There is no training process in place and they mostly depend on lateral experienced hiring to get work done. No proper knowledge management process in place. HR team is largely external contract employees and there is no process in place to look after skill / career development of employees.
In past have hired from IITs for entry level positions. Even these bright individuals could not really make anything out of their stay in the company mostly because the learning curve is quite flat here.
Leadership is largely old people who have spent 5+ years with company. Newer hiring in higher management is from few smaller pharma research firms in India who bring with themselves the KPO culture.
They are targeting optimization of money and man-power in Hyderabad office which means lesser budget allocation from HQ and more work for associates.
Financial year of Jan-Dec but salary given out in April. >> Means you wait extra 4 months for your bonus.
One has to spend minimum 2 year in a role to be eligible for promotion > major source of frustration for newer employees as they are hired at one level behind older employees. While most older employees would have been promoted to Sr. Analyst role in 1.5 years, newer employee with less than 3 year experience are hired as Analyst.
My advice > Students of premier institutes like IITs should stay away from entry level or fresher entry here. Pharma in itself is a very different industry and this Novartis set up is not an ideal start to anyone's career. It will surely slow down your growth even if you are initially paid better than other companies coming to campus. Freshers should head to ZS associates if at all they are looking to get into Pharma industry.
