In my college Infosys was always seen as the option only slightly better than unemployment. Actually this was not even the popular view by the time I left.
I will age myself and maybe out myself but while infosys may not have been a dream job during my college days (pre infosys IPO), it soon was. The company probably wasn't any different in skills but there weren't too many people in tech those days. Minuscule. And post IPO infosys laid the foundation well those days, sold the company well and was indeed a dream job at least for a little while. But that's ancient history now.
Indeed. Between roughly 1995-2000 it was the place to be. The hyper growth that followed post ~2002 brought in dilution in talent, benefits were cut (e.g. stock options were discontinued mid 2002) and the emergence of global companies opening India offices made it even less desirable.
There's a meme about Infosys' 3L/annum salary. Funnily that was exactly my starting salary there (post confirmation) in 2002.
