Pros
I would like to write this review so as to give a fair view of the internals so that the new joiners understand what they are getting into and also help the management to weed out the hindrances. I would like to divide the review into two parts Macro Environment (Company experience) and then Micro Environment (specific team experience). I would give Micro Environment more importance as the saying goes that people change their managers and not the company. Pros 1. On the Macro level the company being European promotes some good policy like work-life balance, unlimited sick leave, work from home and year end shutdown. 2. The compensations are comparatively better than Services Company but lesser than the pure product company, again CTC may be high but surprisingly in-hand is less. Initial new joiners high CTC generally get normalized in the next appraisal cycle which would mean bringing it down to the market standard. 3. Provides selective global deputation as low cost resource for 1-2 years after 4-5 years of service in the company the catch is it has a bond of 8 lacs.
Cons
1. Politics at all level, politics at the high level and politics at team level and politics within team between long timers and new joiners. There are peoples who have continued in the organization since there joining as interns a number of these peoples haven’t got outside organization exposure and have been in a kind of shell environment, most are well networked and the less talented are completely surviving by playing politics to get ahead. 2. To reduce the attrition the company has a 3 months notice but unfortunately such dams only retain the sludge as most of the companies are ready to wait for right talent which means you might find some one in your team who is well networked but less talented and is playing politics to get ahead, this means if you are a new joiner he would be playing as your friend but would be passing all your information to the manager even the light hearted comments. Rest assured that the manager would believe him as they have spent years together in the organization so their bonding is stronger than yours. . 3. There is complete opposite direction to the Macro environment (read point 1 in Pros) at the micro team environment which is very tightly controlled by the local manager trying to prove his worth to the global manager by making the local team slog on weekdays and weekends. Any difference of opinion is considered as a rebellion and if its coming from a new joiner then its mostly said that he has to be indoctrinated with the team’s philosophy. Formally there is freedom of expression even managers would ask you but understand he ultimately wants you to follow his line and not to be out of line. This environment slowly leads to suffocation and isolation and losing the benefits (Pros 1), if you are a free thinker else you become one of those indoctrinated zombies ready to carry out the managers orders. The views at the micro level are more relevant to the software teams especially the one touted to be the next big thing in industry. However, at the micro level as generally is the case, things differ from team to team, so try to find the inside information before joining in especially from the new joiners and not the old timer. As many new joiners are leaving because of dissatisfaction at the micro level even though things are generally portrayed rosy at the macro level.