Hitech Digital Reviews

I will only mention the cons I've found in the Aeronavigation department. I intend to keep this review honest and unbiased, hence all the cons that I mention here would be specific to this department (which may or may not extend to the entire company as well). 1. Salary: One of the most important factors to consider in a job is how fairly you are getting paid for your efforts. The work that is done in the Aeronavigation department is very much safety critical. One small mistake may prove to be catastrophic, so much so that it might affect the safety of the aircraft operations. While taking all these things into consideration, the employees are not compensated proportionally. This is not the first review to point out the low pay, one can find dozens of other reviews as well which also mention the same thing. You might get promoted to a higher position but there won't be much difference in the pay scale unless, of course, you're an exceptional performer (the word 'exceptional' is quite subjective here, there is no clear policy in place to define what is 'exceptional' i.e., it is not quantified by the higher management and is purely observational - more on this below). As for the performance-based incentive, you'd have to work very (I repeat, unrealistically VERY) hard to get a full score. Salary (or compensation, in more formal terms) is the major factor why many people are dissatisfied here. 2. Unrealistic expectations: In the Pros section, I mentioned that the work culture is good 'to some extent'. If you're a new joiner, not much would be expected from you. However, the expectations would rise exponentially once you've raked up some experience. You'd be given an insane amount of workload just because the managers/TLs don't have the courage to say 'no' to the clients. You'd then be 'expected' to stay late and finish what is assigned to you, without getting compensated for the extra hours you sit. This will happen at least thrice a month. While some teams manage the workload quite well, many teams don't. I was unfortunate to work with the latter. Apart from long hours, you'd also be given additional responsibilities for which your time was not counted up until recently. You'd sometimes have to sacrifice your personal life just to complete the abnormal amount of work your TL/manager has assigned you (I've seen people who were working as late as 2 am in the night). If you are putting in so much energy, time and sanity, which, by the way, are invaluable, you should expect some form of compensation in return. 3. Lack of professionalism: While I've pointed out earlier that the team members are, in general, quite supportive, what they severely lack is a sense of professionalism. We may expect new joiners (freshers) to have a lack of professionalism - which is okay. It is something that can be inculcated over time, generally. However, this is not the case here in the Aeronavigation department. If you point out a mistake of someone who is senior, do not expect them to take it constructively. They would instead lash out at you and would start reminding you of how many years of experience they have, and that they cannot be corrected because they are 'always correct'. I've experienced this personally, and I tried my best to not look down on my juniors the way my peers or my seniors did. I also reported this to my TL but they told me that someone has to be mature enough to overlook this behaviour and further try to increase the 'bond' with the team (whatever that means). The TL itself lacks professionalism, which I noticed on several occasions (more on this in the next section). Some (not all) would not even listen to your suggestions for improvement or an idea. Please note, this is what I observed in the team I was working with. I've also heard similar instances from some of my colleagues from other teams, but I cannot guarantee the truthfulness of their experiences (to give you an unbiased opinion). 4. Too much focus on errors: There is too much focus on doing everything 'Right First Time' (or RFT - as they like to call it). This is a major component in calculating your performance, and your incentive would depend on this, more or less. This is a good thing, and I truly appreciate the management for this. However, we must never forget one thing - we are humans, and it is human nature to make mistakes. Many people make mistakes in this work, even repetitively. While the management claims that they aren't pinpointing anyone while doing Root Cause Analyses, it sure doesn't feel the same to the Analysts. Every time an RCA is performed, the corrective action would generally be to 'train' the analyst and/or team on this error. After the training is done, there is no mechanism to track the improvements (they might have started it now though). The point is, you cannot expect an analyst to just 'learn' from their mistake once and then never commit them again. This is a deep-rooted problem and measures like clear product knowledge, and proper documentation of processes/errors are some of the things that can get you ahead. 5. Stagnation: The work here is quite repetitive. You get to learn a lot of things in your initial 2 years or so, but then, that is pretty much it (unless you're transferred to another team). You may be able to climb up to Analyst III quickly but to become a TL, there will be huge competition. Add to that, your compensation (salary) won't be hiked that much.