People give you all kinds of advice and opinions on career planning. Usually, it’s loaded with their own half-baked Gyan. While subjective Gyan Ganga is gushing all over the place, nothing can take the place of cold hard numbers. Numbers tell you the true story of what’s really going on. This report will tell you in no uncertain terms how to get ahead of “Sharmaji ka beta" who is working for “TCS in Amreeka”. Let's get right to it. In this report we’ll find out:

1. How to get into TCS.

2. What to expect once you’re in.

3. Your future prospects at TCS.

“While subjective Gyan Ganga is gushing all over the place, nothing can take the place of cold hard numbers.”

Selection Procedure:

TCS, at the end of its fourth quarter, boasts 3,94,998 employees from 100 different nationalities. From 2017 January to December, TCS hired 59,700 employees overall After a bunch of layoffs in the final quarter of 2017, the number of employees is back to the previous year’s level. In fact, there’s an about 2% rise.

However, the regular TCS campus drives have changed.

The new pattern is:

1) E-Mail Writing Test

2) Aptitude Test

3) Technical Multiple Choice Questions

4) Programming

5) Interview

We’ll cover all these tests and strategies to prepare for them in later articles but understand this - you’ll need an above average combo of communication skills and coding skills to get through the selection process.

Now, campus interviews are not the only way in, anymore. TCS has been digitizing the selection process. You don’t have to wait for on-campus or off-campus interviews anymore. You can just register here and TCS will automate your referral, evaluation, testing and job offer with the interview being the only manual part of the process. Sign up and find out if your college is one of the 450+ colleges listed there.

Another good way of getting your foot in the door is participating in various coding competitions TCS has been organizing for 4 years now. There are cash prizes to be won and job/ internship opportunities galore. We can’t overemphasize how important coding knowledge is. Even if you don’t win the competitions you’ll get an edge over other candidates by showing your participation certificate in your interview. Find out about ongoing competitions here. The biggest one is called Codevita and the registrations for it have begun and end on 15th of July. Coders who complete their academic courses in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 are eligible. The website is also a social network that allows you to interact with other engineering students and TCSers.

“We can’t overemphasize how important coding knowledge is.”

Note On Strategy:

We know TCS as a mass recruiter but it’s time to get out of the mass recruitment mindset. TCS has definitely gotten out of the mass recruitment mindset. They’ve started working on the “Just In Time” hiring strategy, which means they’ll hire only when they get projects for you to work on. Which brings us neatly to our next point.

“It’s time to get out of the mass recruitment mindset. TCS has definitely gotten out of the mass recruitment mindset."

What To Expect Once you’re In:  

Forget about the on-bench period. Because of their new “Just In Time” hiring strategy the bench strength and the bench duration is being minimized. It means hiring will be done as and when projects are acquired. You’ll have a training period which will be relentless and whiplash-quick. You’ll barely have time to orient yourself and you’ll find yourself assigned to a project.

There’s more good news. This year according to a new HR policy, TCS employees under its India payroll are eligible for 100% variable pay from January onwards. This pay would be based on their performance.

“You’ll have a training period which will be relentless and whiplash-quick. You’ll barely have time to orient yourself and you’ll find yourself assigned to a project.”

Other than that, the atmosphere is friendly, supportive and overall, positive. TCS was recently listed among the World’s Best Employers by the Forbes 2017 Global 2000 list. It has been among the top two recruiters of U.S. and Canadian IT services talent over the past five years too. Speaking of U.S. and Canada...

Your Future Prospects:

We Indians love going to work in the U.S. and Canada.  Indian techies were at the top of the H-1B Visa approvals food chain with China as an extremely distant second. Can’t really blame us since the pay for us is a lot higher than the local talent gets. TCS, on average paid their techies with H-1B Visas, $71,819 which is much more than $44,564 that an average American earns.

Yeah well, that seems to be changing. About 20% of new hires in 2017 were hired locally from American universities. These 12,700 freshers were paid $55,000 - $65,000 per annum.  This 20% dent in that opportunity looks likely to only get bigger. To add insult to injury, Indian IT professionals usually get an opportunity to work onsite on locally comparable salaries only after a few years of experience but the local hires get those salaries as fresh hires.

The main reasons for this are:

1) American and Canadian universities have job-ready syllabi.

2) According to reports, Indian IT companies, including TCS, will save 20%-30% on wages with local hires which means the trend is likely to continue. As mentioned above, TCS, on average paid their techies with H-1B Visas, $71,819. Those days seem to be coming to an end because at $55,000-$ 65,000, the local hires are a bargain.

3) Due to an increased push against farming out American tech jobs to India, the H-1B Visa is increasingly difficult to acquire. In fact, the H-1B approval rates are at their lowest since the Obama administration. From the 87.18% in the last year of Obama they’ve gone down to 58.65% in 2017.

“TCS, on average paid their techies with H-1B Visas, $71,819. Those days seem to be coming to an end because at $55,000-$65,000, the local hires are a bargain.”

In conclusion, although the selection procedure is much more difficult than before, it is also much more organized. Although the overseas opportunities have shrunk, the on-bench period has shrunk too. Although the learning requirements have broadened, the work environment is one of the world’s best.