Atrenta - Company

We have been growing in size constantly, which is why we regularly visit some of the most reputed colleges of the country every year, besides recruiting from outside.

Over the last 18 months, our India operation has grown from 140 employees to 200+ employees. We expect to continue growing at similar pace.

Noida center is the main development center for Atrenta. We expect to have a team of about 250 engineers in the next 9 to 12 months at Noida. Whereas, the Bangalore operation will grow from its current strength of 6 to around 15 engineers.

What is the kind of work that happens at Atrenta, India ?

The Noida center being the primary R&D center for Atrenta Inc., the teams at this center are involved in all stages of product development activity.

We work closely with customers worldwide and the product architects in the United States to understand and analyze requirements and accordingly draw up product specifications, and develop the products. Being the main R&D center, we are responsible for design and development of all of Atrenta's products.

Besides product development, we are also involved in all other aspects of a product, including online and onsite support in India as well as globally; our teams also consult with customers to develop design flows based on Atrenta's products.

Do you need only core programming people or people with hardware background as well?

We need both kinds of skills.

Good knowledge of algorithms, data-structures and other software concepts is needed in order to develop products, which will work on designs with several million gates. Your software needs to handle millions and millions of paths, nets, terminals etc. within a reasonable time and memory. You now know, why we need people with solid software skills.

Our software runs on hardware designs. These tools are run by experts, who have very high expectations from the tools that they use. Hence, we also need people with good hardware knowledge. These people interface with chip designers to better understand their requirements.

Tell me something about the work atmosphere, company culture?

We believe in an open, informal, friendly working environment. People (right up to CEO level) are addressed on first name basis, there is no formal dress-code, flexible office-hours, and Internet access is enabled for each employee.
Opportunity to participate in sports and other events, including intra-company/inter-company competitions at NCR level.
Everybody is independent (and, thus also responsible) for execution of his/her work responsibilities.
Each day brings new technical challenges. And, you get the help and support of your colleagues to deal with these complex issues.
Honest and frank communications at all levels through communications meetings, team meetings, emails and phones.
Regular local outings facilitated by the fact that we are situated in the middle of shopping and entertainment areas.
Participative management - decisions are not forced down by the management, but stakeholders are part of the decision making process. Local decision making process is flexible enough in adapting to changing needs of employees.

How is Atrenta different from other IT/ITeS companies?

We are a product company with complete product development being done in India. Hence you get to see all aspects of product development from the concept to customer deployment.

It is not a place, where you are given only a specific piece/portion of an important product; nor a place, where you get what others don"t want to do. Instead you are involved in the entire life-cycle of the product. You get opportunities to directly engage with the end-users.

Multiple product lines gives you exposure to work on and learn about a variety of technologies.

You are free to be innovative right from start. There have been several instances when people with less than 1 year of experience have suggested algorithms which resulted in major product improvement.

The salary numbers look interesting. How much of it is really paid to us?

The salary numbers that you see is paid to you after making minor deductions towards items like subsidized lunch, meidclaim Insurance & Gratuity.

The CTC (cost to company) is structured under several heads like Basic, HRA, Special Allowance etc. A complete breakup will be sent to you after the selection.

The quoted figure does not have any component of training-costs, travel-costs, foreign remuneration while on off-shore duties.

OK. I'm interested. How can I apply?

We typically hire freshers only from selected colleges - through their Placement Office. If you belong to any of these colleges (IIT-Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Mumbai, Roorkee; IT-BHU, BITS-Pilani, JU, NSIT, DCE), you should forward your resume through your Placement Office.

For experienced candidates, if you know somebody working at Atrenta, you can forward your resume through an Atrenta employee. We give much weightage to references from our existing employees.

Alternatively, experienced candidates can send their resume to hrd@noida.atrenta.com.

What areas should I work on while I am still at the campus to equip myself better for job at Atrenta?

First and foremost, you should continue to concentrate on your class-studies. A job in hand is just a small portion of your life's achievements.

We have a fairly well-balanced training program to make sure that you get the required skills before you start working on live projects.

However, in case, you do get some time to pick up new technology areas, it might help to develop better understanding on one or more of the following:

HDLs like Verilog/VHDL
Digital design process - specifically in the context of ASICs
C/C++
Perl/QT
Algorithms, Data-Structures

More important than all these, you need to equip yourself with an attitude to learn and also to share your knowledge. Attitude to learn will be very helpful during the initial stage of your career. And the attitude to share your knowledge will be much more helpful after a few months, when you would be taking part in technical discussions and decision-making.

What are the growth prospects at Atrenta?

At Atrenta, your growth is primarily a function of your own contribution to the organization's success. From very early days, you start working quite independently. Due to relatively small number of employees, your role and contribution is highly visible; not just to your manager, but also to yourself in terms of business impact that your work brings to the company.

So, depending on how you perform, you would get promoted to increasing levels of responsibility, which will mean involvement in more complex products and decisions.

Of course, all this growth is accompanied by increasing salary, enhanced designations etc.

What work/project will we (new hires) do at Atrenta?

As mentioned earlier, you would be working on live projects with immediate business impact. As a company, Atrenta is involved in various EDA technologies, including Simulation, Synthesis, Clock Domain Crossings, DFT etc. Besides, there are a host of other skills that are needed for us to complete our product suite - e.g. GUI, S/W Infrastructure, Applications Engg. etc. Depending on your skill-sets, interests, and our requirements, you would be requested to work in one or more of the above areas.

How is project allocation done?

Project allocation is done based on a match of your skills, interests and the company requirements. We try to do a good match of your interests and skills with our requirements. We also encourage people to rotate among various projects, depending on the changing aspirations of the individual and/or needs of the organization.

Training period is too short. How will we learn & deliver?

We believe in learning through experiencing. So, your actual training is when you are working on live projects. The whole reason of recruiting very knowledgeable people like you is to be assured (on our side) that you don"t need a very long ramp-up time.

A few weeks of training is imparted mainly to brush-up on the skills that we need here on a regular basis.

After these few weeks, you still continue to learn for as long as you are working here - at Atrenta.

There might be apprehensions that just these few weeks of training might not be sufficient for you to step into the real, professional world. However, your own immediate seniors, from your own college are engaged in developing complex products. So can you! Besides, while you would be given sufficient independence to work, there will be people around you to provide help, support and guidance - whenever you need it.

What can I expect from my manager?

Your manager will be your coach & mentor.

You can expect him/her to be a good friend of yours. Besides being friendly, (s)he would also be helping you with technical issues. Just like you, your manager is also highly competent technically, with solid educational background.

The manager would also guide you through professional world - which is relatively new to you.

As you approach higher levels of management, you will see an increasing depth and breadth of knowledge, and, experience. Even as one of the least experienced people in the organization, you will be able to access highest level of managers - if and whenever - you feel the need.

Will there be travel involved in my job?

For us, travel is not a matter of award/reward/seniority. Travel is mostly based on the needs of individual projects.

Since we work on all aspects of product development, regular customer interaction is a must for our engineers. So far, our engineers have been traveling mostly to places which are known to be active in VLSI areas. In India, its Bangalore. Outside India, frequent travels are mostly to countries like: US, France, Germany, Korea, Japan. Once in a while, people might also have to travel to places like UK, Finland, China, Malaysia etc.

Travel duration may vary from week to several months.

Is there a probation period?

There is no probation period as such. You are a regular employee right from the day one. However, it is expected that as long as you are working with Atrenta, you will be providing the best contribution that you can make to the growth of the company regardless of the number of days/years that you have been with the company.

Is there a service bond?

We would like all our employees to be motivated and interested while they are working with us. At some stage, if somebody wants to move out of Atrenta, we don't force the person to stay with us. Hence, there is no bond-period.

You work here, as long as you want to work - which we hope, is for a length that you feel you have made significant contribution to the organization's growth.

However, it is expected that if and when you quit, you do so in a professional manner - giving an opportunity to your colleagues to have a smooth transition.

There is no bond period even for offshore assignments.