India: Facebook recruiting from the IITs; attractive offer

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/7040500.cms

by xtacy • 16 years ago

14 9 16 years ago

economictimes.indiatimes.com

Is it really surprising that Facebook would give the same offer to students coming from India that it gives to students coming from everywhere else?

abi• 16 years ago

Nope. But that kind of money is a lot in India so the Indian press will make a big deal out of it. Of course, IIT grads who do their Master's in the US have been getting the same offers for a while but that's not the same as Facebook recruiting directly in India.

paraschopra2• 16 years ago

But then he will have to move to US! I would have been impressed if $90K offer was meant for a position based out of India. With purchasing power parity of 5X, it would have meant close to $450K of actual US-equivalent salary here in India.

patio11• 16 years ago

I have a little professional experience dealing with outsourcing operations in a few countries.

You probably grew up in a Western democracy where racial discrimination was illegal and socially radioactive for most of your life. There are people who do not share that experience. Assume you had grown up in a hypothetical totally-not-India nation where government was known to be pervasively corrupt and where discrimination happened as a matter of course, and you knew in dealing with foreign countries that you were not in a position of strength vis-a-vis your negotiating partner. Would you necessarily expect them to treat you fairly?

Story time, with particulars elided: Japanese companies often pay employees in a fashion determined by an algorithm. It came to the attention of a supervisor of an Indian employee that information relevant to the employee's salary had not been communicated to the company and, as a consequence, he was not being paid his expected wages and had not been in some time. The employee was unaware of this and the error was in the company's favor. The company was totally blameless for the error happening.

The supervisor immediately went to the employee, apologized, and informed him that he would be paid appropriately going forward. He then asked the employee to wait for a few minutes while they figured out what to do about the six months of wages. The employee said it was OK, he understood that the company would not pay him.

Not five minutes later, the supervisor came back with the division chief and the head of HR. All three repeatedly apologized to the employee. They then presented him with an envelope: six months of the difference, in cash, accurate to the yen. It had been drawn from the petty cash drawer, and I have it on good authority that if the petty cash had been insufficient the division chief would have made good on it from his personal accounts within the hour.

The Indian employee was flabbergasted. I was mildly surprised. But this totally makes sense in a particular mindset here. The Indian was totally ready to believe he would be cheated out of wages -- it wouldn't have been the first time. I was ready to believe the company or HR would drag its feet. From the perspective of a particular brand of Japnaese megacorp, though, both those expectations are not just wrong but so outlandishly outside the realm of possibility that they wouldn't even occur to anyone.

paraschopra2• 16 years ago

I agree with you specifically on the mindset issue but it is not just true for India but rather for all cultures. Here in India, business people can delay and prolong release of payments for long and people have come to expect that. So if you get payment (along with apologies for the delay) that would surprise any Indian for sure!

Similarly, as much as I despise and loathe it, majority of Indians will not hesitate to throw stuff/wrappers out of their moving cars on roads and highways. It is pretty OK for them. But I am sure it will shock and surprise Japanese and many other cultures.

scorpioxy• 16 years ago

WOW

Forget about being a foreigner, companies wouldn't do that to even a native around here. I think I like the Japanese.

Of course even from a business sense, it would've made sense to do just what the company did. They pretty much guaranteed loyalty from that employee, probably for life. And the good kind of loyalty, one based on respect rather than fear.

I'd like to think that I'd treat my co-workers the same way when I am running my own mega-corp.(fingers crossed)

mashingkeys• 16 years ago

this is just going to further the rage on dice.com about the field going to hell in the states.

kunjaan• 16 years ago

The base salary and the signing bonus is not so special to deserve a whole article.

India: Facebook recruiting from the IITs; attractive offer

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