u/Exciting_Sea_8336

Not exactly interview experience but experience of trying to give the interview.
Campus : Deccan park, Hyderabad.

I actually had an interview on 14th May but security didn't allow me in because their security app was down and my SPOC was not responding over mobile.
But I thought that's fine, happens in big organizations.

The HR called me back on 15th and said this time she will schedule it better and gave me SPOC details and asked me to go on 16th 9 AM again.

Given the scale of TCS, I thought there will be at least 20-30 more people along with me for the same role and we will be interviewed one by one.

But this was a full blown walk in recruitment drive for about 20-25 roles with range from freshers to 15 YEO.

As soon as entered the campus I was asked if I have
- Physical resume
- 2 photo copies of my aadhar
- 2 photo copies of my PAN
- my passport size photos with me

I only had my resume and originals of aadhar and PAN
So I went to near by xerox center along with 20 others just like me, paid 150 Rs in and got all the required docs (Xerox people knew required docs better than candidates).

Inside they had a tent in open area (with a couple of rocks and trees) where there where 3 or 4 tables with  5 or 6 queues to those tables and about 300-400 candidates in those queues with 100-200 more scattered here and there.

First I had to get into a shorter queue, to get a form in which I had to manually fill the information which was already in my "physical" resume.

There was no place to sit and fill the form
The funny part was, there was an open air amphi theater right there and it was empty but candidates who came to recruitment drive were NOT ALLOWED to sit there. TBH there were more security guards than people managing recruitment drive, only if the numbers were reversed. 

I managed to fill the form and found my queue (already spent more an hour already by now) , the queue was about 100+ people long, I went out for breakfast, rested for a while in parking area then came back, the line was still 100 people long.

I was drained already, the heat was unbearable. Even if I get into the queue, by the time I get to an interview, I would be in no position to even introduce myself, forget answering technical questions.

So I just LEFT. There was no point. 

I have some questions.

Why call so many candidates to the same place at same time, if you cannot manage it ?

When you know that there are going to be so many candidates how can you not be prepared to handle the strength ? You literally have 1000s of employees

What's the point of having multiple big ass campuses in the city if you're going to make candidates stand under trees and tents in the middle of the summer ?

What is the point of asking candidates to fill physical forms with redundant information ?

How are you comfortable with making candidates wait in queues for hours for an interview ?

Engineers are wired to solve problems and optimize systems, TCS somehow, despite being filled with engineers doesn't seem to want to solve even smallest of the problems and are happy with inefficiency.

Not trying to bash TCS here, but they need to manage their recruitment drivers better.

I learnt to code in college and freelanced through 4th year
I rejected campus placements to avoid bond and got into a Good startup on my own
Thought I will get to learn more and get to work on interesting stuff in a startup, part of this did happen.
The company didn't work out though and I had to quit after a couple of years.

After a voluntary break of 4 months I git into another company with a 200% hike (Crazy time I know)
It was a great company I took the frontend lead role after 3 months, built and team and delivered my sprint targets But investor pulled out after 6 months and the whole 20 people team was unemployed.

Market was worse - didn't get any calls for about 6 months
Then I joined another startup with 25% pay cut
The work is good here but the growth is very low both role wise and pay wise.

Now I'm still making 20% less than what I was making 3 years ago, this is fine too, bad stuff happens.

But now I'm feeling stuck, I don't know what to do

I have a decent profile 5 yeo, with react + python + started AI agents 6 months back.
but interview cracking is not my skill

What kind of companies should I target if I want quality work and decent pay.

If anyone had a similar experience, what worked for you ?

Top companies like Google, Microsoft, amazon are a game of luck and references
I can pull off system design but DSA is not my strongest suit - I can improve this at will.
I will try to get into these but I don't see it happening at will

I did get a offer at a service company with a decent hike but I was not sure and ended up rejecting it.

I'm based out of Hyderabad and open to relocating anywhere but Delhi and Gurgoan.

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