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Joining Documents

This article is taken from Joining Annexure of TCS

To ensure a hassle-free joining at TCS, you are requested to complete the following activities / bring the following documents:

You should have completed the first phase of National Skills Registry (NSR) registration. 

Completed Background Check (BGC) forms (no need to bring Demand Drafts as mentioned in some of the forms).

Completed Medical fitness certificate.

Original and at least one attested (by a gazetted officer) copy of documents listed in the following .

Documents Checklist

Proof of Qualification

Mark statements from Class-X onwards.

Mark statements for all semesters

Consolidated Degree mark statement.

Degree Certificate (If Degree Certificate is not available, Provisional Certificate / Course Completion Certificate.

Proof of Address

One of these: Passport, copy of Electricity Bill, Copy of DoT landline Telephone Bill.

Proof of Identity

PAN Card.

One of these: Valid Passport, Driving license, Voters ID card.

Proof of Age

Birth Certificate (If birth certificate is not available or if it is in local language, Birth Affidavit).

Other Documents

Service Agreement (for all those who are selected for positions in grade 'Y')

PAN Card

TCS Offer Letter and Joining letter

Affidavit undertaking on a Rs. 100/- stamp paper.

Documents to be submitted for Background Check (BGC)

Completed Background Check form (hard copy of BGC Form - Campus Trainees.pdf).

Self-attested copy of ID proof – One of these: PAN Card, Passport, Driving License, Voters ID card,College ID Card duly attested by HOD.

Self-attested copy of address proof – One of these: Passport, Ration card, Electricity Bill, Landline Telephone Bill, House Lease Agreement.

Self-attested and signed documents to explain break (if any) in education - (i) or (ii) or (iii):

(i) Medical records, if the break was due to medical reasons.

(ii) Certificates / Examination results, if the break was due to additional course done.

(iii) Affidavit with notary authorization, if the break was due to other personal reasons.

Self-attested Criminal Investigation Division (CID) forms for the respective regions, if (i) or (ii) or (ii) is true:

(i) Your present address is in one of these places: Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane City, Thane Rural, Pune.

(ii) Your address of longest stay in the last seven years is in one of these places: Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane City, Thane Rural, Pune.

(iii) Your permanent address is in one of these places: Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane City, Thane Rural, Pune,

********************************

Answer To Some Queries

********************************

I. Academic Records

a) Matriculation and Inter/Higher Secondary marksheets.

b) All semester marksheets for post graduation, graduation and diplomas. If the final semester marksheet is yet to be issued by the university/institute, you are required to submit the same before the completion of the ILP.

c) Degree certificate/provisional certificate for post-graduation, graduation and diplomas. If the same is awaited from the university/institute, you are required to produce the ‘Course Completion Certificate’ issued by your institute head or director, which is only a temporary arrangement.

II. Other Relevant Documents/Requirements

a) Birth certificate issued by the concerned government authorities.

b) Note: The class X and/or XII marksheets or certificates from the hospital/community and nativity certificate will not suffice. In case you do not possess a birth certificate containing your name, date of birth and place of birth, you are needed to obtain an affidavit on a Rs. 20 stamp papers signed by a notary with these details. Since this is a temporary arrangement, you will be required to furnish the birth certificate before the completion of the ILP.

c) A valid passport (if any)

d) Offer letter and joining letter

e) 12 passport size photographs

f) Date of birth and other details of the person you would like to nominate for

Gratuity, Superannuation, Provident Fund and Health Insurance Scheme

g) Permanent Account Number (PAN) Card copy

h) Medical Certificate

i) Gap Certificate (if any)

Note: The originals of these documents along with one set of attested photocopy needs to provided on joining for ILP. No provision for attestation would be provided at the joining place. The original documents stated above will be returned to you after scrutiny.

Note: Check - List

a. From TCS: Service Agreement between You and TCS.

b. From TCS: Affidavit Signed by Notary Public (Please don’t give more than Rs. 30 for the signature).

c. From TCS: Surety Verification Form attested by the Bank.

d. From TCS: Medical Certificate of Fitness attested by a Registered Medical Practitioner.

e. From TCS: Acceptance of Joining.

f. Academic: Matriculation and Inter/Higher Secondary marksheets.

g. Academic: All semester marksheets of our BE Degree issued by Anna University.

h. Academic: Degree certificate/provisional certificate for BE Degree issued by our college.

i. Personal: Birth certificate issued by the concerned government authorities.

j. Personal: A valid passport (if any. take it's receipt at least).

k. Personal: Offer letter and joining letter.

l. Personal: 12 passport size photographs.

m. Personal: Date of birth and other details of the person you would like to nominate for Gratuity, Superannuation, Provident Fund and Health Insurance Scheme.

n. Personal: Permanent Account Number (PAN) Card copy.

o. Personal: National Skills Registry (NSR) Card copy.

p. Personal: Income Tax returns, Form 16 of Surety, (if salaried).

q. Personal: Driving License (optional)

||*******************************************************************||

Note 0: I hope, all the documents covered. Do create a check-list for all these and make sure you have verified it with your joining mail correctly before submitting. If there are any mistakes in the above said details, please do correct me, at least in the comments.

Note 1: If you have submitted an invalid document, or document with mistakes in it, you will be given just 3 days of time to correct them and re-submit them. Else you will be batched only with the next batch.

Note 2: Carry all the above said documents in originals. The originals will be returned after verification on the same day. (Not very much sure for this)

Note 3: Documents to be attested: The documents given from the candidate to the TCS, like Marksheets & Certificates, have to be attested. The documents given by TCS need not be attested. Its a copy for your personal use.

Note 4: Photocopies: Please take two photocopies of the documents you are submitting to TCS. One should be submitted for the initial thing and other will be needed for various things there.

Packing - Check List

We all know how difficult it can be to prepare for ILP. It can be so easy to simply forget a very important item that you will need while you are on your ILP.

Attire Guidelines by TCS,

Monday to Thursday

Gentlemen

Full sleeves formal shirts with a tie, formal trouser and a formal belt.

Footwear: Formal Shoes and Socks

Women

Salwar Kameez, Sarees, Formal Blouses/ Shirts with formal skirts.

Footwear: Formal Shoes and Sandals

Friday’s

Gentlemen

Collar/Round neck t-shirts – worn tucked in, half-sleeve shirts, corduroy pants, or jeans

Women

Corduroy pants, formal skirts, jeans, Short kurtas, collar/round neck t-shirts, shirts, blouses, cardigans.

Now, here I am trying to make a list of few things that we discussed on our facebook group.

Some are:

A Positive Attitude,

Everyday Bag,

Medicine Kit (explained below),

Wrist Watch,

Alarm,

Umbrella,

Shoe polish and brush for the formal shoes,

Slippers, Floaters, Sport Shoes.

Nail cutter,

2-3 hangers,

Towel (both hand and bath),

Mosquito Machine,

Room fresheners,

Safety pins,

Needle and thread,

Locks (at least 2)

Lens case and lens solution for those who wear lens or specs cover,

3 pin multi-plug,

Cell phone and charger,

Blade, can/bottle opener or at least scissors,

Flashlight or Torch,
Common used Utensil,
Knife,
Salt, Sugar, Coffee Sachets and Tea Bag,

Sports gear like indoor games,

Sunglasses

Shaving kit,

Deodorant,
Perfumes,
Facewash,
Comb,
Small Mirror,
Tooth brush and paste,
Small quantity of detergent,
Lip Guard

Stationary Items

All programming software and books that you are using for aspire,

Cello Tape,

Stapler,

Spiral,

Calculator,

Pen drive (you cannot take it to office)

NOTE: Requisite Joining documents and certificates,click here

a. From TCS: Service Agreement between You and TCS.
b. From TCS: Affidavit Signed by Notary Public (Please don’t give more than Rs. 30 for the signature).
c. From TCS: Surety Verification Form attested by the Bank.
d. From TCS: Medical Certificate of Fitness attested by a Registered Medical Practitioner.
e. From TCS: Acceptance of Joining.
f. Academic: Matriculation and Inter/Higher Secondary marksheets.
g. Academic: All semester marksheets of our BE Degree issued by Anna University.
h. Academic: Degree certificate/provisional certificate for BE Degree issued by our college.
i. Personal: Birth certificate issued by the concerned government authorities.
j. Personal: A valid passport (if any).
k. Personal: Offer letter and joining letter.
l. Personal: 12 passport size photographs.
m. Personal: Date of birth and other details of the person you would like to nominate for Gratuity, Superannuation, Provident Fund and Health Insurance Scheme.
n. Personal: Permanent Account Number (PAN) Card copy.
o. Personal: National Skills Registry (NSR) Card copy.
p. Personal: Income Tax returns, Form 16 of Surety, (if salaried).
q. Personal: Driving License (optional)

Irons are not allowed

Yours MEDICINE KIT may have:

Copy of your’s medical prescription,

Antibiotic cream,

Anti-diarrheal medication,

Band-Aids,

Crocin or some for cold,

ENO/ Antacid,

Pain reliever,

Prescription medicines,

Small scissor

and many more in comments...

You are welcome to add some missed out things. Kindly drop them in comments.

Irrelevant entries are not allowed or it will be deleted.

Trivandrum Detailed info

Now Some Detailed Info

 

Oven fresh article , one of the TCSers, Trivandrum ILP.

It was nothing less than a shock that I got when I got an email from TCS on May 5 - I was asked to report for the ILP on May 25 at Trivandrum. It was at a time when none of my friends, nor me were expecting it - I was actually looking forward to a long vacation till September - but all dreams were shattered. We had no idea about the documents that were required, no availability in direct trains from Visakhapatnam to Trivandrum - in fact, we were not at all prepared to go for the ILP. One of my friends got his posting at Bhubaneshwar and my other two friends got it at Trivandrum - both of them backed out - one got it postponed and the other was going for his MS. That left ME alone. After a hectic last minute packing, I was off to Trivandrum on 22nd May - in a journey that would not allow me to sleep because I had to change two more trains.

The journey to Trivandrum could only be worse if not worst. I missed my second train - waited for four hours in the morning from 2 to 6 in the railway station. I reached Chennai on 23rd and had to wait in the railway station for another 4 hours for my next train to Trivandrum. Travelling on long train journeys - that too alone, with no one to give you company - sometimes makes you go mad and it was madness that I endured until the morning of 24th May, when I woke up in the train to look at the beauty of God's own country - Kerala. It was raining heavily and being a first timer to Kerala - I fell in love with the greenery and blue back waters at first sight. It was so serene and peaceful and for the first time since I started to Trivandrum - I felt happy to be coming to TCS.

Thiruvananthapuram or Trivandrum was quite unlike many cities that I have been to. People in this place don't mind rains - even if it rains throughout the year. 100% literacy rate in Kerala means that everyone knows how to read and write Malayalam - and all of them can put in their signature. The autorickshaws charge for both to and fro - if you travel from A to B, then you need to pay double the amount given on the meter, so if you want to come back from B to A - you need not pay anything more. The buses have no numbers and everything everywhere is written only in Malayalam. Everyone in Trivadrum knew about Technopark - that's where TCS is situated, and I later realized that Technopark is the only place famous in Trivandrum apart from the beaches. I was asked to report at the TCS Executive Hostel which is about 18 km from the railway station - and when I reached Kenton Leisure (that's the actual name of the executive hostel), the place was teeming with people. I was alloted Room No. 318 (I don't know why I'm goinf into the tiniest of details!!) and my room mate was Sridhar - he was from GCT, Coimbatore - but in an hour I had to change my room because Sridhar's friend Mohanbabu from GCT wanted to be in room 318 - so I had to move into 319. And my room mate was missing - I could only find his baggage in the room - he had apparently gone out. Now, one small clarification - you cannot change rooms at will in the hostel - it so happened that myself, Sridhar and Mohanbabu were in the same batch.

TCS Executive Hostel has around 150 rooms - each room is furnished with 2 beds, 2 study tables, a cupboard for 2 people, a dressing table, 1 plug point for mobile phone charging and an attached bathroom - believe me, the accomodation can't get better than this. The hostel has two outdoor shuttle courts, a gym (not many facilities in the gym though), a recreation room with a TV, carrom board and Table Tennis table, a common TV for each floor and a restaurant that can seat around 200 people at a time. Each floor gets three newspapers - The Hindu, The Indian Express and ET. There is also a browsing center which charges Rs. 25 for an hour of browsing (half the computers don't work most of the time though), a small utility shop for buying things like from pencils to badminton racquets, two STD booths and a laundry service (called Al-Khobar Laundry service; charges are exorbitant - Rs. 13/- for a pair of shirt and trousers - washing and pressing). The only bad thing about the hostel is the restaurant - the food served is not great - and the fact that the hostel is located in a village and there are few places to go to around the hostel - you do have a number of small restaurants outside the hostel at walkable distance - recommended ones are Hotel Chennai and Veg World.

The hostel rent is Rs. 110 per day, so you need to pay Rs. 3300 every month from your HRA. Technopark is about 1 km from the executive hostel and TCS is about 2 km from the hostel. Technopark also has other companies like US Technologies, IBS and many unheard ones. Technopark has other things too - it has a hospital called Ojus, a State Bank of India branch, a SBI ATM, a small departmental store, a place for junk food, a courier office, a dress showroom, an internet browsing center - these are the things that I can remember.

Day 1 at Trivandrum went on well, slept a lot to gain on all the sleep i had lost. The next day - May 25, was my first day at TCS - we were provided with vans and buses to reach TCS - the transport cost is Rs. 17 per day (to and fro) - which is to be paid at the end of the month from your Vehicle Allowance.  

First day at work
TCS ILP center at Trivandrum was just like how it was in the pics I had seen. We went inside and there were around 300 guys and girls - all of them trying to have a glance at a notice board kept at the entrance. The schedule for the day was put up - I was in batch T08; our batch numbers were already told to us at the hostel reception when we checked in. There were 8 batches - T02 to T09 and batches T02 to T05 were asked to gather in an auditorium and the remaining batches from T06 to T09 were asked to gather in a class room - shouldn't be complaining but already a discrimination - T02 to T05 were the CS/IT ppl and the remaining were the non CS ppl.

So around 150 of us gathered in the classroom alloted to the four batches. The schedule for the first day was induction - from the admin, HR, MATC, ILP and finance (I don't remember exactly - forgive me for my poor memory) - after breakfast. TCS canteen is run by a private contractor. Let me tell you that the food is bad - but quite cheap; you get -

Bread and butter (two slices of bread and butter @ Rs. 6/-),
Bread and jam (same price as above),
Vada (Rs. 2/- each),
Idli (Rs. 2/- each),
Puri (a plate @ Rs. 10/-),
Dosa (Rs. 9/- a plate),
Milk (a glass @ Rs. 10/-),
and some more stuff - some days there is channa batura, some other days there are other dishes as well. TCS gives free tea/coffee coupons - which can be used any time of the day - mind you, you cannot exchange the coupons for milk or any other beverage (some of my friends tried doing it ;))

The daily schedule will have 4 slots with 2 tea/coffee breaks and 1 lunch break and it may typically be like this

9 to 11 - A Slot
11 to 11.30 - Break
11.30 to 1.15 - B Slot
1.15 to 2.00 - Lunch
2.00 to 3.30 - C Slot
3.30 to 4.00 - Break
4.00 to 5.30 - D Slot
5.30 to 5.45 - Submission of feedback forms/meetings

The timings could vary but not a lot - it may be around 15 minutes either way. Each batch has two coordinators - one technical and one life skills coordinator (will tell you about technical and life skills later). Our technical coordinator was Koshy and for life skills it was Nisha Dev (the faculty insist that we call them by their first name :) - no more Sir/Madam formalities).

So, after breakfast, we proceeded to our induction sessions. Let me tell you what Induction actually is - it is nothing but a formal welcome by all the departments of TCS - the admin induction was by Col. Nair, who is the admin incharge of TCS, Trivadrum. He's a very lively and jovial chap - he welcomed us to TCS, Trivandrum and then he went on to talk about the rules and regulations to be followed in the hostel as well as work - like for example he said, guys ought to be back in the hostel by 10 pm and girls ought to be back by 9 pm. And also that, no guy must be found in a girl's room and vice versa. The admin department handles things like accomodation, transport, food in the TCS canteen and so on. And then we had the other inductions - by HR, by MATC - which is Manpower Allocation Task Committee who handle our allocations after training (it was by a female named Sheena - she's one ruthless lady - the first thing she told us was that WE WOULD NOT BE ALLOCATED TO PLACES NEAR OUR HOME TOWN for our project - so you know her character now).

ILP induction was by Mr. Koshy Vaidyan (who later became Koshy - our technical coord.) - he told us about the ILP in general. Let me digress to tell you in detail about the ILP at TCS. From this year on, i.e from 2006, the ILP pattern has been changed - it is for 50 days for all branches (earlier CS ppl had ILP for 33 days and non CS for 44 days) - now mind you - 50 days means 50 working days - which would mean that the ILP is for 63 days (9 weeks), coz we would get around 12 or 13 holidays (Sundays and alternate Saturdays - TCS works on alternate Saturdays). So, this 50 day ILP schedule is broken up into two phases -
1. Induction
2. Integration

The Induction is the same for all the batches - it basically deals with the fundamentals of software engineering and other courses. Here is the unofficial TCS schedule for Induction phase -

Induction phase 25 days
------------------------------------------------------

HR Induction }
LS Induction }
Admin Induction }
Finance Induction } 2 days
IS Induction }
MATC Induction }
Library Induction }

Technical

Process Models 4 slots
Requirements Analysis 5 slots
Design 5 slots
Testing and Debugging 5 slots

Good Programming Skills 3 slots
UNIX and C 4 slots
Data structures and Algorithms } 3 slots
Programming Techniques }
Operating Systems 3 slots

Life Skills

Oral and Written Communication 11 slots
Professional Grooming and Etiquette 6 slots

Business Orientation 10 slots
Systems Thinking 3 slots

Ultimatix and IPMS 1 slots
TBEM 2 slots
IQMS 3 slots
ISecurity 2 slots
Business Continuity Planning 1 slots

-------------------------------------------------------

The integration phase is also called the project specific training - about which I shall tell you later.

At the end of the first day, I could make the following observations -

1. You should be proud to be a part of TCS and generally as a part of the TATA brand - because that's the aim of the first day's induction schedule.

2. TCS has an ERP tool called Ultimatix which can be accessed at https://www.ultimatix.net - you cannot do anything with it now though if you are not yet a TCS employee. Ultimatix is the ultimate ERP tool - it is through Ultimatix that you will have to claim your reimbursements, apply for leave, view your paycheck, fill in your time sheets (this is after training i.e during your project after allocation).

3. TCS also has a global helpdesk through which you send all your requests - like activating your TCS mail ID, or reporting some problems with the computers and so on.

4. You cannot access public email clients like yahoo, gmail, rediff, hotmail and even sites like orkut and many others from any computer in TCS - they are all blocked by the server.

The first day at TCS ended - it was a stress to the mind - listening to the history of the TATA group and that of TCS - during every induction made us feel bored to hell. Overall, it was a good day - my first day @ TCS - came to know a lot of things. The next day, we had our documentation scheduled - which is the verification of certificates and collection of the service agreement among others.

Day 2 @TCS
First day at TCS ended with us knowing more about our batchmates - there were lots of colleges from Andhra Pradesh like Andhra University, JNTU Kakinada, SVU, GITAM (that's my coll) , GVP, GNITS, Srinidhi, SRKR, NBK - looked like 50% of the guys and girls selected from Andhra Pradesh were there. The other colleges were VNIT Nagpur and GCT Coimbatore - the VNITians were the most enthusiastic lot and GCTians were equally lively. There were also some MCA ppl from Indore. So basically, it was a cultural mix - everyone was eager to know everyone else - I remember the names of all my T08 batchmates (partly because I was the ILP CR). That brings me to the topic of CRs or Class Representatives. You may think that ILP is like school - believe me, when you go to your ILP, you will surely find out that ILP is like going 'Back to School'. There are 4 CRs selected for each batch - 1 for HR related issues, 1 for the Library, 1 for the IS (which is Infrastructure Services - they handle issues related to the computers in the lab, network connectivity, login problems etc.), and 1 for the ILP program (I was ILP CR for T08 :) ). At the end of day 1, we had with us a notepad, a Reynolds Bold blue ball point pen (forgive me for the intricate details), a temporary ID card and a personal file given to all of us by TCS. New notepads are given every 15 days. The important thing is the Personal File. The personal file is what you need to submit to TCS by the end of the second day. The photocopies of all your certificates (attested copies only - you can get attestation done at the SBI branch of Technopark), your offer letter, your joining letter (photocopies without attestation will suffice) and a copy of your passport (in case you have one) - these are the documents that have to be attached to the personal file. The file also has a lot of documents - which you need to fill in - some of the documents I remember are

1. Profile - details about you, your educational qualifications and so on.
2. Nomination for Super Annuity (this is for nominating someone - mostly your parents, to get compensation in case of your untimely death - don't worry - that will not happen).
3. Nomination for Provident Fund (for this and for Super Annuation - you need to mention the name of the nominees, their date of birth and the percentage of nomination - for example, if I want to nominate my mom and dad - then I may give 50% to my mom and 50% to my dad as percentage of nomination - so the point is decide beforehand the percentage of nomination and also know the Date of Birth (as in records) of your nominees.)
4. Passport Details
5. Non Disclosure Agreement - which says that you should not divulge any information about TCS. (which is exactly what I am doing now :D )
6. A document which you need to sign saying that you have no conflict of interest with TCS - if you have any, you can mention it (I don't think any of us did).

There are some more documents - I don't remember exactly. There are a lot of signatures required - you also need signatures from two witnesses who can be any of your friends at TCS. And make sure you have sufficient number of passport photographs - you will be needing them.

The schedule for day 2 was a movie (that's right - a movie whose title I have forgotten - it is a biography of Jamshedji Tata - a 1 hour movie - most of the guys slept throught the movie), the documentation (this is different from the personal file), library induction, finance induction and bank account opening.

After the movie and the break, we had our documentation. This is where TCS collects your service agreement, your surety verification form and verifies all your certificates - actually all your certificates from class X to your Course Completion cert. of engineering/Provisional Certificate are verified, but to make matters easy, the HRs asked us to show the originals of the last semester we finished - in our case, the 8th semester marksheet - they just look at it and give it to you back. Other documents verified are the -

1. Birth Certificate - lot's of queries here - you cannot show your class X certificate as DOB certificate. TCS is asking for your original birth certificate issued by the municipal corporation of the city of your birth. If your name is missing (which is my case too) or if your birth certificate is in your mother tongue - then I suggest you to go to a notary or a lawyer, get an affidavit stating your date of birth, your parents' name and the place of your birth. It should not cost more than Rs. 80.

2. Course completion certificate or Provisional Certificate.

Just make sure that you have all marksheets from Class X onwards. If you have any doubts on filling up the service agreement, you can find this information useful - http://www.careers.tcs.com/GuideStamp.doc

The documentation was completed in express time - the HRs were very efficient. Following the documentation, we had the library induction. Now some details about the library -

TCS library is cool - you get 4 copies of 8 different newspapers, and of course there are a lot of books - mostly technical though. Everyone is given a copy of Software Engineering by Pankaj Jalote which can be kept by us until the end of the training. Other than this, we get handouts for each technical course - the courses which I mentioned in Part II - it is the duty of the library CR to collect the handouts before each course starts. Now you can issue three more books from the library - 1 technical, 1 non technical - which means wither fiction/non-fiction novel and 1 foreign language book (which you won't be taking in the first 25 days coz foreign language is a part of the integration phase). Now, one very important thing is the non technical book. You have to present a book review at the end of the Oral and Written Communication course. So it's better you issue a good non technical book - i.e a novel from the library on the second day itself - so that you don't lose out on the good books. It's important because Reviews need to be presented on books taken only from the library.

The finance induction was boring - the person dealing it Mr. Matthew told us many things other than the salary and whether there was any hike. He told us a few important things though. You need to get a PAN card within 60 days of joining TCS - otherwise you need to pay a penalty of Rs. 10,000. But worry not, TCS has a contract with an agency - you just need to fill a form and pay Rs. 72/- and submit it to the finance department - all this will be taken care of by your HR CR. If you already have a PAN card, then there is no reason to worry.

Finally, we had the bank account opening - the ICICI ppl came and addressed us - they said that the account we would be opening has some special benefits for TCS employees. But personally, I don't think so. We had to fill in a bank application (make sure that you have a black ball point pen with you - it's important when filling this application). And then we were given a cheque book, a ATM cum Debit card and of course our account number and Customer ID. They said that the account would be created and activated in a week's time.

That ended Day 2 - another mind - stressing day - all of us were really looking forward to the next day - which was a Sunday :). We needed some rest - coz the actual ILP started from the following Monday. 

ILP, Life and Fun..........

Day 3 @ TCS
Unofficially it was the first working day for us - the schedules had been put up. We knew that we had a tough day ahead. TCS is not so strict about it's dress code, but it's better you follow the dress code coz probably you won't be following it after training. We were supposed to be in formal clothing from Monday through Thursday which meant - A formal shirt with formal trousers, with tie, belt and shoes. We were told in detail about the dress code in the first class of Profressional Grooming and Etiquette course. It seems it is better to wear light colored shirts, preferably plain as formals. Some other things - which most of us knew were that the belt and the shoe should be of the same color and that brown shoes are generally not considered formal. The socks should match the color of the trousers. The whole class was about the ways of dressing for guys and girls. It really was informative but became monotonous after a few minutes.

TCS ILP Center at Trivandrum has around 4 labs - which are in the top floor each having around 90 computers. There are around 12 classrooms - including 2 classroom having 35 computers each. All classrooms are fully air conditioned (this is for those who demand specifics). And there is an auditorium which could seat around 150 students.

In a day, you may have 2 technical sessions and 2 life skill sessions, or in worst cases - you may have all 4 technical sessions - which can be very taxing coz you tend to fall asleep what with the AC also on ;). Technical sessions can get really boring. We had most of the fun during the life skills sessions. Life skills mainly includes the written and oral communication and the professional grooming. Our faculty for communication was Minnette Mathew - she was a very sweet lady - and she really made us feel good about the ILP - coz somedays the technical sessions become so unbearable that we need atleast one life skill session to literally wake up from sleep. Believe me, when you attend your first Oral and written communciation session - you will realize that you are back in school. You are taught about tenses, about writing skills, about speaking skills - let me warn all those who have a problem speaking before an audience that you really have to prepare yourself coz in almost all sessions of life skills, you are required to speak. For life skills, TCS follows continuous evaluation which means that you are continuously evaluated - there is no exam for life skills :D. In our ILP, there was one session in which we were asked to introduce ourself in the communication course and we were evaluated for it. Evaluation means that you will be given individual feedback on the way you speak (believe me - I always thought I spoke well, but to my shock - I got a lot of constructive critcism in my feedback - really made me aware of the areas where I was lacking). The last two sessions for oral and written communication are for the book review which is also evaluated. So, this is the second time I'm reminding you to prepare yourself for the book review. PG & E, which is professional grooming and etiquette was taken by Nisha - she was good too. Like I mentioned earlier, PG&E is all about personality development, the way to dress, the way to talk, about the importance of global culture and last but not the least about Dining Etiquette. We also had a practical dining etiquette session. A proper business lunch is supposed to include 7 courses - and each course has it's own way of being eaten. So I got to know of many things which I was previously unaware of!! PG&E is really enjoyable.

The four main courses in the technical section are - Process Models, Requirements Engg, Design, Testing and Debugging. Depending on your luck, you could have a proper teacher teaching these or a TCS employee who is on bench teaching. All these courses can be found on http://elearning.tvm.tcs.co.in

Frankly speaking, very few technical sessions are really interesting. Almost all these 4 technical courses have a minimum of 2 case studies - which has to be worked upon by you and your team. Team members are decided by the HR or your life skill coordinators. My team had me, two other guys - Shreyas and Amit and two girls - Aishwarya and Divya. So, each batch (my batch as I mentioned previously was T08 - had 40 participants) is divided into teams or groups of 5, with whom you have to work on case studies and projects - during the evenings after work. We used to crowd the restaurant in our hostel after dinner to work on our case studies - it is really a sight to watch - each table being occupied by a group of 5 - trying to work together. It is really a good team building exercise. There were teams which worked until 1 in the morning. Fortunately, my team did not!!

Systems Thinking is an OK course but business orientation is really pathetic - if it is taught by someone who can make even the dullest of classes enjoyable - then you are lucky. Unfortunately for us - we had 3 faculty members (some courses could have more than 1 faculty teaching - happens when one of them is busy with some other work) teaching us and all made us go to sleep during the course!! Systems thinking is about how to be a good consultant. You will learn about the views of different stakholders that have to be considered when you come across a real time situation. Business Orientation brushes you about business concepts like marketing, finance and so on. I feel like yawning when I talk about business orientation!!

There are other short courses - like good programming skills, OS, programming techniques and UNIX. If you get a good faculty teaching you, you will really enjoy these courses. We had one guy called Rishi who actually was a TCS employee with 2 years experience. He was too good in teaching - he taught OS concepts to us and believe me, he was an amazing teacher. The other courses are 2 session courses like iQMS - which is Integrated Quality Management System, TBEM - which is Tata Business Excellence Model and others, which are not so great - but they might make you go to sleep (just warning you!!).

About the CRs - as I said there are 4 CRs and it is just voluntary - if you want to become the CR, then you just have to volunteer. If you have tough competition, then the HRs may decide who gets to become the CR. The HR CR has a lot of work in the first few days - like collection of personal files, collection of PAN card forms among others. My batch had Vignesh as the HR CR and he was really patient enough to do his work. The library CR has to collect the handouts for each course before they actually start. Mostly, all the technical sessions have handouts - which are nothing but a copy of the PPT of the course being shown to us. The library CR then has to distribute the handouts to all the participants in the batch. The Infrastructure services CR literally had no work - if your computer in the lab doesn't work, you know who to contact - you should contact your IS CR. And finally, the ILP CR (yours truly was one) has work related to the ILP. And among many works, one of the works is to collect the attendance sheet for each course from the faculty room, take signatures from all the participants in the group for each slot, then take the signature from the faculty and then keep it in the faculty room (tough job, :( really). Then at 5.30 in the evening everyday, the ILP CR must collect the feedback forms for all the courses that have been completed by that day and ask all the participants to fill it and then submit them the same day!!!

Please switch off your cell phones when you attend the sessions in the ILP center, or atleast keep them in silent mode. Some of the faculty members take this seriously and if your cellphone rings in the classroom - then you will have to generously contribute to the MOBILE FUND (TCS named it like that) - you have to shell out around 100 bucks for the first time and if you are caught again, then 300 and if for a third time you are found with a ringing cellphone in the classroom - you need to contribute Rs.500/- only. This affects the PVA of your batch.

PVA - Professional Value Add is something you have in TCS - all batches are evaluated generally on discipline, on prompt submission of feedback forms, on active participation in any particular course and on many unknown criteria. Each week, each batch is given points on how they have fared for the last one week. And at the end of the 9 weeks of ILP, the batch which has the highest PVA is awarded the best outgoing batch.

At the end of 25 working days - you will have a test on the technical courses - the test would be for 50 marks and would contain around 30 to 33 questions with each participant getting a different question paper. This is the only exam we would have in the entire ILP. After this exam, you finish with the Induction phase and you go on to the Integration phase. The integration phase is where you will have project specific training - it could be J2EE, mainframes, .NET and some others which I am not aware of. Along with the project specific training you will also be taught a foreign language which could be German, French or Japanese.

I was with TCS for less than a month but the experience I gained was really good. I miss my batch - even in that less time, we all really gelled together. It was a great batch and I am sure it would be awarded the best outgoing batch. Guys and girls of TVM01/T08 - if you are reading this - cheers to you all........

When I submitted my resignation - I really felt bad to be leaving TCS - as it was my first job. I had to submit my ID card and my smart card, and on going out of the ILP center, I was asked to sign the visitor's register because I was no more a TCS employee - but just another visitor..... 

Life after TCS

I had to clear all my dues - the HRA and the travel allowance. After clearing the dues, I had to pay the bond amount of Rs. 50,000 along with three months' basic salary which totals to Rs. 76,100. I was given two weeks time to pay the bond amount and I am yet to pay it. One thing is that if you don't pay your bond amount, you won't be given an experience letter - I anyway don't need it coz I worked for les than a month. I had to quit TCS only because my MS admit came late - midway through training. But those few days I worked in TCS - they were really memorable. You may hear a lot of critcism about TCS but believe me the TCS ILP program is supposed to be world class and it's true. Even today - I feel proud to have been a part of the TATA brand. So we come to the end of another chapter of my life.......

Some other day, it would be about some other company..............

To all the TCSers reading this, make sure you don't miss out on having fun during the ILP - make the maximum out of it. Cheers to you all..............

This page contains the unedited report from the TCSer went to the ILP.

Oven fresh ILP

 This page contains the unedited report from the TCSer went to the ILP.

Right now, I have reports from:

• Ahemdabad ILP
• Coimbatore ILP
• Trivandrum ILP
• Bhubaneswar ILP
• Hyderabad ILP

I am waiting for more updates on ILP. If, you have some then help others by sharing the link in comments.

Scroll down for respective ILP.... 

=============================Oven Fresh from ILP =============================

Ahemdabad ILP

Oven fresh article from one of the friend , one of the TCSers, Ahemdabad ILP.

This is my first post from ahemdabad, during my ILP period. today we completed two days in TCS. so now i can proudly say that i too am a TCSer!


we reached here on 25th october. the infocity is located in gandhinagar, and is about a 45 minute drive from ahemdabad railway station. this post now contains two parts: information about infocity, and information about my experience in TCS ILP.

Infocity:

there are various kinds of buildings here, including residential, commercial offices and shops. residential buildings are of studio apartments, flats and bungalows. commercial offices are located in various towers. some of the towers are still under construction. TCS has its office in IT tower 1 and IT tower 3. IT tower 3 is also called as “Nal Sarovar”. i formerly thought that this is some landmark like powai lake, but its just a name of a building. The park is quite big, and its maintained in a very nice way. more information on the infocity can be found at its own website:www.infocity.com.


we have got accommodation in studio apartments. normally, one apartment is occupied by 4 people. now, there four people are never from the same college. TCS allots random rooms to the people in order to make them communicate with new people and co-ordinate with them. rooms are nicely maintained and are cleaned everyday. i was lucky enough to get accommodation with my college friend shawn, which we both thought as something impossible. the room number is 102 in studio apartments block 5. other two room partners are from manipal university. they joined ILP a month before us, and will complete their training on 19th of november.

there is one canteen contractor who provides food both at IT tower canteen and at studio apartments. quality of food is nice, and i am lucky enough to get jain food too. laundry facility is available with manageable rates.

TCS ILP:

first thing: tie is compulsary. they said previously that tie is optional, but its not. there are strict security policies here. we are not allowed to carry any media inside ILP centre which includes mobile phones, pen drives, CDs and other electronic media. they have five levels of confidentiality, out of which only first level can be made public (which is there on tcs.com). all the ILP related presentations had confidentiality level 2 which is tcs-internal. this information can only be shared with people inside TCS. so there is hardly anything that i can share here.


we all had various presentations explaining various processes inside TCS. it also explained various portals that we would be using as employee of TCS. then there was information about importance of security rules, copyright rules and punctuality etc. all the sessions were very informative, but sadly only few of them were interesting. rest all were either not very exciting or had obvious information conveyed.


all the batches had size of around 250. hence they were divided in groups, but we are batch of 48 only, so we wont be having more than one group.


TCS has affiliation with HDFC bank, so we are offered customized accounts for our salary and reimbursement accounts. they also offer nice gold debit card and demat card options. almost everything is free of cost, with accounts being zero balance accounts. but the activation takes 7 days. we filled out forms today, so by next tuesday, we should get our accounts activated and ready to use.


weather:
its colder here than mumbai, but bearable. the temperature will go down in coming weeks, so then it would be slightly tougher to manage. most people didnt anticipate this and have no warm clothes with them. only i and nikhil loya are having proper warm clothes with us. lets see how it turns out!

ILP is far from Ahmedabad railway station....around 50min journey...U'll have to catch a bus from Kalupur(Ahm railway station) to GH-0(nearer to TCS hostel)..buses are available opposite side of the Ahm railway station.. and if u can't find the bus of G'nagar from Railway station then go to the Bus Station (Gita Mandir). It's just 3 KM away from Railway Station and catch the bus of G'nagar.

=============================Oven Fresh from ILP =============================

Coimbatore ILP

Oven fresh article from Bharat Bang, one of the TCSers, Coimbatore ILP.

hi friends 
be nice while reading cz m writing nething such as this for first time.
I joined TCS coimbatore on 12 jun for ILP...after a long wait from 19 august till date..though it feels inferior before we join the company that is while waiting for joining date and location..but there is nothing to get worried about the JL..every one has to wait atleast 3 months for sure...one should understand that this conglomerate(as they call),is set to hire record high candidates and to train it needs a wait and PATIENCE ofcourse....
well will say that the flowers finally blossom...


1st day----introduction of HR,Document verification()need not to tell about wats needed cz already a lot has been discussed on this topic..still to add they give relief of 2-3 days if u hv missed some documents....but remember the location of ur joining might not get the attestation facility easily...and need to pay for it there...so bring atleast 2-3 copies of every document with u....


2nd day----nothing to worry about the tests,as they say if can't pass the test they will put u in normal ILP rather than fast track that too doesn't seem a problem cz if one can wait for joining 4-5 months than u can definitely invest ur a month on corporate training...on the same day u will be having HDFC bank people to get u ur saving and current bank account, the acc. where u wl be getting ur salary and reimbursement amounts...apart from these HR will show a tata movie as they call..the success stories...quite good for getting inspired...

test is scheduled on 17 jan the 3rd day of joining i.e. after induction 4 topics dbms,java,software engg,web tech....40 marks test no -ve marking n bla bla bla...the people who clear the test will be in fast track ilp of 50 days.....

well this all at this juncture...avoid any mistakes u find...i am not a professional writer...

=============================Oven Fresh from ILP =============================

Trivandrum ILP 

Oven fresh article from Somil Aggarwal, one of the TCSers, Trivandrum ILP.

1.Aspire test is only to decide ur training duration, no relation with ur performance


2.Everything is very expensive here....like laundry(15 per cloth-tvm,17-chennai)...so

arrange all d things.(electric irons & heaters r not allowed)

3.Will get 1st salary after 45 days(249XX-tvm for 45 days,same for all loc. except chennai & kolkata),(32XXX for chennai-45 days)

4. Performance in ILP has no relation wtih your joining,projects & future growth(TCS NEVER THROWN OUT ANYONE IN THEIR HISTORY DURING ILP,NO DISCUSSION PLZ CONFIRM NEWS)

5.(For tvm) Accomodation will be prvided in executive hostels or hotels.It can be either 1-2 kms frm technopark or up to 18 kms,depends on ur fate which you'll get.Bus facility will be provided by d tcs.They'll change if you request & room partners can be changed on request.

6.Every saturday is off(acc. to previous pattern-off on alternate SAT)

7.people belongs to banglore r asked not to fill Delhi as 1st preference.

8.Will not provide any food,you have to arrange ur own.Tea/Coffee will be provided during breaks.You'll get it in d dhabas or restaurants at nominal rates.

9.Will get ur permanent employee id after a week.Till then ur dt no. works as d same.

10.They'll never told your any test score(during ilp,aspire i don't know),neither in d ilp nor in future.

WILL TELL U ABT D ATMOSPHERE WITH SOME TIPS & TRICKS FOR D ILP NEXT TIME.

TILL THEN HAVE FUN....CHEERS

PREVIOUS NEWS(20 DEC 2010)

ilp duration for those who can clear aspire test-43 days(excluding holydays) i.e direct stream based training

regular ilp-72 days(including holydays) i.e 2months 12 days only

there are only 2 tests in whole ilp(no ec's now)

in 1st 6 weeks only 1 test....

will teach u whole java before stream based training

will get joining location before stream based training commence i.e during midway of training...

90% of girls will get their prefered location..

 Click here For Detailed Info

=============================Oven Fresh from ILP =============================

Bhubaneswar ILP

Oven fresh article from Deboprio Mukherjee, one of the TCSers, Trivandrum ILP.

We stepped into the premises.The securities asked us to form a queue.It was the time for baggage check.

First time in my life I felt the improper purpose of my backpack,because previously my bag was used for smuggling full,half and quarter bottles into our private hostel.The landlord was mystified to see why everyone used the same backpack for shopping.

Almost all the boys were generating a negative bag-scan report.The desk beside the kiosk turned into a ciggerate shop within few seconds.However the main surprise was yet to come.BEEP!!!! the scanner showed some unknown shadow in the silhouette.It was a puncher/jaw-breaker.It was discovered from one of our guy's backpack.Now that wasn't a shocking thing for our students,because of the frequent brawls in our college.All guys were quite accustomed with that thing.But securities were sent to Earth to stop brawls,so a new brawl was about to take place.We were no longer in college.

"Self - Protection " the effective phrase,some convincing train robbery story of Bihar-trains saved the guy from the catastrophe.We forced him to throw that thing away forever.Later the boy said that he had never boarded a train to Bihar.He thanked the robbers who unknowingly saved his job.

We entered the main building.I had never been to any corporate office before.I was feeling excited.We were escorted to a conference room.The LED display outside the conference room was showing the booked status.But the chocolate and caramel were inside the cadbury five star. We had the first bite.It was the best room I had ever seen in my life.The room was like the secret agency conference room of James Bond movie.Lights were with sensors,touchpad switchboard,there was gadgets everywhere.Only the sexy ladies of the James Bond movies were missing.

The induction meeting was about to begin.I decided to visit the toilet.A common problem with me.

All abstract things like grief,joy,tension,excitement comes out of human body in the physical form of liquid .Like grief takes the form of tears,here suppressed tension took the form of another liquid that led me to the toilet.

Auto-flush!!! is the greatest advancement of technology.There were sensors everywhere.But the greatest sensor is in the human mind.It alarmed me that "If you commit a single mistake here you will be flushed out of this heaven".My mind voted my old college bathroom.There were no auto-flush,the flushing porcelin boxes of each latrine were converted into secret chambers where we used to keep our cheats and micro-xeroxes during our semester exams,and the backside of each latrine door were the index of chapters.The toilets were converted into books while semesters.Now that was engineering excellence.

I came back.The conference was about to start,but the room looked entirely different.There were some unknown faces in the room and luckily they dint belong to our boys community.My scanner generated a quick review report.

The door opened,and somebody switched the mute button on.

=============================Oven Fresh from ILP =============================

Hyderabad ILP

Oven fresh article , one of the TCSers, Hyderabad ILP.

 It was about an year ago that we were in Hyderabad pursuing our Initial Learning Programme (ILP). I had heard a lot about TCS ILP earlier. Some said it was very tough, some said they learnt a lot, etc etc. We also tried to find out from seniors about the training by mails, scraps etc.
Our joining in TCS was 28th August, 2006. There were lot of formalities to be done for which I had to go home from Bangalore (where I was for the past 2 months after college ;)) Joining date was a reliever as some people had said that joining dates in TCS were very late. After completing the formalities I set off for my first job to never-been-before Hyderabad. Amresh, my college yaar, was with me with similar hopes and ambitions!!!

Even on the train we met a surd who was going to Hyderabad for his job joining at Hyderabad. We curiously asked him about ILP. He said he did not have much problem although he was a mechanical guy. He mentioned some percentage which he scored in the test. We then exchanged a no-reason-why smile.

Reaching HyderabadWe reached Secunderabad Railway station. Lot of luggage. Discussions with porter. Arguments with Autowalla. Finally we agreed to hire an auto after the senior we met finalized a deal for us. We reached the hotel in which our boarding was arranged. But unluckily we had to part as amresh had to go to the other hotel in which his boarding was arranged. We tried to convince the authorities there for staying together but in vain. I was alloted a room and obviously a roomie. The room appeared quite okay with a TV and no AC. My roomie was from Bhagalpur and soon we found out that we had a common friend. The common friend told him that I was a very good roommate. I knew my roommate was going to be disappointed but I couldn't help :) So the first thing I did was to hunt for the mobile connection with the cheapest STD calling rate and I had it by the end of the day, a Hutch Connection. I also took a top up for Rs 110 which was the first of the infinite recharges that I made in Hyderabad. I took pride in flashing my new mobile handset Nokia 3250 which I got as my b'day gift from my father 10 days back at home. I had planned all my experiments with Bluetooth as I had my lappy also with me. This was the first time I was having a higher end mobile. So I made sure I don't leave anything untried before I leave the place.

The First DaySo the big day was there. We were informed the previous day that the buses will leave at 7. So we got up early at around 5:30. There was so much of noise in the corridor. People hunting for ties, belts, documents etc. Some confused faces asking what all things we can take there. I think I appeared the coolest and the quitest of the lot. I left my room just in time, after completing the morning round of phone talk, only to find a big crowd standing in front of the hotel waiting for the bus. I immediately found out some familiar faces from college. I went and tried to be with them rather than being alone. Everybody looked fresh and new eager to find out what will happen in the day. The buses took us to an undefined location called CMC, the place where our training was supposed to take place. We had our paid breakfast.(I had thought that food will be free for us :( ) I hunted for few more closer friends and ofcourse Amresh.

We then went to CMC classrooms. The classroom number was very different from the ones we had in college. We met the lady over there who was the head of ILP programme and an HR employee of TCS. She had a peculiar smile "all the time". Her smile was so misleading. You would always assume her to be in your side but she was NOT most of the time. She was Indu Nair, the name which was going to be very familiar specially during allocation and reallocation. The document submission part was the most boring one (till then). After which we were transported to some auditorium in Hyderabad University to witness several TCS and TATA documentries. We saw it with interest for the first and the only time. After that we demanded movies when we wanted to sleep with lights off. There were several speeches made by people from TCS. I was impressed at the non-advertising nature of TCS then. Things are quite different now :) Then there were so many essential activities like batch formation, CR election etc conducted by one and only Indu Nair. I was in Batch H-15 with Gunjan and Pandey, the people in my branch from college. Gunjan was a friend and I knew Pandey. At the end of ILP guys in our batch were not ready to believe when I told them that I had never talked to Pandey before ILP. We also had our first and only good lunch at ILP Hyderabad. The food provided here was pure South Indian with some dishes being heard for the first time like the breakfast item "Pesarattu".
We ended the day with some more non-descript items and finally it was time to head back to the hotel. I did not have close friends in my hotel. So I preferred to spend most of my time on phone.

Daily Routine at ILP
The daily routine at ILP was not much different from the first day. We had to get up at 6 and assembled in front of the hotel. Missing the bus was a headache coz CMC was a bit far and the autowaalas charged a bit high. The bus was a luxurious one with FM playing all the time in Telugu. Some sentences by RJs had become familiar though we understood little. Bus journey was too formal because of presence of girls. Everybody acted as to be the most decent one on this earth. Things changed a bit by the end. I usually did not talk except a few welcome greetings to the people I know. Breakfast items were a nightmare. As a result there was a big crowd at Juice corner. Juicewala was overgenerous to the girls. One day I would have hit back at the Juicewala there but I controlled myself. Pandey detested South Indian food so much that he ate very little. He was fond of juice. Then we went to classrooms after my first round of phone conversation.

Classes were usually boring and we generally slept except that of Shradha's. She was our Life Skills faculty. She was very popular coz of her looks and nature. Guys used to be awake with wide open eyes in her class ;) We loved the discussions between Begu and her. Begu was from our college and I knew his name from before. He was a genius. There was nothing in this world that this guy didn't know about. He was very famous for his slow speech. By the way his real name was Ankit Abhishek. Then we had Abhay Sood from our college who was the CR. I don't know how I did not see this guy at college. He was amazing at his activeness and convincing skills. We could not have had a better CR. I generally used to be with Gunjan and Pandey with Begu and Abhay sitting behind/beside us. Gunjan was the AC operator of our batch :) We all got chilled by the overeffective AC but he was the one who always took pain and brought AC remote from somewhere to raise the temperature up. Gunjan and I used to listen to what the teachers said and Pandey fully relied on us both for notes and waking him up if the teacher notices him sleeping. Sometimes Gunjan took the full responsibility of both me and Pandey :D All thanks to Gunjan.

Among the girls in our batch I knew Arpita beforehand as I had met her somewhere in college, I did not remember where... either Java Class or IMS Class or French class. We talked few more times after that in ILP I being very busy with either class or calls :)We are very good friends now in Chennai. We were together in the same Project for 6-7 months. She is very nice as a friend having core Friend and Family values. She has a heart of GOLD. Her caring for others is simply awesome. I came to know a lot of things about ILP from her after the days were over. She told me about my reputation there that I talk too less. Guys... I talk a lot after the ice is broken :) She also told me about her and I was really startled after knowing about the only couple of our batch post ILP. All the best to them!!! And yeah she finally got where we met. It was neither Java, IMS, or French class. It was at the Personality Development Workshop, conducted by Raj Rodrigues of our college, that we were in the same batch :) This was yet another example of her sharp memory about nondescript things :)
To be Continued.