[ This post was originally published by Vinay Paratala on his blog here.]
After close to ten years of being in the IT services business, I’ve reached the conclusion that the entire industry can be lumped into a few categories, starting from the ones at junior levels.
1. The “MS in US” guy
This is the guy who joined a CTS or Infy or TCS with a 1 year timeframe in mind. His plan is to get 1 year experience under his belt, do the bare minimum to stay employed, study for GRE or GMAT and eventually go off to an American university to get a Masters Degree. Nothing wrong with aspiring for the MS, except it’s irritating to work with him because all he can ever talk about is quant, verbal and analytical. Every word he says is a fancy word comes straight out of the official GRE guide, no matter how well or how not-well it fits in that situation. Most of his interactions start and end with college applications. Worst of all, he has really no drive to do well at the job because he’s always in exit mode. If this was a relationship with a girl, he would be the boyfriend that always belittles the girl because he thinks that he’s eventually going to end up with a hotter girl
2. The “Yes Sir” guy
Desi managers love this guy and his team members hate him. This is the guy that even before the manager finishes the sentence, is off to do the manager’s bidding, no matter how terrible the manager’s idea is or how dumb the manager is. More often than not, this guy has no fucking idea what he’s doing except that his manager likes it. But beware, this is the guy who gets promoted. His teammates hate him because the manager loves him and they are left to pick up and complete all of his other work while he gets most of the credit. If this was a relationship with a girl, he would be the boyfriend that sets such high standards that other girls’ boyfriends hate him
3. The “I just finished it” guy
This is the pathological procrastinator. He knows how to tell everyone that the job will be done but is never done until the actual last second that it has to be turned in. In the last few hours, he’d look super busy and when he turns it in, he’ll look so tired that the manager thinks that he’s worked so hard for this but in reality he’s been faffing off 80% of the time. If this was a relationship with a girl, he’s the guy who bought super expensive roses at 9 PM on her birthday
4. The “let me ask John” lead
This is the team lead who is now a “leader” because he’s taken credit for other people’s work. When there are issues to be handled, you’ll always hear him naming other people under him who “had worked on it” or “need to fix it”. However, when there’s accolades to be had, he’s the first guy who stands up and says that it was he that lead the successful team. He’ll never give you an accurate solution nor does he ever know any technical reasoning behind issues, however, you can trust him to always take credit. If this was a relationship with a girl, he’ll be blaming the girl entirely for the breakup
5. The “let me take a look at it” lead
This is the lead who’s literally worked his way up. He knows how to do most of the work but the problem with this guy is that he’s at times condescending to you and thinks that because he knows it all, you ought to know it all too and pushes you to be a know-it-all. If this was a relationship with a girl, this would be the annoying know-it-all boyfriend
6. The “what’s the ETA” manager
This is the manager that is very adept at handing out work to their underlings but never really doing anything by themselves. The amount of time that they give you to finish the job is usually about 8 hours fewer than what they’ve told their boss. When you turn it in within the stipulated time, they now present it to their boss as having completed it before time. If this was a relationship with a girl, this is the guy who took full credit for the healthy baby and thinks that the girlfriend had nothing to do with it
7. The “it’s not in my hands” manager
This is the guy that you’re forced to trust for everything related to your career growth. He knows the work that you do, he knows your best and worst qualities and quite often he’s benefited from all the work that you have done. But when it’s time to reciprocate the gratitude, he just throws his hands up in the air and says “There wasn’t anything that I could do” and then… it’s all BAU. If this was a relationship with a girl, this is the boyfriend that tells you that it’s not his fault that you got pregnant.
To get more insights into the life of an IT employee, watch this video.