IT Job vs Job as SBI PO

[ayushman9]

I completed my MBA after be from a reputed govt college & got placed in Infosys as Asscociate consultant .Currently I am getting in hand of about 48k per month . Now in the mean time I had been givinf PSU/PSB exams like IBPS/SBI etc .I have qualified & also managed to crack the interview of IBPS about 3 times & but each time rejected final posting as infy pay was higher .However only this time i have been able to crack SBI wrriten exam & I hope will clear the interview also. I cleared SBI last year too but failed to crack the interview (I was in MBA college then)

I am 24 years old (24 not yet completed) as of writing this post .I am largely confused as to if i crack the interview should i join SBI Or not. I am at a great pressure from my Family to join SBI as it offers a good job security ,Medical benefits & provide its employee with good Home loan advantage compared to retail customers .Now it may seem laughable to decide your career on a thing like home loan ,but coming from a middle class family ,the repayment advantage offered by a SBI job is not comparable to anyone else

On the other hand ,I love my job at Infy .I am working as a Associate consltant ,the pay is good & as i am currently in a SEZ in hyd ,the cost of living is also not high .However there is always the fear of job insecurity .There is promise of onsite travel & posting but at the same time there are extended bench periods sometimes going so long as for a year . I am a techie at heart & whenever the work comes ,i do it with all my energy .But ,yes there is always the fear of bad CRR ratings & posting to any unfriendly metro.

Kindly advise what should I do .If I jump to SBI ,my whole carrer path will change from IT to Finance. The pay will also effectivily reduced to half . Also as a SBI Po ,more or less your MBA degree becomes irelevant .For both SBI & Infosys ,annual hikes are rare with SBI offering quaterly hikes in DA which is not of much consequence but SBI iffers a cushion from upheavel from external envirionment However SBI comes with a steady growth & Infy/IT sector comeswith volatile but high growth options mainly guided by external environment.Competancy wise ,I know i can work in both environment. However I am confused & i have to make the decision in nect few coming months .Kindly advise

 

[dashing.sujay]

How much you're getting other than in hand salary as perks ? I'm asking this as SBI gives huge benefits apart from low in hand salary. A fresher PO joining in mumbai is liable for 69k renumeration as CTC (cost to company), which is not at all bad. Plus those annual perks, such as 1-2 lakh for furniture, electronics, and what not; medical benefits are too valuable, not to forget trips . Also, I believe, and it's almost evident practically, that the status in society will be much higher of a SBI Po against most IT companies jobs.

But if you're so assured of your growth in Infy, then I bet, you will leave behind SBI salary by 5 times if you do well. But as you know, all these imaginations come at an "if", which is always skeptic. Job security, as you ave mentioned, is the worst fear any private employee can think of.

Btw MBA do helps in promotion/enhanced CV while escalating through senior managerial scales.

PS: Being a member of SBI family (dad), I have seen it closely. But do keep it in mind, people who grab the opportunity fast and grow in private sector fare better, but all this at an if... .

 

[gopi_vbboy]

Go for govt jobs .Best.

 

[whitestar_999]

just keep in mind that not all SBI jobs are in mumbai(in fact very few are) & most likely you will get a rural area posting for first 3-4 years & pay will be less too.the workload is also there in any PO job & maximum in SBI(just visit any major SBI branch during weekdays & you will see what i am talking about) so if you are the one who don't like doing mundane work(like checking account numbers & details) with great concentration(no mistakes here cause one wrong number/sign/entry & you are looking at few thousands rupees disappearing) or don't like to frequently spend 10-12 hours in office(last year SBI actually had to open many of its branches on sunday too because of special circumstances) & almost no official/paid leaves then don't join but if you are ready to face all this for initial 4-5 years in hopes of getting into middle management level then go ahead.personally i say any interview post in SSC CGL exam is better than SBI PO in every respect.

 

[it_waaznt_me]

The monetary difference between the Infy and SBI is easily compensated by the facilities and benefits you enjoy as an SBI employee. You'll get medical+accommodation+preferential rates for loans+job security etc. But be prepared for lethargic growth as the promotion policy sucks, for POs I'm guessing now its 4-3-4 (4 years to be eligible for first promotion, then 3 , then 4 etc. Refer to your offer letter) and a lot of workload. You'll be on probation for two years and while you are on probation, most of the time you'll be posted in rural areas and transferred frequently. Your place of posting may also be not much to your liking. I have never worked in a domestic branch but I'm sure things are just like as /u/whitestar_999 has quoted above.

You're a young guy so fast growth and better income might attract you more but in a government job you'll find job security which will matter more in later stages of life. I'll suggest you draw a table and write down the advantages and disadvantages of joining SBI and evaluate them by cancelling out compensating properties (say disadvantage=low salary, benefit=better credit facilities etc.) and then decide on the basis.

PS: Most people will suggest you to go for SBI (I would too) but you have to decide for yourself what and how you want your life to be.

 

[dashing.sujay]

^You can also get promotion in 2 yrs if you clear the internal departmental exam. 2 yrs and scale - II.

And yeah, obviously the work load is increasing day by day, and you can't escape it. If you escape it, you loose on your career, stuck at same position forever (Read no promotion).

personally i say any interview post in SSC CGL exam is better than SBI PO in every respect.

Only the top tier posts, inspector, sub-inspector, and UDC in some specific departments like external ministry and the likes.

But it's harder to crack.

Recently I was persuading one of my cousin, who is PO in a PSU from 2 yrs, for opting CGL. I tried as hard as I could, but in the end I lost.

CGL looses on financial independence front, while wins on status and power front. It's a personal choice.

 

[it_waaznt_me]

^^Nope. There used to be a "Fast Track Promotion Scheme" but it was withdrawn in 2006 iirc. You can get increments by clearing IIBF exams though, but promotion will come only after you are eligible. Also, the employee has to go through a written exam and interview for promotion. As I mentioned before, the promotion policy sucks but to be fair its the same policy for all the banks under IBA.

While we are at it, I'll share one of my senior's comment on SBI : "SBI is like a mousetrap. Those who are outside wants to come inside and those who are inside wants to get outside". This is true for most government jobs anyway.

 

[dashing.sujay]

^I have confirmed it buddy (with my father, who is in SBI). And one of my cousin, got the promotion a few days back, he is in Central Bank though.

 

[whitestar_999]

@dashing.sujay,except for inspector of posts any CGL interview post is good.you will not get as much cash in hand(assuming honest salary) but you will also get only get 1/4th the load of a SBI PO job & lot more leaves.in fact the cutoff for CSS(central secretariat,Delhi,~32000 in hand) service is lowest among all interview posts because of almost zero chance of under table income & 99% chance of permanent posting in Delhi & i still suggest this job over SBI PO any day.i would rather take a job which pays less but with much less work load & lots of leaves & being a central employee there is not a major difference between usual benefits like medical & pension benefits.

 

[dashing.sujay]

^I also prefer CGL

 

[ayushman9]

^I also prefer CGL

Thank you all for your response . The pressure becomes more because My father has been in public sector banking & it is very difficult to argue .I mean when 18lac people are competing for 1500 job ,the the job must be having some weightage . Anyways your response just made me more aggressive towards Interview preparation.

While in case of central govt jobs ,i think one can also go for RBI grade B or SEBI etc .I had personally cracked RBI grade b phase 1 & 2 during mba & still lament when i was not selected in interview . The pay scale & perks that posts like RBI Grade B ,Nabard or SEBI offers can overshadow infy or SBI anytime.

 

[whitestar_999]

this year's CGL exam on 21st april was much tougher than SBI PO exam & like i said any interview post in it(except inspector of posts) is better in all respects(even you father won't be able to argue against this ) so try CGL next year.RBI grade B is even tougher than CGL & as far as i know the only people i know who cracked it many of them also cracked UPSC civil services exam(or at least reached interview stage) which is the toughest exam in the country.

 

[avinandan012]

Thank you all for your response . The pressure becomes more because My father has been in public sector banking & it is very difficult to argue .I mean when 18lac people are competing for 1500 job ,the the job must be having some weightage . Anyways your response just made me more aggressive towards Interview preparation.

While in case of central govt jobs ,i think one can also go for RBI grade B or SEBI etc .I had personally cracked RBI grade b phase 1 & 2 during mba & still lament when i was not selected in interview . The pay scale & perks that posts like RBI Grade B ,Nabard or SEBI offers can overshadow infy or SBI anytime.

if ladki k bapu start looking a SBI job wala as same level as Infy wala, that weightage will vanish.
Translation : If fathers of Indian ladies start looking a person with SBI as same level as a person earning 1/2lacs /month at Infy, that weightage will vanish.

This is another reason Indian private sector is not so much prominent as compared to US one. Most people try to get in a Bank PO jobs.

 

[theterminator]

We need a sticky thread for govt jobs as they are hot now (vacancies), though this does seem to require a separate thread. PO job is full of workload and if I were given an opportunity then I would have to give up my heart as a techie. But it might not necessarily be a generalist job, you can be promoted to the IT department. You can imagine the workload in sbi, they opened their branches frequently on sunday and there are talks , though I have no proof, of making sunday as a working day.

when 18lac people are competing for 1500 job.

Around 45 lacs applied for sbi clerk last year and they will break this record this year also in clerk

 

[avinandan012]

But then again one can't deny the fact of benefits & job security.

@op what you have here is a weight on one side you have the corporate blingblang(you will get only if you are in a Metro) + HOPE of uncle sam opportunity
on other side you have benefits & job security

So what I will suggest is value the jobs as how much amount of money you will earn in a period of 10 years
considering 5 working days/week @8hrs with 22 days yearly leaves/year+ 10-12 Holidays/year
as it_waaznt_me has posted the promotion details in SBI
get the Hike details I mean how much generaly is given each year to the post you are thinking of joining in SBI with same in Infy.

Gone are the days when a father worked in location A in a govt. Job B, builds a house at location A and his son/daughter joins the same/higher scale job in location A and live in the house.

With growing economy most govt. jobs will be in remote/new areas, so one has to pay rent(your particular case may be different). So keep this in count too.

Though you will not get job security in the begining in Private sector but once you become a valuable employee of the organization/spent few years in US, the benefits of SBI will seem puny then.

Also as you will join as a Ascon in Infy as you have posted salary about 6lacs/yr. After few years if you change the company you can get double package also.
One of my seniors from college joined a small company in Bangalore(his father a Govt. officer strongly argued and opposed this), after 3.5 years he is earning 15lacs/yr with one switch.

As you may be aware that we do not have any labour law in Indian IT sector cause the sector is too low compared to others. Currently the only laws applicable are organised sector laws.
If this sector grows, then we will have IT laws regulating it. Just look at uncle sam's laws in IT there.

 

[ayushman9]

Just to add more info ,my dad just throwed me a bouncer yesterday ,when I talked about Uncle SAM oppurtunities .Incidently Many indian Public sector banks including my dad's ,which does'nt even come under top 8 ,have started opening Branches outside India & just recently 2 of my father juniors of JMG Scale 3 & 4 i believe ,were sent to 5 year assignment to US & Sweden . I did'nt know what to reply .Though I am preety sure the perks may not be equivalent to any IT employees.

While for work load ,Infy & other IT companies score as not only they provide flexible hours but heavy loads are also not present during normal scenario .I have seen Senior Project manager hitting gyms nowadays at evening & during work hours ,which I can't imagine in

 

[dashing.sujay]

^scale 3 and 4 don't come under JMG, only 1 comes, AFAIK.

 

[whitestar_999]

"real govt job"(gazetted or not) is where you work directly under state/central govt which is not the case with any public sector bank,institution or unit.to get these jobs you have to crack exams much harder than SBI but the rewards are also higher(even after taking out the corruption factor).

^^correct,reaching scale 3 will take at least 8 years not to mention there will be less than dozen foreign posting available for thousands of aspirants.

 

[theterminator]

One thing is also there that people also shift from govt to private sector after being at a good position. As govt employees they get attractive salaries. Just a viewpoint.

Only scale I comes under JMG afaik. J=Junior.

 

[ayushman9]

What about lateral jump in future for PSB's employees. I have seen people leaving Public sector banks for plush offering in pvt ones especially Axis ,ICICI for anything in range of 90k to 1.2lac per month .Though they have been working for about 8 to 9 years in Public sector bank before that .