Oct 12, 2009 03:25 PM
12952 Views
(Updated Oct 14, 2009 11:08 AM)
So you thought IBM had a great work culture? Rather I will put it like "IBM.. an international name with very low standards". You all must be wondering why I am writing so. So here is the story behind this article.
Saturday, 10th Oct 2009, IBM had interview scheduled for JAVA, SEBEL, SAP, Testing and Oracle Apps at their Gurgaon (Selokheri) Office. Their consultants scheduled interview for quite a decent no of people which was approximately 120.
But as there were some end moment additions so number increased to 150-160. I reached there at 9:30 AM as my interview (as told by consultant) was scheduled at 10:00 AM. After the initial process of making entry on the gate and at 2 different registers and submitting resume, I got some number in 30s as my interview no. That means I had approximaly 30+ people in front of me in line for testing interview.
This whole initial process of allocating number to everyone who has come for interview was done by 12:30. Because at 12:30 when I checked with the HR person about my turn (JUST 1 PERSON taking care of all this), he told me that there are 60 candidates for testing and a lot of 20 has already been sent to 7th floor for interview at around 10:30. That gave me an idea that my turn will come in 1-1.5 hrs time.I was waiting patiently for another 2 hrs.
I went outside at reception to check with the HR person, but to my surprise the HR person was missing. When I checked with people waiting for the interview they said he has been missing for around 1-1.5 hr. He told them that he is going upstairs to get an update and will be back in 5 minutes. Even they were waiting desperately for him to come back but never came back.
At around 3 PM, I asked the security people (as they were the only IBM employees there) to call that HR person. Despite of our repetitive requests there was no one from IBM team to provide an update to the group of 60-65 people waiting in their cafeteria. On top of it, AC was switched off around 12 PM. Food was served only to employees.
When people said that they can buy it, the cafeteria in charge said that they do not have enough food. The only option people had for eating was a tuck shop which was selling juices, cold drinks and Maggie (which also went out of stock coz no of people was more).At 3:20 PM, I clearly mentioned to security people that if they will not call anyone from the staff then I will call press.
Then they called their supervisor who came after 5-7 minutes and they assured us that he will surely get someone from the staff soon. We waited for another 30 mins and then a person from the interview panel came and addressed the group of 50-55 people(as 10-15 people have alraedy left coz of frustration), apologizing and stating that it is not his fault. It is some other team's fault.
They are short of interview panel and he needs 30 more minutes to figure out if interview can be scheduled or not. It was shocking. I could simply state it as BAD MISMANAGEMENT. Mismanagement is sometimes acceptable but BAD MISMANAGEMENT is not acceptable from such reputed firms. I met a person there who told me that this is the 3rd time in this week only that he has come and IBM has sent him back stating that they are short of interview panel. Other 2 times it was a working day.
I was surprised that there is no process in place as if it is not such a big MNC. Rather the way they treated the people and put blame on other team for the chaos it was kind of some Indian govt office treatment.I didn’t wait for another 30 minutes but just walked out. I have blacklisted IBM from my preferred organizations. So I wanted to share my experience. I have 3 questions.
IBM people said they were short of interview panel. My ques is when all the consultants have already mailed them the list of people shortlisted, how come they were short of interview panel.
Fine, I accept at times they are some end moment addition. But when at around 11 AM IBM HR could see a crowd of 150-160 people then why didn’t IBM take any corrective action at that time.
Why were the people waiting for the interview not properly informed. Why was not there anyone present on the ground floor to take care of people's query. To end the article I will say I wasted my 6 hrs 30 mins on IBM which is not even worth 6 minutes 30 secs.
