if there is no work as well, he will still leave office late. He is most devoted evening free snacks eater (that facility was to be later dropped, possibly because TLN guy ;-)). Managers typically love him for the fact he is willing to stay back late in the evenings whenever such a work comes up. Free internet at work helps a lot too.
• Perennially Late Guy – Nothing matters, he will still come late to work, no % of managerial/supervisory/disciplinary warnings will be enough, he remains incorrigible. He may be in disciple in patches, but quickly fell back into his habits quickly. He is somewhat related to late nighter guy, but not as effective.

Now, now – which type I am? I quickly need to figure out.

You are now a number – A Prozant Resource!

I woke up in the morning, all in anticipation for a new chapter in my life. I parked my bike after maneuvering through a crazy traffic in this new bustling Satellite Township getting famous for outsourced IT and ITES work. Coming from a mere 2 floors company, I was all in anticipation in joining this IT behemoth that’s creating ripples across the world. The multi floor new and swanky glass building with awesome interiors and multiple elevators kind of flashes richness, oozes success   – the home to the coolest kids in the new world – the new face of the country! Aha!

I sat down on the reception and was asked to wait till 9.30AM. I did and gradually some others joined me in the sofa too – folks joining the organization today.  At around 9.45, a smartly dressed lady came out and called us in to a huge conference room. We have provided with lot of papers to sign and we did.  We are formally on-boarded and yes, a SAP ID was ready for us – this number is everything for an employee in Prozant.  In everything – that number is who I am. The number is meJ, now I am that PeopleSoft ID. The ten digits that I breathe by for everything I am and I will be!

And then came the most coveted thing – the photo ID card with my smiling face printed into it under the logo of Prozant. Beautiful, now, I will be able to wear the card to malls, supermarkets, cool hang out places where these ID cards are flaunted as if they were some diamond ornaments that kind of swells your snob value by few thousand times ;-). Aha now, I have one and that too from Prozant! Halleluiah…!

Photo Courtesy Internet

Now that I have a number and I have a card, I was to go through an induction program – an orientation to the organization and phew, it’s for three days.  Am sure the happiest person in the entire fuckin earth!!!

The Initiation in to the world of IT big league!

Early 2000s, an early Sunday morning, lesser traffic – kind of pretty nice ride to the other end of the city for the final interview that I need to attend. I arrived at the dot of  9 AM in the swanky office of ‘Prozant InfoTech’ – one of the biggies who have changed the way IT operates around the world. The story of India rising! After 2 and half years of my working in the much hyped, much talked about sunshine sector of IT world, I am just about to step into this IT behemoth – would I get in? Would I be selected?

I went in and the security with the towed mustache got me write all my details in the entry register and I got into the reception. There were some anxious faces already there, some in anticipation of what may unfold during the day. Well, such is the charisma of ‘Prozant InfoTech’. I took a glass of water and took my seat.

Things kind of getting unwound in my mind – started my career in IT with a medium size product development company right out of college campus – it was more about technology and work that were assigned that we needed to do. IT services is new and not sure what to expect in the interview. I have already cleared the written previous night.  I read some stuff previous night and prepared for the interview today.

Heard someone calling my name “Siddharth Arya” – I stood up and went into the room. Two gentlemen seating there welcomed me. First guy to handshake me was Rahul Oberoi and the other one was Prabhulingam Subramanium. I felt a heartbeat. For next 35 minutes I was asked different sort of questions ranging from Technology, my profile, experience and generally about my character attributes. Prabhu was obviously the Techy, with a thick south Indian accent he asked me questions from Linked list to OOPS. Rahul asked – “which client you worked for?”  Coming from a product development house, I thought for a while, was he asking for software clients that I have used? I asked. He clarified – customers I have worked so far. Phew, that was my initiation to the word ‘client/customer’ which would be the center stage of my career in next years of my career. Anyway, he was little tricky. After 40 minutes of torture, I came out and was asked to seat. Hmmn, first relief that I was asked to seat. If you are told ‘our HR would get back to you’, man you better pack off and go home and prepare for the next interview. After almost an hours wait, a pretty damsel in smart casuals called me – “Siddharth, please come”. I hoped it would be pretty as pretty as the damsel was. She is the ‘HR’. Another 20 minutes of interaction and interrogation.

–          Why you are looking for a change in 2.5 years of your career?

–          Would look for another job in some time if things do not turn your way?

–          What are your weaknesses?

–          What do you want to do 3 years down the line?

–          What is your salary expectation? (I said I was flexible and guess that brought some smiles :-))

–          First six months of your career, you were trained and so we would not be able to consider that as your experience.

I answered all the queries, but on the last question, I kind of got agitated. Those training days, it was on the job training and I had work till 10 PM and the lady is telling me they were waiving that off. I kind of retorted – “It was not training in training sense, I was in a project, worked pretty hard and based on that I was confirmed. I need you to consider that”. There was a pause. I got tensed, but I tried hiding it. Okay, the lady stood up and asked me to seat in the reception again. I crossed my fingers.

Another hour and finally the lady came out, this time with a middle aged man, half bold, potbellied – dressed smartly and they called me into another room.  Amit Srivastava is the Head of HR and he talked to me for 10 minutes and told me “we have decided to get you on-boarded, congratulation. Please collect the offer letter tomorrow. We would also send the offer letter by end of the day today to your email ID”.  I tried not to show my ecstasy, I came out, kick started my bike and stopped by a cigarette vendor. Lit up a Gold Flake King and reflected just what happened. I GOT IN. I GOT INTO ‘Prozant InfoTech’.  I am sure the feeling would take time to sink in. Finally, I am there where I wanted to be. I would be working with the hot shots of an industry rules by companies like ‘Prozant InfoTech’. Never knew what to expect, I look upwards and thanked my God. What a day, what a moment – here comes ‘Siddharth Arya’. Prabhu – thank youu, aiyoooo. Rahul – oh ji dhanyawadd!

[PS: Subsequent years since then have so much to offer to me in terms of professional and personal experiences and colorful characters I came across India and United states, I must share them, I must.:-). For Information Technology to be available 24X7, people to collaborate  across the globe to make the new world shine  – IT TAKES ALL SORTS and  let me remember my moments with all colorful people or events I have been enriched with 🙂 ]