I still remember the day when I got the mail from Recruitment@infosys.com saying that I am selected and I need to report at the Chennai DC on April 21 2003. We were a batch of 90 with majority of the junta being from Tamilnadu. I could see the sparkle of hope and expectation in each one’s eyes or was it the tension thinking about the tough training schedule waiting for us?
My stint with Infy started with the
ICE breaking session by HR folks which was followed by signing of lot of docs, opening of bank account etc. Everyone got a PC partner (with whom we were supposed to share the computer for entire training) and I was lucky to get a nice gal from Chennai and the gal unlucky as she was destined to suffer being my pc partner for next 3.5 months.Training phase just flew by with all the quizzes, Section tests, Generic Compres, Projects, etc etc. We had formed a notorious Mallu group within training batch and made sure that we never missed out on fun in this hectic training schedule.
Things like needing 65 plus in all quizzes, Submission of projects on time, Passing the Compre never really affected us. We had tonnes of fun roaming around at Sathyam Multiplexes, Spencer Plaza, Baesant nagar beach, late night 28 games, fantabulous birthday celebration using the Vellacherry mud water and Rotten tomatoes from nearby market, etc. Also stay at Vellacherry was an humbling experience for me. No water supply, regular power cuts, flooded roads through which we had to wade through in full executive dress, getting water from a nearby well for daily activities (cant really say daily bcoz of lack of water we made some daily activities once in 3 days and all).By gods grace I cleared the training without any major mishaps and got my posting at Mangalore DC. My training story wouldn’t be complete without mentioning what the evaluator told me after seeing my code during final compre exam. It still echoes in my ear”This is the best code I have seen so far today”. I have only god to thank for that. If he had compiled the code that day oh my god maybe I wudnt even have written this blog!!!!Next destination was Mangalore. The only idea I had about the same was as the land of UDUPI Hotels and Mangala Devi temple.
Infact before getting my posting I never knew Infy had a DC over there. The dc was small compared to other infy dc but this was a great place to work!!! I think all the Minfoscions will vow for that. The bonding among peers, the HR activites/events were just too good!! Never really got the impression that I was working here it was like just hanging around with a lot of friends. Hats off MINFY.YOU ROCK!!! 
Oh I think I just got carried away and digressed from the topic. So here I am at Minfy and my first project was the BENCH yes 1 month of paid vacation .Then came the project named Anthem(never knew that time this would be the only project I would work in infy). Here also I had a jolly good time as the project was a kewl one which didn’t need any night outs or extra hours of effort. 
I could see my roomies/trainee batch Mates struggling with night outs and all. Since the project was not hectic I could find a lot of free time for org wide activities which was great fun!! The fashion shows, the Dumb charades, Anatkshiri, Team outing, Water raftings are all now fond memories of good old days. One fine day my project manager called me and asked if I am ready to fly to US for onsite assignment for this project. So with that ended my first phase at INFY.Next destination US. The dreamland of majority of India IT engineers. I have to say I never really liked the same. Of course this is the place to be in if
you want to earn some quick moolah enjoying all comforts of life. The lack of social life and the too formal way of life might have been the deterrents. But during my short stay of 1.5 years I made sure that I covered all the imp tourist places starting from Newyork the city in the east coast to Los Angels the city in the west coast. Onsite was a great experience because of the client exposure we had and it helped me grow and mature as a professional.The production support was fun with the beeper going off at odd hours in the night and we fixing up the issue in half sleep. God knows what happened to all those claims I fixed poor patients .Some of the memories for me from US trip are
Getting my first car,”TO GO” lunchs from subway,view from top of empire state building, trip to LA to be with my bro,IHL day celebrations at office, learning to cook my first Omelet and graduating to an expert cook, First snowfall etc. One of the biggest challenges of my professional life happened during my stay here when the whole of ANTHEM systems crashed because of an hardware failure and our batch jobs was delayed by 3 days. Infosys as a team did a commendable job that time which drew in words of appreciation from even CEO of wellpoint (as by that time anthem was acquired by the same).All this time I was still nurturing my dream of going for an MBA and decided by sept that I need to go back to India to pursue my dreamz.So next destination was back to India to join the team back in mangalore. Things had changed quite a lot and it was an entirely new team here with majority of junta from fairer sex.
But the new team also was great fun to be with, even though the time I spend there was less as we had plans of transitioning the project to other DC .I was contemplating a transfer to tvm dc as I got reject from ISB for which I had come from US so that I can be at home and give another shot next year. Then BOOM!!!IHL DM :” Aravind can you go to china we are transitioning the project to china DC”.I decided to take the same as that will be a great resume add for me when I apply to colleges.Next destination China! The land of Great wall and noodles.
I was never circumspect about my visit even though all the people who came to know abt my trip to china had just stories of Chinese cusines. The trip though a short one for just three months was an unque experience and I can vow that I cherished every moment of the same .I found the same much more enjoyable than my US visit maybe because of the attitude of the very friendly Chinese people or the gang we had over there in china. True to my records I made sure that three months in china was well utilized Shanghai, Guilin, Bejing being some of the imp places I visited. Work wise china was kewl as we it was just KT sessions to the team identified over there. Shanghai is truly an amazing place u name it and u have it there in shanghai.The extensive metro service, maglev train,museums,6 
lane highways, Oriental tower, Bund to mention just a few of the attractions in shanghai. During my stint here I had applied to Asian institute of management and by gods grace got the admit for the same with a joining date of july 23rd.As pursuing an MBA was always clear cut for me putting down my papers was not a difficult decision.I decided to quit infy by june 6th and take a break of about 1.5 months before I fly to manila to live my dreams. So here I am today enjoying my break and long stay at home after about 4 years of hard(ly) work.
All I can say today is I had some great positive experiences of working with a bunch of good people. It has been a wonderful experience both personally and professionally for me at Infosys.Thanks to all those who groomed me in the technical and professional mores and made me capable enough to pursue my own ambitions and dreams.
Days are going by,with hardly a week left of this comfortable stay at home. I don’t even know when I will be able to blog again!!
