Joining Infy – Few Happy Days before the Agony

A 15 day gap was the time I was given to shift from a ebullient college life to a nerve-racking corporate life. Usually I expect more than a month leave for every semester in college, but this sounded really harsh to me. Can be accounted as the first hardship that IT Industry had to impose upon me (one of the “To Become” – victims).

So i had decided to have a blast because we never know will we be having those joyful moments once again in the life. My sisters had come to see me, perhaps knowing the fact that they can never be again with me for 15days time freely.

So we all roamed around Coimbatore, visiting places as much as possible, and while going to some of them, really a question haunted me, “If I would be able to come back again here with my family for some time ?” . Sounds really tough to answer but I consoled myself saying “It may be possible”. Then we did a lot of shopping, bought all the things necessary for a massive 6 month training period. We saw as much movies as possible at home.

The date of joining was nearing and the pressure never seemed to alleviate.Every night seemed to be long as we were discussing how the training period would be and all stuff. It was heard that Infosys had stringent training policies and if we are not going to satisfy it we will be given what every software engineer dreads of -a pink slip. News was coming from many blogs, websites of how to prepare for the training and how to crack it.

Added to those pressure was the pressure from relatives. They were all saying the stories of how their neighbour's or sons/daughters had cleared the training and doing well. This is the main problem in families because you alone do not lose respect when you are failing in exams but your parents also lose respect in the relatives circle and the neigbour's circle. So there is only one option for me -Clear the training and get a good posting. These were the burdens i had to carry in my heart before i step into that wonderful campus of Infosys Mysore which i had only seen in pics in my computer till June 6,2009.

We got information from Infy via mails on life at Mysore for trainees, the 6.5 months period, what is necessary to be bought, how our rooms would be etc. The first thing one you notice there is a dress code that has to be followed once you enter into corporate world. And that dress code is only applicable to guys and not for the girls. You have to wear full sleeves formal shirts, formal pants, a tie and shining shoes whose color has to match the belt you are wearing and most importantly washed socks. You can no more wear those stinking socks which we wash once in a week or fortnight. The shirts and pants should be neatly ironed. There was one respite however, you can come in casuals on fridays and weekends. But for girls they have to wear decent dresses(though most of them din't comply to that also) and no shoes for them. The bias really kills me. Why for girls alone?You have to walk only in pavements inside the campus and not on roads and have to follow queues in food courts. And for the first time in life all these rules and restrictions seemed alien to many of those in campus.