Infosys

Designer Buildings, Resort like campus, the inside of an Infosys campus is truly an international experience. Even the roads and grass are taken utmost care of, once me with a group of friends were walking on the campus lawn when some construction work was going on, a small cluster of grass was careful dug and kept aside so that it can be replaced after the maintenance work is over. My friend quipped if they cared for employees the way they care for grass, it would be the biggest gift one could have from Infy. In a big company like Infy you are nothing more than a number and its common to be treated like a computer. Like a Desktop you can be on desk (bench intended) for months or be working for 24 hours at a stretch.
Fresher Salary:2.7 lakhs per annum. Infy is not a good paymaster; in fact it has earned a bad name because of low salaries, a friend of a mine when leaving the company was told by a project manager that “Yeh company to khoon choos leti hain”.
Career Growth/Onsite Assignments:Yes, good opportunities exist, if you are lucky you will get an onsite assignment within 2 years, though with the increasing number of employees nothing is sure, the decision to send a person onsite is random and does not necessarily depend on a person’s performance (I have even heard about regionalism playing an important role).

Training: Infosys gives mandatory training to fresh engineers which is a major plus point if you want to learn about computer science technology. The training period is 2 months for computer science guys(i.e only generic training), for stream specific training another 2 months are there, but it is about a year long for those going to Finacle Projects. Its a different matter very little of that is going to be actually used for example 'Open Systems' is one stream which has very little relevance in the kind of projects Infosys has. Infy has mostly migration, maintenance and testing kind of projects ( see link for more). Mainframe is old technology but still in use, so cant comment on how useful it is. Enterprise Solutions has training on various modules from different vendors (SAP, Oracle). It gives more of functional knowledge. This is really important thing to appreciate in a services company like Infy more than technical skills, it is functional knowledge that matters. And that is why i write the training is not really that useful. I would appreciate it more if they give free internet access to employees so that they can google out solutions to technical problems.
Work Environment: Work environment depends a lot on individual projects and project managers. Speaking of inter department communication, I will give you an example once I had to get a software installed on my computer by CCD (Computer Maintenance Department), the way the department people responded to me was very much similar to what you can expect from a government office in Bihar. Even communication between IBUs(Independent Business Units) and DC (Development Centers) is in a sorry state of affair. I was transferred from Bhubaneswar DC to Pune DC but after reaching Pune DC I was told, “We didn’t know you were coming, We don’t want you!!”.
Brand Value/Respect:One of the most renowned brands in India, especially because of performance in stock market. If you meet a person who does not belong to IT industry he would think you are working for the top most IT company.
Work Life Balance: Again depends a lot on the project you are in, but given the initiative which was started by NRN when I was in Infy “On Time Initiative ”, wherein the time when an employee was coming and leaving was noted and the average time was calculated for the whole organization, I would say the top management does believe in maintaining a balance. HR also plays a active role in celebrating employee week and other events, but again at times project deadlines dont allow employees to be a part of all the fun.

Job Security: If Job Security is the question, Infosys would get 200 out of 100, this was probably the only company which didn’t shed employees during the 2000 US economy slowdown. Unless you are doing something unethical you don’t stand a chance of being thrown out, and off course if your performance is not very poor.
Founders of company: Founders Narayan Murthy and Nandan Nilekani are among the most well-known business leaders of the company. Other founders if not that popular are still playing in crores. I believe its because of the founders that Infosys has a transparent nature when it comes to appraisals and salary hikes, but i doubt how much the middle management values these ethics.
Co-workers competence: I wouldn’t rate Infy high on this some employees are rather poor and what they have is working knowledge of English and Zero technical skills.

Bond:Infosys signs fresh engineers for a year long bond.

Facilities: Facilities are excellent, there are facilties for gym, sports and other activities but these resources are strained because they are inadequate in proportion to the number of employees, but one thing which deserves mention is Infosys toilets which are better than most 5-star hotels can boast off.