Infosys vs my own startup

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So this is yet another career advice thread. Didn't want to bump into the other recent thread cause my situation is completely different.

I've completed my M.C.A (Master of Computer Applications) and have an offer letter to join Infosys in August. In the mean time, I worked on a School administrative system as my final semester project. Now the software isn't radically different from the other offerings, but has its own advantages, including a couple of features NOT found in any other package. And yes I did my research before developing it.

Now that its almost complete, I'm really confused. We've (my team) already had inquiries from 5 schools who want it, and I daresay at least 3 will buy it. Which means we will need someone for full time maintenance and this is something we can't depute to someone else. So its a weird situation to be - the schools won't buy the software till they know we will provide them support, and I can't take the risk of looking it full time till I know at least 3-5 schools will get them.

Now come my priorities. I do not want to spend 6-9 months learning the same crap that I learn in 3+3 years of college. And I'm not the kind of guy who just wants a job to pay my bills. I'd rather work in a small company where my skills are actually put to use, rather than sit in the bench of some IT giant. So to me, my 6 months of hard work, for which I've put my heart and soul into is better even if it means Ill earn less till it takes off in a big way.

My family situation is such that I don't have to give my parents money every month. If I can manage that, I'll be happy. But it is optional. And since there is very little time (less than 30 days) for me to take a concrete decision, I'll need all the help I can get.

To put it into points:

Own startup:
1. Challenging, and a job I'll be really happy with.
2. Can make lots of money if it turns out good.
3. If it doesn't take off, I can always find a job after 1 year. No investment, so I'll lose just 1 years time which I can live with.

Infosys:
1. Supposedly will give me a head start in life, being a well established company
2. Have to suffer for 6 months in the name of training which I'm not very fond of
3. In the end, just another mediocre IT job

I'm sorry for the long boring post, but this has been in my head for a month now, and would like to clear it out asap. Please drop in your advice, comments whatever it maybe. Might just clear it up (or confuse me even more :D )
 
after reading what i gather is you have more or less decided to go the startup route and just asking us to support that move .... good luck with that :)
 
Err actually I've just presented the facts. Yes, I'd like to go on my own, but that's a huge risk. Want to know what experienced folks think about it -whether its a good risk to take, especially now that I've a job during these difficult times.
 
If you're confident, LOVE and ENJOY your work and have no immediate financial liabilities (family or otherwise), then I would advice you to go your own way.

I don't think I need to explain the pros and cons about why you should do that... looking at your summary in the end, I believe you've already made your decision, just want some confirmation to take the action, right? :)

EDIT : For the record, I work on my own... and I've been doing it for over 6 years now (3+ years before that in jobs). I've been happy and content with my professional life. :D
 
If Narayan Murthy had decided to join Microsoft instead of starting Infosys , their wouldnt be an infosys :P . considering you dont have much to lose , go your own route
 
I work for a company that is more or less like a startup. Yes, there are odd hours of work sometimes but you get to learn so much. You are not restricting to a single streamlined job but instead you end up doing 2-3 totally different things in a single day!!

I know your point is starting your own start-up. If that is so, get a job in a relatively new firm and see how they operate. Maybe learn the 'tricks of the trade' too and then you can jump in and launch your own company.

My 2 cents.!
 
Look at it this way:

Go for your own setup, give it your best efforts and time.

Hopefully listening from your story so far it will be a success.

And Even if it does not work then whats the big deal!!!

Its either Infy or TCS or Wipro waiting for you anyways ;)
 
If you have money...and something original...go for it else work for few years and then go for it.

Important thing is living without having any money on hands for few months, plus paying your employees and other expenses too. So plan it out well in advance.

All the best
 
Don't know if that helps, but Infy training is now 8 months IIRC. :P

On a more serious note, I feel that if you have a good chance of doing something on your own you should definitely go for it. You've really got nothing to lose and even if it doesn't work out in the end, it will be a great learning experience.
 
If your folks are not too badly off financially , and can manage without your salary, or even better , can support you for a year or so without straining their finances, then you really have nothing to lose by declining an infosys job. But supposedly, they have put a freeze on hiring, so the job may not be around next year. But there will always be small companies which are looking for folks, and you may be able to find a job.

Working at a big MNC is overrated. yes, you will get the brand tag attatched , but not much else.

Trust me. You'll love infosys training. Its the best part of the crappy deal. If you liked college life, this will be the same thing, amplified. Bigger classrooms, better looking females :P, harder assignments and exams ( if you fail, its your job on the line), but it is _worth_it_, and i dont mean it from the learning POV. On the other hand, having fun/enjoying life is not exactly high in your list of priorities (and i dont mean this in a bad way), and if you'd rather do something constructive instead, skip the training and join the startup.

Btw, if you fail more than three tests, you will be fired. if you fail one of the two main tests, you are fired. So I wouldnt be too confident of the job offer if i were you :P

Do you know anybody already in infosys? i mean, really well?
 
Go join an organization like TIE (talent ideas entrepreneurship/ the indus entrepreneurs). You will meet many like minded people (hint hint!) who can guide you/ fund you/ join you in starting a new venture.
 
I would have suggested going your own way only if your "business plan" was sustainable for the long term... but you seem okay/ready to go back to a normal job if things don't work out... so definitely try your own first :)

As for the second option, yes in my experience and looking at others' too, working at large companies is overrated. I have found time and time again that finding a good small company with an interesting product and talented coworkers (and that pays well too) is much more satisfying :) One risk is a small company can either succeed or there are higher chances that it will get into trouble financially... I've experienced it at maybe 3-4 places by now heh.

Personally its much more fun working with a small group of talented people rather than a large team where majority are slackers/losers who make your life miserable too...

I wouldn't touch another large company with a 100-foot pole so to speak... even with the risks of working in a small company, its totally worth it IMHO...

But if a "long term career" at the same "prestigious" company is important to you (lots of people prefer it - not me) then its worth working at a place like Infosys, people do succeed in large companies too, despite the armies of retards working as peers, subordinates and even superiors :D
 
Thanks a lot guys :) Reading through all posts gives me a confidence boost! Now to brainwash my parents :P

@Sei 8 moths :O I was told it would be 6.

@greenhorn, your absolutely right. Actually I chose to attend only the Infy interview, and skipped the 2 before only cause of the training. It was a choice that I took, cause I've a few friends working there and everyone said its a great place. But when it comes to your own work vs some other company, I guess ones heart and brain disagree. And about knowing people there, one of my best friends works there, but not higher up the ladder though.

@axeman thanks for the tip :) Didn't know there were such organizations here.

@vishalrao, my whole idea is do this thing for a year, and if it doesn't take off, then search for a job. And I feel exactly the same way as you do when it comes to large companies. I'd rather join a challenging startup, learn and establish myself there rather than a large company which pays even if I do mediocre work. I personally don't hold any grudge against Infosys or the other big IT companies, just that I'm simply not cut out for them :)
 
What I can do is give atleast the Mumbai lads here a heads up sometime when I can come for one of the TE Meets.

I work for a very small very high value co. today, and I have consistently avoided joining large cos., be it Indian or Foreign MNC cos.

Compared to my batchmates who joined Infy/ Wipro/ L&T etc after some time the salaries are more than even, but your rank and influence is much more higher. You are also able to gain a reputation in industry to have a brighter future ahead.

In a large co. you are just a teeth of a cog in the system, in a small co. you are the cog, so to say. :D Cheers
 
Definitely your own startup. Why bother joining the rat race? Worst case scenario : After a year you have to cut your losses and shut down the company. So what, you can still get a job in a shithole like Infosys afterwards.

Follow your dreams man, not everyone is as lucky as you :)
 
Sorry to go against the trend here - but you've asked for opinions and I like everyone else have one to offer! Please take it with an open mind. This is coming from someone who is mature and a risk averse individual.

I'd say go with Infy. For the first year, if you are not on a project you'd end up being in office for around 8-9 hrs a day. Spare some extra time after office hours and support your software product. Since you are young, you can manage to put in those extra hours everyday by sacrificing some other leisure stuff and work really hard for 5 days in the week (12 hrs a day - maybe more). You are not alone in this venture right? There are a couple of other guys too who can help you support this software, isnt it?

If it is only support, you can manage to do it by investing 2-3 hours daily. If the product is in a stage where you are expecting a lot of change request and features to be added, hire a college student to do the coding for you and you just have to do the design and quality checks.

Working in a company like Infy will give you exposure to processes of software development and help you network. Try and understand how pre-sales happen, how finances work, etc. over and above the software processes. It would add to your software product credentials if you can say that it has been developed by an Infy developer!

Get that multi-faceted experience from Infy and parallely manage your product too. If the number of clients increase from 3-4 to 20, hire 5 developers (freshers) and they'd be more than willing to do the work from home thing for you!

Think about it. Don't let go of this Infy opportunity
 
Thanks for the enlightening post Kneo. But I'm in a far more confusing situation than it seems. The other 3 team members are sure they are going to take up their job offers too, so there will be no one left for support. And unless there is someone physically in the same place to fix problems with the software, I highly doubt schools will even think about buying the product.

And regarding supporting it while I work at Infy, that's again not very practical. The Infy campus is a good 1 and half hours away from the City (assuming I'm posted in Chennai, which is 99 percent confirmed). So traveling to and fro after my 9-10 hour work schedule is ruled out. And I cannot fix their problems at my convenience when they pay me for it. Plus I'm not too keen on deputing support issues at the beginning stage itself owing to obvious reasons.

This is the reason I'm so confused. Its all come down to me, and if I take up the Infy offer, then we simply can't market the product. So its either this or that, and not both.
 
Infosys training is really hard nowadays as i have heard and yes its 8 months as i can confirm this ..
Let me tell you one thing that even if u join infy now there is no guarantee that u will get into projects after your training ... so for most of the people its 8 moths training + 6 months bench or more .. Bench is full these days as projects are hard to come by during these times as you can see infy has lost out on many deals to competition ..
 
Why dont you approach some small company who wants to expand.. someone you trust having a small company..

share the idea.. join him.. and do the work full time.. you wud obviously lose out on some money.. but you wud atleast have a small company backing you.. and helping you in streamlining processes and finances
 
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