Freshers Guide to AMDOCS :P

Hi friends.. this post is a direct cut paste from THE thread on orkut, the replies are from Mr. Ronak and Mr. Jitendra. I have compiled them into some sections. I hope this would reduce the no. of redundant queries on orkut thread.. N lets us all not forget to thank Ronak and Jeetendra!!

Documents:
dont worry about the documents..it would be conveyed to you what documents you should bring when u receive an email from them regarding ur accomodation and date of joining...the main problem we faced was for PCC(police verification certificate) but that was required for those who were travelling for Cyprus and from your post i could see that u r not selected for Cyprus so dont worry, be cool... everything is good here.....
The medical certificate u need is jst the one that amdocs had given u while handing over the offer letter.. nothing more is required.

Regarding the pcc, its only required for the once migrating to Cyprus. Rest, dont need it at all. And if u r planning for the future then u would get ample time for that after coming to amdocs. infact amdocs will help u get one if they plan to migrate u....
You need to have the ECNR stamp on the passport if u want to go abroad even for a week.

If u have issued ur passport recently i.e. after ur 12th, then u wont need the ECNR stamp coz its already done in recent passports but its better to get it checked by someone who knows it.


Lot of employees here miss their chance to work onsite just because they dont have ECNR. so pls c to it that u have ECNR on ur passport before u join.

For those who have just applied for the passport need not worry. u wont have to get the ECNR Stamp. it would take around 1 month to get ur passport and the training period here goes on for 2 months.. so still there is lot of chance that u can get ur passport before it is decided that u have to travel.....

Training:
All of you would be getting training in DVCI (i.e. india) except those who are recruited for Cyprus...
After that it depends on the type of the project u get.....
if the need be in a half month's time you could be picked up for a specific project and would be sent to israel or any other
country for training... and it is also possible that the project u get would require a 3 months training in DVCI
Training period is the most enjoyable period......
u get to learn many new things.. how this professional world behaves.. how u have to mould yourself into it....and basically u will be provided training on c,sql,java,xml,unix,cobol, etc....
and there would be a small test after each language is done........(for which there is no need to study at all)
there are some sessions known as e-learning sessions wherin u r given headphones and a pc and u have to take classes from online training classes....and ya the training period is for around 2 months

After training:
the kind of work depends on which project u get in amdocs after training... there could be development work in some projects or you could get support... or some testing stuff.. it all depends in which project u get selected and believe me that process is totally random...u r picked up and sent to any project.. it does not depend upon ur performance or academics....) the chances of flying abroad also depends upon the project u get...... there are people who have travelled 4 countries in 7-8 months and there are people who have not gone outside india for 2 years.. so dude it depends on the type of the project...

Accomodation:

first 15 days:
Hey dude.... dont worry about ur accomodations.... it would be in a 3 starrer...and it would be only 2 people per suite. and believe me i have been thru this... its really like a some sort of picnic from SOTC.... its gr8 to have some 50 people living in the same hotel and leaving for amdocs in the same bus for 15 days... u would really enjoy your stay in the hotel.....

after 15days:
Most of the ppl working for Amdocs live in Magarpatta, Wanowrie, Hadapsar and NIBM...ppl rent a flat and share among themselves the costs could be Rs.2000-3000 if a 2bhk flat is shared by 4 ppl.

If you want to go for upmarket location then Kalyani Nagar or Koregaon Park could be your destination, the rent for a 2bhk starts from 10K.

Finding a good house is actually tough as you need to search it thru brokers and they charge hefty amounts for this usually (1.5 to 2 mnths rent) but u could be lucky if u find a house thru personal ads of amdocs intranet then u wl be able to save brokerage.
dont worry about the accomodation, u can get it in 15 days, no need to come here specially for it. Some friends of mine felt it tough enough and thats because they dint start searching from day 1. But then its on ur luck and choice..

But b ready for this.

1BHK rent 5k-7k, deposit 20k - 30k
2BHK rent 8k-10k deposit around 50k
brokerage- around 15k

above figures indicate a house which is unfurnished or semi-furnished.
for a fully furnished house u need to pay more...

now it depends on u how many of u can stay in a house...and how much u can cut down on ur rents.
i think u should avoid areas like aundh, kothrud etc. these areas are far away from amdocs and it takes nearly an hour or hour and a half to reach office from these areas. There are many people from amdocs who live in these areas and bus service is also provided but the only thing is distance and time. it wont affect initially but as time passes u start feeling bored to travel such distances......
u can get accomodation in magarpatta itself but they are EXPENSIVE....
so if u can afford 6-7 guys in a 2 bhk then its good enough or it would cut down deep into ur pockets.....


Ya PGs are available but u will have search hard for it.....
In PUNE i have found boards on almost all the apartments

"STUDENTS/BACHELORS AND FOREIGNERS NOT ALLOWED ON RENT."

U will be seeing this at almost all the places coz people here fear from students as there were incidents in Pune which created this fear in them.
But dont worry u will find if u try to.

"Dhundne se to bhagwan bhi mil jaate hai"
MAIDS bhi.Infact aap jis apartment me rahoge vaha upar neeche kisike ghar me aati hi hogi... humne bhi aise hi kiya hai....

But starting me jab hum hotel me rahe the tab humne kapde apne haatho se dhoye the...

After renting a flat too we washed clothes and utensils until we got a maid and a washing machine......
And believe me it was fun........

Dress code n work environment:
the work environment is excellent over here....
there are no constraints of anytype... u can wear anything u like...
i have seen guys over here who come office in their bermudas...
so dont worry... we are allowed to wear casuals at office...
no matter in which area of pune u live, there will be bus service provided to u.. and we have 4.5 days week.
We work only half a day on friday because we celebrate something called as 'KABALA SHABATH' this is a hebrew word meaning 'CAKES MEETING'. All the team members get together and bring snacks, cakes, coldrinks...etc and enjoy some light moments with each other.. we even play games during kabala shabath. so most of the friday goes in this celebration.

and we have complete holiday on saturdays and sundays

regarding time constraints.. there are no time constraints as such....
u can come at any time and go at any time.. but in the whole week you have to report 45 hours. thats it.. its on u if u like working at night or during the day time..

one more thing if u decide to work according to ur time u wont get the bus service... buses ply at morning 9.and on the way back we have buses at 6 30, 7 30 and 8 30. anyone u like...

Package:
the package offered to us was 3.6 and the thing about the package hike are all rumours.... its 3.6 for u also....

Infrastructure and sports:
Amdocs Inida (DVCI) has one of the coolest infra as compared to its other branches and other companies all over the world... some people tend to compare it with googleplex.....
u get all types of indoor games in amdocs... u can see my pics for that purpose.....
For outdoor games we organize many events.. For eg. last week we had a cricket tournament and i was one of the organizing committee and it was a huge success.....


there is a club in magarpatta where u can play tennis (as i can see from ur name u like tennis). Just come to pune u will know....
amdocs has its own cricket team, football team, volleyball team, basket ball team which has its name among the IT companies.....
amdocs has won many inter IT tournaments so dont worry all sport lovers.. u will get ample opportunities to show ur skills....

Food:
for all the food lovers..... PART I
During ur stay at the hotel which would be a 3 starrer....only the breakfast (and ofcourse stay) would be complimentary....

But the breakfast there would be such that u wont need to have ur lunch..

what we had was.....
2 hot dishes (south indian/chole bhature/french/italian etc. etc.)
loaves of breads (indian/french) alongwith jam, butter (as much as u want)
Fresh fruit juices (water melon, orange, pineapple)
Real fruit juices (7-8 flavours)
tea, coffee and all those conventional stuff

and the breakfast was so yummy, we literally dint have any space left for lunch..

NOW WHAT DOES AMDOCS PROVIDE.....

BREAKFAST (Absolutely free) :
7 types of sandwiches (all available at the same time) : jam, cheese, vegetable, brown bread vegetable, chicken, omlet, green chatni
hot dishes (one per day) : upma, idli, kanda pawa, utappa, alu-gobhi paratha alongwith curd and pickles..
PRIMARY FRUITS (provided everyday) : apple, banana
SECONDARY FRUITS (seasonal) : watermelon, mangoes, grapes.
tea, coffee, nescafe, capucino, moccacino, hot chocolate, soup, milk, taj mahal tea bags, sugar cubes are available 24x7 at amdocs.
low sugar items are also available in the above mentioned drinks....


SNACKS (free :) ) : u get snacks at around 4 30 in the evening... all the above items are available at snacks too except the hot dishes.... at snacks the food u get is something like this : dabeli, muffins, bhel, pani-puri (at 5 u wont find a trace that todays snack was pani puri), kachori, etc....
LUNCH (only Rs. 20. Just swipe ur card at the entrance of the cafetaria and 20 rs are deducted from ur salary) :

3 types of meals are provided at LUNCH.

1) INDIAN (veg/nonveg): Nearly 18-20 items are provided in the indian menu starting from soup to dessert. It has an extensive menu which is only repeated i think once a month....

2) western junk food : any type of junk food (veg/nonveg) is available at this stall and it has a menu of nearly 30-40 items...

3) continental : i dont like continental food)i havnt tasted it but people say that its good... for the rest, u can tell me once u get here..

sometimes in desserts there are ice creams too...

apart from these if u have a habit of a cold drink during ur lunch, coke, thumsup, sprite, mirinda bottles are always there to be picked up.

fresh fruit juices are also available (watermelon, lemon, kokam sharbat etc.)

after all this at the end there is saunf and that it...

Salary details:
U will get Rs. 20,000 in your first salary.

Rs. 40,000 will be given 2 u as a loan which will be repayed as Rs. 4000 from ur salary everymonth. but it will take time (2 months or so).

so its better u come prepared frm home itself....
in all,u r given 4 benefits..........

1) Rs. 20k to all the new joinees without any condition. This 20,000 is separate from everything else...
u r getting cash 20k, with no conditions.
Airfare and other reimbursements are separate.

2) Rs. 40k as loan (which i have explained earlier)

3) Reimbursement of the transportation bill ( which includes transportation of all ur household goods and related things) but for this u have to produce a valid bill.

4) reimburesement of ur personal travel fare from ur place to pune (which includes air fare also)
They will reimburse even 10-12 k if u have a valid bill.

Initially u will be joining around july august.. so ur package will be counted from july to march '08. which comes around 200k.

Now one thing i dint know when i joined amdocs was
100k was tax free from ur salary.
u can make an investment of max 100k. Above that even if u invest it is not taken into consideration for income tax.

so until march '08 ur entire salary will be tax free (assuming u show an investment of 100k).

so u would be getting in hand around 24k per month.

But after march '08 that will reduce to 21k.(if u dont show any kind of investments)
and if u do u would get around 22.5k in hand... so this is it...

this was the question i always had in mind when i joined the community AMDOCS '06.
But no one had this definite an answer....

ur salary wont increase atleast untill july '08.... (coz our first increament is in this july)...

and it would be around 20-25%. This is what my seniors have got..
God knows how much will we get.... but we r expectin the same...

and yes it depends on performance....
Even in december u get bonus...based on performance....

there are bonuses of around 60-70k. Yes... 60,000 - 70,000 Rs. if u perform well.....

and there can be perks of 3k, 10k, 15k available if our clients are happy with us and appreciate us.....

Parents??
Parents wont be allowed into the office.....and they wont be providing any accomodations for them....
if ur parents are here they are entirely on their own...
yes visitors are allowed in amdocs.....
u can bring ur friends and family but u have to register them at the reception.

Cafetaria is open to them but it will cost u Rs. 68 per each extra person.

Further studies:
Yes u can continue with ur GRE and other exams.. but if u leave amdocs before 1 year of ur joining then u have to pay back amdocs all the expenses they did on u...

for eg. hotel stay, 20,000 Rs., reimbursements....etc. which comes around 30- 40 k and maybe more....
and 1st day @ amdocs is very boring...... u will be getting a whole list of rules and regulations and code of conduct.. and there will be people from HR, Finance, Hewitt (our payroll manager), everybody and will be explaining to us how amdocs work.


Orkut:
yes orkut is blocked in amdocs...
but there are work arounds...
come to amdocs and i will tell u how to access it...
cant tell u this in public...

Laptops:
u cannot bring ur own lappy to office (officially) but people do tend to bring them... but u cant use it....ONLY people at PM and Director level can use their own laptop.

As far as laptops by amdocs is concerned, only people providing weekend support get laptops along with broadband.
But believe me nobody wants to have the weekend support coz customer can call u at saturday morning 2 or 3 am and u have to give them answers.... which i think nobody likes....
one of my roomies does so....

if u have lappies dont let amdocs know that u have one coz if they know, they would request u to work on weekends....

I CAN PLAY THIS!! Its the lead from Fear of the dark by iron maiden, really simple (doesnt look so in the video huh? ) once u get the tabs from the net.

Have found a real cool site for guitar beginners, www.justinguitar.com . It starts from basics and has videos along with lessons. io still need a lot of practice in changing chords and remebering them, but i am comfartable with leads now, i guess am more of a lead guitarist :p

more guitar updatescoming up, book tickets for my concert!! tananaana nan na na na (guitar strums hai bhai)

Am Jobless

Its been a really long time since I last wrote something here. I guess now am writing out of boredom, and because I have nothing else to write about, will write as much nonsense I can in this post.

Saw promos of himass? oops I should rather call him HR!.. That guy has serious guts to make his popat in front of everyone.And somehow while browsing through channels I always stop n look at his promos!! No nothing is wrong with me! I mite go n watch his movie also coz I am jobless :(.. OMG am developing suicidal tendencies now! ;P

College is over, n every1's gone home..surat is a sad place without friends. I guess I'll get used to it in sometime, though i really hope my joining date is sometime soon.

ok,so my intended schedule for these holidays was something like this-

Scheduled time	supposed to-do	what am actually doing
6.30 (yes AM!)	wake up for jogging	Sleeping(obviously)
7.30	breakfast	Sleeping( ok..)
9.00	Gym	Sleeping(sigh!)
11.00	Sleep	*YAWN*
12:00	relax/eat	Breakfast(YEAH!)
2.00	lunch	lunch( AT LAST AS SCHEDULED!)

Rest of the time I hadn't figured out what to do, but now they are spent online reading stuff.. one good thing that I am doing is that am brushing up my programming coz ab to vohi sahara hai..

N am also breaking my guitar strings n cutting my fingers,..guitar is really hard on fingers yaar!! but this time i wont give up, have learnt a few chords so i hope to keep practicing n become a decent guitarist.. bhagwan ne sur taal nahi diya hai isliye thodi mushkil hoti hai but i am giving it my best shot :)

anxiously waiting for my results, coz it will decide whether I graduate as a 6 pntr or a 7 pntr, not that it matters to me but still 7 ho jaye to acha hai..
enough of crap now, will write something when boredom strikes again!

Grapes are sour! Actually i dont even like grapes :P

Ah, the aftershocks of CAT finally over.And I can safely conclude that I wont be doing an MBA this year.May be the next.Or may be the one after that.Or.. argh, the truth is I don't want to do an MBA right now.The only thing I know about MBA is that MBA grads earn a lot.Uptil now this was the only motivation I had.After a lot of soul searching in the past weeks I have come to realize that unless I find a reason to do and MBA, i wont be able to make a full hearted go at it.It was heartbreaking to see the look on the faces of my parents after I told them my score. My bro was actually delighted to have some other topic of discussion apart from his board exams, but he's a nut case so leave him.I find it hard to explain it to myself why i wasted so much of my dad's hard earned money.. may be its better not to think about it and feel guilty about it. But all in all, atleast i got to know myself an ounce more.