Pros
1. TCSers are highly linear in their thinking. No one will entertain discussing matters which are off-topic on internal calls. It will not be tolerated, even for 1 sentence. 2. TCS is at least a decade behind the United States progress in everything from their email server, to their CRM system, to enterprise system expertise. The upside of being so out-of-date is that this company has substantially less internal email than any contemporary employer in the States – think 1990’s mail volume. 3. There is no expectation for anyone to come to the office ever. If you want an employer where you can work from home all month, and by work, I mean not work – this place is for you. 4. If you feel it is your life mission to eradicate plagiarism, racism, sexism, favoritism, or nepotism, run your career at this place. It would be a lifetime achievement to eliminate just 1 of these in this 1 company. 5. TCS has employees who have a lot of experience with global travel. Whether you get to travel will depend on your ethnicity, gender, and last of all – your job title. You may get to go to new places for work. 6. If you’re Indian, you will think this place is the best place ever. What’s trash to an American is a treasure to an Indian. You will leave your wife, children and friends behind, to do anything your TCS manager tells you to do, in any part of the world he tells you to do so, during any hours of the day he tells you to. 7. If you’re Indian, you may get taken care of, at this company – whether that comes in the form of gardening leave, or sending you to India to see your family, or healthcare in urgent care scenarios. People joke about it being like the Mafia. If you’re non-Indian, none of this applies to you. 8. TCS has enough money to pay for industry awards. So they don’t actually have to earn any awards. You can just pay enough to be awarded. And that works well for you, you can tell people your employer has “won” awards. 9. TCS will have you doing the most menial of work, even if you are senior in your career. If you prefer to do low value work for any reason whatsoever, this place is for you.
Cons
1. Dishonesty is a lifelong behavior for employees. TCSers will share stories with you that start childhood and in college. The stories will include everything from bribes, to lying to the CEO, to fudging earnings. 2. No Indian will tell an American directly that they are anti-American. All racist thoughts are repressed from expression. There is, however, for you fact-checkers, an anti-American lawsuit that’s easy enough to find on Google. 3. If Milton from the Office Space reminds you of yourself, this is the place for you. No one @ TCS says they are inspired about their job – it’s not even a word in their vocabulary. Everyone says they are just there to collect a paycheck. Apathy and despair are abundant. 4. The worst internal technical support. Employees who work at the Global Help Desk are literally trained in India to not listen endusers globally. They will take a single word out of a helpdesk ticket, and concoct a response based only the most familiar word they see. 5. Absolutely, hands-on, the worst environment for non-Indian women. All opportunities of any kind, which would give a non-Indian woman power, or access, are overtly refused. 6. It is commonplace to be excluded at TCS – regardless if it is an e-mail, an invitation or an event. It is common to ask “why I do I need this person?”. Erase any beliefs of teamwork being a better way of life, or you’ll be shocked time and again on how things are done. 7. Managers are completely gutless about employee terminations. 100% of managers no-show to termination call. Benefits at time of termination are the worst you will have ever heard of relative to any Fortune 1000 company. Ironic, when you’re working for one of the wealthiest men in the world, a Global 2000 company, isn’t it? 8. A CIO told me that awarding business to TCS was the worst decision of his career. 9. Out in public at a conference, where we're responsible for saying things about TCS, someone approached me to tell me of a CEO of a university, who was fired for awarding the business to TCS.