1) This is related to #1 in pros. If you are critical to the project for some reason, and there is no one else to replace you, you will get a promotion a year, and a lot of pressure throughout to create your replacement. Otherwise, forget about it. I have seen people stagnate at the same position for years and years.
2) Excessive attrition - When I quit this company, the entire team in US had quit within a 2 month span. That would have been a horrible setback to the people who came in to the team after me. Everyone who joins Syntel does so with the complete knowledge of the associated risks, and understands they do so just as a stepping stone to something bigger. That is why there is a huge attrition rate in this company.
3) Small company mentality - gets easily bullied by certain clients to accept cost cuts and resource reduction in critical teams, which heaps excessive pressure on the remaining team.
4) Technology - Syntel's primary focus is mainframe, followed by .NET. If you are a fresher joining in India, and are from a computer science background , you generally get trained in .NET, if you are from a non-computer science background, you generally get trained in mainframe. They are content to keep trying for more projects in the 4-5 major clients they have and all of them have major focus on these technologies. So as someone who is joining this company new, you could be stuck in a technology, where people have been working for around 40 years.
5) No value for innovation - Much of Syntel's work is repetitive, with utter disregard for the innovative ideas that employees bring to the table. Granted, they have a lot of awards to recognize various values and innovations from the team, but even these are used as bargaining tools by managers. I knew a person who got denied a promotion, and was told that he got an award that quarter and he should be content.
6) Salary - This is the clincher - Syntel is one of the lowest paying companies, beaten only by Patni(now IGate). If you have travelled from offshore to onshore, you get paid an abysmally low figure, which is quite depressing considering the amount of work you are asked to put in. Also, I have seen cases where the US recruited employees are also paid really low amount. With the amount of workload that they heap on you, join only if the pay is good.
7) Favoritism & Nepotism - Both run high in Syntel. Never dare to disrespect some manager to a fellow team member, might turn out to be brother/sister/wife/sister-in-law/brother-in-law/cousin etc. Also, there is a lot of favoritism if you are from the same part of India as the manager.
