TCS reducing salaries and wins a mega contract

Salary Cuts
http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14597455

Followed by Major Deal news
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/TCS_bags_Rs_784-cr_outsourcing_deal/articleshow/2743786.cms

Well I this is one company which has been run by the book. In this case chapter being EVA. I remember my time in 2000 when recession hit US markets and Dollar was weak. TCS was probably the only company which reduced salaries of staff then many other companies like Infosys took back offers and in some cases staff was let go.

This time again challenges are similar US economy slowing, rupee strong but TCS still continues to be a leader in the pack, TCS has steadily continued on the path of bigger deals, diversified its business from US centric to global in the true sense (Europe, Emerging Markets...) etc.

So while true concepts of EVA do incline towards taking measures like cutting salaries but overall health of Indian Economy and IT growth story is still intact and TCS having learnt the lessons from past should be ready for such situations (as it seems from diversification, maturity and globalization)

New to Los Angeles

3 weeks since I arrived in Los Angeles.

Negatives:

1. Traffic
2. Super Expensive Rents
   
3. Expensive Auto Insurance Rates
   
1. California resident who has just moved in is considered as a new driver, does not consider past record in other states. If you want that your past driving history be considered request DMV to send records to your Insurance Company the total effect of this would be 20% discount. (Overall insurance goes as high as 200% when you move in this state).
   

Positives:

1. Weather


2. Nice areas for living (studio city, toluca lake, sherman oaks, santa monica, pasadena, monterey hills etc..)


3. Tons of places to see (Santa Monica Beach (see below), Rodeo DR., Beverly Hills, Hollywood blvd..)

Career: Interview Questions for Project Managers (Ones I have faced)

1: How do you describe your Ideal Job.?

2: what would others say are your weaknesses/strengths?

3: Tell me about a time when u negotiated a win win situation.

4: Tell us about yourself.

5: Give an example of conflict with Boss.

6: Why are you here?

7: definition of Success.

8: Why should we hire you?

9: What accomplishtmetns do u have so far?Tips: confidence, Eye COntact, Research, ask questions thru research, giving examples. Close the interview, personality.Leadership, drive, interaction, dreams-goals,professionalism,eye contact, confidene, maturity, sense of humors, overall dynamics.

10: PMBOK (what is project float, lead time, lag time).

11: Accomplishments:

12: What is a project charter and what are components of the same. ?

13: 2 Major problems in agile projects.

14: What is EVM ? How will you use this in ur projects ?

15: Methods of Project estimation.

16: What is the most important contribution to ur employer ?

17: Give an examples of a risk u took at work and how it turned out. hardware ordering for server setup in frankfurt.

18: Whats ur management style like ?detail oriented, hands on, transparent (highlight issues).

19: What is fishbone or Ishikawa ?

20: What is Pareto Principle? (80/20)

21: Difference between SITP and UTP in testing.

22: What is CMMI and 5 levels of CMMI.

23; What is your companies productivity factor.

24: ...

Perils of the new jon

Perils of a new joinee when you dont know what do you want to do ?

Its crazy. So what do you do ?

1. First of all take a deep breath.
   
2. Figure out whats going on.
3. Talk to everyone in ur communication area. (definitely your boss).
4. Ask them what they think should happen.
   
5. Figure out whats not going on and it should.
   
6. Is it your job or does it make sense to make it your job to do whats not going on ?
   
7. If it does, do it.