Musings From My Heart's Canvas...

Feb 21, 2008...this is one date in my Life that i will never forget!!!

This is the date i joined the esteemed organization called HCL Technologies Ltd. I can just never forget this date ever becuz this was the worst experience i could count of the first day in any company...back then...and even now!!! Yes, one might wonder what could have been so bad that i am writing such cheesy things about it!!! But if any of my readers have been part of a more professional organization before...they will know the reason as they read.. :)

I can never ever forget the wonderful experience that i had on the first ever day of my professional carreer...and i am glad that waas with a superb and professional organization like Satyam Computers. Ya many may say that it doesnt exist anymore...but i know all Satyamites know the joy of being a satyamite...of being an ELTP!! joining Satyam as an Entree Level Trainee Professional was one of the best things that i have encountered in my professional life till date. The joining formalities in a top notch 5Star hotel in secunderabad...with a systematic, non chaotic completion of all formalities...training in Satyam Technology Centre, Bahadurpally...one of the best office campuses i have seen in my Life...the training days in east wing and convention centre...both were some of the best professional days of my life...the cafetaria with amazing variety of food...with all the great things that satyam was offering...i never minded going to office at weird times...be it 5 in the morning or 3 in the afternoon...staying till whatever time...going even on Saturdays....life was actually Mast in those days!!! Life after ELTP...well i thought will be full of REAL projects and no fun...but i actually had some of my best project days working with amazing clients like Mars chocolates...Mars was the first project of my professional carreer and will always be very close to my heart...i made some good friends there...and even lost some...i learnt some very important lessons of my professional carreer in those few months that i worked with Mars...but will still remain some of the BEST days of my professional life...may be even better than my ELTP Days!!! I still talk to my manager in Mars...and can still say about him that he will help me when i ask for any kind of help...be it professional or personal...working in a project in those days was like a second family for me...i used to look forward to coming to work...meet friends from work even on weekends...whenever i think about those days...i can just go on and on and on with memories...

I did suffer being on bench in Satyam...i cant deny that...but that suffering was not becuz Satyam was bad at resource allocation...may be it was a little disoriented when it came to resource allocation...but also becuz some stupid brainless and saddistic people were entrusted with doing the most important work...allocating resources to projects!!! Atleast in Chennai this was the case!!! But even then...even on bench...one of the most depressing period in life of a software professional...even during those days we could manage having the BEST days!!! My last days in Satyam were full of fun...sitting in the cafetaria...gossipping...eye candy-ing...bunking office and watching movies wid frnds...attending stuuuupid seminars...signing proxies for friends...what all and what not!!! i had THE best days of my professional life in Satyam!!

And after all the fun times...i joined a company called HCL Technologies!!! dont even ask what the interview and the selection process did to me!!! its worth writing a new post for that...but this post is dedicated to me commemorating the awful adjuncts that i went thru on this auspicious date.. :)

ya...so i joined this company...and the first day...the joining formalities...was i expecting it to be in a 5star hotel or something!!?? ok i wasnt expecting that!!! but i still was expecting a professional welcome...with some professional HRs...and some professional people joining with me on that day...was this too much that i expected?? i guess no! i expected what every and any individual will expect from a CMM Level5 company!! so i took an auto and reached this nice office building in Egmore, Chennai...one of the good areas of chennai...the building was good with some really nice organizations like Jet Airways having their office in the same building...and some other international organizations also...i forgot teh name now!! but ya i felt ok the office is atleast in a good building...i step inside...the receptionist says some floor name for HCL Technologies...i guess it was floor 2!! so i take the elevator...reach floor 2...and all i can say after reaching there is that...the reception area dint appeal me so much!! i din feel very excited to be there...but i thought to myself...let me not judge the company by a meagre reception area...and i waited for the receptionist to come.. :) ( ya i know usually in all offices the receptionist is always the person who greets u first...unfortunately here none of the receptionist will do that...instead they will just come and stare at u...and finally ask u some rude questions!! this is something i learnt after spending some days in different HCL offices...guess the security gaurds are better suited for a receptionist job cuz they atleast will smile at u...but dont u dare smile at any receptionist in HCL...esp if u are a smart looking girl..he he he.. :)) anyways...finally the receptionist came and she told me 2 go to some training hall number 1 or something like that!! joining formalities in a training hall!!?? that dint sound something very "Professional" to me...but anyways...i was still keeping my cool...so i go inside this weird training hall...and i see some chairs have been arranged...and the look of the training hall was not something that was gonna impress me after i had seen A1 class of training halls in Satyam!! but i was still keeping my patient nerve ON...finally some dumb looking guy came and said a HI...and he introduced himself as the HR who takes care of the joining formalities!! i was kind of shocked!! i was jus thinking that the day will be as good as the joining day of Satyam...many of my friends had warned me not 2 expect too much from the laterals joining day!! its boring in all organizations...but still i was thinking atleast some...if not goodlooking atleast smart looking HR will address it for us!!! anyways...i thought may be the best is yet 2 come!!! so i was sitting in that boring room...with some boring people...and doing all that they told us to do!! worst part was when they told us to go to some room where they wanted our pictures for the ID Cards to be taken!! i had carried some really good passport pictures of mine as the HCL people had asked for some 16 passport pictures for joining and 5 passport pictures with white background!! but unfortunately they dint use even one of those pictures rather they led us to a room which was as shabby as my mindset about HCL at that time!! If the room was shabby with all kinds of papers, boxes...cartons etc etc scattered everywhere...the camera should hav atleast been a good one...it was not even an SLR or something...it was a cheesy digital camera...and am sure it dint have a resolution of anything more than 5 MPX...huh...if this was not enough!! the worst of the day was to come during the lunch time...but till lunch they took our lives out playing boring Direction'08 videos where some stupidly boring guy went on talking talking and just talking about the hierarchy structure etc etc in HCL. Inagine this...its a damp boring room with boring people with no lights and some hieghtedly boring video going on the projector screen...is it not natural for any sane person to fall asleep?? absolutely...so i fell asleep even while keenly trying 2 undersstand and take notes about HCL and how it functions...and worse part was i was not able 2 even fall asleep properly...cuz i was constantly being disturbed by snoring from the back seats!!! anyways...after every 1 hr or so...the boring HR will come and interrupt the boring videos and ask us if we had a good sleep!!! Now this is definitely where i lost any enthu...and i knew it aint getting better ever...this is all wat HCL is...stupid and boring and definitely not CMM Level5 standards!!...i knew my stay here is gonna be super boring...and i knew i had to look for a better job...atleast a better company!! :(

Anyways at about 1:00 Pm or so...the boring HR came and said you guys can go and have lunch at 5th (or 8th i don remember the floor number) Floor...Lunch has been arranged for you you can pay and have south indian meals!!! i was like...puhhlease...dont tell me i have to pay for lunch...is HCL such a big bhikhari company that it cudnt arrange for even a simple meal for some 15-20 people!!! forget 5Star and all...atleast a normal south indian meals!!?? uff...i was like all blabbering to myself...when all of us came out of the boring training room...stretched ourselves and started towards the lift...now the lift...it had floors written upto only 4!! so we were wondering...and just then the HR came and told us...this goes only till the 4th floor...you can take up the stairs after that!! i was not expecting to get anymore upset with anymore stupidity of HCL...i had anyways rated it as not having anything even close to professionalism...We reached 4th floor...started climbing the stairs...and volla...it leads to the terrace of the building...which looked more like a dumping ground for all imginable storage and waste items...some of the smart ones...made a wise decision and said sorry we cant have lunch here....and sneaked out to the nearby eatouts...they definitely were the smart ones...cuz if u are anyways paying for the food...it makes perfect sense to pay the same and have a better meal somewhere else...but me...i din wanna wander about in the HOT chennai sun at mid afternoon and fall unconscious somewhere...so i paid and had that distasteful meal...of which i wud have hardly eaten anything more than the sweet...

By the time lunch was over...the patience saturation of my patient nerve was also over...i wanted to literally run back home...or may be run back to Satyam...i cudnt believe that i had made such a BIG mistake...i cudnt believe that i will never be able to call Satyam, my own company! i was no longer a Satyamite...and that really hurt now!! anyways...the post lunch session was again as boring as the pre one...but fortunately they brought the bank people from deutsche bank (who by the way were the only smart people i saw that day) and the other formalities like filling form for transferring PF etc started and i cudnt thank GOD more that dreaded day was finally over!! But that was not it...there was something scheduled for the next day as well...and i sure dont remember a thing of what happened the next day... All the greatness of the first day itself was enough for me to call this company "The KING of Unprofessionalism"
Till today i have not been able to find a single employee of this company whom i can call as being professional...except for a couple of people whom i know were associated with Satyam previously...but i guess after working 2-3 years with this company...anyone can become totally devoid of professionalism...My life in HCL till now...has been a good one...though i have learnt that you work only for yourself not for the company...a completely selfish attitude is what i have developed after working here...and now when someone says..."Love your work, not your company"...i can totally agree to that.. :)