Indian software companies - The Myth and Reality


"My son works for xyz (which is Indias largest software company).He joined three months back,He has three people working under him.My son compensates for their laziness.He works day and night,it seems he goes back to his pg only once in two or three days "
The above remarks were uttered by this "hard-working" sons mother to her neighbour in one of their who-is-doing-better-than-who sessions in the backyard.The neighbour duly thinks the entire software industry thrives on this fellow's diligence,and urges her 10th standard son to "work hard" and "make it" to xyz engineering college and "get placed" in xyz company of the software industry (Hello !!!).


Cut to REALITY :

Our hero saunters cooly into his workspace trainee cubicle(Ha!!do you really buy that crap about people working under him??).The time : 11 A M .Logs in and checks mails,chats etc.Time : 12 30.He goes with his team to lunch.After two hours of "work-talk" that includes little else but who is going onsite and who is not,whose passport has more number of visa stamps,who is getting a salary hike,and who deserves to be where etc hero goes back to work. Gets to code.Two "review meetings",one tech talk, and three coffee breaks with the team(Cmon yaar,the brain is saturated,lets get some coffee and fresh air!!!)later,it is six.And that means two things,a lengthy snack break(samosas,bhel puris and what not!!!)with floormates, and a good TT session.Time is 9 and that means rushing to the canteen for that (free!!) dinner.At 10 there is a teleconference and hero bluffs his way through status reports only to find he has a deadline in two days.Starts work furiously,suddenly remembers a long lost(read as will-come-in-handy-sometime) US cousin.Calls from here through IP and asks a team mate sitting onsite to transfer call.Time is 12.Sleepy eyed now,wants to listen to some Iron maiden and start work.Bam!!!! wonder of wonders !!! Firewalls are down.Sees the opportunity of life !!!He starts downloading these "life savers" and some screen savers(should I say what variety??).Sends an official mail asking for some non-existent standards document from the PM (to "enhance visiblity" what else!!!) that just screams "Look at the timestamp!!! I was in office till late today!!".Before he realises it is dawn,and he calls home to crib about "how stressful" the his life is !!!!
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