Appraisals

Friends,

June has started and we all are waiting for the appraisals, Our HR is busy with this too. Recently I came across one post from Parimala on her blog “Curious Tester” under the heading “Inferno around Designations”. This gives me idea of sharing my views on this all time burning topic 
Now they say to get a good hike you need to change organization some others say that to get a mere 30 % (let’s assume its industry standard) hike why should I lose my present appraisal as I can expect more higher offers after this appraisal. Don’t worry both these guys are right and I am not I am not denying any of these arguments. I just want to put my standpoint on both these arguments whether you are / you are not / you are waiting for changing the job first think of learning opportunities in the present / future company. In my opinion recognition of work is more important and when you are recognized you will definitely get a good appraisal in present organization while if your manager does not recognize your hard work and keeps on counting your mistake don’t wait for the appraisal and start looking for change since you can’t expect a good hike. All you will get is a mere hike while you can get much more when you change the job. Talking specific to TESTING, in many organizations where there is no separate test manager appraisal is done by project manager who is basically guy with development background. In such situations the appraisal depends on the feedback of other guys in team which is very harmful as the feedback would be taken from dev guys mostly. The appraisal here depends mostly on your relationship with development team and you might not get rewarded according to the efforts you did.

On the concluding note, my standpoint is when you look for change you should analyze on the learning opportunities in the present and future organizations as well. In case there is not enough learning opportunities then it’s better to look for change because professionally nothing is gained. After all software industry is a very dynamic and your learning matters a lot when counted with your experience, I have seen such examples where a person coming for a reputed company having years of experience asks how to take screen shot in case no tool like SNAGIT is available.


Wishing a very good future and appraisals to all readers !...................


Thanks & Regards,
Amit