Tata Consultancy Services reviews

So here I go - 1. You have to work for almost 10 hours a day, by the way that's official. Then why I saw people who used to be there in office for 2-5 hours everyday. There's no tracking of who comes when and what time the person leaves 2. You will be scanned as if you are a terrorist. There are so many scanners installed in every office and 2% of overall location staff is security guard (I don't see so many guards protecting Mantralaya). Even after scanning if security fails to catch any electronic gadget (pen drive, hard disc etc.) and if you don't declare it, it's a crime more serious in nature than a murder. A committee will be appointed to search your devices (which takes almost 2 months to scan a pen drive or HDD-hmm looks like TCS has outsourced this piece :P) 3. If you don't display your ID in the premise, anyone can literally shout at you 4. If you forget your ID card, boss go back home. Doesn't matter how important and critical work you are doing, you have to go home and get the ID. If you want to issue a temporary ID, here's the process contact your manager, he will contact HR, HR will contact location SPOC, location SPOC will contact admin, Admin will contact security, security will contact receptionist, receptionist will then ask you to come to capture a photo, then go to security, he will scan you and your bag, if you have laptop, fill up the form, go to admin to get that laptop form approved, then come to security again, he will issue a temporary ID, call for your peer to escort you ---- Finally my friend you have managed to enter TCS office TCS teaches world about digitization and they follow this process to issue a temporary ID card 5. I have seen people who just go on leave for weeks and don't report to work. Nobody tracks them and they are paid on time. In fact they got good appraisals 6. If you need a permission to use mobile in office (if you are from BPO specially), you need to raise a change request. Why the hell change request is required? this request needs to be approved by at least 10 people who are not even concerned with your project. Then why do we need so many approvals - That's mandate they say 6. In case you are traveling onsite, (forget it), your request needs to be approved by 5-6 layers who are again not of any concern. then it goes to 7-8 teams who don't act immediately unless you send 4 follow up emails and make 20 calls. I don't understand why TCS has such a ridiculous and complicated process even to drink water. Please stop teaching world about digitization, IoT etc. first of all please appoint consulting firm to clear your waste. There are at least 100,000 employees who merely contribute to 1% of revenue but it's TCS

Well...now we come to the good part. The Cons :) 1. I told you about the onsite, right? Well, it's mostly your luck. Don't expect to go onsite, especially to the US before completing 4 years in TCS. People are least bothered about the work here. All everyone wants in onsite, which is also the lollipop your managers will feed you when you join their accounts. There is a crazy lottery system for getting visas and your odds are 1:3 of getting a visa. i.e. only 1 out of 3 visas are approved. And here too, the politics kicks in. Maintain a good rapport with your manager if you want to smell an approved visa. 2. Next to pathetic work. They is barely anything to learn. Majority of projects are support projects, where there is boring repetitive work. You'll lose grip of your programming skills very soon is you land up in a sub par project. 3. Getting a good project is an insane challenge. If you can make some calls to project leads in TCS...good for you. Otherwise, you are stuck with the RMG. I'll come to the RMG in the next point. You have to depend on your contacts to get good projects. The RMG will rarely listen to you, and don't be shocked if you land up in a support project. Good Dev. projects are very hard to come by. 4. The RMG or the Resource Management Group. You report to these people when not working in a project. They are very over powered people. Don't mess with them. They can make your remaining career a living hell. They can chuck you in a terrible project at a terrible location. Always, do what they say. When un-allocated in a project, you depend on them to find you a project. Don't bother wishing for a good project. They'll send you wherever they wish to. You can reject projects but only for a limited count. Reject it more often, they'll suck the life out of you. I had a friend who was forced to resign by the RMG because she was given a working location 3 hours from her house. They can block your online access to their website(Ultimatix) so you won't be able to fill your timesheet and ultimately you have to bow down before them or resign. Its good to know people at high places in TCS, so you can find a good project and never have to deal with the RMG. 5. The managers and the hierarchy. There is an insane level of hierarchy in TCS. Too much process. Try raising a reimbursement request. You'll come to know, how many people it goes to for approval. Your managers are your god. Always pamper them :p. Don't expect to get a good appraisal by doing good work. That will rarely happen. Be on your managers good side, you'll reap the fruit in your appraisal. Never refuse to do anything. Getting leaves is a pain here. You'll have to plan your leaves 1-3 months in advance. Your manager or the client can cancel them on the last day. Trust me I have seen loud verbal fights in the office over leaves and appraisal. It not a good sight. Your skills and work will almost never get you anywhere. Well, it is rare. There a re always good managers and projects. But those are hard to come by in TCS. Why bother with good work when pampering can get you laurels. 6. The money and hike. I'll be short here. If you are a fresher, you'll rarely see more than 25-26K o your payslip. After your first year, when you get confirmed. i.e. become a ASE from a ASE Trainee, you'll get a measly hike of 30K. M salary went from 3.26 to 3.65 at a 4 rating, A 4 rating is not easy to get, forget a 5. You are more likely to get confirmed at 3 and get a salary of 3.56. Great hike, right? Anyways, on your first appraisal or the H2, you'll face the real demon. I'll explain that in the next point, but know this; There are 5 bands in TCS. A band: Only the top 10% gets it. People with an A got a hike of 10% in FY 15-16. Funny right? B band: Next 20%. 8% hike. C band: Next 30-80-85%. 6% hike. i got a C band. Salary got raised to 3.78. 13K hike. Well, that was amusing. D band: 85-95-99%: 2% DECREMENT in salary. Yes they reduce your salary. You'll get a much larger cut if you get a D later in your career. E band: This is rare but it almost means a termination. 7. Now the appraisal. There a re 2 appraisal cycles here. H1 - Apr to Sep. H2 - Oct to Mar You'll get a decimal rating from 1 to 5. You get a whole number rating or a band upon curve fitting. This is the band I spoke about earlier. H1 is a mere formality. You'll get a band only after H2. Remember the percentages on which bands are given. This is called the famous bell curve here. Your manager and their over lords will fit you in this curve so that your IPF lies on this curve. Your HR will tell you that your IPF will decide your band, but don't believe it. People with 3.7 IPF can get a D...a B or even a A. Your managers decide your bands on an excel sheet. I'm mostly done here. An advice to people who are joining TCS. Join on the proper position. <1 year: ASE Trainee 1-2: Assistant Systems Engineer 2-4-5: Systems Engineer. A D band will hinder your promotion if you have been in TCS from before. 4-7: IT Analyst 7-11: Assistant Consultant 11-15: Associate Consultant 15+: Consultants, Principal Consultants and beyond