Company Review | KPIT Technologies | Salary & Growth | Embedded & Automotive

I worked in KPIT for 3 years till 2018. It was a good experience to work with KPIT. Like other companies, KPIT has also its pros and cons.

Overview

Note: Kindly note that below information is just based on personal experience.

It is a Tier 2 Company in Automotive Industry. However, It has a very good name in the automotive industry. It works on most of the automotive skill sets. You will get a very good learning opportunity if you start your career as a fresher in this company.

I think this is the part which everyone looks for before joining the organization. I will try to provide the details as per your expectation. Overall I will give 4 stars out of 5 stars in terms of facilities, work experience, technologies, work-life balance, growth, opportunities, etc., Let's look at each facility, Keep in mind I am talking about the Eco-world Bangalore location - 2017 Year.

Growth

If you talk about Growth, then it is good. if you are good at your position you can expect many promotions in a short span of time. You can be key people for that division of the department. Your important and value increased very fast if you become the more productive and efficient engineer in terms of contribution among rest. I have seen many engineers who continued with the company & now holding very good position & salary. The company used to act as a training institute for fresher who works there for 2 years and grab the opportunities just after the end of the bond period. Most of the people go to Continental, Bosch, Harman, Benz, Delphi, Electrobit, etc., The company is trying well to retain their good engineers but it is always difficult to retain their old employee if someone else is offering huge increment in salary. It is also not possible to give the huge hike to retain the engineer as it will give injustice to the employee who is loyal and part of the organization for a long time.

Appraisal

There are two cycles in which your salary can be revised. You can expect a good hike if you get a promotion. If you are able to create the dependency then you can expect very good hike and promotion as well. You can expect around 25% to 30% the hike if you performed very well in a year with all your responsibility. There are nine levels of your rating starting from N3 to E1. E1 is being at the highest level of grade and N3 is the lowest. If you get the rating of N3, N2, N1 that means you are not performing well as per company need and improvement is needed. There is a chance that you will get fired in such cases from the company. However, in the case of firing, you will get 3 months of salary to survive for the next couple of months. Sometime company may ask you to leave the organization on the same day and this will be very much difficult situation for any of the employee who serves the organization for a long time. However I wish, for any of the employee, this condition will not come.

1. N3, N2, N1
2. G3, G2, G1
3. E3, E2, E1

You will get the chance to have lunch with the CEO if you are got E1 performance rating. Your performance hike will vary based on your performance from 4% to 30% or even more.

I also would like to tell one more thing here that, you will find always delay in committed appraisal cycle or date. Generally you will get your revised salary in the month of July, however, it supposes to be done in the month of April as mentioned in documents.

Autosar @KPIT

This company is a premium member of AUTOSAR and started on AUTOSAR very long back.

You will definitely learn many things if you are part of the AUTOSAR team at this company. You can also expect onsite opportunities if you are part of the integration team.

You will find many skilled resources in the company who worked for many years in AUTOSAR. So you will get very good support if you stuck somewhere in the development of any modules. There are many SME or Experts available at the company for different modules of AUTOSAR: RTC, BSW, MCAL, DCM, DEM, COM, NM, FEE, etc,

There will be always a position available at KPIT for right AUTOSAR candidate. You can try your luck!!

Projects

As said, This company is a tier 2 company, it works with all the client in the AUTOMOTIVE industry. The company works with all company like

• Bosch, Delphi, VALEO, A123, JLR, Continental, SAIC, FICOSA
• VW, Yazaki, Panasonic, DENSO, Nippon, LEAR, etc.,

Personally, I have never heard of such companies in the automotive industry before coming to this company.

The company has projects in almost all the field of automotive.

1. Embedded C, C++, Java, C#, SAP
2. QT, HMI, ADAS, Innovation, MATLAB, Python
3. Microcontroller, I2C, SPI, UART, USART, DRIVERS
4. CAN, UDS, ISO 14229, ISO15756, ISO 14229
5. MCAL, RTE, DCM, COM, Network Management
6. Diagnostic, AUTOSAR, IOT

Customer Interaction, Communication Skill

As this company works with many clients either tier 1 or OEM, It gives you a very good experience for customer or client dealing or handling. You can enhance your customer communication skills. You will also face and learn new things about "How to deal with the issue when customer demand to fix it immediately" By doing this you can also learn about preparing RCA and other quality related documentation which will use at a later stage of your career.

Job Security and Stability

This is one of the important factors while switching to a new job. If we consider the ratio against total then it will around 5% of the total, which is considered low in the IT industry. I have seen the company fired around ~100 people in 2016 and 2018. In general, you may see next firing in 2020. Once you are fired they may ask you to leave the company from next day, however they will pay you 3 months salary. Select of people is based on performance for the firing. It is not depends on year of experience and salary certainly but if company is paying you good amount and you are not doing anything great then your turn may come.

HR & Network

• Letter request and HR facilities (Stabilized system to get the required document quickly, can get the required document within the same day)
• Portal to raise a request for each functionality. Example: IT support, network support, etc.,
• HR will deduct the salary for missing time-sheet submission without fail if not done in 3 months. (It has happened with many of the people, they will mention the same in induction program as well)
• Resignation can be placed from the tool/portal and it will indicate the last working day of after 3 months automatically
• Network and IT support are very fast, in general, to get the work done until special permission is required for something.

Patent, Learning & Training

Idea portal for innovation and patent (Good energetic team to support you in this, however, It can be improved further to the next level). The standard template is available to provide the input.

Learning opportunity - You will get very good on job learning opportunities, however, it depends on the nature of work for which you are hired!! You will never complain about the quality of the work.

Training - There is an internal and external training opportunity depending on your role but you may not find time to get it well.

Leave & Working Hours

Working hours - 8.5 hours per day (Saturday, Sunday Off)
Leave - 21 in Bangalore, 25 in Pune, India
Flexible working hours - It is not the hard rule to complete 8.5 each day, It can be altered based on approval and need

Punch Card & Time-sheet - There is system and if you forget to enter the data or hours in the time-sheet (3 months), certain you may end up in losing the salary for that day. Certainly, it will happen in the rare case. But there is no way to avoid that salary cut, they will donate it.

Work Life Balance

You might face a problem here as in general work pressure will be a bit more in this company in most projects due to short deadlines. Specifically, I have seen many people complaining about this in this company due to high work pressure and short timelines. It will be difficult for working women having small kids to manage everything in time. However, its working hours are short and if you can manage your task within the time then you should not face any problem for this.

Probability for Low Work Life Balance: 60%

Management

Young, energetic, supportive management, It is progressing well to reach the next level to compare with other AUTOMOTIVE giants.

However, due to unavoidable conditions, I have seen it lead to a management issue which will be very difficult to resolve without re-mapping or re-architecture. It will be a big challenge to find a solution to issues with process change or bringing new innovative ideas.

Onsite Opportunities

Just like other companies, It depends on the project and area of expertise you have in that area. In general onsite opportunities are good enough. Most opportunities are of long terms. You can also get short onsite for onsite integration and bug fixing activities. You may also get onsite coordinator role if you are good technically as well as in communication.

Feel free to ask me if you have further queries on any of the related topics.

Infrastructure, Cab, Lunch & Dinner

• Cab Facilities (after 7.00 pm based on approval and need)
• Lunch Facilities (No free lunch, you can go to the nearby cafeteria), However, you can get the lunch box at 60 rs in the company location. You just need to book in advance or get it at lunchtime from a predefined location. It is better to book as they have limited box available for each day.
• Dinner - In case you need to stay at the office for the late night because of project or release work, based on approval you can avail the dining facility and claim it later. Sometimes your immediate project leader or manager can help you with this. In a certain case based on critical, you can claim the transport charges as well if you need to come on Saturday or Sunday to the office.
• Infrastructure - An average infrastructure just like other IT companies. No garden area, No free canteen facilities, No to other advanced facilities.

Printer, Scanner & Desktop

• Printing (limited to 10 pages per day, need to sign and give it to security, you can give print from your location and go fast!! to catch the same print else someone else may take it!!)
• Printer & Scanner (Old traditional printer and scanner will be available at the common system to scan your documents, it will take time, not like an advance machine)
• Desktop or Laptop - For the grade E and above you will get the laptop, however, you can these facilities if project demands and there is the need for your contribution to it.
• Monitor: You will find 15 to 17-inch screen based monitor at work station of HP

Culture activities

It is difficult to get time for such activities, but interested people used to find there the way to get time for it. Every year there is an annual event called "RESONANCE" will happen in the company. This event will be well organized. You need to pay the minimal amount of around 100 per person to get into this. Generally, food will be served in this amount and two guests are allowed to take with you. Location for the event will be outside the company premises. It includes events like:

• Events for Kids, Games
• Dance, Solo performance
• Fashion Show, Singing in a group or solo
• Skit, Drama, Music play, Anything different

NGO activities

The company used to organize many events on a regular basis to help poor and needy people. Some of the events like "Chote" scientist, blood donation camp, school bag, books donation, relief fund, clothes donation drive, go green event, etc., The company will consider these kinds of activities in appraisal as well.

Sports & Gym

Sports - Small recreation area to play Table Tennis, Carom. HR used to organized Sports competition for Table, Carom annually. Some of the training will be also organized at this place and during that time sports activity cannot be performed.
GYM - Small gym available at the minimal charge per month around 300 Rs per month

Technologies used at KPIT

KPIT works on almost all the sector in which the AUTOMOTIVE industry should work. For Example, It works in Embedded C, C++, QT, CAN, UDS, MATLAB, Python, Perl, etc., as far as I know.

Other Areas: AUTOSAR, Bootloader, CAN Stack, NM Stack, BSW Development, Integration, RTE, Driver Development, etc.,

Comparison with other Automotive companies

1. KPIT is India based MNC, so if someone is really interested to work in other than India origin company then you can think or an alternate option. In other words, if you like to work in Indian MNC then this will place for you.
2. In most cases, you will feel somewhat more work pressure than other automotive Tier1 or OEM companies as KPIT is a service based company, which will deal and provide service/product to many Tier1 and OEM based on project need.
3. Certainly, If you get a chance to work in a good development team you can learn many things which are in high demand. For example, AUTOSAR, CAN Stack, bootloader, CAN, UDS, FlexRay, LIN, Diagnostic Tools, different OEM specifications, embedded programming concepts, coding standards, quality standards, safety standards, quality gates, etc.,
4. You will get moderate or equal facilities in comparison to other companies, however, it depends on the location of KPIT you are going to join.
5. Job security depends on your performance, however, you will find firing happening in the company at a certain percentage.
6. Few of the HR policy is not well and not friendly with respect to the employee.

Joining & Relieving Formalities

The company has very smooth joining formalities and induction programs. On the first day itself, you will complete the joining formalities and get the ID card as well. You will also get an Appointment letter on company letterhead. You need to submit photocopies of all education certificates & mark sheets, experience letter relieving letters. You can join on Monday or Wednesday as per joining day option, this is one of the good things as many of other company will not allow you to join other than Monday. In such a case, you will have an unintended gap or 1 or 2 days. The induction program is simple & short which will provide the basic information about the company & policy. You also need to go through a process training program of 2 days which is mandatory. In general, it is similar to other company however training programs for new joiner are limited and not much.

Relieving formalities are very simple & will not take much time. To resign you can go to the portal and resign and the system will calculate the final date for you. The formalities will be completed in 1 day only. However project related handover you need to do well in advance. You will get the experience and relieving letter on the last day of your service.