Service vs Product Companies

“The Great Indian IT Debate”

In India, the IT industry is divided into two worlds. Knowing the difference early can save your career.

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Service Based Companies (The “Mass Recruiters”)

• Examples: TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Accenture, Cognizant, Capgemini (CHWTIA).
• The Model: They build software for other clients (e.g., TCS builds a website for a US Bank). You are “billed” by the hour.
• Hiring: Bulk hiring (thousands of students). Easier interviews (Aptitude + Basic Coding).
• Salary: ₹3.5 LPA - ₹5 LPA (Fixed for years).
• Work: extensive maintenance work, support projects, legacy tech (Java 6, Mainframes). Luck based allocation.
• Good For: Stability, job security, low stress (sometimes).

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Product Based Companies (The “Dream” Jobs)

• Examples: Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Uber, Swiggy, Zomato, Razorpay.
• The Model: They build their own product (e.g., Swiggy builds the Swiggy App).
• Hiring: Selective. Hard interviews (DSA, System Design).
• Salary: ₹12 LPA to ₹50 LPA+.
• Work: Cutting edge tech, high ownership, fast paced.
• Good For: Growth, learning, money.

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The “Bridge” Companies (Startups & Mid-Sized)

• Examples: Zoho, Freshworks, BrowserStack.
• Salary: ₹6 LPA - ₹12 LPA.
• Why join? They are the best stepping stone from Service to Product.

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How to Switch from Service to Product?

It is Hard but Possible.

1. Don’t get comfortable: The longer you stay in TCS ($3.3LPA), the harder it is to leave.
2. DSA is Key: Product companies generally don’t care about your “Support Project” experience. They care if you can reverse a Linked List.
3. Build Projects: Show you know MERN/Spring Boot, not just “monitoring server logs”.