Why a programming enthusiast or a techie should never start the career in a Service Based MNC — Part 1

My span at one of those three lettered Indian based MNC was short. I could not bear the culture and people there for long.

As any average engineering student at my place I too ended up getting placed at an MNC , which initially was exciting. I had a job in hand , when majority were clueless about the future. The typical society looked at me with respect since the offer was from one of those big names. It got me even more exciting.

I stepped into the first day of my professional career with trepidation , and from then on the excitment started vanishing. I was trained for three months and was put into a project which had nothing much to do with coding. My average day consisted of learning about the obselete technologies they worked with , filling excel sheets and spending time on blogs ( which actually gave me inspiration to quit ). To convince how obselete and outdated the people around me lets put it this way - ‘Developers' there were alien to github to say the least. Nope , no exaggerations there.

And there will be that cliché call from the on site guy giving lectures , which nobody had any idea about.

The Hierarchy

Everyone here are politicians , and were pretty damn good at it. Your manager , his manager and so on. The effect of hierarchy was too bad , that you literally had to beg to get leave for a day or two.

Growth

It depends on how good a social engineer you are. Flatter your manager , treat them like kings and if you are lucky you will soon get a ticket and visa for next on site assignment.

The work inside won’t give you any career growth. Instead will make you good politicians , like the people around you. After all , politicians I see there were not made in one day.

The MANAGERS

Most irritating things in such companies are the managers. These guys can give competition to Donald Trump for worst politician category.

Everyday you had to listen to the bullshit they tell you , don’t dare to correct them even if they are uttering stupidity. It will reflect in your next appraisal.

Now my story: I am a UX/UI enthusiast , and after constant trial I found a chance to work with the UI team in the same company. Of course I needed consent from the manager. He assured me , he will help me with this and asked to give him a month’s time. I will quote what the guy said after a month -” you have been here for more than a month , now its impossible to release you — should have tried earlier.”

This is not an isolated case , this is the majority and of course there will be a minority who are nice people , who have good real projects to work with.

But these are those kind of companies where everyone from the outside wants to get in , and everyone from the inside wants to get out.

Fast forward — few months. Front End Developer at Freshdesk, one of the hottest start ups in India. Living happily , working passionately.

The story of journey from MNC to India’s hottest start up in the next part.