Mass Recruitment

2004, 18th Oct

Mysore

This was my first day at Infosys. I had worked in Godrej and Boyce Mfg. Co. for about 4 months. No, I wasn't a lateral here at Infosys. Now that was because I was in sales and had no prior experience in software. Somehow the first day at Godrej and first day here, when juxtaposed, was a real contrast.

Godrej..

2004, 18^th June

Bangalore

I seemed to be the only guy joining Godrej on this day. I was standing in front of a door that held a “GODREJ & BOYCE MFG. CO.” embossed plate. I opened the door and walked through to be greeted by the receptionist. I told her my name and she immediately stood up and showed me the way to the branch manager’s cabin. It was just around the corner. I knocked once and opened the door. There was a thin man, with a gold rimmed spectacle, who seemed to be relieved to meet me. He shook my hands and posed me with a series of questions whose answers summed up my life. He introduced me to just about everybody in the office. He then showed me my cabin with a “WELCOME TO GODREJ” card on my desk.

Infosys…

I was standing in the E&R building of Infosys surrounded by 500 odd people (New recruits). Yeah, 500 odd people, that’s the number of people joining Infosys on that particular day. There was a lot of confusion on how to split the group for the induction program. I couldn’t make out who was already working for Infosys and the new recruits. We were given our ID cards and employee numbers. Induction was done by lots of biggies touching on various Dos and Don’ts. Just after lunch we were asked to proceed to the Labs that we were allotted to. We were also given coffee mugs. Just like the once Jail Kaidhi’s* get. Classes started and half way through a coffee mug broke shattering the silence. The lecturing staff immediately prompted us to clap our hands. Memories of my college came. All of my college days we were taught to behave like professionals. And here I was in one of the best companies with great encouragement for miserable behaviour.

I sometimes wonder if mass recruitment is the spoiler. Companies are made to look like an extension of college with the kind of recruitment going on. Thus suppressing the need to be professional.

PS: * Somebody serving a sentence in jail.