Future plans poll

Fresher Salary

What is average salary for fresh software engineers? Well depends on your college/degree, salaries can vary from private colleges to NITs/BITs/IITs with the highest range being for IITs (offcourse!!). Do IITians work better than other guys? Well in some cases, may be not because they are capable of, but to prove that they are better. Nature of work in software companies does not give ample scope to those with more gray cells.
Salary also varies from non-computer science to computer science, MCA to B.Tech to M.Tech. The following figures give an indication of the fresh engineer salary; there is no way to compare the exact in-hand salary as the salary component also varies from company to company. If you take into account the purchasing power parity, a high salary in Mumbai may not be equal to a much lower salary in Hyderabad.

PLEASE PUT ANY SALARY FIGURE YOU KNOW OR THINK IS INCORRECT IN COMMENTS

All these figures are in lakhs per annum (Rs.) unless otherwise mentioned

Accenture 2.1 to 2.7

Adobe 5.7 to 8.05

Alstom 2.75

Amazon 7/8 (IIT)

Ashok Leyland 3.25

Attrenta 4.8
Adea Solution 2.48
Amdocs 3.7
Avaya 3 +
Birlasoft 2.0
Capital One – $59,000 (US posting) (Only IIT)

Caritor 2.0

CISCO 4.0

Computer Associates 4.5 to 5
CTS 2.4 to 2.8

Capgemini 2.4

Cash systems, Switzerland $ 72,000 (IIT)
DCM Technologies 2.48

DE Shaw 6.0 to 9.5

Deloitte 3.0
Evalue Serve 3.10 to 4.01(IIT)

efunds 2.5

Fiorano 5.0

Flextronics (HSS) 3.0
Freescale 4.5

Google 12.0

GE 3.0 to 5.3

HCL 2.0

Hexaware 2.1
HLL 7.2 (IIT)
HP Labs 3 to 3.5
iGate 2.04
ITC 8+ (IIT)

IBM 2.85 to 3.0 (IIT)
I-flex 2.7

Impulsesoft 4.5

Interra Systems 4.6
Intergraph 2.88

Induslogic 4.2

Infosys 2.7
Inautix 2.75

Ivy Comptech 4.5 to 7.92

Kanbay 2.7

Kritical 5.6
Kotak Mahindra 4.5 (IIT)
Lee specialities – $ 29,000 + benefits (IIT)

L &T 3.25

L&T Infotech 1.8
Magma DA 6.42
Mckinsey and Co 7 (IIT)
MBT 2.5

Microsoft 6 to 9.1 (BIT) to 14(IITs)

Mindtree 2.55

Motorola 3.6 to 4.0 (IIT)
NVidia 6+ (IIT)
Onmobile 4.4 (IIT)

Oracle 4.2 to 5.5 (NITs/BITs); 6 (PG + IIT)

Patni (PCS) 1.7

Perot Systems 2.5

Polaris 2.0
PWC 3

SAP Labs 4.0
Schlumberger 8 + Upto 35 (in IITs)
Sasken 2.0

Samsung 4.6
Sapient 2.75

Satyam 2.25

Sonata 2.2 to 2.5
STM 4.5 to 4.87

Sun Microsystems 5.0

Syntel 2.6 (to 3.4 not confirmed)

SSA Global 3.4
TATA Steel 4.5

Tata Elxsi 1.9

Tavant 3.6

TCS 2.36 to 2.8 (IIT/NIT)

T-Mobile 8.0

Trilogy 7.5 to 8.1 (IIT)

Tech Mahindra 2.6

Teradata 2.8 to 3.1
Trident 4.2 (IIT)

Verizon 3.0

Virtusa 2.4
Yasu Technologies 3.45 (IITs)

Wipro 2.3 to 3.1 (IIT)
ZS Associates 6 (IIT)

What work software companies do?

Think of India and ignore software companies? You cant, even if there are no major software products coming out of India, the sheer number of software engineers is something to write about. But what do the 43,000 software engineers in IBM, India actually do? The answer is no straightforward, IT Industry is too big, and it actually works for all the industries you can think off.
Lets go from the basics. Any company, which wants to manage its day-to-day operations like production or sales using computers, would need the following and accordingly companies need to provide similar products/services:
1) System Software Products, which will run the computer, like operating system, yes Microsoft makes them under the windows brand. There are servers like database server (Oracle, DB2 (IBM)), web server (again Microsoft and IBM Labs). All these companies have presence in India but not much of work is done in India, though the trend is changing and companies are fast moving development work to India, after gaining confidence in Indian workforce and in a bid to minimize costs.
2) Application software like Oracle Applications (business suites including packages for Finance, HR), SAP, and i2 (supply chain management). Most of these companies have moved a part of their development work to India. All these products need maintenance, testing and development of new features to survive the competition.
3) Now comes our own homegrown companies like Infosys, TCS. After all we need someone to implement and maintain these products. There are also migration projects say from PeopleSoft HR to SAP HR, or Oracle database to DB2. These companies are called Services Company as they provide implementation, maintenance and migration services to other companies. Globally known software service provides include IBM Global Services, Accenture, EDS, CSC and ADP.
There could be several other classifications there are few more, which deserve mention. But first define what is outsourcing? Outsourcing could be Toyota taking help of a company like ADP for its payroll services, or DHL taking help of Infosys to manage its IT operations. All these makes sense as the company can focus on its core area of work. Outsourcing is a widely accepted business practice though we mostly hear it connection with work being outsourced to India’s cheap labor.
a)Technology consulting -> Companies like Accenture and Deloitte are moving towards technology consulting which is nothing but designing large scale enterprise architecture and technological solutions.
b)Outsourced product development -> Product development is a costly and risky affair which has forced many companies including Yahoo, Ebay to outsource a part of their product development to Indian companies like Aditi Technologies, Tekriti Software.

Frequently asked interview questions – VI

Question: 51. If you had your choice of jobs and companies, where would you go?
Answer: Here, you have to give job preference and answer should reflect that the job profile and company suits very much to your career goals.

Question: 52. Do you prefer working with figures, or with words?
Answer: Give an answer keeping in mind the requirements and the position of the job. It can be both in figures and words.

Question: 53. Describe what would be an ideal working environment? Or what kind of a work environment are you comfortable in working?
Answer: An environment that provides me a chance to use and enhance my skills for the betterment of the organization. The organization should also provide an open communication environment among team members.

Question: 54. What are your short-term goals?
Answer: My short-term goal is to find a good job with an ideal profile in a company that moves forward with a better future perspective.

Question: 55. What is your long-range objective? Or what are your long-term goals?
Answer: I have divided my long-term goals into different segments as short term objective as it will easy to achieve. My short term goal is to get a good job in a company that provides better opportunity to grow professionally as well as personally.

Question: 56. How do you evaluate success?
Answer: Its measurement is different for everyone but to me success means achieving your goals whether in short term or long term with complete dedication and hard work. Success should be measured through satisfaction though not complete fulfillment. However, success depends on level of performance.

Question: 57. What do you think it takes to be successful in this career?
Answer: Hard work and complete dedication in achieving career objectives makes one successful.

Question: 58. What decision have you most regretted?
Answer: Be fare and honest in answering this question. If you did something that you regret now, then explain but also mention that you have learnt from that mistake. Even you can also say that you take life as its comes and never regret for anything as mistakes are a part of life and one should always learn to never repeat the same one.

Question: 59. Have you been involved in any extracurricular or volunteer activities while at university or college?
Answer: Describe all kinds of extracurricular activities you have participated and focus on how these helped in improve your personality.

Question: 60. What qualities do you look for in a boss?
Answer: One should be positive and give a universal answer that is common like a sense of humor, fair, helpful, encouraging and obviously excellent managerial skill.

Frequently asked interview questions – VII

Question: 61. If you were hiring a person for this job, what would you look for?
Answer: Just give a common answer with characteristics like hardworking, innovative, problem solving skill and above all a team player.

Question: 62. What has disappointed you about a job?
Answer: Don’t be specific about any negative aspect rather relate it with your ability and company’s performance. You can also mention areas like less challenge, lesser growth rate that decreases individual responsibility etc.

Question: 63. Tell me about a problem you had with a supervisor?
Answer: It’s a question to test you whether you speak anything wrong of the boss. If you point out anything, it may drag you into trouble as far interview is concerned. So be positive and say that there was not such thing between my supervisor and me.

Question: 64. Tell me about a time when you helped resolve a dispute?
Answer: While answering this question, choose any specific incident and focus on the steps you have taken in solving rather than the main problem.

Question: 65. Do you have a sense of humor or do you take yourself too seriously?
Answer: Laughter lightens heart and is necessary for making a tension free atmosphere. As professional life is full of pressure and success depends on how you handle pressure, humor or laughter is essential and so I also enjoy these moments.

Question: 66. Are you willing to learn, no matter how difficult it is?
Answer: No point to say ‘no’ and explain that you are here to learn new things while working and so ready to learn new things to develops my skills and that also proofs beneficiary for the organization.

Question: 67. What challenges do you think you’ll face in this job?
Answer: Describe the kinds of challenges you came across in your previous company and how you successfully tackled them. Explain that you are ready to face it or any other kinds of challenges, which you will try to solve with dedication, hard work and also by the cooperation of your colleagues.

Question: 68. What were your responsibilities in the previous job?
Answer: Be specific about your previous position and describe your responsibilities in detail. But the most important thing is to relate them with the current one. This shows that you have the necessary qualification for the current job.

Question: 69. What was the biggest accomplishment in this position?
Answer: Your answer should be directly related to your job you are looking for. So look out your job profile and find out something positive that you have achieved during your previous job. For example: You were working on a project that you had to submit in time but due to plenty of work, it was difficult. Explain how you adjusted the workload and time to finish the project in the due date.

Question: 70. What interests you about this job?
Answer: To answer this question you have to compare the required qualification for the job with your skills and experience. You can also discuss how you are responsible for this kind job in the near past and so you are keen to develop your expertise in this field. Again, you can also discuss your interest in relation to your academics, experience and problem-solving attitude. All these can convey the interviewer that you have the necessary qualification.