My first two months in Mu-Sigma

So far so good, was my response to everyone from the moment I put my foot in Bangalore. Questions ranging from how is the Office? how is Bangalore? how is your accommodation? got the same answer "So far so good". And I must say that that "so far so good" phrase has been changed to "I am quite enjoying it". The day I came here I was very much tensed to face the new world ahead me. Mu-Sigma was very gracious enough to give me accommodation in a luxurious Ginger Hotel for my 1st 15 days of stay in Bangalore. A new place and no one to depend upon and add to that me being shy didn't find me any new friends on the first day. The next day I had to reach Mu-Sigma at 8 in the morning. Office fortunately was very near to Ginger Hotel. The formalities started and continued for a couple of days. Short journey shorter, I will explain it in a few bullet points.

Mu-Sigma Office in Bangalore

• MSU

The concept of MSU (Mu-Sigma University) is really very fascinating and interesting too. Mu-Sigma boasts of having extensive trainers to train their freshers . These trainers were freshers too few months or years back, means what they are teaching is what they are learning. It may happen that if you are working in Mu-Sigma, a year down the line you may be told to teach MS Excel to freshers. MSU covers subjects like working in SAS software, MS Excel, Statistics and SQL for over a period of month. I must say that this is very short a duration for all these subjects to complete but this is how Mu-Sigma works! MSU focusses mainly on mock project which we were needed to do during our MSU training. The effort I put in this project was hundred times the effort I put in my final year project in the University. The training ends with an evaluation test of each subject and presenting the mock project to the MSU principals and the mentors.

• Workplace

Mu Sigma never sleeps. The light in Mu Sigma never switches off, the door doesn't closes, there's always someone or the other in the office whether its 2 AM or 11PM, Thursday or Sunday, national holiday or international holiday. I feel to be lucky when i get to hear from my colleagues that they have crossed midnight working in the office, while my recorded leaving time is 10.45 PM so far. People stay late during their training period when they are learning new things or when they have deliverable to make. Business for Mu Sigma is growing, lots of work is coming in, 100s are being recruited every month hence the pressure is also building up to match up with the expectations. As far as I am concerned I am quite liking the work. It goes with my attitude, with no interest in programming I thought Mu Sigma would be a place for me but surprisingly we have to write SAS codes here also with concepts of OOPs in it. Seniors are friendly and quite helpful in attitude. People here are from different background so conflicts in nature also prevail but not so open. I hate to hear that "F" word every now and then. It seems that Mu Sigma has some patent for it. Other than that English is the communicative language. Overall the workplace is enjoyable.

Work Station in one of the bays

• Fun Friday

I eagerly wait for Friday to come. TGIF and the next day starts weekend and with it comes some rest. What rest? If I sit and calculate the amount of sleep I have during my weekdays is far greater than what I have during weekends. Friday is the day when every vertical (we have diff verticals like Technology, Retail, Pharma, Insurance, Airlines, etc.) have some allotted time to have fun. Fun includes games like Dumb charade, Treasure hunt, Pictionary, etc. Apart from general fun Friday-games, we have birthdays occurring every now and then, cake cutting is a must then. Mu Sigma premiere league (MPL), Mu-Talk, kaun banega Entreprenuer? fashion show, stand up comedy, table tennis, carrom, gym, white paper contest, Quiz, etc. are other notable events occurring every now and then. Sometimes it looks like we are back to college.

• Recruitment

With Sequoia Capital investing $25m in the company and the amount of work coming in, the HR team of Mu Sigma is living a tree cutter's life. 100s are recruited every month. IITs, NITs, BITs,  VITs and all the brainy colleges are targeted and what are they giving? Its meager 3.3 lakhs per annum (3.3 is not so less actually). If salary is taken into consideration then probably many will think Mu Sigma is not a place you should look for. But I would say that the amount training they give and the amount of experience you will gatherer in just a few months will help you to catapult yourself to a better position than what you are thinking now. I remember the day Mu Sigma  came to my college to recruit us, I was already recruited by Cognizant. The day started with a very haphazard manner, giving aptitude test which consisted of logical reasoning, picture puzzle, elementary maths, little English, etc. I was always confidence of my apti but the thing I feared was my technical knowledge, but fortunately there was no technical questions in the test neither in the interview. With over 110 students sitting in the test I was sure I would be called for the GD. The inevitable came sooner than expected, within 2 hours of test I came under prepared running with tie in my hand and tying the knot on the way. We were divided in 4 groups, each were given a topic based on the current situations of India or society. I had to speak on "Kolkata metro vs Delhi metro", others were to speak on "Live in relationship", "India and 1st world countries", etc. I think in that short duration speaking 4-5 sentences is more than enough. Among 15 selected from GD 7 were finally selected  to join the company. From the questions they asked in the interview, I can say that they wanted to know how good we have a manager in us, How can we manage different situation? What will be our approach to a given business problem? In a given bad situation what will we do as team member or a manager? they also gave me few puzzles to solve, which fortunately I knew it beforehand, just had to use my grey cells to remember it on that moment.

Mu Sigma was always a different company the moment I heard about it. different kind of package for different years, one and half hour long pre-placement talk, distributing watches to recruited ones, inviting us to dinner party to have our doubts cleared in Kennelworth hotel (near Park Street) and now providing cab rides to employees after 9.30 PM, reimbursing dinner upto Rs.100 after 8.30 PM, Providing Rs.500 to every employee for a treat on completion of a project. Overall I feel satisfied in choosing Mu Sigma over Cognizant even though the latter was giving me an option to stay back home. I miss my home very much, miss my friends and my beloved ones. But I sincerely believe that in life If you want to gain something you need not lose something but you need to manage something. Life always demands you to work hard at some point of time, so why not as a fresher. I don't want to compromise with my life so a little sacrifice is welcome. Deep down I still have in me to work for myself and I will start some day soon. For my younger brothers and sister I would say that think and choose yourself, don't go with others suggestions (not even mine). It was my choice and my interest purely. You may be interested in Networking, Java, coding and programming then for you this is not the place. If in case you have anything extra to ask for you can always reach out to me at haidertanzeel003@gmail.com or facebook

Regards

Edit (Oct 2012) - You might also want to read this My first year in Mu Sigma

Edit (Sep 2015) - I decided to move on to a different pastures to try out different flavors of life. I submitted my resignation in Mu Sigma and took up a new job in Hyderabad Thank you and good bye Mu Sigma