One Year Journey in TCS

 

Today 10th September 2013, completed 1 year of professional life in TCS.
What I learnt in these 365 days?
Technically, Nothing much. But yes, had a lot of experiences, some sweet & some bitter. And these experiences help us understand things in a better way.
TCS journey started on 10th September 2012 with ILP i.e. Initial Learning Program. The stream that we got in ILP was more or less on luck. Wanted Dot Net but got BIPM. ILP ended on 5th December 2012. Three months passed in no time. Got some real good friends & some more than friends in this phase. Had lots of fun including many of the b'day celebrations. When we started ILP, we heard that ILP is the dream period in TCS. At that time didn't understood but now as ILP is over now I realize what it meant.
ILP over & on the very next day we were asked to go to Bihar for iON to conduct IBPS exam. We had to arrange tickets within a day & we were in the train heading towards Patna on 7th December. Reached on 8th morning & first of all had to struggle for hotel. Finally, got a decent room. Then relocated to Purnea. With a role of Center Head there, conducted the exam quite successfully. More or less it was a nice experience. After this again back to Kolkata. Then came GATE exam. Now its Orissa. For the time participated in GATE not as a candidate but rather as the IT Manager to conduct the exam. Visited Konark, Nandan Kanan & then Puri Beach. Enjoyed a lot. It was a sort of holiday package sponsored by TCS. Again back to Kolkata.
No more iON trips after that. Had to wait for a long time to get a project. Its really frustrating when you see other people getting different projects around you. After few days situation was, all the people of my group(BG1_v1.1) except me & Subhi(Our Kuddo) got projects. Whenever I felt bad about not getting project, I used to look at subhi & only one thought used to come "Jokhon Subhi r moton meye bench a thaakte paare then aami to onek doorey project theke".
Finally got a project in Unitech. Simply there was no requirement but still I was sent there. Even my PL told that I don't have to report daily, whenever requirement will be there I will be called. Ultimately I didn't saw anything good coming out of that project in near future. So, finally decided to go back to RMG & talk to her very politely(as suggested by one of my very good friends). It worked & I got another project in Victoria Park. I was confused, should I be happy for getting this project or sad for leaving Unitech. Anyways, whatever happens, happens for good!
The project that I got & still working in is not of the type I wanted but still something is better than nothing.
And I believe, there is always something to learn everywhere. Here in this project atleast I have learned a bit of excel sheet.
New Project! New People! Everything was new! Then finally got two of my friends in the project. Whenever I feel bored, I simply go to their place & spend some time.

Seen lots of ups & downs in this one year. Met some people with some great thoughts. Became fan of them. Still have to learn a lot especially in the field of being professional.

Best that I got in these 365 days are some real good friends who supported me & supports me in every harsh situation.
I missed the most important thing! I am finally eligible to delete the TRAINEE term from my designation.
Now I am Assistant Systems Engineer. :)

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Happy New Year - 2013

Now its almost 1 year since I started writing this blog. First of all a big thanks to all those people who liked reading these posts. When this year started, I was a college student but now as the year is at its end I am a professional.
This year gave lots & lots of cherishing moments & memories.
Starting from college, most probably for the last time this year I celebrated my birthday with Rajeev sharing the same B'day cake. In addition to this, the b'day surprise by the juniors in the college was also awesome.
This year's horrible GATE paper will also be remembered. Then came the last semester i.e. the 8th semester exam. With the end of this semester, 4 years of college journey also ended. And finally I was a graduate.
After this there was a long gap before joining to TCS. This time was spent at home. The best thing I learned at this break was making proper round shaped chapattis.
Then came the most awaited, "10th September 2012" - The day I became a part of the corporate world. ILP was the best part of this year. It was for a short period i.e. only 60 working days but its memories will remain as it is after 60 years also. Earned my first salary. Got some new very good friends. Celebrated so many birthdays in the canteen. All these memories will always be as it is.
6th December 2012 - 1st day of TCS bench. 7th December 2012 - I am on a train headed towards Bihar.
Trip was not so bad especially when company is paying for it. Learned lots of new things that too of my interest. Loved all the respect that I got from the institute & the bank people being the center head.
25th December celebrated in train with Rajan, Bharat & Amit.
After all this, went to office for 3-4 days. Enjoying the bench period.  
Going through a tough time in life! Hope this new year will bring something new!

Goodbye 2012...! Welcome 2013...!

!!... A Very Very Happy New Year 2013 to All ...!!

 

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ILP Days

Now its almost around 3 months and I would say, I have learned a little & enjoyed the days a lot. It was only for 60 working days but it created a great impact in my life. "Big things come in small packages."
In the beginning it was a bit tough because all the faces were completely new to me. It took some time but I got few really very good & special friends in this small ILP. This ILP gave lots of great memories such as my first salary. Even after 50 years if I think of my 1st salary, it will always be in the name of TCS in that VT-401. It was one of the best moments of the ILP.
So many cakes in such a short period. Starting from the 1st Salary celebration to the last Farewell cake, were really great. So many b'days in between such as Palash's b'day, Raya's b'day, Bharat & Shubhi's combined b'day, etc. Enjoyed all of them a lot & will miss these moments. Unofficially, I was the official cameraman to capture these moments.
I worked a bit writing some codes in the first phase of ILP i.e. the OLTP phase. Those times I mostly used to be busy in finding errors in the codes of people around me. But in the OLAP phase, I did nothing & was totally dependent on others.
Apart from these, the most important thing that I gained from this ILP is, some very good & more importantly very CARING friends. Because of some of these friends I never had to go to cafe for the prinouts of different documents. I remember, I haven't even paid for the printouts. Thank You. :)
By any chance, I don't want to loose any one of them in whatever worse the situation may arise. :(
It was nice to be a part of BG1_v1.1. ;)
I always had someone beside me in every situation starting from sequence of mappings to the diagnostics. ;) Samy the CR whom I voted, is my adviser. She always give me good advises. Whenever I was hungry, I looked at Raya & she always had biscuits or her lunch box full of fruits & sometimes paneer also.
Friends like Aritro & Soumen were always beside me during the lunch time especially with their empty plates waiting for me to finish. :) 
Skiped so many lunches. Even now when I skip any lunch those ILP days comes in my mind. :(
How can I forget Miss BakBak! Really the ultimate bakbak machine, Kiddo! If she were not there beside me in the first few days of ILP then things would have been more tough for me. Her name kiddo really suits her because she is still a kid aging not more than a 2-3 yr old kid. Don't know when she will be eligible for marriage. :P
In ILP we learned how to manage things. In college days, for a presentation we used to prepare for weeks. But in ILP, sometimes we didn't even get a single hour to prepare for ppts. Even my last ppts were not even prepared by me. Those were managed from others. Got so much help in each & every step. I wish these helps & moral support will always be beside me in the present as well as in the future also.
Last few days of ILP were the most busiest especially for the GLs. Most of the time we were working on excel sheets filling templates. Then came the final presentation & the SSA ppt. Final presentation ppt was copied & for SSA ppt I worked really hard but finally no one even saw that ppt. All efforts were in vain.
Then came our farewell arranged by ourselves only. For this we (Me & Manisha) prepared a website or rather a simple form with a database for the voting purpose. All went fine. 60 days of ILP were over very quickly.
Missing all those moments spent in ILP. Things & situations have changed so quickly than I have never imagined. -- "Change is the only Constant."
Anyways I hope to have a great career ahead to all my ILP friends. :)

"Don't cry because its over. Smile because its happened."

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The BIG Day

Really it was a big day. The day I got the first salary of my life. It was really an awesome experience. Getting salary this month was never on the cards. But as we reached office today, it was like we may get the salary today. Just it was the matter of checking the email for the confirmation. But unfortunately, internet was not available at that moment. Seriously, at that time I was hoping that we shouldn't get the salary now because the figure would be too small. But after few minutes net was there & I checked the mail. And the moment came, our first payslip was there. All the class was like shouting with so much joy I just can't explain. I myself was so much excited that I forgot about the salary figure. It was really one of the best moment of my life. After all it was the 1st salary of my life. Worst part was, I had no one to celebrate with. At the end of the office hours, I was just searching for some people to celebrate this great moment. I asked so many people but couldn't convince anybody.

Finally, was able to have 2 of my old friends to celebrate.
We had a small treat with the 1st salary.
At the end of the day, now I can say that from a college going student, now I have become a professional. :)

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New Life! New experiences! New Friends!

After spending 15 days in TCS, its like I am used to this hectic life. There is no time to do what I like or things of my interest. Life is getting boring & boring. No excitement is left in the life. Its like waking up early in the morning then go to office then return home at night, have dinner & sleep. And the circle goes on. That's all left in my life.

Today I really feel the importance of a friend. I could enjoy in the office but you cant think of enjoyment without a friend. Till now I could not have too many friends. In my class I hardly have 2-3 friends. Its really very tough to survive without friends. The girl who sits beside me is really very humble and I can say that she is the best girl ( or a person ) I have ever met. I haven't met a person with such a pure heart. She is really helpful to all. Unfortunately, she is suffering from fever from yesterday. And that's why today she is absent and I have no one to talk with. Today I am really missing my old college & school friends. One thing for sure, in this corporate world you can find each and every type of persons. Right now we are having our ILP trainings. There is no problem for people like us who are from CS/IT background but its really tough for the Non-CS/IT people. Nothing can be done for that since we have to learn a lot of things in a short duration of around 3 months. I try to help as much as possible to those people who are in need. I try to explain things in best possible way. But still I don't know why they call me a bad teacher. :(
Even my younger brother calls me a bad teacher. There are lots of skills taught in here like Speaking skills, writing skills, etc. I hope along with these skills, I will be able to improve my teaching skills as well. :P

Really in need of a friend. I hope I will manage that too. Till then things are really very tough here. :(
Hoping for the best! :)

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1st Week of the Corporate Life

Finally after a very long & arduous week its time to blog!
My corporate journey started on 10th of September at nearly 8:10 A.M. in the morning when I entered the campus of TCS. Then we stepped towards the auditorium which was quite awesome. It gave me a feel that I was sitting in inox, facing a big screen. Then there were sessions of lectures, then the document verification and many other joining formalities. Most of the time we were all just sitting in the auditorium getting bored. In this way the 1st day was over just sitting in the auditorium for the whole day. That day I left home at around 6 A.M. in the morning & was back home around 8:30 P.M in the night. It was really a BIG day.

On the next day we gave PAT ( Pre-Assessment Test). Top 10% of the performers were given the chance to select their ILP streams. Then again we were sent to the auditorium of the main TCS building. There first of all we watched a nice video regarding iSecurity. After that some sessions were held. Then we were sent to the vishnu tower. There we again watched 5 small movies of nearly 30min each in just max. 1 hr. :) :)
At last we were about to leave the premises, then we saw that the list having the different stream allocations was hanging just outside the class. I was allocated BIPM ( The stream I wanted the least ).

After these two days, our regular ILP classes started from the 3rd day. Sometimes it really gets very boring, after all how many times one can learn HTML & CSS kind of stuffs.. Although the majority of class is from NSEC but for me it seems like I hardly know 1 or 2 people in the class. :( Really missing all my good friends especially the college ones.

Then came the weekend! For weekend I would only say that if u are a job holder then only you can understand the real value of a weekend. Today is sunday & weekend is about to end. Again continuous 5 days of hectic schedule. :(

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Some words about TCS

 

These days my best pastime is exploring about TCS.
Only 10 days are remaining before I join the company. So, I am curious to have a closer look at TCS. About salary hikes, about designations, about discounts as a TCS employee.
I also heard the rumor that if a we(TCS'ers) marry among our colleagues then will be gifted Rs. 1 lakh each from TCS. But after surfing the net I found that its really a rumor and 0% truth is there in it. U can check the the truth in the comments of the post posted Here.
Now as far as hike in salary is concerned, the employees are given ratings according to their performance.
There are four bands A, B, C & D. Based on our performance we will be assigned anyone of them. Those who will be in assigned A band will enjoy the best hike in his/her salary & D band will also get salary hike but it will be less as compared to A, B & C people.
Now the tough part is, the band is based on Guassian curve. So, to get the A band we will have to work really hard. Say, if there are 10 people in a project then only 1 or 2 will be assigned A band.
Tensed!!! Don't worry this is not the end, hike in salary also depends on the designation. Right now, I will join TCS a ASE-T. After 1 yr my designation will be promoted to ASE with some obvious hike in my salary. After that I will be promoted to SE and then IT A with some good amount of hike in salary(hopefully).

In some blog I read that, After 5-6 years...if You are top performer...Continuously..if u got 5 RATING(A BAND)...u will be a Project lead..You..pay wise...will be around...9 lakhs..if u r a top performer..If u r an average performer..U may stay as a team member also..and ur package will be around..6.5 lacs...
I don't know how much truth is there in these statements but sill I am really happy after reading this. Hoping for the best :) :)
And as an employee of such a renowned brand i.e. TATA  we will certainly get good discounts in all the TATA products. Don't worry TATA is everywhere so we are going to get discounts in a wide range of products in the market. :) :)

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Happy Birthday Rajan

This post is dedicated to one of my best friends ever, Rajan. Today is his birthday. I know him from Std. XI. And he was also my roomie for the 4 yrs of my college life. Really last night I was missing all the Masti that we have done while celebrating all the b’days in Shyamalima(The place we spent the last 2yrs of college life). Those whole night masti, those candles, funny names on the cake, everyone’s  face coloured with cake, reckless dancing, b’day bumps[rarely :)], and many more... Really those moments we will never get back.
Anyways, wishing you a very very very happy birthday. May all your dreams come true.

**@Rajan, All of us(those who were in the conference call) are waiting for the treat.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

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Waiting for ICS

 

As the ICS update for my phone is available, I am eagerly waiting to connect my phone to a good speed internet connection. Instead, Currently Gingerbread is the most popular android version. Still more than 60% of the people use Gingerbread.

Version	Codename	Distribution
1.5	Cupcake	0.2%
1.6	Donut	0.5%
2.1	Eclair	4.2%
2.2	Froyo	15.5%
2.3.x	Gingerbread	60.3%
3.1	Honeycomb	0.5%
3.2	Honeycomb	1.8%
4.0.x	Ice Cream Sandwich	15.8%
4.1	Jelly Bean	0.8%

Current Distribution of Android Versions as on August 1, 2012

ICS  comes with some added features :

• Smart Lockscreen - Now we can interact with messages & recent events, play & manage tracks without even unlocking the phone.
• Face Recognition - Now we can unlock the phone using the face recognition. But for this your phone must have a front facing camera. Unfortunately, my phone lacks it so I won't be able to use this feature. :(

• Modified Dialer - When you start typing your friends’ numbers, your phonebook will automatically start finding them for you.

 

• Quick response for incoming calls - When you are busy you can reject calls with a text messege & let the people know what are you doing.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Well, there are many other changes made in ICS but these are the changes that I found most interesting & waiting to use these features asap.

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