Disclaimer: All information reflected on this page are solely my own views and is in no way any kind of official data. Neither me, nor the company is responsible for any deviations in the facts provided here. This information is based on my training experience back in January 2010, and some of it might already have changed and therefore, might be outdated. Please do not contact me personally or post your questions in other blog posts or on Facebook, such comments will not be replied to.

I completed my training in the month of May 2010. I’m in production since then and am posted in Hyderabad. I’m a part of the Infosys Retail department, and I work with .Net technologies.

Q: Is Infosys training tough?
A: Yes, it is tough. But is it impossible to get through? No, not at all. I was never great with academics (not considering school education here, everyone was a winner back then), although at Mysore, I scored a GPA of 5 on 5. It’s all about how much you can bend yourself, or you might say, how much you care. We were given every single resource we might need to comfortably clear the training. Of course, it depends upon us if we use them or not. So if you are worried that you might not be able to take it, don’t be, it’s worth a try.

Q: I am a non computer science student and I have trivial knowledge of IT. Can I make it through?
A: Even if you were a computer science pro at your college, that wont matter much here. What they teach is from the very basics. Their course material, especially for the non-CSE students is extremely detailed and very simple to understand (again, depends upon if you are really willing to learn). We got slides and a lab guide for every module, and I can’t remember even a single question in the exams that didn’t come from those slides. Baseline is, don’t start mugging up from a million books and from the internet, that would just make things worse. I didn’t touch a single book in my entire training. And I cracked it pretty fine

Q: Do I need to study anything before I go there?
A: It’s not required. You might end up in a different technology than what you might prepare at home. But if you really want to do something, you can brush up your C/C++ and basic SQL/Oracle skills. That’s because these were the generic technologies they offered to everyone in our batch. I guess they still do that.

Q: What happens if I can’t clear the training?
A: Think of it like a university entrance exam. You crack it, you’re in. You don’t, you’re not. Although we were a part of an internship program, so the trainees who weren’t able to clear it in the first attempt were given a second chance to clear it with the regular long cycle trainees. Although if you get into the regular 6 month training, you just get one chance.

Q: Is internship different from regular training?
A: Yes. First of all, you will do your internship before you even pass out of your college, most likely in your final semester. Your college would either give you a crash course, or maybe even just hand you your engineering degree just like that But that’s not your headache, like for example, our final semester was a 20 day episode where we studied everything. We had classes even on Sundays But we guys had a 6 month advantage over the regular trainees, as in we were in production months before they started.
The internship program at Infosys had a theory section of 1.5 month duration, and a 2.5 month project, which later was taken as our final year project at our college. Internship is not tough, although since you have less time, it’s more hectic. You have classes on Saturdays as well, and you rarely get time to relax. But once the project period starts, you can enjoy yourself. Just make sure you don’t mess up your project though

Q: I’ve heard that they conduct an exam before the training starts to decide if I go into fast track or regular training. Is that true?
A: If you ask me, I’d say no. That’s because none of our college seniors, or our juniors, or our batch had to give an exam. If you’re a CSE guy, you will have a shorter training period. Non-CS guys have a longer one.

Q: Do I get to choose my stream (Java/.Net)?
A: Yes and no. Yes as in our case, we were given an option. No as our college juniors were not. It all depends upon the company.

Q: What project do they ask us to work upon during the training period?
A: For the regular long cycle trainees, there was a 15 day project (this information comes from my non-CSE friends). For the interns (also known as Fast Track trainees), we had a fully blown 2.5 month project. You may/may not get a chance to do a project in the technology you were trained in. Although in 99% cases in our batch, trainees got projects in their own technologies.

Q: Do I need to take anything with me to Mysore?
A: Just clothes and grooming stuff. No need to take pillows or blankets, they provide all that. You’ll enjoy staying that their Employee Care Center (ECC) hostels. It in no way less than a 5-star hotel room. You have air-conditioned rooms with plasma TVs, room service and whatnot.

Q: Do I have to share a room?
A: Depends. The girls of our batch were given two-seater rooms, while the guys got private ones. I guess you’ll know what you get once you are allotted a room.

Q: What all facilities do they have at the Mysore campus?
A: Everything! A multiplex, supermarkets, salons, hospitals, pools, sports complexes. Basically everything you can think of in a resort. Mysore campus is a beauty. It’s a lifetime experience. You’ll understand what I’m saying once you get there

Q: What about food?
A: Well what about it? You have everything starting from North Indian meals to South Indian servings. You have Domino’s, CCD and a floating restaurant with wonderful delicacies served every day. Not only that, you have a range of bakeries and ice-cream parlors. I gained 6 kilograms in 4.5 months.

Q: Are they stringent about in and out timings?
A: Well, 15000 trainees in that campus, it’s only fair. Don’t challenge the system just for the heck of it. Don’t do anything stupid that might put you in serious trouble.

Q: Can my relatives/friends visit?
A: Yes, but only on weekends. You can even book a guest house for them inside the campus, and the room rent is nominal.

Q: My question isn’t listed above. What do I do?
A: Stop searching the internet about Infosys training and go do something useful!! Uhm OK, I agree, everybody is a bit curious, right? Even I was. But maybe you’ll get to know once you reach there. Infosys gave me a world class experience at Mysore campus. They polished me with their training program as well as they pampered me with their facilities. My training experience is the one thing I’ll remember all my life.

Firefox 4

The integration with KDE was easy. Just download this theme (it is compatible with FF 4.0).

You might also want to use a KDE-ish file picker. To do that, type about:config in your address bar, and search for file_picker. Set ui.allow_platform_file_picker to false.

Viola! You’re done.

D90 Front

D90 Body

D90 Back

Nikkor 18-105mm Lens

The D90 is a mid range Nikon DSLR which arguably has the Canon EOS 550D as its competitor. Honestly, Canon doesn’t stand a chance, but there were times when I was seriously considering to get the 550D as of its powerful new image processor. At the store, D90 somehow felt much better in my hand and my initial clicks were razor sharp with D90′s good enough 18-105mm lens. I didn’t really even look at 550D once the store guy shot a photo in a near dark room with the D90. Man, he had steady hands.

Since then, I’ve been trying to get sharp images in the dark with slower shutter speeds. Seems like I need some serious practice. I’m yet to get used to the 11 focus points the D90 offers as I rarely use the LiveView mode. The camera allows me to take about 540 snaps at the finest quality mode (JPEG) on the 4GB memory card that came in with the kit. The battery gives something around 450-500 snaps, although I also did a 5 minute D-Movie in between.

The performance is unquestionable. Nikon vs Canon, be it a long time debate, boils down to Nikon earning the throne. Totally worth it.

1. The taskbar text doesn’t have a dark border or a dark colored cloud. So in cases where the background becomes white, the text is almost unreadable:

Taskbar

Start Menu

I feel that the text should have a dark color with a white cloud around it, or vice versa.

2. The control panel window when maximized lacks a much needed left panel. I wonder why the left panel has been removed.

3. Small icon mode isn’t very pretty for the taskbar. The taskbar overall lacks a 3D view and looks somehow – broken..

4. Windows Media Player 12 lacks the glass background at the controls area. As you can see in the following picture, the WMP window at the front doesn’t have the glass controls like the Windows photo viewer window at the background.

Media Player

I wonder if there’s a way I can convey these to Microsoft.

PS: I’ve become a fan of the Aero peek functions. Also, loving the new taskbar thumbnails!

• Training date: Starts from 27th Jan ’10
• Training location: Infosys Mysore
• Field(s) of work: Devel, Testing, Mainframe, Webserver etc.
  
• Joining date: Immediately after training

Infosys offers this world class training at Mysore. My college will be dispersing the students off on or before 27th Jan and we’ll be ported to Mysore. I am yet to receive any details on what the training will have and what are the DO’s and DONT’s for that. But I am confident that whatever it is, I am ready to take up. I’ve heard that the trainees are so busy that they end up having a daily cycle of 08:00 to 00:30 at night, but this doesn’t scare me in any way. In fact, I am mentally prepared to be burnt out, yet have fun.

I am so looking forwards to the Mysore training. For all those who have got a chance to go for this, I suggest that you shouldn’t think again and go for Infy. It’s an amazing company and a great platform. And of course, the training is the best you can get in this part of the globe. It feels pretty damn good to be an Infoscion!!

Through the tunnel

Camera: Nikon D60 DSLR
Exposure time: 6 seconds
Mode: Vibrant

Strawberry and whip cream

Camera: Nikon D60 DSLR
Mode: Normal

The beauty of acoustic is that you can listen to it at any time: when having a headache, when sleepy, when angry, when tired. Especially strings which sound amazing on my sound system. I love the sound of each string coming individually, sounds beautiful. Personally I never happened to truly fall in love with saxophone despite of living with a Kenny G. fanboy. Although flute, guitar and piano have always fantasized me.

Among the best I’ve heard from the top of my head, I can remember Crazy for this girl (Evan and Jaron),  Gone to the dogs (K.T. Tunstall), Iris (Goo goo dolls), Name (Goo goo dolls), Heart shaped box (Evanescence), Knocking on heaven’s door (Avril Lavigne), Your Song (Elton John), Saturate (Breaking Benjamin), Rain (Breaking Benjamin).
Evan & Jaron have a really fresh voice and a very pleasant tune.  ”The distance” was also a nice one from them.

I have played the sitar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitar) during  my school days, but I never got into playing guitar. I hope I get some time once I get a job so that I can probably take out some time to learn guitar.