Cyient(Formerly known as Infotech) would be one of the worst company you will ever work in if you ever join this company. Period. It is best for people who do not want to grow and want to have stagnated standard career with no growth(promotion once in 3 years until and unless you have any godfather in the company and you know how to speak Telugu).
I have worked there for many years and what I will try to do here is give a comprehensive picture of Cyient's culture. This would be completely unbiased and the reason I am doing this is because nobody will ever take the pain to write such an elaborate review for such a unknown, unpopular entity.
Its not at all a company which encourages people with diverse background. Meetings are conducted in Telugu including all high level meeting where we have VP’s, Sr VP’s are involved such as Vidyalankar N(VP, Operation technology).
They will rant for long in Telugu and nobody can obviously dare break their monologues. Highly unprofessional environment with no regard for muting phone and nobody even minds if you start taking calls in middle of a meeting.
It is kind of a company where nobody will take any responsibility for anything. Everybody will try to shirk of responsibility even if it is an escalation about a project or a problem between employees. You can very well commit a sexual harassment and no one will ever take any action about anyone.
About CSR, they think they are doing awesome job in CSR, but CSR in Infotech is just a hog wash. Company does not spend anything from its pocket instead keep taking money from employees salary in name of CSR. This is all so that they can just print it in their Annual report and report at the end of the year
Again let me reiterate. I have worked Infotech for many years and have seen and experience work environment with low level people and managers as well as VP’s, Sr. VPs. So it is not a case of one instance. I have seen the DNA of the company and how it operates and will operate in future.
Last year its year on year growth was merely 6%. The baffling part is that In 2010 company planned to be a 1 billion dollar company by 2014. Right now in December 2013 it is 345 million dollar company. So they have missed the mark by not 10% or 20% but by whole 289%. So what kind of strategy went into making that strategy which had people like CMD, Sr VP’s and all who’s who of Infotech. This is a very good idea how the company operates.
It is interesting to note that Infotech has a whole strategy team loaded with Sr VP, Sr Manager, executives and third party consultants who created this strategy. I think what they are proficient is in Google search research and nothing more.
I remember a practice head was removed from the company because in a one on one session with CMD as to how to increase Infotech’s revenue he spoke his mind about changing the culture and people mindset of company. CMD did not like it as it is a company which he created and nobody can say anything in a way as it was described by him. In a period of 8 months he was eased out of the company by giving him non-essential positions. He had no option but to leave the company as he was being made to work on non-consequential projects.
Salary hikes are in the range of 6-10% and promotion are not based on ability but based on time. After three years everybody gets an automatic promotion whether you work or not. Looking at the growth of the company which only grew 6% it is highly likely that appraisals would be a nightmare soon. Starting salary for Infotech is Rs. 5000 /month for data operators and normally B.Sc graduates are working in these position. I once had an auto driver advising me not to work in Infotech as they pay very less. He had one of his cousin’s don working there as data operator(I should have listened to that driver. It was good piece of advice).
Lets get to HR. Well HR team is run by a very close aid of CMD. So nobody dare complains anything about HR. I have done that once and paid the price for it. HR is filled with dames who worry more about their looks in front of top management then about company policies. Trust me they have not even read company policies, normally employees have to go with a printout as a proof to substantiate the claim they are making.
There is one lady Srilakshmi Kalaguri in HR who just tops everyone. She addresses employees as “BOSS” and her normal statement is “Boss you do not know this, so please go and read the policy and then come to me” and the funny part is she does not even know that addressing an employee that way is wrong because I once told her “Why are you calling me like that?” and she said “What did I call you?” So you get an idea of HR function.
Just a case in point HR people are so worried about their position in front of top management that if there is employee engagement program going on and suddenly a person from top management comes in the room the whole training stops. HR is busy attending the manager and make sure she tell how capably she is running the event and whether the manager wants any tea or coffee. That is right, they are HR and they get tea and coffee for managers.
They even organize events by the way. Events such as salad making competition, noodle making competition, rangoli making competition, hair braiding competition. Most beautiful competition, most stylish competition, most cool guy. They also make sure that at least 80% of HR gets prizes and get awarded by senior manager. No sport event are ever organized and if you are lucky you get a carom board tournament once in two years.
You do not get free chai or coffee and have to pay for it. Executives do not get notepad, pen, dairy, calendar or parking space for cars. Only if you are a manager you get a diary . AGM and above get parking space and and VP and above you get a calendar as well. They do this bifurcation to cut cost and not waste money.
Canteen is worst then even my college hostel. Meal is typical non- cooked meal with non-baked chappatis and costs 40 bucks. No non-veg food is sold and previously about couple of years back you were not even allowed to bring Non-veg in your tiffin.
80% of the developers and managers can hardly frame two sentences in English and you never get a feeling that you are working in a private organization. This company was formed in 1991 and it has only grown to 345 million USD with 11000 employee is a testament in itself of its failure and where it is heading.
As for the brand value, it is negligible. I have people question “Which company is this, is it in IT?”; “Is it part of Infosys?" and stuff like that even if there company is like 500 meter from Infotech.
So if you are planning to join Infotech then don’t join. But I know there are circumstances where you do not have a job or you are desperately looking for a change and have landed offer from Infotech, so what do you do in this case? I say take this job, keep taking your salary but make sure you do not stop job hunting because at Infotech you would be not given any recognition ever. Middle management always keeps resigning.
Top management never changes. Top management keep playing musical chairs among themselves. They keep giving themselves promotions, change there job profiles at their whim and get pay hikes. They never leave. It is fresher who would be suffering, working on weekends. Make sure as soon as you get some experience you get out from here otherwise Infotech it will destroy your intellect by stopping any growth in learning, speaking and thinking skills.
Infotech actually does not want smart people honestly because they can threaten managers job inside the company. They deliberately hire people from low rate colleges so that they cannot overpower them. If you are ambitious and good in spoken English you can really overpower them in a second. But eventually after working with them you will just smile at them in same manner when you read Garfield everyday and smile at the cat’s stupidity. Its like why to argue and get in a debate with them as they will not change there perspective or way of thinking.
I was lucky to have a manager who just egged me all the time to leave the company.(He himself left in 1 year) but unfortunately I stayed here for more than I expected as there were some family exigencies which just dragged on for years and could never concentrate on my career. Now I have been placed in a fortune 500 company and very satisfied with my role and with my free cup of coffee here.
I can go on and on forever about this company and I still have so much to write and tell. You can contact me via this forum and I will try to give you an honest response.
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