WITCH on resume
Hello, I saw a similar post to this one a while back, but it seems the issue was unresolved. I’ve worked around 11 months (basically a year) for a WITCH company (Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Cognizant, HCL) and for those who are unfamiliar, the way these companies work is they first train you in some general area (fullstack, backend, etc) and then contract you out to some company to do a project/assignment. I was obviously contracted out to Goldman Sachs. The reason why people say WITCH is a scam is because I still had to go through the same interview process as other full timers at Goldman, but without the pay or benefits. I worked on a team in the Global Markets Division after my couple months of training and have just recently left. I’m wondering how I should represent this on my resume. I feel like it’s a balancing act: obviously it’s in my best interest to highlight Goldman Sachs as much as possible, but I still want to be transparent that I was contracted by a 3rd party company for background check purposes. I just got an offer from a great company so eventually my resume will look better, but I don’t want this WITCH company to be a black mark for me, because last time I was applying with it on my resume, I got resume rejected from nearly every company, including places like Cisco, IBM, JP Morgan, etc. So pls lmk if you have any insight/tips to share…especially interested in hearing from other WITCH people. *Also, in the poll, wherever I put “WITCH” obviously in actuality I’d replace that with the specific WITCH company I worked at…I’m just trying to retain my privacy lol Thanks!!
I worked for Goldman for 2 years through Wipro. I used to put both on my resume (GS via Wipro). Since that experience is now more than 10 years old I don't bother mentioning it separately. Just mention my last 2 companies in detail and everything else in a one-liner. I've worked for Infy as well and haven't felt anyone discriminating against me for it. I just received an offer from Amazon last month that I rejected.
At that time, as a fresh graduate in India, those were the only type of companies coming to campus. So most of my generation probably has at least one witch company on their resume.
Ohh ok got it. Ig once I get past the first few years of experience it definitely won’t matter as much. Thanks for sharing your experience!
new TC?
210k
You need to shed your inferiority complex first. There is nothing wrong in working at a WITCH and if you feel so ashamed of it, you shouldn’t have taken that job up in the first place.
Yeah you’re completely right. I didn’t have much choice, but I’ll not be ashamed of it anymore
Too bad recruiters don't see it that way. There are so many people who have been rejected just because they were from witch. Not saying that they're bad/inferior but from a recruiter/HM's pov, they are likely to get filtered out.
You're over thinking it, no one will care because experience is experience. My first job was cognizant (didn't even list my client) and now I'm at Amazon
Yep that’s true. Congrats on the amazon offer!
Bro just put Goldman Sachs - Contract, Your next employer will likely ask about the experience. Say that you accepted a contracting opportunity to do x y and z at Goldman Sachs. End of story. You can put the actual staffing agency on your background check, but you don’t have to put it in your resume.
That’s a great point, ty!
I don't think of you as a good employer anyway if you think you need to hide the name of your employer because you think it is a black marker. You don't want to work for such companies who judge you by where you work anyway. Be completely transparent "SE at GS via WITCH" sounds good. No work is below one's dignity.
You cant even put Goldman on your resume. It’s unprofessional to disclose client names and you’ll fail the background check.
But I’ve checked with both my WITCH manager and client-side manager and they didn’t have any problem with it. Also like others have said, on the background check I would be transparent about the 3rd party company I actually work for. On my resume I’d indicate that I was contracted
If you put (Contractor) then maybe it’s ok
I got interviews from GS, Amazon, Snapchat with a similar WITCH on resume.
I’m a contractor at Nike and I don’t put the recruiting agency on the resume I put Nike even though the paycheck comes from the recruiting company. If they do a background check I give my engineering manager’s info who verified that I worked there. No harm no foul.
Software engineer goldman sachs (contractor) <number of months pr years>
Thanks! What is that last part about number of months? Do you mean to say amount of time I was contracted? Or total time I worked for Infosys (11 months)?
Yes