Training of two and half months @Trivandrum

Training at Trivandrum:

 For me, training in Trivandrum was overall a great unforgettable experience. It was more like a paid vacation for me. I never learnt so many things in such a short stint plus I was getting money for training and learning new things for the first time. Simply this thought makes me happy. Let’s go through all the details of training:-

In the first day they will allocate the hostel based on a random order. A single room is usually shared by two people. One is not allowed to choose a hostel but one can freely choose his/her room partners. The allocation of room generally depends on FCFS. If two persons want to change rooms or do things like that it generally depends on one convincing power. The food and stuffs are little costly but the faster one gets accustomed to this will be better.  There will be induction/briefing classes on the first two days of joining TCS, which are usually very boring. My advice to you to be attentive in these first two days as they say lot of rules and regulation about company which can be very useful. There will a online test of 20 minutes conducted and trainees are allocated their stream(java,.net,mainframe etc) based on the combined marks of ASPIRE and this test. FYI as a stream, Java and .Net are the preferred ones.  Moving ahead of the two days of boring lecture let’s move on to the course and training. The training will be divided into two groups: Business and Technical.  So there will be a biz skill leader and a tech skill leader in every class of size 40 approx.

There will be one class monitor or class captain for each class. They can be selected on basis of leadership quality, voting or simply by ignorance. My advice please doesn't go for it. It is a complete clerical job and will add a lot of extra burden. There is a representative for every group of 6 trainees called Spoc. Spoc is someone who leads a group during the entire training. One can learn and experience lot of management skills and leadership qualities by being a spoc.

Coming to class structure, a lot of attention and care is given to form groups and subgroups. The basic idea of putting trainees into groups is to help them learning team spirit, enabling competition between different groups and sharing of knowledge.  

The class of 42 is divided into two blocks-A (24) and B(18). Then every block is divided into team of 6 trainees. Every team of 6 trainees is formed by 3 subgroups of 2 partners. And the criteria for selecting these two partners in a subgroup in (descending order of priority) are: one should be of IT/CS and other non tech. One should be male other should be female. They should belong to different places like one from north and other from south. So guys a lot depends on your luck:-P

 The biz skill training will be new to everyone regardless of the stream. My advice to everyone just try to enjoy the biz skill classes. Be interactive, mix with all people, talk to them, ask questions, sometimes try to interact with biz skill leads, exude positive attitude and confidence; and most important have fun. You will also get a good score in this section just by doing these things. The marks in biz skill classes include sections like behavior, written and speaking skill, dressing sense, interactions with others and lot of trivial things we never notice. 

In technical section, you will be first introduced to the stream (JAVA,.net)  and after one month of basic training  there will be a project given for each group. The quality of training depends on the tech lead one will get. It will be entirely his will he want to take classes or not. Literally, there is no one to monitor him. Mine first tech lead was the coolest one. He left us on our own as his only reason coming to Trivandrum was to enjoy one month paid vacation after a hectic project.  The workload will be relatively less during the first two-three weeks. So enjoy these week-ends cause once the project gets started everyone has to come on both Saturdays and Sundays. The presentation of the project really matters and this is the most crucial part of the training. After all the hard work for two and half months the last week is a luxury. There will be no work, less attention of biz skill and in my case there was no tech lead too. After the training, a rating is given to every associate. The rating basically differs from 3-5. The general rating is 3 while 4 is considered as very good and 5 is phenomenal. 4 rating is generally given to 3-4 guys in a class of 40 trainees while a rating 5 is given to one two guys for the entire batch(500-600).  During the last week of training people will be allocated their base branch (Bangalore,Chennai etc). This allocation basically depends on three choices filled before training and luck. My sympathy to those who gets Chennai as their base branch :-P

 So this was all about technical details of training in Trivandrum , besides all these things, enjoy the new place, a different climate, interact with new people, squander your first month salary, do party and simply enjoy life.

Note: I have written a blog about my life in TCS as a fresher. I hope it helps.
http://mylifeintcs2.blogspot.in/