Narayana Murthy's career tip: "Consistency is important"

WE received several queries from Careers360 readers in response to our interview  with Narayana Murthy, published in the November 2010 edition of Careers360.  We have featured  his answers. Watch this space for more answers:

Q. Sir, you have said that you do not approve of short cuts to success. But people do  make extensive use of them and  succeed in life?
Ramakrishan
A. Shortcuts inevitably means you are not adhering to the agreed protocols and agreed norms and therefore they will indeed result in some problem at sometime in the future. I have never seen a person succeed time and again using such shortcuts.

Q. As I did not manage to get 60% in my engineering degree, I am not allowed to give the Infosys test irrespective of the fact how deserving I am ! Is that fair on your part?
Atul Chugh
A. No this is not an issue of fairness. We at Infosys, have to make sure we use any method that will provide us that number of applicants which we can manage at any given point of time. We have realised that a person who get a certain minimum percentage in his academic career shows that the person is serious, has consistent habit ,is disciplined, and he or she would apply himself/ herself. In life much more than smartness hard work, discipline and consistency are traits that matter and that is the reason why we have them as a criterion for selection. Consistency is very important to us. 
 
Q. I am a BSc graduate and very good at coding. Why is it that Infosys always insists on selecting engineers for code writing?
Swaroop Rao
A. I don’t think you have to be an engineer to be a good programmer or to be a good designer. The reason why we choose engineering was because in the late ’70s and ’80s they had lot of engineering graduates who had already gone through a certain selection procedure and they had very few employment opportunities. Secondly engineering is all about applying science to develop solutions for practical problems, a skill essential for software development. Moreover, all engineers have certain background of Mathematics. Since algorithmic thinking is the primary requirement for good software development, people with high skills in Mathematics are always preferred. 
 

• Interview with Narayana Murthy: "I want to be known as a fair person"

 
Q. Should an organisation expect employee loyalty when they hire and fire at will?
Kapil Kumar
A. I don’t think these two should be related. As along as you are in a corporation you have to put the interest of the corporation ahead of your own personal interest because that’s how a corporation can become stronger and that’s how all of us become stronger. However, even today when I find some youngsters who come to me and say, look I have this better opportunity for me, I sit down with the person and find out if it indeed is a better option. If it is, we always say, go ahead take it.

Q. Does Infosys practise hire and fire as a policy?
Ramesh Kumar
A. I think infosys has always handled employees with utmost courtesy. When an employee does not perform, we put him or her through a Performance improvement programme (PIP). And if the person continues not to do well in the job we try and see if we can give him some other job within the organisation. Only as a last resort we advise an employee to seek an opportunity elsewhere.