Samagra is a Lala Company, that too struggling one, do not see it surviving beyond the next year
Pros
1. People are extremely talented (minus the leadership), not that it matters anymore since most are getting laid off either this cycle or the next 2. High ownership of 3-4 Workstreams (that's how they sell you 15 hour days with no weekends) 3. Interesting and largely meaningful work
Cons
1. Financial Health - The firm has neither funds nor projects to staff employees on. They're introducing severe austerity measures with <10% increments for the 20% of the org that is eligible for it. 2. Mass-Layoffs - Approx. 40% of the firm has been fired, while promotions have been withheld from a lot of competent employees. Expect a mass exodus soon. - They've done this since the leadership (=just the Founder), decided to more than double the org through campus hiring of people at top campuses who would otherwise not even have dreamt of a consulting shortlist. - New recruits should also beware: there is a new 3 Month Probation Period under which new employees can (and will) be fired at will with a week's notice period. In case you have an offer on campus, cut your losses and start looking for other opportunities, they do not have the funds or projects to keep you. - It's clear that the management has no idea how to run a business, and they're just trying to cut costs any way they can. Based on what I have witnessed during my time there, I do not see Samara surviving beyond the next year. 3. Culture - You can take it as a given that you will be slogging till 12 PM (weekends included) in dingy government offices, and there will be no empathy or acknowledgment of this as a problem. - Very poor mental health across the board, no one will speak well of the org or its founder, and everyone is looking for the fastest exit. - The founder expects to create a cult of personality around himself (which of course the spineless leadership follows) and all org events are designed around hero worship of him (There is a 5-day event around his birthday called Sanskaar where he talks for 10 hours non-stop every day) 4. Impact - There is NO real impact happening here, and funders have started to catch on to that. They will launch dashboards/ed-tech apps in every state and sell them as making a radical difference.
