The worst phase
Given the situation, I was made to sit on bench for sometime. But this was against my disposition. I could no longer sit idle and wait for opportunity to be bestowed on me. I retaliate and then I was offered (actually ordered) to join a big team (though, not the best team to work with) that was bound for a product development project with Oracle Hyderabad. Moving from consultancy business to product development wasn’t acceptable to me, but I couldn’t raise my voice. After all it was better than been kicked out of the company. During this 1-year project, I had a realization that I had to go and leave this company/industry. This was the first time that my realization was strong enough that made me look for opportunities outside. I had planned to shift my career to core supply chain intensive companies, but it was next-to-impossible for me to convince the employers that I could match their expectations; credit to my ‘IT consultant’ tag from Infosys. But one thing I had learned from this industry is that, you need to have good patience to survive for long time. My struggle for new employment coupled with bitter experiences at the project along with tough APICS examinations made this phase of my professional life, the worst one in my consulting career.
Domestic onsite..!!
This time I got a really good opportunity for which I am still very much thankful to my new delivery manager. The project was based out of Noida. It was a short project and I had a good share of responsibilities that I had managed efficiently. This project was a turning point in my career. It bought me fame and respect within the group. People came to recognize me for my good work. My manager had planned a long term project in Germany plus 2 months trip to USA to get my H1B visa extended. I was feeling more confident as a consultant as well as manager. But then it was written in my destiny, that…
The decision
It was sometime in November, 2010 when I had got a call from TCS regarding an opportunity with them in the domain of business/management/strategy consulting. I was bit reluctant to attend this because I was doing well at Noida project and secondly I had negative notions about TCS as an employer. Then came an invite from the unit head of TCS to have a meeting over a cup of coffee in a coffee bar. Sounds interesting..!! I thought to give it a try. I met two managers from TCS and in half an hour or 45 minutes I was totally convinced that this is where I may want to go. It goes like: TCS came up with an idea to focus on real consulting capabilities and had formed a group within that will provide the consulting services to Indian manufacturing clients. It would advice on business, management and strategic issues of clients. To begin with, I would have been the third person to join this group at the time I was interviewed.
Clash of my opinions
The final offer from TCS got materialized in late January, 2011. At that time, I had initiated my visa for Germany, plus I had started my preparations for US based project. Lot of thoughts wandered through my mind. After all it was a big big decision to be made. On one hand there was Germany project with Infosys that was an overseas opportunity plus good money saving and stable career for another 1 year. On the other hand, the profile that TCS had offered was something I had been looking after for so long. There was good amount of risk but I would term it as calculated. For the savings, we came to the conclusion that savings in case of Germany project with my wife working as dependent would be nearly equal or slightly less than the case if I join TCS in Mumbai with my wife still working as before. Finally we broke the decision that I HAVE TO QUIT INFOSYS TO JOIN TCS..!!!
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