After reading two reviews here on MS, I thought I should do my bit by conveying that this company QuEST is not a good place for Engineers.
I have put 6+ years of experience at 2 medium(2000+ employees) sized companies dealing with Engineering services prior to joining QuEST. I worked in this company for about an year before saying GOOD BYE.
Firstly this company has no transparency, no one in the company know exactly what is the business size of the company, how much profit they make and how the money percolates to the bottom of the company. All the employees know is through an e-mail by company CEO(once in a year) who claims the company has made 7 or 8 percent profit(no mention revenue will be done). In my previous company all employees are aware of revenue, profit, bonus etc etc. This kind of opaqueness sucks big time, if you conduct a survey within QuEST, 110% would say YES the company is not transparent. It's unbelievable that a company of this size can run like this.
Second thing that irritates is wrong hiring, I was recruited for some X work, and I was told the work will start immediately upon joining. I was eager to contribute my experience, but three months passed I was just doing nothing and there was total dis-connect b/w me and my program manager. After a while I was told move to some other team to do Y work, when I told them that I was promised something else, they refered me to HR meeting. HR told me about prodcutivity and stuff and told I have to maintain some productivity to be on board the company. It was fair, but why did they promise X upon joining? The hiring process is really bad and many unfit people are made to work on projects.
So if you are hired for some X work, then don't get excited, in most cases they will push into some other work, probably not an interesting thing to you. This has happened to many guys.
Job security, though this is important I feel the job security comes with our contribution. But at QuEST, within few days of joining the fear factor will enter your brain. I myself saw some good people being asked to leave the company during appraisals based on some'fitting' methodology. But it's funny to see the same hiring team will be behind similar profile who are asked to leave, Some serious disconnect in the company w.r.t. what they want and what they should do. However I can see some lazy senior employees doing nothing and still growing in the company b'cos they are close to some influential people at the top.
In one office location, more than 65 percent are on bench and all are nervous b'cos you don't know when the axe will fall and on whom.
Some systems are very bad, even if employee comes one hour late, you will be required to go to centre manager and tell him'there was traffic blockage due to accident, so I was late', 'it was raining, I had to stop my bike on the way''i have bad bowel spent more time in toilet' etc etc, I am 45 minutes late', it's disgusting for some one from established companies to go through these process.
The admin department is very stingy, the transportation arrangement is horrible for a kind of image the company commands. In fact temporary garment factory workers have better transportation arrangements. If a foreigner is in office, only then you can see toilet papers in the rest rooms. Work environment is OK.
==HR is immatured, the HR head is probably paid one of the lowest in the world, == I think she was a house maid before becoming HR head, the quality of HR department is aweful, as there is no professionalism nor any proper systems. However, Interview process is designed to make feel that co. is very professional, later you'll see for yourself.
QuEST is one of the most poorly paid company I have seen till date, I got good hike compared to my previous company, but then there is pressure on you to perform/justify the'HIGH salary', the next hike will be very low, I got 5% hike, and before even taking my appraisal letter I quit!
Onsite renumeration is also very poor, however with work permit QuEST can't cheat you so you get according to rules of the govt. of that country.
The bonus is peanuts, maximum some 15K rupees minimum'ZERO rupees'! when a company has profits it should share it and all employees should get it, bonus is linked to performance ranking, the guys who get NO bonus are turned off and a way to say'get lost'! So HR targets some people and give them no nuts no peanuts, so they go away.
Appraisals are a mess, all work online and no face to face with your immediate superior, only average and below average people can settle for salary levels of QuEST. Even if you are ranked well by self and your immediate boss you may be ranked badly after'automated process' that HR does. I was ranked ONE by my boss but my salary rank was based on THREE, I got slipped by 2 levels due to'fitting''statistics' etc etc. After hike is announced many managers will disappear for few days, so you have to live with whatever they give. Shockingly some bewlo avg. employees are still in company with Rs.500/Rs.1000 hike.
QuEST's show off point is'many long serving employees' in fact these guys have grown their belly size, there's nothing in their brain, they can't manage 4 employees properly, they don't open their mouth in meetings . Ofcourse, there are few exceptions, but very FEW.
Now coming to the most important aspect: the soldiers, yes the guys with 0-2 years experience who does 80% work, they are treated like slaves, anytime they can be moved to any department, they can be sent to bench, they can be sacked with just two weeks notice period.
Top leadership is more of hype, lots of photos picturising CEO/CFO/etc recieving some insignificant awards/prizes. At QuEST, you will believe for no reason the top leadership is good, this is b'cos of kind of brain washing you undergo indirectly. Contrary to the belief it is b'cos of the few hardworking engineers the company is something. QuEST Board has three members since it's inception in 1997, Ajit, Aravind and one fictitious person called M.Propen(mostly non existent). So called top leadership is always away, and all believe they are doing great work for company.
So it boils down that Ajit and Arvind are making a killing out of 1000+ employees literally with no transparency. If they say 7 percent profit, you just need to believe it, if you get 5% hike take it or leave it, if you get no bonus, just pretend to be happy.
My Advice to,
Freshers: Join smaller companies even with smaller salary and then move out after 2/3 years.
Experienced: Only your resume is important for QuEST, not you, any time you can be sent to bench, and anytime you may feel you are un-wanted. Quality of work is also bad. GE is outsourcing it's work to other companies instead of QuEST. Rolls Royce is happy with TCS. Getting Airbus work is no easy task, QuEST will find it very hard with so much of competition.
Designers: Don't join Quest, no constant flow of work, no constant work with single customer as well.
Overall, if you want to be like a slave in dark jungle then QuEST is for you, if you have good bucketing skills then you will be showered with goodies(no guarantee though).
Else avoid this company. As most comments about this company goes, it's totally hyped up brand image.
