DON'T IGNORE SMALL COMPANIES

Saikat: - What are you saying, boss. You are going to join a small company. I have never heard the name of this company also.

Vikram: - I have no other alternative. Already the HR people of Mahindra Satyam are forcing me to resign from my job; otherwise, they will issue a forceful termination letter, which may hamper my entire career.

Piyali: - Yeah, yeah…the whole world knows that Mahindra Satyam is having one of the worst HR policies of the world. Not only have that, the HR managers of this company are cunning in nature and who knows, maybe, they are still doing some corruption here and there.

Arindam: - Aaha, Piyali, there is no point in talking about the bloody HR people of Mahindra Satyam. It is like beating the old drums. Everyone knows the Satyam issue. Anyway, Vikram, what is the job role, this company is going to provide you?

Vikram: - Well, they are giving me the post of ‘Functional Consultant’, which is not bad at all. They are also willing to pay me CTC of 4.5 lacs per annum. As a management executive in Mahindra Satyam, I used to get only 20,000 bucks per month. I have never got any variables also. So, it is better to join that company.

Saikat: - But, you will lose the brand, man. Satyam was a brand itself, maybe that is why, they were paying you less salary.

Manoj: - Will you go to heaven with that brand name? Look at me, I am an employee of TCS. If you ask me anything about any programming language, I will be unable to tell you anything. It is not that, I don’t get good salary and variables. It is not that TCS is not a good brand, but still I am not satisfied. Why? It is only because of the fact that I am in bench for last 9 months, after my joining in this company. Every day, I go to the Sector –V office. I go to the TCS gym, I drink tea and gossip with my bench colleagues and then I come back home.

Piyali: - that is quite good, yaar. You are getting money without doing any hard work.

Arindam: - To a certain extent, it looks good. But, after some time, you realize that somewhere you are losing your own competency level. See, in this competitive world, you need to have continuous learning or up gradation of your skills.

Saikat: - But, every company provides some internal training for their employees to upgrade their skills.

Manoj: - There is a hell and heaven difference between theory and practical. The things, which you learn, while you are doing the job, are your real experience. Learning about project management from a book of ‘Pressman’ and doing project management in a real-time project is not the same thing.

Piyali: - Nowadays, due to market recession, all the companies have fired many people. They only kept critical resources in their company and increased the employee utilization rate to 85%. So, that proves that the employees are becoming competent and flexible enough to do any kind of job.

Arindam: - The standard employee utilization rate should is 65%. Boss, humans are not machines. Due to recession, many companies are utilizing their employees, as if they are crushing the sugarcane. But, one thing, I must appreciate that in a big company, as an employee, you feel yourself as a small leaf floating in the ocean. No matter, how much effort you give, you don’t get recognized or never get any reward for that.

Manoj: - Exactly, I agree to your statement. Whereas, in a small company, there may be only few employees, but with lots of responsibilities, respect and dignity. Not only have that, you get to learn many new things, which you could have ever explored or discovered, if you would have been in any new company. Today, brand is not important at all, because everyone knows that in this recession market, any branded company can go bankrupt due to bad strategic decisions.

Saikat: - So, indirectly, you people are saying that if a person gets employment in a branded company, then he is losing the opportunity cost in terms of salary and technical competencies in comparison to an employment in any small company.

Vikram: - Yes, of course. When you are working in a small company, you are spending time inside a submarine to know about the ocean and its characteristics much faster. At later stages of life, when you want to settle down in a big company, just jump to a ship. So, better, “DON’T IGNORE SMALL COMPANIES.”