Need advice

[Shyam kumar]

Greetings Ranchers,

I want to share my story with you guys and need your advice regarding the same. I'm working in an indian MNC for the last 4.5 yrs.

I started my carrier from here. Initially for the first year I was given a maintanece project in Mainframes. There I learned Cobol

and CICS. As it was a maintanece and suport project I did not get a chance to enhance my Cobol skills beyound a certain level. The

code written was too complex and too large for me to undustand. Time went by and then this project came into production support

mode. For the next year I was allocated to the production support. I got extremley frustated as I did not get a chance to do any

development work. I talked to my manager about it and he shifted me to a different department promising me that the work at a new

place will be on Java which is ever growing. Initailly I was happy that I have got out the den and the way java was growing it was

a tempting opertunity. This new department (say dept B) has another EAI based maintanece project on JMS. Here I started learning

java and did SCJP 1.4 with 95% marks. After a few months the horror began. My very Rude manager told me that this project is going

on 24X7 support and I'll have to come on night shift. I was furious and hinted my Project lead that I may resign if asked to come

on night sift. My project lead and my manager then gave me a carrot, They said that each resource from this project will be sent to

onsite on rotational basis for 3 months. starting from my project lead. So I stayed back in the same project waiting for my

opertunity. I studied jsp, servlets in the meantime, but as I did not have any live project to work on my knowlege was not

complete. months went by but my turn did not come. I asked my manager about it and he said that i need to work harder to impress

the client and then my opertunity will come. So i did. They got my B1 filed and I was happy hoping... hoping... for prosparity,

monetory, if not intellectually. Then the next shock came. The project got scrapped. Everyone from my team started resigning. I was

very nervous as I now did not know Mainframes, not worked on java. I heard from other colleges who gave the interviews that

interviewers ask very difficult questions and one has to have good skills to get selected. I got scared and felt that I need to

work on at least one java project before applying nywhere else.
Now for the last 6 months I'm in a j2ee maintance project and still but onsite is still nowhere in sight. I'm also not satisfied with my current package,My manager is asking me to wait for another 4 months only then they can think over it.
I'm feeling really confused at this point of time. I need to go to onsite to have good financial balence in life now. Also I need to do some good work? What should i do? I waited for so long and remain so loyal but of no avail.
Please advice.

[srishal singh]

It is your decision either to trust your manager or quit.

What is preventing you from seeking the job outside??
Do it aggressively I am sure if you are good you will get tons of offers in current indian market.

[Shyam kumar]

Thanks for the reply. I have self doubt. How can I overcome it? I have only worked so far on maintance projects. No develpment work from the scratch. I feel I'm useless

[Preeti Arora]

Hi,

I have gone through similar phase when I was a fresher but with guts I changed company and switch to java.
I guess bug fixing is more difficult than devloping something new since you work on someone else logic.
The job market is good and you have already experience in java and other technolgies.All your fears are self created and you will see around that people with different intellect levels are able to survive in the industry.All you need is to apply for interviews and study from interview point to get job in bright company.How long you can stay with false promises in present company?

[Kj Reddy]

Start attending itnerviews and you may not peform well in first 2 interviews. If you dont clear interviews dont get diappointed and tkae those interviews experience to understand what the interviewers are expecting. Start preparing a notes with information in which areas you are strong and which areas you need to improve. Then you can clear the interviews. In this situation preparing for certifications will help you to gain more confidence.

Good luck

[Mike Isano]

"My manager is asking me to wait for another 4 months only then they can think over it." --quote

Your manager is just trying to make you be quiet for 4 months. He needs 4 months before "they" can start thinking over it??? Apparently "they" already thought over it and you were denied.
[ August 04, 2007: Message edited by: Mike Isano ]

[v ray]

Well, it is obvious you wont be getting much anymore out of your current job, so definitely you need to start looking out for a new job.
Like its already been suggested, start attending interviews, I am sure there are plenty of companies who would be interested in giving you a chance for an interview, so take that chance, and if you study well, I am sure you will get into a good job.
I know going onsite may help with your financial opportunities and so on, but that should not be the only priority for you, who knows, maybe a job change may bring you a better package and an offshore assignment?
Finally, do not worry too much about not having worked from scratch on any project, doing maintenance work, etc. Its all about handling the interview for you right now, and focus on doing that well, btw, like it was already said, working with someone else's logic is harder than developing from scratch.
And you have to live with it, most of the time, indian companies seem to get maintenance projects...not a generalisation though, just my limited observation.