A couple of my friends recently joined Wipro. They had been waiting to join since June and had been recruited in Aug 2004. The surprise that awaited them has left them feeling cheated and heartbroken.

The high amount of intake into Wipro this year has forced them to take their new employees in batches. The batches constitute of about 40 students each and the batch undergoes the entire training together.

All Wipro Employees are required to come a couple of days before their date of joining(mostly on the thu/fri before the joining date) to fill the forms for the Bank statements and the bond.
After filling the forms it was pointed out to them that the entire batch constitued Electronics and Telecommunication students… The person who was making the announcement went on to explain that since most EC and TC students are not “comfortable” with Software development they would temporarily be put in a “Tech Support” field. My friends objected and repeated that it sounded like a call center. The person in charge replied by saying it was not a call center.

The next day they were briefed up about their training. It was here when they did a ‘voice screening’. My friends were shocked and not certian what was happening they asked another person incharge about the job. Guess what, the man confirmed their worst fear… it was actually a call center.

Over a dozen of my EC and TC friends have joined to Wipro earlier this month and all were put in “Engineering Project groups”(or are being trained for the same). This sudden change in job description was highly unexpected, leaving my friends with almost no choice but to quit.

But there is a catch here too. Wipro is one of the companies that take the bond money initially, a sum of 75,000. Now they are forced to consider losing 75k or working in a Call Center.

Let me be clear… I was one of the ppl from my college placed in Wipro and my pals got the jobs on the very same day I did. At no point in the the recuritment process there was a mention of Tech Support or Call Center. The offer letter clearly stated that their designation would be “Project Engineer”.

I am not certian how a company like Wipro can make a blunder of this order but the fact is it has happened and its just not fair. Each of my friends has an awesome aggregate (above 80%) in Engg. and are absolutely brilliant (this was the first company to come to college and hence got most of the best). They were happy with their Wipro job and did not apply for any other company… now they are facing the future of running around (a bit atleast) thanks to no mistake of theirs.

My first advice was quit and demand your bond money back as they have officially started their training. But now that I think about it… they deserve what they were promised. Wipro must step up and give them the designation they deserved.

I have absolute respect for Wipro, they are a good company and frankly with such a large workforce sometime blunders can happen. But this sort of blunder is simply unacceptable…