Will joining TCS affect future chances of getting into product-based companies ?

Question

Got selected for TCS digital (7lpa), cse fresher. Will having TCS in my resume affect future chances? Ideally want to move to a product company after an year.

Answer 1

I think I am capable to answer this as I recently switched from TCS to Oracle India.

The difficulty actually depends on a few factors,

• Your current project in TCS and how much you are exposed there to write enterprise level code and/or find bugs in codes.
• Even if your project uses legacy frameworks and development kit version, do you give time at your home to learn the new frameworks and newly released APIs?
• Your understandings of OOP and/or functional programming, collections and multithreading.

If the three points mentioned above are in your favor, congratulations. Otherwise,

• Take out a fixed time in your home to learn about new frameworks, NoSQL databases, Cloud Computing. There are plenty of quality tutorial on them available online in Udemy, Coursera, A Cloud Guru.
• Start your learning journey. Apply everything you learn in a small project. Make sure you are writing your code adhering S.O.L.I.D. principle. You will get a lot of errors in first, analyze the errors or get help from StackOverflow.
• Push your code to public GIT platforms like GitHub or BitBucket (Make sure you don’t put any credentials into your code and handle any sensitive information via Environment Variable).
• Publish your application to cloud (All the cloud provider provides 1 year of free service, so it won’t hole in your pocket). Develop a CI/CD architecture in cloud platform so when you push code to GIT repository it automatically build, test and deploy the code.
• Most importantly, never lose your touch with Data Structure and Algorithm. This is the key to crack the initial technical rounds of product based companies. Try to take out a fixed time to solve problems on HackerRank or LeetCode. You can also participate in Hackathons organized by large MNCs. Remember, Solving a problem doesn’t mean that it is an optimized one, O(n²) complexity should be avoided.
• Once you get a good grip on code, data structures, watch videos on System Design of various websites like Twitter, Amazon, Whatsapp because in the last technical round you may be asked to explain how some of the popular app work behind the scene.

There you go, you are technically ready to crack the interview of product based companies but always remember big product based giants should not be your only concern, you will be able to learn even more in small startups as you will have more ownership and mostly you will be able to start building from scratch. Startups are generally more prone to make use of the latest technologies and frameworks. Quality of work matters, not the brand

Answer 2

If you are working in some niche skills which are very much in demand in the IT industry, it takes less than two years to make a switch to product based companies. These usually include technologies like Machine Learning, Big Data, Research and Development projects, Salesforce, UI Development etc but not restricted to these only. If you are working in technologies lik Java, C++, Python, Oracle which although is very much in demand but the number of professionals in the industry is also huge, it should usually take 2–3 years to make a switch. However it becomes a little difficult for people who work with stuffs like Excel or mostly revolve around manual tasks or monitoring things.

I was in a Production Support project for almost 2 years and I could learn nothing from it. Whatever I worked in my project, it was meaningless and added no value to my CV. That wasn't sufficient to help me make a switch. But I knew I had to get out of this place. Hence the main thing that you need to switch is that determination to change companies. Your target must be set and then you need work hard towards it.

In order to switch, specially from service based companies like TCS you need to learn a lot. Whatever work that you do in the project in TCS, that ultimately results in nothing. Suppose you are working in Java as a fresher in TCS, learn more about it during your off hours. You cannot say that why should I be studying outside my work hours or during the weekends? This time is meant to relax. If you think so, forget about the switch. Success comes to those who work hard.

For example, my work is related to Salesforce. I learnt about it during the weekends. Post covid times, I tried to take out time during office hours and learn. I took a course on Udemy to dive deeper. Participated in various online training sessions, quizzes etc. Earned five Certifications along my journey. And this helped me to switch after two years at TCS.

Whatever your technology is, learn more about it. Do a market research how demanding is your technology. Are you working as a Full stack developer? You'll have plethora of options. If you are working in Java or Python, you have so many options. You're in luck if you get a project on Cloud, Big Data or Machine Learning. But you need to learn and build mini projects along the way that you can demonstrate to the interviewers. Unless you are tagged in some project where real development work happens, you will learn nothing at your workplace. All these product based companies know what kind of work happens at these service based companies. So if you really wish to stand out of the crowd, be thorough with the technology you're applying to and have Certifications to back you. By certifications, I mean the official ones like from Salesforce, Oracle, AWS etc. Not the ones from Udemy, Coursera etc. They don't matter anywhere.

Another important thing is your LinkedIn profile. If your LinkedIn profile is good, you'll grab the eyes of interviewers. Many employees would also reach out to you to refer you. My LinkedIn profile helped me to make the switch since the recruiter was impressed by it and directly reached out to me for scheduling an interview. I didn't have to apply anywhere. Make sure your skills, work experience, Profile Header are up to date. Having recommendations is good too. In short, build a great professional profile of yours and be in connection with HRs and employees from different organizations.

Look out for jobs on LinkedIn, Naukri, Indeed etc. Build an impressive resume and carry a copy on your phone as well. Apply at the different organizations. The process is time consuming and you might be rejected by many companies. But that shouldn't demotivate you. Remember, there might be 10 rejections but you need to clear only one interview.

So its a good thing that you are interested in making the switch and not getting into your comfort zone because once you start feeling comfortable at TCS, there's no way out. Now all you need to make sure is to learn and implement what are you are learning. Side by side, document them on your resume and LinkedIn.

I have always believed that Learning is the key. You need to be determined and dedicated to reach better heights and work towards your goal. I have seen many of my friends, seniors who are working for 5 years at TCS, earning around 5 lakh rupees a year and satisfied with that. A junior of mine who just joined TCS few months back is happy and looks forward to settle now; at the age of 23! The 5 year old senior is clearly enjoying at his comfort zone and doesn't wish to welcome any new challenges in life and the junior is too lazy to try something new. This kind of 'laid back' attitude will never help you in switching jobs.