Infosys - A Dream Or Nightmare

This Tuesday and Wednesday was the Infosys Selection at Vel Tech Engineering College. On tuesday there was the aptitude test and everyone were busy preparing for some kind of terror. The main books that were refered were Sakuntala Devi books, RS Agarwal and some foreign author(I don't even know his name). Everyone around me were ready with the answers to all the questions in those books. I have heard from friends that they spent a large amount of their time learning for this day. You could literally ask them to say the answer to the question no 38 from this book and they would immediately tell you the answer as 12 minutes ;-) with the steps. After the exam was over, everyone were pretty confident of getting selected. There was also a comedy which happened during the presentation. A mechanical guy was sitting near me and he was seeing my resume. I had specified there that I had done a course in Pranic Healing. He asked me how was pranic healing connected with a company like Infosys. I wanted to ask him what was mechanical engineering students doing in a company like Infosys. In all there were about ~2300 students. When the results came everyone were very tensed. There was a girl in my class who was just covering her eyes and bending over till her name was called. Nearly 45% of the students from my college were selected. That night there were lots of people who couldn't just control themselves - lots of wet eyes. The next day we were called in for the interview and there was some other college guys who had finished with the interview process. In St. Peters' College there were nearly 129 students who attended the interview and 110 got selected. I just got a brief idea about the interview process. When the names were called for St. Peters' College, there were a group of girls whose names got selected one by one. I was watching the reaction of this particular group. There were in total 5 girls and 3 girls got their name on the list. The HR guy told that this was the last 5 names and began to count down. One girl nearly broke down and everyone around began to console her. When the last 2 names were being called upon she was crying as if she was waiting for her medical result for HIV. Luckily her name was the last one. Immediately another girl broke down (dunno whether it was for her friend selected or her not being selected ?). The HR guy asked whether the list was over - and some guys answered 'NO'. So he began reading another (last) list. When he began to count down this girl was totally lost and began to cry as if her life was going to end. Her name was also selected and she was very happy. I just asked Ananthu, whether this was their life? He said, this may not be for me but it was for them. This may be the last company that is coming for selection at their college and they may never get any other chance. I just said to F' them. Then I attended a pretty good interview and with the results of other colleges, I was pretty sure there was nothing so special in this selection. I asked the HR guy why they were selecting guys from all branches of Engineering. He replied that all they needed was a graduate and everything would be taken care of in the training period. I asked what is the advantage that I - being a Computer Science graduate would be having against them. He just said that whoever performs well would be benefitted. So if you want to get more money, you just have to perform well. We were waiting for the result and everyone were getting their names on the so called dream company list. My name too got listed in the last. So, Infosys was called as the dream company for many of these BE graduates who don't even know what hardware platform they have worked on. Many of my friends had left this field blank in the application form. Also I was wondering what was Infosys going to do with people who don't even know how to write a basic factorial or any program for that matter. I have got a few questions and the answers that I would get in return.

* How the hell are they going to make a software engineer out of a mechanical or a chemical engineer - within 3 months. The answer that one could expect is that ...there would be a training program at Infosys Campus which is world renouned.... * Why the hell do someone cries when they don't get selected in the selection process? The answer is that one's life is settled after getting placed in Infosys. This is the dream of every student. To be settled in life and to lead a happy, satisfied life. What have they faced in life and what age are they in to even think of settling down. This is the most productive ages of their lifes. Are there not any other jobs in the world? Can't you think of any other ways of income for a truly satisfied living? * How can you tell others - relatives, friends, etc that you got placed in a IT company which manufactures softwares without even knowing how to use a computer. The reason is that they give training and that is the problem of the company - not mine. I don't know how to end this article (must be an essay now) and I think there would be more of such articles in the future. I think I will end it for now by asking whether the selection process of Infosys is a dream or a nightmare? Update: Many think that I have written this article mainly because I hate mechanical engineers(or non-IT students) / don't like them at IT companies. I have no such views. Mechanics is a great field and I love it. I just wrote this article to point out at people who take getting placed at Infosys to their heart. I hate people who cry if they are not selected by their dream company. I also hate people who boast getting selected thinking all can be learnt through the training.