Tuesday, April 06, 2010

A change from a big company to a medium sized company...

After spending 6.5 years in big companies, in the third job switch I have to switched to a medium size companies. On the very first day, I understood that life is going to be totally different here. Some points that I noticed on my first and second day in my new job are:

My first Employer was the company which manufactured and sold everything from tea to salt to car to wrist-watch to software. There I spent around 2 and half years. My send Employer was the company which stood strong and continued to grow even during the recession. I spent 4 years there. My current new Employer... if it literally meant what its name says, then it can opened and closed. Hmm... yes... you got it right...

My initial observations in new company:
* Just one floor of one building of one of the branch of my previous employer, thats this company's branch in this metro city.
* Everywhere we could see the small company culture, everywhere micro mangement and everyone's activity is closely monitored.
* For the first time in my career, I am seeing HR working closely with project team. In earlier companies, I used interact with HR only twice, once during joining and once while leaving the company and occationally while moving from one project to another. Here HR regularly interacts with everyone all the time, even with the development teams
* The management is a bit bereaucratic - all in senior management are just issuing commands, like it happens in military, and they dont fail to make a sarcastic note to whoever they get a chance to - probably a small company culture.
* HR too, their tone is more like a threat, in all they say - probably another small company culture.
* In big companies, you will be into project on the very first day, but here it takes 15 days to get into project.
* Canteen is bad, we have to take lunch with us.
* In earlier companies, I used to enjoy free company tea/coffee, by coming out to the corrider and with team-mates/friends, but here, each tea or coffee - Rs. 5, and we have to sit in that small canteen and have it.
* Water is available only in the canteen and whenever we need water, we need to walk all the way to canteen.
* Once we get in, we can come out of that floor only in the evening, and every time we come out, its considered as going out of the company and it is tracked through swipes.
* we have to spend a minimum of 3.5 hours between 9 to 1 in office in the morning; and minimum of 3 hours from 2 to 6. We will loose attendance for half-day if we do not spend those minimum hours in each session in office. We can understand that they have cleverly come up with this plan, so as to make sure that people come on or before 9:30 in the morning and if they want to leave early for the day, they can do so after only after 5:00 in the evening.
* I think the 46% hike and the "project leader" designation will give me the strength to bear all these and come out successfully in the long run...

Queries regarding changing job, HR interview questions and interview questions in general are welcome in the comments. I will try to answer them as much as I can...
- spgr.

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