I used to work for big IT Outsourcing companies. Not anymore
I have worked for some of these companies here in Costa Rica, and the mess is the same.
My path with these big IT companies started when I was a Junior Developer up until I became Senior Developer and then I even tried other positions such as PM, SM, QA and other things, just for a change, but all the time it was the same. Badly developed systems, no practices, no methodologies, very few deliveries, excuses, excuses, and more excuses, team changes, and so on. It was terrible to have meetings with unsatisfied clients, always having to listen to the Account Manager giving excuses and promising things we knew would never get done.
One day I said it was enough, I was there just to get a salary, not to create something that I was proud of, so I thought I could work on my own and finally give real solutions to my clients. What was difficult was to find someone interested, but once I did my reputation skyrocketed and now I have several clients, I started my own team and I assure you I'll never look back.
It's not easy, every time I chat with my clients they give me suggestions, ideas, they have concerns and so on, but it's definitely not the same as before when my face was red all the time because I was ashamed of my own work, not because I was mediocre, but because the entire organization was.
Small teams work much better than big ones for most cases.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
