I am about to complete 1 year in TCS. So let's go through my journey once again to get a clear idea about what you would be going through or ideally facing as a fresher.
Chapter 1 ——(ILP Initial Learning Program)
Each associate has to go through this Program. TCS is having 5 training centres in Chennai, Ahemadabad, Trivendrum, Hyderabad and Guwahati. A domain is assigned to each associate prior to joining and training related to that domain takes place in one of the training centre. Training period differs from domain to domain for general domains like (Java, Mainframe, Oracle) training period is 3 months (or 60 working days) while for other domains like EIS training period is 40 days (or 30 working days). Training is mainly divided into two sections- First For Technical skills and Second for Business-skills.
In this training period you need to complete some training modules assigned to you and then they conduct some assessments based on that modules that you need to clear to get release(just a myth) from training centre and go to actual project.
***This is the golden time; enjoy this time at most you can, if you don't soon you will be regretting. ***
When you are about to finish your training, you will get informed about your Base location (location where you are going to get deployed for actual project work - the work for what tcs hired you).
Chapter 2---Gettting into Project
This is a key factor that decides you life and time span within TCS. In this chapter you will meet the RMG(Resource Management Group). They can be the fortune maker or devil. For each associate there is a RMG assigned, who will make sure that you get a Project asap. Till the point you are not tagged in any project you have to report to RMG. Make sure that you are tagged in a good project otherwise your life will be miserable, but finding a good project in tcs is similar to finding story and logic in salman Khan movie #no_offence.
Chapter 3 ——(Real or Reel Life)
Once you have been allocated a project, now you have to be in that project for atleast 2 years because of so called TCS Policies. Initially you will get a KT (Knowledge Transfer) from someone who knows the project(and is also planning to leave the TCS). And once your KT is done that actual project work starts. Generally in project you don't have to do anything apart from making some useless documents or some modifications in the code that was developed by all those who have already left the TCS and have joined some other companies or all time favorite gossiping. If you are lucky enough then you will get the work for which they trained you in ILP (But this is almost impossible).
Chapter 4 ——(Learning or Earning)
Once you know the reality of the project you have left with two options either switch or enjoy your life in TCS. Most ideal solution would be - You can prepare yourself for some challenging job because in tcs you get too much spare time that can be used wisely for learning or for the preparation of some exam(CAT, GATE, UPSC) or for higher studies(distant learning) and in the end if you don't have have plans, don't worry you will get your salary on time along with the experience that you are getting for doing nothing ……!!!! Enjoy-Learn-Suffer-Satisfy-Fight choice is yours.