When I joined Sonata the first thing HR told was, “This is a very safe company to work, this company didn’t even fired a single person in 1999 recession not even 1 person was fired, when the recession
was on the peak there was only a salary cut of 10%”. I hope that they are not saying this in the induction anymore,
Job Security
In last recession they fired some 127 resources(mostly .Net) in a single week, I don’t know the exact figures however I estimate some 20% of the resources were fired. The HR’s use a very nice word for this, "He was removed due to performance reasons", ask the HR’s now how many people have they fired in last 3 months due to performance reasons?
Why Sonata is still not in top 10 after 20+ years
Sonata board of directors are not ready to take any risk.
Sonata want to stick with existing customers, very slow in finding new clients, they think if any client comes to then, "The client can never leave Sonata".
Very slow in adapting to new technology, they are still trying to find projects in J2ee, .Net.
All the SM are old people, there is no fresh blood from IIM, who can bring in some fresh air in company.
Work culture
Work culture in Sonata is horrible, if you are in a project that means your life is messed up, the reason is very simple, they will not plan any thing, and will start with the work to show to the client that they are expert, Whatever the client will say right or wrong, yes to every thing, the project gets even worse when they send some one onsite who is not experienced in the same, Resources are literally canned to get the work done, you have to come on weekends and work up till 11 pm, if you say something, then get ready for a HR discussion.
Managers in Sonata
Sonata has mixture of very good and very bad managers, I can claim Sonata has some Best managers in this whole country, (I doubt if any one in Sonata knows these name’s, because they work and don’t make noise), I really feel very sad for these people who have wasted there career in this company.
And the list of bad managers is actually endless, the top of the list (he should be a labor in construction), (Father of J2EE), etc.
Onsite in Sonata
Majority of the people send onsite in Sonata are not on the basis of skill set or merit, there is actually list of people who are ball licker’s of PM’s which are sent, this is also the reason of project getting spoiled, I have seen people being pulled in from other projects when there is a onsite opportunity.
Onsite life as Sonatian
I think Sonata is the lowest payer for onsite employees, you get some 1600 pounds/ month, the other lowest for onsite payer is Wipro with 2000 pounds, companies like HP pay some 4000 pounds,
Its like they will give you a ticket of cheapest airlines and 1000 pounds and you are on your own, you are send on weekend so that you reach on Sunday evening and can join office on Monday, no rest nothing, Sonata will try there best so that the onsite travel is more then 90 days so that they can avoid the salary in India. The taxi fares are not paid, and that the other reimbursement is nightmares. If you are married then things are even worse, the children tickets are not paid and the wife ticket reimbursement takes months together.
In all you will understand in a week’s time that the company you are working with has a cheap mentality.
Resource Management in Sonata
This is the most funny part in Sonata, the most non technical person is made the Resource Manager in Sonata, The way Resources are utilized in Sonata, its very bad, the resource manager will get a requirement for example: Testing 5 years experience and they will dump any person with 5 years of work ex, no matter what the technology he was working on, If you are on bench means you are gone, if you say NO then the first thing they will say is, there is a project in Chennai and we will send you there, Blackmail.
However if there is a onsite opportunity in some project, they will try there best to send a person who they like or a group’s favorite, The situation is more funny and annoying when they will get the person trained from someone else who is the master of that technology, but they will not send him./her.
Regionalism.
Yes, its there, Tamil regionalism, especially in CVN group where he has very smartly placed all the Tamils under him, however its still less in comparison to companies like Wipro.
Sonatian of the month
This is like best employee of the month, quarter, and year. This is also biased, A beautiful fresher girl(avoiding name as she is married) with 8 months of experience in Sonata was given this prize and a promotion for making a PPT on “Security”, because she was hot favorite of **(father of J2EE) and she used to sit in his cubical for 2-2 hours, don’t know for what.
One another was **, who was self appraised gave himself prize for showing that he himself did absolutely everything in project, he was even released in 2 days just because he was Tamil and was under CVN, the official notice period is 12 weeks.
Infrastructure
Pathetic is a small word, you will feel like you are sitting in a There is a very peculiar thing in Sonata the chairs which are given to junior management are cheap once and Middle management/SM are good once, they consider that the bumps of managers are more soft.
The coffee for senior management is send in there cabins in good cups and saucer which keeps on reminding people that every one is not equal in the company
Senior Management
Bunch of Idiots, who wont find job any where outside Sonata, Some good people are still there like, but people like AB, horrible creatures. They have very short term thinking and goals, more like they have goals on daily basis.
Fresher’s in Sonata
They are the best lot any company can acquire, specially when they go for campus selection’s, but what happens to them after wards, any Sonatian can better tell you.
Ontario
This is the name of a project in Sonata, with some 100 people billing, which is very big for Sonata, however what they have done to the resources inside this project is horrible, 6 days a week 10am to 12, The technology which is used in this project is nowhere used in this world, they have forcefully pushed the resources in this project which were of any technology, mostly .Net resources were pushed in this.
In short
If you don’t know anything in IT(Fake experience), Sonata is the company you should join, however if you are even 1 years of experience or a fresher better avoid it.
Message to Sonata
With all due respect I will like to say something, Sonata will always be close to my heart, as I have given golden years of my life to this company, however till the SM will not respect, take care and stop doing fake promises to junior management your valuable junior management resources will not stop, you will get plenty of new resources however till you don’t have junior management who see their growth with Sonata’s growth, Sonata will not grow. Sonata can be made a better place to work and a place to progress, you have every thing just the approach needs to be slightly changed, and advantage / disadvantage should be seen in long term.
I wish Sonata all the best.
Regards,
ex Sonatian
