About to Switch - Beware of HR (MAL) Practices

About to switch again, looking for Job, or about to make a Career Shift to a Company of you choice or dreams.... Folks...hold it right there....lemme me make you aware of latest HR Practices or rather Malpractices followed knowingly or unknowingly in our so called MNC Software Companies.

Lemme First list down Recent HR lapses happened with my friends and then I shall try to bring out the Process, Myths, Truths, precautions and suggesstions

• HR Executive of US based MNC in Hyderabad Schedules the Telephonic Technical Interview Round for a Senior Postion - Nobody from Technical Panel calls the Candidate. Nobody from the HR even cared to intimate the Candidate. Worse of the Worse Lapse happens twice in row. - Finally, the guy pulls up the strings in HR Circuit and gets the apology from HR Director. The story doesnot ends here. The interview is scheduled for the 3rd time and before the interview happens, the candidate is told that his Profile doesnot matches the current Requirements.
• Delivery Head of US Based GLOBAL MNC having ODCs in Bangalore, Hyderabad & Gurgaon, gives the offer of the Candidate in Bangalore verbally and assures him that he shall receive the copy of the offer in 2 weeks and he should join in a month. When the candidate calls (some how getting the phone numbers of HR in Gurgaon-thats where the Head belonged) after 3 weeks, he is told that he didn't succeeded in the final round and they never gave any offer. The Guy foolishly resigned his present employer coz of his long notice period et al on that verbal offer, is now facing heat from his own HR and trying to take back his resignation.
• A so called service Noida based Network Program-ing Company calls for interview, The Development Director gives a tentative offer to the candidate on the condition that he needs to clear the Technical Interviews with the client, for which he can appear, but in front of client he has to mention that he is already working with the company. Incase he clears he shall be given the offer. Internally we know whatever happens he won't be given the offer, if the project comes, the company shall first fill up with existing ppl on bench.
• A Gurgaon based Telecom major being acquired by another major last year backs off from the offer, sighting project scrap. The candidates selected were serving notice period with there present employer were left stranded.
• In Noida, a so called Software major, took resignations during recession period on GUN-POINT.

There are lot more such instances which I hope ppl shall be illustraing when they comment....anyhow I shall now proceed with other aspects I desired to bring in light.

Here is the whole Process

1. Resume on the table

• You spend heck of time in preparing your Resume then shoot it accross
• Send it for refferral by a Friend in the company
  
• Send it Directly to the HR alias of the Company
• Send it to the Consultants to be sent to group of companies in domain
  

Now all these methods have there own inbuilt pros & cons and at the same time HR Malpractices enters like a dragon which can render you clean bold at the very first step of Movement. Lemme throw in some light onto it.

• Myth: HR is educated enough to shortlist the techie Resumes :: Truth: HR know zilch about the technicalities involved for the requirement generated by Tech Managers. They sqabble around the terms in Resume so make sure that you hightlight all those tech jargon.
  
• Myth: All 3 methods above will have similar result or impact in you selection process.
  Truth: All methods have different impact in different companies. HR in very few companies go by refferral candidates, though every HR will asks time to time to refer friends.
• HR in midsize companies in Noida & Gurgaon go by Consultants coz they have arrangements to share Percentage of Consulting Fees (which is 20-30% (HR Share) of the 10% (Consultant Share) of Negotiated CTC of the Candidate). Thus you shall find that in some companies the chances of getting a call, getting better offer are much much higher as compared to when your CV is sent directly or reffered by a friend.
  
• Even when you are getting you CV forwarded by Friend, try to find a person who is higher in Hierarchy levels rather then how deep your freindship. For US based Huge MNCs in Bangalore and Hyderabad, try to find somebody in US office who can forward you resume for India Position. You shall be mesmerized to see the impact of that forward.
• In case of Consultants make sure that you ask the consultant to get a formal consent from you before forwarding the Resume to any of the company, there had been instances wherein Consultants hath sent the Resumes to the company where you are working at present, which hath created havoc to the professional standings.
• In case of applying via Websites make sure you block you resume listing to the present employer and blacklisted companies in your book..else you know.. :)
• Applying directly to HR alias rarely brings in results in most MNCs. The HR alias is often managed by Fresh HR Trainess (mostly those gorgeous females in HR Circuits - who are hired to maintain the Beauty versus Beast Balance in Company) who rarely have intelligence to understand Priority of Hiring a Correct Hire.
  

2. Lapses in Technical Telephonic Rounds

• Technical Telephonic Rounds - This is another black hole wherein any perfect Hire could vanish & tagged as "NOT SUITABLE FOR CURRENT REQUIREMENT". This can happen coz of HR lapse or coz of lack of Technical Expertise in the interviewer to judge the Candidate.
• HR involved in the process shall schedule the interview at whee hours and then there is high chance that HR forgets to intimate you beforehand about reschedule or cancellation of round. On the other hand the Techie scheduled to take the interview knows all the loop-holes, simply says, "Candidate was not suitable". In here interview never happens.
• The interviewer out of prejudice about your present employer, caste, creed, race, gender, region, religion or any other factor simply rules you out. In this case interview does happens but you never were judged fairly. HR in here lapses to identify if the interviewer followed the right path or not, coz there was no process in place.
• The connectivity at the time of interview was poor, coz of weak signal of mobile or disturbances at the interviewer's end, the communication hampers and thus candidate is at loss.

Whatever be the case, the would be perfect hire is at loss. The company loses another good Candidate and the Candidate is at loss of oppurtunity to prove himself.

3. Face to Face interview Rounds

• You shall find companies after rounds of Telephonic Interviews shall call the person for a face to face final interview and reimburse the travel cost. In here the there are numerous instances wherein there shall be a delay in reimbursing the same, if candidate refuses to accept the offer. Candidate finally finds it awkward to follow up the promised reimbursement which usually happens on call and he has nothing in mail. There is another catch in here - For Air Ticket Reimbursement you have to produce the boarding pass in original so donot throw it before it's reimbursed. Anyhow suggesstions shall be there later in the post for all.
• Face to Face rounds sometimes span across the day or across the lunch timings and if a person a arriving from outside the city limit, only few companies shall offer him the lunch. Rest HR will ask him to wait during the lunch. They shall never bother about reference of THE HUMAN in HR acronym.
• HR rarely understands in here that the person coming for Face to Face round is taking out time from his daily schedule and most of the time taking a Days CL or sometimes EL. They never realise that for them interview process is Job of the day but the Candidate its the loss of a day. Thus, for a face to face interview it's not un-natural to demand for days compensation in travel expenses. :)
  

4. Result of the Process

• At Senior designations mostly and even for normal positions HR conducts 3 to 9 rounds of interview before giving a final YES to the candidate. The Malpractice in here is about saying "NO" to the candidate at the juncture he is rejected. They shall hang the candidate around for days and weeks without intimating him of the result of the process. The false hope in the Candidates mind soon dies and HR in here is classified as DUMB. In reality The HR Process dictates to communicate the happenings of the process not only to its own management but also to the Candidate in question coz stakes are there at both sides. HR is just a mediator in here, though not paid by the Candidate, but HR is surviving just coz there are Candidates in Industry ready for a switch.
• In Recruitment Process - Guys and Gals understand it very clearly, that NO NEWS is BAD NEWS, so at every round of the process demand the results. Create Pressure on HR Circuit to Deliever.

5. Formal Joining.

• After all process completes favourably, finally its time to join the new company and folks that shall be a eye opener day.
• Thy shall come to know that though Company functions on 5 day schedule, but coming on saturday is assumed and taken for granted and if you come on Sundays then you shall be considered upto mark.
• Thy shall come to know that Mathematics involved in calculating the CL, EL, GL and all other kinda leaves is more tedious then "Laplace Transform".
• The arithmatics involved in your package CTC is so complex that you might need to hire a CA to settle it accross.
• On the day of formal joining thy shall realise that though the recruiting HR said you can join next day and they won't need any doc from previous company, thy shall come to know that the FINANCE CONTROLLER shall calculate TAX on the basis of your present salary structure for all the previous months starting from 1 April of current financial year, till you give FORM 16 from previous company and if any extra TAX is deducted, thy can claim it from INCOME TAX DEPT. of GOVT. OF INDIA. and we all how how easy is that. How to tackle this ? See Suggesstion & Precautions.
  
• There shall be whole list of Eye openers depending on you designations, profile & company....But folks beware. ...some of them shall be sth like...
• Most common one - The Project or skillset for which you were given offer, has not materialised, The Tech Director & HR conspired and hired you, now they donot have any place to fit you in, so you are on bench from day 1. Leave appraisals...even you stay in company for more than a month is BIG QUESTION MARK.
• You were hired, you joined, but there are other members need to join so that the project shall kick off, but till then....you can stay to rust....again in doubts that if it didn't materialises then you are lost in history.

Anyhow...it shall be a long list...so I shall now straight come to Suggesstions and Precautions to be taken before saying YES to prospective employer and before putting down papers to present employers for my Software fretenity.

6. Suggestions and Precautions

• Get your Resume forwarded to HR Circuit from the highest hierarcial position you can, so that HR at least moves it to the technical panel.
• Whenever you fix a telephonic round of interview, ask the HR Recruiter to shoot a email for confirmed schedule with a contact number to reach incase the interviewer never turns up. It shall be useful in forensics
  
• Always ask the HR for the name of the interviewer who shall be calling you up at the scheduled time, so that you yourself can bring in your detective skills to find more about the interviewer :) and his patterns, along with being safe from your friends pulling up a prank at the same time.
• During Telephonic rounds, keep you mobile battery charged full and be at a place with gud signal strength and away from noise.
• If your profile has been forwarded by a friend or a consultant, keep a constant tag on them about the result and current status.
  
• For face to face interview, make sure that you reach on time, neither late nor too early, that casts a bad impression, be young and fresh for the same, it's your problem how you make it. But while fixing the face to face round, always ask the HR to send the email with the detail about duration of the round and stick to that. You are appearing for this round on your cost of the day. Present employer has more Haq as compared to the prospective employer. Be Ethical.
  
• Even if given an offer over the telephone, or received it in a email, always ask for a Hard copy duly signed to be sent to you, after which you shall send in your acceptance. NEVER EVER resign untill you agree to all the terms in hardcopy of Offer letter. Ask for new offer letter incase the offer letter has mis-spelled your name or the joining dates are changed by any of the you.
• Try to get the CTC details analysed by you CA or experienced person or ask the HR to send in the in-hand salary details along with it, so that you know of exact figures and exact gain in accepting the offer.
• If you have negotiated for Buyout amount, Joining Bonus and Relocation Reimbursement, always confim when and how it shall be given to you and if there shall be any TAX deduction for the same. Get that detail also in offer letter. Also ask for any hidden rule about it like you might have to return it back if you resign before the completion of a year etc etc...
• Even if the Recruiting Company has claimed to join them in a day without any docs etc, thy shall be in fishy state to gather Form 16 etc from you present employer. So never leave the company without closing on channels gracefully. Form 16 shall be given at the end of financial year, so Confirm if the Recruiting Company shall accept the salary certificate or the salary slips for the calculation of the same. Else....you know :)
• Even before joining sometimes you might be asked to refer your friends for the similar or different skills, Beware of this trap, at this time you are not eligible for refferral bonus, First join and refer only when you are eligible for Referral Bonus. :)
  
• Believe in youself - You are the one who is going to make the difference. When a company hires, it hires the whole package. Delieve Truth and Quality& Expect the same
• There are many such Precautions but the only one that envelops all is "ALWAYS KEEP YOUR ALERTS ON"
  

Finally the final word for HR Circuit.

HR should realise, understand and take this fact deep down the soul, that "They are a support function to the Industry. Software companies are known for the quality of people they have and quality of delivery. HR Circuit is a COST CENTER. They are supposed to justify there very existence by ethical means in the Company.

They are the face of the company whenever they contact any person for hiring process. The image of whole company comes at stake when they lapse or malpractice in any sense.

There survival depends on that 1 Year experienced Software Engg on whose billing all HR, ADMIN, FMG etc are surviving. That software engineer is the LORD and technically they should Worship him."

It's high time that the Mangement of the Software Companies brings in Quality Process for HR Circuit and fixes an SLA (Service Level Agreement) for the HR.