Tests @ ILP

Hi Friends,

First of all, thank you all for your contribution to the poll on the “Foreign Language”. 46% people want to learn French. German is at second place with 37% of votes. Spanish has been recently introduced in ILP. Not many people are interested in learning Japanese. Let me tell you that TCS is getting lots of Japanese assignments. Many Japanese associates have taken off to India and many of us will be flying to Japan for onsite assignments. So, if you get Japanese language to learn in ILP, don’t be disappointed.

Well, this article at last passed through my “Busy Schedule” filter. I received lots of comments, mails and scraps asking about the information on Tests @ ILP. So, I thought of sharing this information with you.

It’s been a year since I joined ILP in Hyderabad. There are lots of changes in the tests pattern since then. But at least you can have a bird’s eye view of the tests in ILP. Whatever I remember, you can find it in this article (I forget the things pretty fast). There is only one key test during ILP and that’s mid-term. After 25 working days, you have a mid-term test. This test would be on the technical topics and doesn’t cover the foreign language and soft skills. The test would be of total 50 marks and you have questions of a mixture of formats. For example, you have multiple choice questions, fill in the blanks etc. Each question carries marks based on the difficulty level. You will be made to sit in the allocated classrooms for the test and there’ll be one supervisor for each classroom (that’s obvious, isn’t it?). The mid-term test was open-book test in our times, but I heard recently from one of the associates in ILP that it’s no longer an open-book test (tough luck guys, now you have to study). The test would be simple. If your basic concepts are clear then it’s very easy to crack the test, in fact it’s “very difficult to fail”. (If anyone manages to fail, please let me know)

Mid-term test is very important (Why important? Wait, I’ll let you know). Don’t take it frivolously and do study to get a decent score in the test. The score of the mid-term test determines your rating in the first quarter in TCS. You have quarterly appraisals in the first year. These quarterly ratings are used to decide your confirmation rating (after completing a year in TCS) which in turn decides your annual increment (So, now you know why mid-term score is so important :-) If you get a rating of “5” in first 3 quarters, you’ll be confirmed in just 9 months (Early confirmation)

Apart from the mid-term test, you have loads of mock tests, small assignments, project stuff, presentations and much more. There are various self-tests to analyze your personality traits and to understand the business etiquette during soft skills sessions. You will enjoy tons of such exercises during ILP. I’ll publish few of them in my next posts. Tell then, enjoy and have a nice time.

Food @ ILP

People have major concern about the food when going to a new place. Every state in India has got a different style of food. In North, people eat more wheat, whereas in South, the intake of rice is more. My experience about food was not that great. But I’d like to share few points which can throw some light on this tasty topic.

Let me start from the breakfast. Everyday you have your breakfast in the training centre premises. Let me tell you that you need to pay for this. TCS provides it at subsidized rates. You get Idli Sambar, Bread Omlet, Puri Bhaji, Uttapam, Pesarattu, Tomato Bath, Maisore Bhajji, Pongal and some other stuff (I don’t remember all). Pesarattu was the most pathetic thing I’ve ever eaten (Sorry South-Indian friends, but personally I didn’t like it). Apart from this, you get fresh fruit juices and milk shakes like Mosambi juice, Pineapple juice, Watermelon juice, grape juice, mixed-fruit juice, banana milk shake etc. at Rs.10/- per glass. You have to get coupons for all this. You cannot exchange food coupons for juice and vice versa. You can also have tea/coffee any time of the day (coffee vending machine is available 24 hrs a day; the only constraint is availability of the cups :))

Some of the information about the food here can be specific to Hyderabad; but at all other ILP locations the picture is fairly similar.

You have an hour’s break for the lunch. We had to buy food coupons for Rs.23/- everyday (what an odd figure, I was frustrated to get those 3 rupees change everyday). Lunch was good. It contained roti, sabji, rice, dal, curd and some papad like stuff (we used to call it “Ponga Pandit”; don’t ask me why…). We required lots of efforts for eating those rotis. (They should have provided us with an axe along with the roti ;-)). Let me tell you that there is neither A.C. nor fans in the canteen. Most of the people (including me) preferred sitting outside on the rocks in the premises. (Note: “On the rocks” has a literal meaning here)

I must mention here about the evening snacks we used to have. In Madhapur (a place at 20 mins distance from our hotel), we used to go for having tea/coffee and some snacks. We found out a small hotel where we got delicious hot Bhajiya, Maisoor Bonda (a kind of Bhajiya only) and other good stuff. People going to Hyderabad for their ILP would like to go to this place. It’s opposite Madhapur petrol pump.

If you ask me about the dinner, you are free to have it anywhere you wish. You can have your dinner at hotel or you may hunt for good restaurants of your taste. I used to take my dinner in the hotel itself. First 3-4 days I went outside in the search of a good place for North Indian food, but alas! I ended up getting only rice, rice and rice. (Well, I don’t hate rice, but “only rice and no roti” brought me to the decision of having dinner at hotel). Hotel dinner was a bit better than eating only rice outside. But there also the problem was not over. The dinner contents used to be the same everyday. You can imagine consuming the same thing with same taste everyday without any variety. For a change, you can go out to a restaurant. In Hyderabad, there are nice restaurants around. Few of them are Angeethi, Keshav Reddy, Amaravati, Olive Garden, Ginger Court, Paradise, Panjab ki Rasoi, Hyderabad House, Chilly-Pepper, Chutney’s and many more. Well, you could have visualized our hunt for the food by now. Amongst all these, I personally recommend Angeethi. It’s a nice Panjabi restaurant with very eye-catching ambience. Service and food, both are good. Prices are affordable and they have buffet system, except for Sundays. Paradise and Hyderabad House are good for Hyderabadi Biryani. Chutney’s is an exceptional South Indian restaurant with scrumptious food.

Well, after so much writing about food, I’m feeling quite hungry :-) I’ll take a break here and wish you all very happy days for your taste buds during ILP.

A year after ILP...

Hi friends! It gives me an immense pleasure to acquaint you with the fact that it's been a year after I joined TCS.

The day was August 10, 2006, exactly a year ago, the first day of my ILP and the first day with TCS.

Two months of training called ILP – The Initial Learning Program of TCS is one of the most cherished parts of my life. As I had mentioned in my first post, the place of my training was Hyderabad. Till then I didn't have much idea about this place. In these two months, we explored Hyderabad and we all fell for this beautiful city. I wished they could have posted us in Hyderabad itself after the training. Every day of ILP in Hyderabad was bliss! (No offence…family members ;-))

I will publish more articles about my experiences and various aspects of ILP in subsequent posts.

I would like to dedicate this article to all my colleagues, trainers and all the people who were there with me during ILP and who filled my life with the astonishing moments during these two months.

Thank you all for being part of the ILP Days…

Classroom Sessions @ ILP

Back to college days? Ohh yes. ILP is a mixture of fun@college and professionalism@work. Well, as I've mentioned in the comments to my previous posts, the classroom sessions are from 9am to 5.45pm. The schedule is as follows,

9am to 11am : First Session
11am to 11.30am : Tea/Coffee Break
11.30am to 1.15pm : Second Session
1.15pm to 2.00pm : Lunch Break
2.00pm to 3.30pm : Third Session
3.30pm to 4.00pm : Tea/Coffee Break
4.00pm to 5.45pm : Fourth Session


The bus comes at 7.30am sharp. You need to get up early in the morning, get ready and wait for the bus. The bus takes you to the training centre. There you have time for breakfast. The sessions start at 9am sharp.

The sessions can be divided into three broad categories - technical sessions, life skills sessions and foreign language sessions. Amongst these, life skills sessions are the most cheerful and enjoyable. In these sessions, they teach you about professional grooming, dining etiquette, listening skills, communication skills, group activities and many more things. You have a lot of case studies and role plays. Role plays are the most enjoyable part. They form the groups dynamically. Each group is assigned a subject/theme. Based on that, you need to perform in front of rest of the class. Dynamic group forming is done as follows - The process starts from the first person sitting in the first (or last) row in the corner. First person will say the number "1". The next person sitting to him/her will say "2", the next "3" and so on. The maximum number you say depends on the number of groups that need to be formed. For example, if 4 groups are required, then the number calling goes like this - 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1… and so on. Next, all 1's are made to sit together; same thing happens with all 2's, 3's and 4's. Now, the groups are formed, you are ready for the group activities.

Technical sessions are the most boring part of the ILP. But you have to attend all the sessions and can’t bunk any of them. If you miss 2 sessions, you are directly out of the ILP. It's that strict. As a computer science batch, we were expected to know the technical topics and hence all the topics were not taught to us in detail, but the sessions were interactive and we made to contribute our knowledge during these sessions. Non-comps students are not expected to know these subjects, so need not worry. They teach you C++, Java, UNIX, DMBS, Software Engineering, Testing Techniques etc. All the material will be provided in the ILP. For software engineering, the book they give you is "Jalote" (This is the author name). For other subjects, they have their own course material that is sufficient for passing the final test.

Foreign language sessions are equally entertaining as that of the life skills sessions. Learning a new language is too much fun. They also show you some videos/movies in that language. You have assignments, mock tests, conversations, presentations and lot more things. The foreign language for our batch was German. Our faculty was very good, her name was Shivani; very beautiful lady indeed. Since our batch was very small, she used to pay attention to each and every candidate in the class. Few of us were from Kolkata and had accent problem. We always noticed their Bengali accent while speaking German. But, Shivani ma'am made them change the way they spoke. We also had basic conversations from the German handout that was given to us. "Darf ich herein kommen?" well, this is the German for “May I come in?”. Whenever anyone used to come late for the German session, he/she had to ask this before coming in. I think this is one line we remembered the most. In these sessions, they also teach you the grammar of the foreign language, sentence formation and pronunciation. Fun filled sessions indeed.

During classroom sessions, nobody is allowed to wander outside (except CR of course ;-) ). You are supposed to keep the cell phones off during the sessions. Everyone needs to sign the attendance sheet for every session. After end of the session, you'll be given feedback forms that everyone has to fill promptly and return them to the CR.

Well, if you are just out of the college and joining TCS ILP, it wouldn't be much difficult for you. The only difference is, in ILP the things are stricter and you are expected to behave more responsibly and professionally. After all, we are going to be IT professionals and this is just the beginning, right?

Accommodation

Hi Friends,

I received a lot of queries about the accommodation during ILP. So, posting this information about the accommodation. Any queries/suggestions are welcome.

TCS provides accommodation during ILP. It may be in TCS hostel or in a hotel. They charge you for the accommodation. The same is deducted from your salary in a month or two after you complete your ILP. 2 candidates share a room. Rooms are neat and clean. There will be two beds, a table, a cupboard and attached toilet/bathroom. Rooms are cleaned daily and bed sheets are changed every week. They provide keys for the room and cupboard. Carry an extra lock/key and chain in case they don’t provide the key for the cupboard, which was the case with us.

I had ILP in Hyderabad. Our accommodation was in Kondapur, Hitech City. Our stay was in Hotel Supreme Landmark, just opposite Satyam office. Training centre was at 20 mins distance by bus. Rooms were very nice. There were 2 buildings. All the girls were in the main building, except on the ground floor. We were in the other building just opposite to the main building. On each floor there were 3 rooms and a common hall. In the hall, there was a TV, a sofa set and a water cooler, also a common bathroom. There was a cafeteria in the main building. Other than breakfast and dinner, it's a good place for completing assignments too :-)

This was my room shared with a guy from Kolkata. Very nice indeed, isn't it?

 

Joining Letter reverie...

Hi Friends,

Posting the article written by my friend. Here it goes,

[John writes...]
well my joining letter stuff was a bit skewed.Everyone i knew had recieved the joining letter except me. when i called the concerned authority, they told your medical checkup record id missing, so you have to go to kolkata and attend the checkup again. As i had already donated much of my precious blood in bangalore, i was in no mood to do that again, and that too with the cost of enduring two overnight journeys to kolkata, never mention the accomodation hassles i would have undergone. So i told this HR person whom i called, that !@#$@#$@ medical report is misplaced by you, and its your duty to find where it is. It will be very difficult for me to go to Kolkata at this peak hour.

They found it, on 22nd of August, and mailed the joining letter the same day. And informed me to join ILP Bhubaneshwar on 28th of August.I recieved the mail just a day before i was about to leave. Else i had thought of accosting the concerned officials empty handed, but TCS didn't let that FUN materialize.. Well, whateva, nevermind..

The day I received my Joining Letter...

Hi Friends,

Here comes my first post.

A year after I got the offer letter, I got a call from a friend saying that he got the joining letter and the ILP would be in Trivandrum. Till that time, I had heard enough about the training centre in Trivandrum and bubbles of happiness started flowing through by blood with the thoughts of ILP. From that moment onwards, I desperately waited for my joining letter.

Days passed, and still there was no sign of any courier on my name and suddenly one day I got a call from another friend of mine, who had received the offer letter along with me. In all, there were four of us. She told me that she's just received the joining letter and ILP would be in Trivandrum. Well, that was quite expected. I had almost made my mind for ILP in Trivandrum. I started googling around for more information about the training centre at Trivandrum and about the ILP itself. Few days later, when I was just relaxing at home, I got a call from third friend and my patience collapsed. Now, I eagerly wanted to know about what had happened to my Joining Letter? Many questions starting popping up in my mind, did they forget to send me the letter? Did it get lost in the transit? What if I don’t get the letter on time? Should I call HR? Many of them illogical...

And finally the day came. One fine morning, I saw a courier person at my door with a big white cover in his hand with three bold letters written on it in blue color - "Tata Consultancy Services". I literally jumped with joy. I was so happy to see my joining letter that I had almost forgot to sign the courier slip that the person was asking me to sign.

With the great excitement, I opened the Joining Letter and for next few moments I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was stunned. The shocking thing that I saw in that letter was the place of joining. It was not Trivandrum; it was Hyderabad. I was completely thoughtless for a minute. It was totally unexpected.

But after so much of wait, I had at last received my Joining Letter :-)

Welcome to ILP Days...

Hi Friends,
Welcome to the ILP blog. This blog is for the people who have completed their ILP and also for new joiners who will be experiecing these amazing two months of training. Here you may share your experience of ILP and also ask your doubts/queries if you have any. We will try to regularlly update this blog with latest articles and comments. Also, we'll try to answer your queries to our best.

Topic for this week

Hi friends,

You can start posting your comments, questions, articles on this blog. Every week we'll have a common topic to write on.

The topic for this week is "The day I received my Joining Letter..."

Seems interesting, hmm? Various thoughts about ILP started coming in mind the moment I received my joining letter. What happened next? I'll tell you in my next post. Till then, happy blogging :)

Regards,
ILP Days...