Question

How is the work life balance at Infosys ?

Answer 1

This is indeed a perfect question to vent my frustration!!

But again, I would blame Infy or any other company for that matter.When i joined I heard a phrase “ People don’t wanna leave company, they leave the managers” sort of like that.

My story:

This was due to my great manager and well handful teammates who in fact knew nothing of the project, till date I am not sure how they are still employed here.

I joined as a fresher, my mentor ( senior engineer who left Infy within a month for exactly the same reason) thought me everything to survive in the project.

I worked for 15–16 hours straight ( also during weekends), solved every issue [ they just assign everything to you and you wont be able to do anything].They took all the credit for my work and blamed on me when they couldn’t complete their tasks which was everyday scenario.I won’t even start about the politics here. No leaves, more work piled on, frustration and depression increased to a whole new level. LOT OF THINGS happened that I won’t be able to share my rambling here.My mentor warned me that this would happen as he left Infy, should have listened to him.

All in all , In my case , I was so frustrated with my work and environment that I was ready to beg for other offers with less than current salary,but this depression led me to work hard for the job interviews till the point I got placed in an awesome product company .LUCKY ME!!

Anyways, my friend also works in Infy, and he has a cool manager and awesome teammates. His life in Infy is heaven. My luck was so bad that I couldn’t even get the release from project.

Anyways, it’s over now almost :)

The work at Infosys is mostly AMS and maintenance projects. So expect very little in terms of the scope to learn. Most of their customers have implemented enterprise software since decades, hence most of their core processes are setup and work without a glitch. It's only minor bug fixes and other issues that most people work on.

Hence, Infosys is a good place for a fresher, but ruinous for a senior employee. (>3–4 YOE).

The visibility in this company is very low. Expect very little interaction with managers, since most projects are based out of multiple locations and it is quite common for an employee to not work out of the same office as their manager.

Managers often directly say these things to employees:

1. Getting hikes and promotions is about your relationship with your manager
2. Attend Unit meetings and give KT's on new technologies in order to be considered for a hike.
3. Your work should be noticed and highlighted at a PM/DM level in order to move ahead.
4. Don't ping your counterparts at the clients side every day. Do so once every 2–3 days. This will create the “impression” that you know more.

The work per se doesn't count. Even if you do work on certain topics and areas, the manager wouldn't consider that as knowledge.

What counts is what your manager and client thinks. Giving an impression of knowledge is more important than actually knowing stuff.

I've had employees tell me that their knowledge of standard SAP is low, but they keep their manager and clients happy.

There isn't a culture of respect - managers routinely tell employees that their knowledge is lacking.

It's a pretty shitty culture and the attrition rate of 22% reflects this.

Avoid working here if you want great work and culture.

This is a government company that people come to because of the very low volume of work, the brand name and the pay. This is called a “lala company”, a “retirement company” by many.

Save your career. Don't work here.

Answer 2

Environment is dependent upon people around you.”Politics is one of the oldest profession” and you'll find some expert politicians and some novice in every corner of an office.

Now, coming to your question. You'll find one or more victims of politics in office every now and then. Its better to keep a favourable condition for yourself because anyway you are there to grow.

Work culture is very good if your manager supports you, considering your talent or your native place or language <sarcastically​>.

Bottom Line:- Make sure you have good term with your team mates and most importantly with your manager.

To support this I'll share an instance.

There is a skip level meeting held in a unit every quarter where a DM - Delivery Manager answers all your concern related to work and promotion.

A guy in a particular meeting asked for his promotion related query but was bashed ending with a comment and I quote “ I am not an astrologer. And I could end your career in ICP(Unit).”

A DM should be patient enough to answer such a question instead of answering a JL4( Senior System Engineer) like that.

Later he was released from the project and upon looking up for other opportunities in different DC or Unit, he was given a very bad review from the concerned manager and always denied from the upcoming opportunities. Finally, he left Infosys.

Another instance, because you are new to the team, you get 2nd bucket while getting appraisal and when you argue about that you get to know that this rating is not going to harm you for a long time you have been awarded a 2nd bucket.

Last one: You get a 2nd bucket because you were promoted last quarter. I mean please enlighten me that my work was so good that I get promoted and the next month I deserve a 2nd bucket. I mean what's the logic.

One more: Onsite opportunity, people are in queue waiting for last 3 years to get an opportunity for onsite and we have less spots and we know you are talented but we cannot ignore them, so wait for next year.

I hope you get the point.

There is no office till date that I know of where you won't find a politics like this.

Please let me know if you find one. I'll apply there for a job.

Peace!

All the best.

Answer 3

Infosys - my first company, the very first Organization that gave me first hand interaction with the Corporate industry.

While reviewing Infosys, I'll start from the scratch i.e. Interview process.

It's interview process was very streamlined with stress on problem solving skills and attitude aspect of a professional as they've always believed that if the attitude is right, technical is just the learning part which you can upskill someone on, which their support system thrives.

They stressed a lot on intellect and values, something related to this was the tag line that Infosys attached itself with.

I could see the shadow all over the interview process, the TAs, the process everything resonated with this.

Once I entered Mysore campus and then into amphitheater on the day of induction I clearly remember the values- CLIFE, one that stuck with me was Lead by Example that is you should be having the courage to walk the talk. Not to go into the details of how it provides best in class training to newly inducted and help them grow professionally.

Whole of the induction is planned on one concrete aspect, how you achieve so they build and focus on Communication aspect as story telling is very important. You should know what to say in front of your peer/Leader /Vice president etc. You should be clear in your head on 5 minutes and 50 seconds version of your story.

All of this is not very explicitly written anywhere, but when I look back I can see how very carefully the induction and training plan is laid out, looking at a bigger picture.

Coming to production or live project, Infosys has large variety of projects each with its own unique experience and learning experience. I am very sure, you'll come out as a strengthened professional once you get a stint with Infosys, more so as a fresher.

The parts I disliked was on the opportunity related to onshore (always followed a hierarchy and aging had an advantage) plus the monetary aspect.

Having said that, you can't really complain about only Infosys as the lot in the area are doing the same thing.

The landscape now is changing quite rapidly and dynamically. Brace for this.

Godspeed.

Answer 4

Infosys is one of the top companies in the country and also a behemoth when it comes to the software industry. I worked in this wonderful company for 3.6 years and trust me it was heavenly. But hey perspectives vary. It depends on what you expect out of a job.

1. Do you expect a satisfactory job? In terms of growth and challenging tasks every now and then?
2. Does one want a great compensation package?
3. Are extra curricular activity a major part of who you are as a person and does the company support those?
4. Work life balance. How much of it do you get?

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To address the above points

1. Pure luck if you ask me. Not only Infosys but any company you get yourself into.
2. Compensation in infy is quite poor actually. Not if you're a lateral. But hey money will come with experience so I suggest that one shouldn't put too much effort into this if you're joining as fresher.
3. Infy, as they're fondly known is a great encourager of extra curricular activity. Anyone who has worked there will vouch for this.
4. Work life balance is a quite sticky one. They still believe in coming to office and working. A limited 9 days of work from home is provided (Last I knew). The managers usually question the moment one takes around 5–6 days.

In my 3.6 years I've worked across 3 DC's and experienced every up down and middle a software engineer can go through. Let me tell you this but. Infosys is a wonderful company to work for. Why? Below are some of the experiences.

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As a fresher, you start off at Mysore DC. This my dear quorans is heaven specially for someone like me who explores and plays a lot of sports. With easily 3000–8000 trainees on spot from all over the country, a lot of things is learnt along with discipline. The training is one of a kind and is aimed at giving you hands on practice (though the content maybe slightly outdated)

Getting a project is a task, let me make that clear. I was lucky to get a development project in Chennai which nurtured my development skills. Got a great team that helped me build a foundation on java and also time to play football for Infosys Chennai. Growth was steady for me and learning curve was gradual.

Then I got transferred to Bangalore and work took a step up. Learning became took a front seat and my other activities a back seat. Once again compensation was decent.

All in all, Infosys is a wonderful company to work for.

Answer 5

I have been employed at Infosys for the past 1 year so clearly that makes me eligible to answer this.

Infosys has one of the worst Resource management not because of policies, but because of X (keep reading).

Every quarter a huge number of talented candidates join the company with high hopes to learn and grow. Infosys has an amazing training program that wonderfully transforms a student to a professional with a polished foundation skill. With training in python, DotNet, Spring, MySQL, etc, one becomes skilled to take up any task with ease. With all these great candidates, it can build its own products and leave a mark in the global competition, yet it remains as a shallow legacy outsourcing firm that lags behind even few startups in the race.

Why ?

Answer(X): Managers

There are handful of managers who are exceptional, but most of them are shit. All they know is to speak. They just get the their job done by threatening the employees by putting their job at stake. When an employee brings up a innovative idea on the table, it is never appreciated, in return his attitude and effort is morally crushed by pointing out negativity or inefficiency in his previous work. He even gets denied to join teams that appreciate the talent as managers use the only skill they have(speaking) and retain them as it would become a pain for them to hire a new candidate.

So what do these skilled young candidates do ? They leave the company.

Remember: A manager handling a project that involves a billed client will never care about the well-being or wants of his employees. All they want is to meet target revenue and get the billed job completed.

I personally know many talented peers who have left the organization after becoming a prey of these vision less managers and their politics.

This is something very serious. With majority of the projects being support based, when automation picks in while this type of behavior continue to prevail, the organization would perish.

Answer 6

You do realize that you are expecting a general answer for a company that has 120000+ employees?

Anyways, as with any large multinational IT consulting company, it varies a lot. I mean a loooooootttt, based on:

• Business Units (Retail, Banking etc)
• Clients (some clients may be more aggressive with their timelines than others)
• Projects (some projects might not give you time to breath. While in some other projects, you come to office because of the air conditioning)
• Managers

Training

In my opinion, if you are a fresher, I would chose Infosys over any other competitor, just because of the training in the Mysore campus.

The training is not a replacement for programming education. But no other organization puts in this much resources to train its new employees.

Just look at the campus:

The Training Center

The Swimming Pool

The multiplex

The trainee hostel (which has room service!!!)

 

Things might have changed a lot since it has been 6 years since I was there.

Project Assignment

This is where Infosys falters. Once you are out of training, and you have to join projects, the assignment to projects was very arbitrary. I got a perfect score in training and was assigned to a challenging, interesting project. But some trainees from my batch, who also got perfect scores, ended up installing JDK, doing tech support for clients. To be fair, it was 2008, right after the biggest economic downturn. So I guess they thought it is better to have the trainees doing something rather than nothing.

Once you are no longer a fresher, the projects that you can get into are entirely up to your technical competence, your manager, your political ability etc.

Certification

I guess this is something I may receive a lot of flak for. Till the time I was with Infosys, it required it employees to go through mandatory certifications based on their levels. So the idea was, if you were a Java programmer, you will take

1. Basic Java certification the first year
2. Advanced Java certification the next year
3. Design patterns etc the next year and so on

So as you grow in your career, Infosys certification process will let you learn more. I like it a lot because it was so relevant to learn exactly what you need for the next year of your career. I liked it because it was relevant to my work and I was doing certification on the technology I was working on.

The problem is, Infosys has such a diverse technology and project portfolio, that certification did not make sense for some employees. It did not make sense for someone working in SQL to have certification on .NET.

I do not know if they still have certification.

The Fun

This is now entirely up to you and your team. Our team was a bunch of 21 year olds. So even though we had a lot of work, we did have parties and enjoyed a lot. There was almost no politics.

I would say, overall Infosys is a good company among its competitors. I would pick Infosys over other IT consulting companies. But I would not choose Infosys over software companies like Amazon, eBay etc...

Disclaimer: Goes without saying. But still...These are just my personal opinions and it does not reflect my past employer's views.

Answer 7

Work life balance: TCS is bit more chill than Infosys, both are like government companies, but TCS is bit more in comparison. Work life balance in general is very good in these companies.

Growth opportunities: it would vary vastly, mainly dependent on technology, tools and market demand than the company. But never the less Infosys because of its slightly stricter rules might force you to work a bit harder and learn more. But it's all relative. In general in these companies though growth opportunities stop after 2 or 3 years experience unless you are sent onsite, and that won't happen until you are a consultant of some sort which is at least 5 years of experience. And the onsite is decreasing day by day because of newer technologies and cost cutting.

Anyways, if you are fresher you choose one thing, work life balance or growth opportunities, you can't have both.

Please my other answers about working in such companies, you will get a better perspective.

Hope this answers

Cheers

Answer 8

Well as I believe, that everything happens for a reason and the reasons are mostly good than not. So if you have to join infosys as a fresher you are very lucky. And you will understand this once you step in the wonderful mysore campus. It is the most beautiful campus with the best facilities in the country. And no other company has anything even close for trainees. Being from a non-IT background, the training here will be very helpful as it was for me. And two years down the line when you have learned enough you can choose any company based on your competency. So dear, just relax for you are going to get the best 4-5 months of your life when you will be training at the Infy mysore campus. You can thank me later for bringing this to your notice.

Answer 9

Your meaning of LIFE in Infosys can be any of these:

1. Work: If you expect to get a very challenging work where you have to put in a lot of effort and time to learn, execute and deliver; it may not be always the case here.
2. Personal Life: I would give 5/5 to this. You have a huge and beautiful campus with every facility. You are a sports enthusiast or a book lover or an artist or an aspiring orator; every option is available. What else is needed when you get all at one place with smart people around.
3. Work-life balance: This is a tricky thing which depends ONLY on the project you are in, no matter which company you belong to. For me, it has been wonderful till now.

The only thing which I wish could have been better is doing away with the policy of maintaining 9hours 15minutes yearly average office time.

Answer 10

If you want exact answers then there are number of possible answers depending upon various factors. I'll try to answer most of them.

Location : If you are working from the location that you are comfortable at then this factor will not make you regret working for Infosys.
Project+ Salary : If you were working on projects that you were tarined on and that your project are challenging then this factor also will not make you regret. Less salary may be a factor to rethink about joining Infosys but remember you're getting paid irrespective of you being in project or on bench.
Manager/ Team lead (etc members in Hierarchy) : If your team and others above in Hierarchy are coordinating, friendly and supporting to you then this factor will also not affect you.
Policies : You can't take a sick leave . Although you get your earned leaves every quarter which is 4–5 days but this is also least effecting factor because weekends are holidays .
Last but not least ( Trump Card)

Friends : If you are unlucky enough that you are not satisfied with above 4 factors then this one factor will definitely have a major impact on you in your day to day life. If you have friends then whatever the case might be. Life will always be fun when friends are around.

Answer 11

Do not be depressed. Infosys is a great company and the training it provides is unparalleled. I think no other company invests some much in training freshers. I would suggest google Infosys Mysore and you will be mesmerized by the infrastructure.
Now coming to your question of life in Infosys let me explain it you. After training, which will be the best 3-4 months of your life, you will be put into production where you will be working on some projects. Below is my schedule for the day.

• Wake up at 8 - 8:30 and reach office by 10.
• Check my mails and attend daily scrum calls. After that go for tea.
• Come back and start working. It would mostly be some enhancements given by client.
• Go for lunch around 1 PM.
• Come back and start working.
• Again leave for tea around 4.
• Come back test the changes done. Mail clients about the task done. Modify task in TFS and then leave for the day around 8.

A small suggestion. If you feel that you are a good programmer then don't join any of these companies. Better go for a start up or product based companies. The reason is majority of the projects in these companies are maintenance projects where learning is not that much. Some times you may be trained in Java and then put into testing project. It all depends upon their business needs.

I hope this helps.

Answer 12

The life style depends upon the project you work and not on the company. But still life and routine of infy people is cool and good.

Waking up by 6,you can hit Infy gyms maintain your physique,take a shower and leave to office from there or wake up by 7,have a coffee,gaze through the TV or newspapers have a shower then breakfast and its better to be in your cubicle before 9.30.

You can take a break when ever you need.There are vending machines everywhere and coffee/tea makers too. By 12 you can leave for lunch and you can resume your work by 1:30. At 5 you may bid bye and leave the campus or you may go to gym,or you can use the time for any sports.And note it down you need to swipe out before 8PM.Yeah that is the rule :).

Come home ,chill out, have dinner and have a good sleep.

Saturday and Sundays are off.

In case if you are in shift projects normal routine will change as you have three shifts in Infosys Morning,Noon and night.And you will be paid extra if you work in shift.You need to work in sat and sun too but you will be granted weekoff during any two weekdays.

 

• And you will be a project party once in every quarter or team lunch where you will be allotted 400 at Max by Infosys.
• During some auspicious occasions you can wear a etnic wear as a team and grab some attention.
• There is no dress code in Infosys. Yeah there is no dress code.
• You have pickups and drops for 40 Km radius in every direction from Infosys.
• No company pays a allowance for shifts like Infy do.

What ever its Infy life is cool.