What is reviewed: How good is this software company as an employer
Why you shouldn’t read my review
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4.5
years of experience is not a long enough period to have known all the good, bad and ugly facts of Software Industry.
Why You SHOULD read my review
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I am completing 2 Years in this company on 27th of March.
I judge myself to be balanced in my expectations because -
I have tried being an entrepreneur - that too a software entrepreneur - And miserably failed.
I have joined 3 software companies all in a period of 4 Years. HSBC GLT being the 3rd. I worked with a small software company that created the First Financial Accounting Package for Linux and another huge Financial Software giant which processes 60% all paychecks in US, and is a leading player in Securities Trading business. The point I am making is that – I have a fair mix of experience of good and bad. .
Measurable Indices on which I Review HSBC-GLT as an employer
1)Work Environment - Score 8/10
Nobody openly treats others badly in any decent software company.
Many software companies have this BS culture - Back Stabbing. Thank god, in HSBC-GLT, I never faced it.
In HSBC-GLT, Working from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm is not a dream. I must say at least 50% of GLT employees leave office at least by 7:00 pm
Relationships and Partnership are written all over the wall. Company encourages it.
2) Work Pressure - Score 6/10
There is Work pressure in some of the projects. There are projects where people work day and night. But, they are few.
The client doesn’t treat you like a slave. Most of the clients understand the difficulties and cooperate.
3) Performance Management - Score 7/10
Performance management is not necessarily the best. But, there is best effort to reward good performance and discourage complacency and Mediocrity.
TPM - Uses measurable performance indices to eliminate subjectivity and to introduce maximum transparency in the performance management.
4) Opportunity to perform - Score 6/10
Well, some get it some don’t. There’s a considerable amount of retrofit work( the other side of code-reusability). There is a lot of support work. And, there is a lot of development work. There is a lot of work requiring Investigation, analysis. There are teams who are into design and architecture. So, Three is a lot of opportunity out there - But I don’t know how easy is it to grab it.
5)Career Growth - Score - 5/10
This is an area I am not very sure about. I haven’t seen anybody growing exponentially in the last two years. I must admit the company is very conventional. There’s a lot of caution in rewarding performance by too many promotions in a row. The buzz I hear is that - Consistency is very important.
6) Training. And Growth - Score 9/10
10 working days in an year is dedicated for training and development of the employees. You may attend technical, personal development, Process oriented or management trainings of your choice based on the Training plan sent to the employees each month.
There is a dedicated training department. The department takes feedback from the project on a periodic basis to improve their effectiveness. The training team has improved considerably in the last 2 years.
6.(a) Exposure to cutting edge Technology - Score - 8/10
Unlike most of the Fat Financial Players, HSBC is quick in embracing new technology.
In AS400, they use the latest ILE based programming
Most of the Systems have the J2EE systems with AS400 or Mainframes as back End
Extensive re-use of Code by standardization and disciplined software engineering method
6.(b) Domain Knowledge - 10/10
HUB - Hong Kong Universal Banking System is installed in 81 countries. Each version customized to that country/region’s local requirement.
You not only get to learn Banking, but also all the different regional flavors. The bank is involved directly in software development in most of the phases from Requirement Analysis, Design, System Testing, and Support. Engineers get to learn a lot from the operations
7) Travel opportunity - 8/10
Theoretically, You can travel to almost every country in the world.
But I have seen people traveling to US, UK, Hong Kong, China, Switzerland, Middle East, Canada, Singapore, Brazil, Egypt and Greece . I really don’t know how many software companies can offer to fly you in such a variety of place.
8) Opportunity to sharpen Managerial Skills - 7/10
HSBC uses very good Project management and tracking tools. I have just started learning them. So far, I have got an opportunity to learn quite a few things. But, I really am not aware they are good management techniques.
But, I can say we have enough tools to plan, track and report projects without much manual work.
9) Remuneration - 6/10
I wouldn’t call HSBC-GLT a paymaster among Financial Software companies. I would say, GLT is even close to it’s competitors in Pay Cheques.
But, renumeration is slightly better than the Indian Software companies like Satyam, Wipro and Infosys.
10) Brand Value - 7/10
In India, few people value HSBC. But when I have traveled abroad, I have seen the respect people have for the brand.
In Hong Kong, you go to the airport, and say you have to go to the Bank, they send you to HSBC
There are countries where HSBC prints currency.
As a reputed software company, it still has to go a long way
11) Software development Process Maturity - 9/10
HSBC-GLT went to CMMI level 5 straight from No CMM certifications.
I still remember the Assessor saying - HSBC GLT is much above CMMi
Is this a company you would like to retire from? Yes.
Why?
This company has immense potential. - The company builds very quality, scalable software aligned closely to the customer’s requirement.
Ethical Treatment to employees, customers and Stock Holders - They don’t treat others badly. So, it’s unlikely that they will treat you badly.
HSBC’s Customer base is the biggest asset of GLT. Being the Financial Business giant that HSBC is, GLT will never be out of work as long as it is cost effective and it can provide good service.
