From our correspondent in India, Transitions Abroad offers you a glimpse of what could be your next summer job in India’s dream software company, based in Bangalore, South India
The Workplace at Infosys Technologies Limited (Photo courtesy of Infosys Technologies Limited).
India, the mystical land! It continues to be a hot spot not only for backpackers, but also for luxury tourists. But don’t be fooled by those stereotypical images of India: a land of snake charmers and trumpeting elephants, of colorful holy festivals, of languid Goa and its sun-kissed beaches, of lazing in houseboats and floating on the backwaters of Kerala, of the holy temples and bathing-sites along the Ganges River at Varanasi, of the Taj Mahal at Agra, or Mother Theresa’s home in Calcutta (now renamed as Kolkata) and above all of throngs of people – eyeing you unabashedly with curiosity.
Well, you can still experience all this and much more and believe you me one can never escape the crowds of teeming people. However, the burgeoning infotech and software sector is transforming India ’s landscape. The skyline in several cities, especially in Bangalore (referred to as India’s silicon valley) is dotted with sprawling units set up by Accenture, Agilent, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Oracle, People Soft, Texas Instruments, Sun Microsystems…You name any company from A to Z and you are likely to find that it has an outfit in Bangalore.
If the India experience tickles your taste buds, an opportunity exists to partake not only of its sights, sounds and smells, but also more importantly of its changing stratosphere.
Infosys Technologies Limited, a home-grown software company, the first Indian company to obtain a listing in the United States of America (look it up as Infy on NASDAQ’s data base or log on to www.infosys.com), aims to be global, not through sheer volumes of exports (U.S. is the largest market for this company), or by setting up branches or subsidiaries in other countries, but by ensuring that its campus environment is truly global. This includes offering internships to students from other countries.
Other software companies in India also offer such opportunities, but not on the same scale. Most companies prefer recruiting students fresh out of foreign universities rather than offering a stint as an intern.
“In-Step,” the internship program launched by the Infosys Technologies Limited in 1999, attracts students from over 49 universities across the world including Harvard, Wharton, and MIT. Over the years the program has attracted an increasing number of applications. According to Infosys Technologies Limited, : in 1999, 300 applications were received for 14 openings in Bangalore. This year, 8,500 applications have been received for 70 openings in Bangalore and in other centers. The number of interns admitted to this program is on the rise and 100 openings will be available for the year 2005.
Do you want to learn the nitty-gritty of managing operations at offshore locations? Then this could be the best possible opportunity. In-Step interns primarily work in the corporate headquarters of Infosys Technologies Limited at Bangalore . At times, there are openings for an internship in the branches or subsidiaries in other corners of the globe.
Their exhaustive web site (www.infosys.com/instepweb/index.htm) is strewn with testimonials. The alumni list provides the contact details for its past interns, so you can check out their experiences first hand. A few interns may be from your own university.
At the time of writing this article, one of India ’s largest recruitment agencies, Dataquest-IDC, made public the results of their latest survey (Best Indian IT Employer Survey – 2003). A sample of 1,000 employees in the Infotech/software sector, spread across six cities of India were asked to name their “Dream Company.” This was an open-ended question and any company they wished could be named. Infosys Technologies Limited emerged as the winner, followed by IBM and Microsoft.
Transitions Abroad caught up with Sanjay Purohit, Associate Vice-President, Corporate Planning, to seek answers to a host of questions. Sanjay plays a pivotal role in this internship program. We even chatted with Bret Kadison, an MBA student from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (GSB), to get first-hand impressions of the internship program.
The First Impressions
Bret Kadison says, “Initially, I was disturbed by Bangalore . Since it had been portrayed as an Indian Silicon Valley, the extreme poverty and underdeveloped infrastructure came as something of a surprise. After a few days, however, I began to savor the novelties that one must see to believe – like cows wandering the main road during rush hour, grazing on the weeds growing in the pavement cracks.”
Moving on to the first impressions about Infosys Technologies Limited, Bretcontinues, “On the other hand, my first reaction to Infosys was one of sheer delight. I had expected the Infosys campus to be somewhat institutional. However, the sprawling campus had a slew of brand new buildings with amazing architecture. Its colorful landscaping and fishponds are what you’d expect from a botanical garden rather than the corporate campus of an Indian software firm.”
Bret accidentally stumbled on the In-Step link, while doing research about Infosys. He describes the reason for submitting an application. “As I began doing my first year as an MBA student last fall, it occurred to me that my summer internship would probably be the last chance I had to spend summer doing something truly unusual. When looking over my resume, I realized that my previous career experience did not adequately demonstrate my interest in international business, emerging economies and adventurous spirit!”
Application Procedure
Infosys Technologies Limited has posted “Frequently Asked Questions” www.infosys.com/InStepWeb/FAQ.htm on its website. The internship assignment ranges from of 8 - 24 weeks and during this time interns are given the opportunity to work on real projects, from application development to business consulting, in practices that include Corporate Planning, Education & Research, Enterprise Solutions and Software Engineering & Technology Laboratories (SETLabs). The application forms are available online, and applications are accepted online (www.infosys.com/InStepWeb/Application.asp).
Sanjay Purohit says, “In-Step program has interns from various backgrounds. This includes, liberal arts, technical disciplines such as computer science and management studies. The program is open to undergraduate, postgraduate, and even PhD students. We have had interns who are in the first year of their course, and we have also had interns who have been vice presidents at multinational corporations, but are now pursuing management studies.”
According to Infosys Technologies Limited, the selection is based on the profile preferred for the projects currently available. Academic excellence is neither the only nor the primary ground for selection. Sanjay adds, “Interns are selected based on the alignment between their profiles and the internship projects available at Infosys. So, even though an applicant may have an excellent academic record, if she or he does not fit the preferred profiles, we may not be able to shortlist such applicant for an internship position. We believe this is essential for the development of the intern and for the successful completion of the assigned projects.”
The Interview
What next? Once the short-listing of applicants is over a detailed telephone interview is conducted with the short listed applicants. Bret says, “The selection process was the simplest of any major company with whom I’ve interviewed. I got an email from the recruiting coordinator asking if I could do a phone interview with the head of corporate planning. The interview lasted only fourteen minutes, at the end of which I had a job.” Was it smooth sailing then? Bret quips, “The only nightmarish part was that I had to get up a 6 a.m. on a Friday morning to do the phone interview.”
