Thursday, July 8, 2010

Why did I leave Infosys?

Well, for those who didn't knew, I left Infosys on April 6th,2010 and now I am working as a lecturer in Computer Science Dept. Viswajyothi College of Engineering & Technology (VJCET), Vazhakulam. And very few of my friends know the reasons why I decided to leave Infy. I am deluged with the question "Why you left Infy" everyday, and so I thought I will blog about it.

I left Infy for a variety of reasons. I cant arrange them in any order of priority so here are some of them in no particular order at all.

I didn't find the work in a software services company to be that challenging. Yes, I had to sit late to finish off works sometimes, but the job was not a challenging one. I am reasonably good with 2 web development platforms, JEE and .NET , but the last project I worked didn't require neither. (Don't ask me what skill was required for that!!). And getting reassigned to a project of my choice is elusive in Infosys. Our senior delivery manager and head of Mangalore Infosys, almost, I repeat, almost had me convinced to repeal my decision, but finally I decided to go ahead with my decision. This guy is the person whom I respect the most in Infosys :)

Another reason is my longing to get a masters degree. There was lot of confusion whether MBA or MS, whether to do masters from India or abroad, but finally I made up my mind to do MS. I have so many dreams to fulfill and I found that my job was not helping me to achieve my goals. Yes, Infy did give me plenty of exposure, but I need more. A masters degree from abroad should help me get to my goals faster.

Now you might ask why did I join as a lecturer? Main reason is I have a passion for teaching. I have earlier made 2 unsuccessful attempts to become an educator(One at MACE,my alma mater, and one at Infosys; not many know about this!) VJCET was the best choice for me for a number of reasons and without much effort, I got an offer from the college. (I had given my 'unofficial' resignation letter to Infy much before I got vjcet offer) Now the answer to the question"if you like teaching, why you talk about leaving the teaching job after a year or so?": Yes I love teaching and I am really passionate about it. But I don't want to miss industry action by being tied down to a college. Working in industry will give me lot of hands on experience which I can pass on to my students. So I will definitely take break from teaching career to do my masters degree as well as to gain Industry exposure.

Now the reason I put in my official resignation letter is "....I have decided to discontinue my career with Infosys to pursue my ambition of becoming an economist ....". Surprised ? Yes, thats true. My long term dream is to become an economist and an entrepreneur. This should explain some of my 'tweets' related to economics and finance.

I can add some more points to this list, but those are negligible. But the following two definitely have no place in the list!
-that I got fired since I couldn't clear training. (FYI, my training GPAs were 5,4.86,5 )
-that I have a girl friend in viswajyothi.

And about my new job as lecturer, keep reading my blogs...

Thanks,
Cijo