[Romins]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Thank you @Romins for your inputs. Sharing my perspective from having seen part time self employment at close quarters {my spouse} for 3+ decades.

Definitely, freelancing/self-employment is not everyone's cup of tea. Freelancing is like a love marriage, if it works out well, very good for you. A full-time job in Indian companies is like an arranged marriage

WFH was an alien concept before COVID and now it has become the norm. Likewise, part-time employment and freelancing will become popular in the near future, at least in IT sector.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

If you are self employed and wish to work only part time you just might succeed but only if you are willing to make do with a substantially lesser earnings a month and live with earnings that ebb and flow each month without consistency.

Originally Posted by Romins

Definitely, freelancing/self-employment is not everyone's cup of tea.

Certainly, freelancing in India at this point is not going to work for the typical couple with kids living in a metro aspiring for a bigger car every 3 years and a 20-year home loan. But it's gaining acceptance with those who are willing to trade that kind of financial cushioning for a more flexible and mobile life. The big difference is at the start of my career it was completely unthinkable. It's at least possible now, not as a 1:1 financial replacement for the full-time job- but certainly at least as a viable option to make a basic living, at least in the IT industry and again, depending on the role/job function. And a growing number of people are willing to make that trade-off. (I'm not as yet, but I know quite a few younger people who are already.)

[aargee]

Originally Posted by Romins

WFH was an alien concept before COVID and now it has become the norm. Likewise, part-time employment and freelancing will become popular in the near future, at least in IT sector.

During pre-covid times, the prevailing WFH was to be termed as Work For Home & it's only after covid it's prevailing as Work From Home. Hopefully in future people realize the benefits of work From home concept & popularize freelancing.

Sharing a WFH incident from 2009 - One morning our director (DR) was walking to his office passing by our cubicles wishing everyone good morning & stopping for a small chitchat with some of them. He was just casually asking if everything is OK with one new recruit (NR) as he wasn't seen for last 2-3 days & the conversation goes something like this...

DR : Hi xxx, how're you doing?
NR : Yes DR, everything good, no issues
DR : Not seen for last 2-3 days, everything OK?
NR : Yes
DR : Were you on PTO or something?
NR : I was working from home as I'm yet to be assigned any work

That evening, we were stripped off the privilege & had to take operations manager's permission for working from home. Even then, most were granted based on case to case basis.

It's quite true that most Indians cannot work without supervision & most of them are like rockets...they don't shoot up until a fire is set on tails!!

[Romins]

Originally Posted by aargee

That evening, we were stripped off the privilege & had to take operations manager's permission for working from home. Even then, most were granted based on case to case basis.

I have been WFH since 2015 from Bangalore for a company in Cochin. I usually visited the office once in 3months before COVID. This privilege was granted only to certain employees, and usually new employees don't get this until they complete one year. Yes, many are not self-motivated to complete their tasks. Recently I met a friend who is HR manager and she said they are going to roll out separate policy for WFH including difference in C&B.

[am1m]

(Sorry for the immediate posts, but forgot to include these pertinent points.)

My wife works for the Indian subsidiary of a massive US corporation that's been around for more than 50 years. And even a company with such well-entrenched processes is opening up and advertising for 'gig/temporary roles'. Again, not for creative functions, but for core technology roles in ongoing projects.

So I certainly see freelance opportunities growing and in a few years, someone starting their career might even look at starting out as a freelancer- and not just in design or creative roles (that option for those roles have been commonplace for some time now).

[adisan]

Meanwhile, looks like regular hiring has picked up in a big way. The process is entirely online including exit and on-boarding. People seem to be taking jobs in cities/ towns they would not have considered prior to the WFH culture.

[Gansan]

^^ My son's institute has been running online classes from March'20 when he was midway through his 4 th semester. 5th and 6th semesters were entirely online, now 7th semester also running online. He did one summer intern project for two months entirely online, and I thought the stipend he got was rather generous, but was worried about placement prospects under the circumstances.

He has been attending placement tests and interviews online for the past couple of months. I see the annual packages offered range from 5 lacs to 25 lacs. He has received a good placement offer, let us say somewhere in between the two figures. There were a few 45 lpa offers too, but they were biggies such as Google, Microsoft etc. A very few CSE toppers were handpicked by them. The entire process was online.

My son is not in any IIT, but NIT. He is not studying CS either. He says already 50% of his batch has secured placement offers, and the offers are more numerous and generous when compared to his senior batches. The institute placement cell also confirms this. The process will go on till new year and more companies are still coming.

Edit: The companies are from various fields, not IT alone. In general hiring seems to be higher, by all employers.

[tharian]

Originally Posted by adisan

Meanwhile, looks like regular hiring has picked up in a big way. The process is entirely online including exit and on-boarding. People seem to be taking jobs in cities/ towns they would not have considered prior to the WFH culture.

Yes, much easier if you ask me, easier than being in office and finishing off formalities.

I was on bench from mid Feb and was laid off June end and got through a new organisation by September end and joined October end.
The only time I had to go to office during these times, was to the new office for a couple of hours, to collect my laptop and accessories.

Thank God, because I am some one who prefers not going through the stress of meeting people in person, be it the exit or the interview process.
Escaped going to office in those 4 months I was on bench as well, which would have been annoying to say the least.

[adisan]

Originally Posted by Gansan

...the offers are more numerous and generous when compared to his senior batches.

True for experienced candidates also. Attrition rates are going up, as several people are getting multiple offers with generous hikes.

[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by adisan

Meanwhile, looks like regular hiring has picked up in a big way.

You bet. Reshuffling of people among organisations is going on in a big big way. I haven’t seen this level of attrition and hiring since 2009/10(post 2008/09 recession). I don’t know of anyone who settled for only 1 or 2 offers. Specially folks under 12-15 years of experience. Am not sure how sustainable these salaries are. Hope this bubble doesn’t burst and this becomes market standard.

Anyways sticking to the thread title here are a few firms I see hiring heavily. Most of my friends and colleagues have joined these or shuffled among these.

Delloite
EnY
KPMG
PWC
WITCH firms of course
Amazon
Walmart

[dragonfire]

Originally Posted by aargee

During pre-covid times, the prevailing WFH was to be termed as Work For Home & it's only after covid it's prevailing as Work From Home.

I agree to this observation. Instead of taking a day or half off for attending to a personal chore, people used to take WFH. It was fine if people really managed to do some work, but at least for me it was extremely difficult.

I used to sometimes "work from bed" and then fall asleep there. When Covid induced WFH started, it was very difficult for me concentrate on work during the first few months. Then I realized that the culprit was my laptop/bed combo. So as soon as the first round of lockdown was over, I bought a computer desk, an office chair, a big screen monitor, a webcam, wired headset and a wired keyboard and set up my office space in a spare room. I have been very productive ever since. Even more productive that what I used to be in office.

Now, I don't want to go back to working from office, although I don't mind going once a week or so to meet up with my colleagues.

[AirbusCapt]

I hope everyone recollects and remembers the classic productivity thumb rule here. This rule is as unmutable as the laws of physics.
The thumb rule says that the work output from any employee must be atleast twice to five times the gross salary of the employee. If your productivity is not atleast twice your pay, be prepared to be fired sometime in the near future, if your productivity reaches almost 5 times your pay, be prepared for promotions and added responsibilities.

[84.monsoon]

One of the main issue of today faced by MNCs with India centres is offer drops and no-shows due to the extensive multiple-offers and cross-shopping situation going on among candidates. Many firms have traditionally had a 3 month notice period, which gives a long shopping window to candidates to attend even more interviews and shop even more. Firms who had less than 3 month's notice period are switching to a 3 month notice, which makes the situation worse as the certainly of someone joining 3.5 - 4 months after you make an offer is lesser. The solution is to actually reduce notice period across the board so that the shopping window is less and it is speedier to fill roles, which is an important criteria for global stakeholders. Yet, no one wants to be the first to do so, because if you switch to a short notice while others do not, it becomes a double whammy, your recruits will continue to shop and not show up but your exits will go out faster leaving you vulnerable in terms of service continuity. Companies are now seriously making plans on alternative and complementary locations that can be added to India, especially as the wages here are fast rising and the coat arbitrage is slowly disappearing, on top of this, the high attrition, offer drops and no shows.

[rajeshks777]

Let me tell you my experience.. I am 40+ now and spent 20 years in IT Industry. 2 years back I shifted to a Public sector company as Enterprise Architect. Incidents that led that that was funny.

Normally I read online newspapers only but accidentally one saturday while having breakfast I was going through the hardcopy newspaper. I came across a job advertisement from a large Public Sector company. It was a special recruitment and the job description looked like was written for me I was sure not many people will apply for that due to the salary offered. As expected only 4 applied, only 2 came for interview and I was selected as I was the only exact match. Company management was surprised when I joined I was the second specialised IT employee of that 50000+ crore company. Later another guy also joined in a different role. Now when we try to recruit or take people on deputation in other roles, we are not getting anyone.

So the whole point is, there are many opportunities in Government and Public Sector. They are not finding people to join them. Senior IT guys from Industry who want to have a calm life after 40 is somehow not finding these openings.

Disclaimer: Govt/Public sector jobs have its own challenges. Its an entirely different world.

[IndieGooner]

Originally Posted by 84.monsoon

One of the main issue of today faced by MNCs with India centres is offer drops and no-shows...

I work for an Indian IT major which had 30 day notice period back when I joined but has changed to 90 days instead few years back. I saw this 30 day notice period as one of the perks while joining this company and personally felt betrayed when they arbitrarily decided to triple my notice period without me having any stake in the decision. I suppose such an act won't fly at many sectors other than Indian IT.