TL;DR-AVOID THIS PLACE IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER CAREER OPTIONS! YOU WILL NOT DEVELOP YOURSELF HERE NEARLY AS WELL AS YOU WOULD WITH A REAL, LEGITIMATE IT SERVICING COMPANY.
Synel is basically an overseas body shop operation, designed to flood corporations with cheap, overrated, underskilled labor thru H1B's. You are nothing but something to be controlled, an asset.
They literally have zero respect for any personal life you may have- If you get hired, they will assume you willing to move across the country, literally with less than 7 days notice. Same with reassignments you are offered.
The "training" they offer is just enough to make it seem you have been exposed to the technologies in question; like all body shops they hope the employer will teach you as you go,
Poorly conducted mandatory training done by teleconference, an India convenient hours (Sunday, 11PM for instance) are common. They have zero respect for your off time, that's how it works there. Since the staff is over 1/2 H1B, that means they treat the employees like Indian employees, which is what you lumped in with, so don't expect anyone to listen to you, or care about your needs.
No 401K match
Expensive benefits
Expect to be fought with for anything you need, including harassed for PTO.
No one has the experience they claim.
Unstructured, unclear plans for future growth. The management will not discuss any plans with you for anything, they just expect you to be ready the SECOND they say something, nevermind if you have a family, a house, or things to move, literally.
"Project Managers" with no experience successfully leading projects, the only thing they know is to try to appease the company manager they are being bullied by- never stick up for the employee when the company tries to demand more work out of scope. Because they have zero experience, and zero fortitude to tell the client when they are out of scope, you wind up overworked, with shorter deadline, and in an environment where there is no planning, no defined goal and nothing but infighting due to no one being able to devise a plan- remember few have done this before. Fear the client, never say no, bully the subordinate into unreasonable requests to appease said client.
I know of people who work who have been separated from their children since the only jobs Syntel was able to find them were on an opposite coast- move there, or be pressured to leave, or get fired. To hell with your family, they don't care. They do this since they are incapable of finding new business local to your employees- even the "low price" thing companies are hip to, and they aren't biting anymore. I
have seen Syntel move employees across the country on the promise of a long term gig (H1B). - Employee moves on short notice, disrupting their life and their family, incurring massive expenses, then the gig dies within 30 days- the employee had to go back to India since they couldn't find another gig. Totally inhuman move.
When syntel goes to trade shows, they walk up to potential companies, ask them what they are paying for H1B's and go "we can cut it in 1/2"- that's the entire sales pitch to accept Syntel, nothing else. It's about cheap labor, that may or may not work as advertised.
Future employers will either not know Syntel, or if they do, they will suspect your skillset, which you will have to develop entirely on your own since you were hyped up to get jobs before. They will allow you to fraud your resume to get potential clients to sign you up.
My time there was like I lost 2 years, what I know was easily obtainable in a few days in an organized environment; I feel like my professional growth was actually stunted compared to others starting with other firms.
Syntel is the stingiest company I have ever worked for, and their work is just a sham. If you go there, be prepared to be harassed, learn nothing, and not to be taken seriously in eyes of future employers.
If you do go there, do it for the $$$ but take any other offer in the IT sphere when you are offered. This is just a H1B sweatshop.
