Help needed over making a decision over next job switch

[Vishnu Rao]

Hi Guys,

I have 5+ years of work experience and have been lucky so far to work in good companies with good technologies project with good onsite opportunities. I have to make a change now due to some personal reasons and I am stucked with two offers

i) Infosys
They have specified the project, it's for a finance giant. They are offering me Tech. Lead role with Programmer Analyst designation.
Responsibilities includes 80% technical role + 20% managerial role. I will get a team of size 5-6 or so to lead / mentor.
Salary offered is 7.1 lakhs (with some variable component).
Onsite would be there sooner or later which is abvious since Infy is famous for that.

ii) Veritas
It's a product related work. It's mainly technical role. It's a flat organization so role/designation doesn't play much role there. I won't get a team here.
Technical work includes Java / C++ technologies.
Salary offered is 8.7 lakhs with no variable copmonent.
Onsite would hardly be there ever.


What shall I go for? I have worked technically a lot till now so just confused whether I shall continue working technically "only" or shall I move to bigger players and learn some managerial jargons too?

I don't know my priorities. Only thing I know is I have loved and performed well in technology side till now. Shall I continue there? or shall I get out of that developer line and learn some managerial things too? Confused

Please help folks.

Awaiting your replies
[ October 13, 2005: Message edited by: Vishnu Rao ]

[Vishnu Rao]

No replies? Did I ask some stupid question ?
[ October 14, 2005: Message edited by: Vishnu Rao ]

[Kj Reddy]

Originally posted by Vishnu Rao:

What shall I go for? I have worked technically a lot till now so just confused whether I shall continue working technically "only" or shall I move to bigger players and learn some managerial jargons too?

I don't know my priorities. Only thing I know is I have loved and performed well in technology side till now. Shall I continue there? or shall I get out of that developer line and learn some managerial things too? Confused

If you dont know priorities then its time for you to think about your priorities which will helpful for you to take a decision. If you are exhausted with technical stuff then go with Infosys so that slowly you can move towards management side. If you want to stay technical side I feel Veritas should be a company where you will do lot of things.

As you already have 5 years exp you should have some idea what you want to be.
Good Luck

[Sridevi K]

Hi Vishnu,

I think you should figure out yourself whether you want to continue in the technical stream or take up managerial work

[Rr Kumaran]

I myself asked the same question and really dont know what the real answer. But it makes sense to choose a path in which you have passion and interest because as long as you have these two you can excel in your path. There are lot of challenges in both technical stream , managerial stream , or both and I feel each of can be lucrative and it is just a matter of where your interest lies.

Hope somebody can better project my ideas and show us a path :-)

[Vishnu Rao]

Thanks guys.

My main confusion is, unlike US, is there any growth in technical stream in India. I would love to pursue technically, but will there be any returns? Majority of employees move to managerial stream right after 2-3 yrs. in IT or start aiming for it.

If I continue technically for say 3 more years, i.e. total 8 yrs of technical experience, what should I expect out of that experience? i.e. what kind of role would Indian IT companies be offering (considering the fact that Indian IT does majority of low level work) ?
Will there be fewer choices/ vacancies for me?

[Arun Sharma]

If you are a technically strong person, Infosys could be really boring for you. When you have a Veritas offer, I dont think you have to think much about others. Unless you are hell bent on onsite, Veritas should be the way to go or atleast that's what I think. I have friends there and they are very happy. The HR policies and work environment is amazing and work is also good. I don't think Infosys would be such a good idea.

About the scope for 8 years exp technical person in India goes, it is increasing day by day. The product development companies need such people and there is a serious shortage of such in the country. I guess sooner the demand for strong technical expertise would be more.

The companies such as Infosys won't ever need them, since most of their projects are not technically very challenging. But the Veritas, Cisco, Microsoft, BMC, and the like are always on the lookout for 8-10 years of tech experienced people. So, if you are technically very good and doing well there theres no need for you to plunge into management, if you don't want to.

It would be interesting to know what others feel. Whether they want to be tech staff or become project managers. Personally, I would prefer to be a technical person.

[Vishnu Rao]

Originally posted by Arun Sharma:

It would be interesting to know what others feel. Whether they want to be tech staff or become project managers. Personally, I would prefer to be a technical person.

I personlly prefer to continue in technical stream only. Mainly because:
i) Technical work fascinates me
ii) The more experience I gain, the lesser competition I see, esp. in India where every second guy is aiming to become a manager.

But again, as I mentioned earlier, whether there would be any future for such role forces me to think differenty.