Common among companies, although the extent to which it is implemented varies - typically exists for new recruits with less than a certain number of years in experience.
While it seems like a rather defensive & oppressive move, the companies might offer a different justification, maybe on the following lines:
1. Largely service driven IT industry
2. Projects running into several months - planning, estimation, allocation nightmares
3. The recruited talent has to generally be trained from scratch for the skills required for these projects. This is probably the most important point - as even the article above says, there is good talent but by a large sourcing good talent is way beyond trivial.
As such companies would want to protect their investments.
This is not meant to be a justification for such activities of course :) The point I'm trying to make is there are multiple variables in this. As the industry matures I expect things will change for the better.
While it seems like a rather defensive & oppressive move, the companies might offer a different justification, maybe on the following lines: 1. Largely service driven IT industry 2. Projects running into several months - planning, estimation, allocation nightmares 3. The recruited talent has to generally be trained from scratch for the skills required for these projects. This is probably the most important point - as even the article above says, there is good talent but by a large sourcing good talent is way beyond trivial.
As such companies would want to protect their investments.
This is not meant to be a justification for such activities of course :) The point I'm trying to make is there are multiple variables in this. As the industry matures I expect things will change for the better.