Toxic work environment - would never recommend
Pros
All the offices outside Chennai seem to be great places to work - so if you're reading this bear in mind that it is only for the Chennai office. Specifically the Research and Development department.
Cons
1. Working Hours - expect to work a minimum of 12 hours a day. The US office places a lot of focus on work life balance, and the HR at the Chennai office will say they prioritize it as well. But the managers you report to won't care about this. For them it will always be about you somehow meeting your deadline. Working only for 8-10 hours a day, leaving early, taking breaks during the job are all frowned upon. You will be encouraged to work on weekends. Managers will tell you extra work is "an opportunity to learn", when in reality all you are doing is taking on too much work without being able to complete anything properly or with quality. 2. Micromanagement - Managers claim to let you set your own deadlines - then will expect you to give upto an hour by hour breakdown of why you need so much time to finish a project. It is disappointing that managers have very little faith in their employees, by default they assume that you are not working and that they must keep demanding you for updates. Even valid reasons as to why an issue occurred or a deadline has to be postponed will make them think you are lazy. Eventually, you will end up getting deadlines from your managers itself, and will have to give tons of explanation before the deadlines are adjusted to a realistic date. 3. Salary - frankly, the salary for the working hours is disappointing. If you are someone with 1-3 years of work experience, the company will be paying you an average of 6-7.5 LPA. For this package you are expected to work 12 hours a day and on weekends. If you do the math, you will be working for hardly 200-250 rupees an hour. Anyone who applies for their job postings and clears the interview is worth much more than that. Even in the middle of a pandemic, working for such low rates is, in my opinion, unacceptable. 4. Quality of work - the Chennai management likes to claim that they build healthy competition in the workplace by giving the "best projects" (projects that will actually improve your CV) to the most hard working employees. Then they will give you multiple projects, which you will struggle to complete by the deadlines mentioned. In order to meet deadlines, you will find the fastest way possible to finish the work - which means the quality will be poor. It sometimes feels like you can never win in this company based on hard work alone. Which brings me to my next point. 5. Favoritism - unless you are your manager's favorite, you will not be noticed. I have seen employees who are related to other people in the company get special treatment. The best work, on-site opportunities, promotions, etc. will always go to the manager's favorite first. So don't expect to make it in this company on hard work alone. If you don't agree with your manager on every single thing, expect to be treated like an outsider. Don't expect HR to come to your support as well (refer my last point). 6. HR - even when raising these issues in the company, HR will not support you or keep your complaints or suggestions anonymous - in fact they will rat you out to your own managers and make it seem like you are the problem, not the toxic work culture. Everyone will be nice to the employees during events like when the US office management is visiting, or when it's time for employees to review their manager's performances. Otherwise, expect HR to not take your complaints seriously and to instead, land you in more trouble for wanting a better work environment. As the popular phrase goes, "people leave managers, not companies" - Genesys Chennai is a perfect example of that.