Should you move to India for a job?

http://business.rediff.com/report/2009/may/19/bweek-should-you-move-to-india-for-a-job.htm

by dreamz • 17 years ago

12 27 17 years ago

business.rediff.com

jleyank• 17 years ago

Can a US-ian consider moving to India in search of work? Can they enter and work if they already have a position lined up? This was easy coming to Canada, but there's all sorts of treaty arrangements between the US and Canada. If the Indians are protective of their job market, US-ians just won't be able to go unless they're entrepreneurs who'll create Indian jobs for natives?

dreamz• 17 years ago

americans won't be able to adjust to the indian system (corruption, pollution, high ego etc.), also they would have terrible US accent :) and finally "Emily" from US won't become "Chameli" in India :-)

wheels3• 17 years ago

There are a whole lot of folks living in the US or Canada that are Indian citizens or one generation removed.

That said, the article is kind of lame. It assumes that a growing economy translates directly to a skilled labor shortage without making any decent case for that. Really, it's only even in passing that they make a case for moving there.

mauricio2• 17 years ago

US-ians are typically referred to as Americans...

andresmh• 17 years ago

America is a continent :)

plinkplonk2• 17 years ago

"Can a US-ian consider moving to India in search of work?"

I know many people from the USA who work here in Bangalore for a year or two and then go back to the USA. As I understand it the paperwork for the work visa is a little tedious, but hey then getting an H! involves a lot of paperwork too. Ideally you get a job first and let the company take care of the paperwork for you.

socratees• 17 years ago

The article is totally baseless for most of the part. Also, a Fastest growing economy does not translate that everyone should go there and look for a job. And for that matter, India won't be the second fastest growing economy in 2009 according to the Economist. The fastest growing economies are Qatar, Malawi, Angola, Ethiopia, and China - from one to five respectively. (http://www.economist.com/markets/indicators/displaystory.cfm...)

st3fan• 17 years ago

And compete with people who do your job at 1/50th of your salary? No thanks.

GeneralMaximus• 17 years ago

That doesn't necessarily mean they are any less skilled :)

mauricio2• 17 years ago

It's important to note the little tidbit about the author: "Aseem Prakash is the former CEO of I Media Corp Ltd. in India..." Biased reporting?

illumen• 17 years ago

Definitely! $5k can last a year in india. Just freelance for your existing clients and live like a king for a year... on 1-2 jobs.

Only 7-25% of Americans own a passport... so I doubt that many people would actually do it. http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2003/01/31/how_many_ameri...

Would be quite an adventure though... :)

My job was outsourced FROM India. So living there is just the next step I guess.

cvboss2• 17 years ago

So what? China is booming, India is growing, Russia showed 9% growth. The poorer the country, the higher the numbers.

ps/ you don't have to vote me down, that's from the economics textbook :)

rjurney• 17 years ago

You would not want an IT job in India - they're terrible. You're a lemming. Lots of programmers in India, very few hackers. At the high end, the very few interesting jobs, you're competing with the finest minds in India - and you'll probably lose.

But its a good place to do some serious hacking, if you've saved up money stateside, or have a consulting gig. I posted a bit about doing product development in India here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=532825

plinkplonk2• 17 years ago

"You would not want an IT job in India - they're terrible."

This is largely true. There are good jobs - one of my friends just got a job programming text to speech systems in scheme, and that her first job just out of school - but they are very rare. But most "IT" jobs in India suck for sure.

badri• 17 years ago

exactly. that's partly because most boring bit and pieces of IT are outsourced to Indian IT majors.

paraschopra• 17 years ago

Yes, very true. A typical IT job would make you cry for help, make you wonder the purpose of life and make you feel doubtful if all your 16 odd years of education (school + college) were worth it.

Typically you are expected to work late at nights debugging someone else's code or doing trivial stuff.

Luckily, I am working on computer adaptive tests which is uber cool.

philwelch• 17 years ago

Specious reasoning here. Yes, India has a higher rate of growth than the US, but they are also poorer and will remain so for the near future.

It's not an entirely bad idea, as living in another country is probably a worthwhile experience, especially rapidly developing country like India. But it's not a great career move in and of itself, nor is it that much better an idea because of the recession (unless you have no real prospects for enough income to stay in your home country and want a cheaper country to live off your savings in until the storm passes, but most people in that situation go for someplace like Costa Rica.)

param2• 17 years ago

I heard IBM is offering positions in India to current US employees. While it sounds like an adventure, please be advised before you try this out- even though you will need a pittance compared to US salaries to live lavishly in India, a lower salary does mean that you wouldn't have enough saved in USD to be able to come back after a few years and feel ahead of your peers. A lot of infrastructure is just missing other there, meaning people used to just heading out over the weekend for skiing would have to say goodbye to a lot of livestyle options

Worst thing is, wherever you go, you would look american - which makes you a ripe target for getting mugged, pickpocketed or swindled.

sundarurfriend2• 17 years ago

>getting mugged, pickpocketed or swindled

Those at least are direct threats which you would at least be conscious of (and may be avoid learning some self defence and having some 'tools').

But there's a lot of silent thieving that's going either unnoticed or ignored. From shopkeepers to rented auto-rickshaw owners, everyone charges an American 5x to 10x more (some even start charging for something that's supposed to be free). Since they do not know the actual rates, they end up paying the (relatively) huge amounts without even knowing they are being ripped off.

If you're an American considering visiting India (or probably any third world country for that matter), make sure you befriend someone there and learn the prices and rates of common necessities. If you make people realize you know the actual price and perhaps negotiate a little, they'll give in very soon. You'll be saving a lot of money that way.

param2• 17 years ago

That is exactly what I meant when I said 'swindled' :-)

furyg32• 17 years ago

There's an excellent movie called "Outsourced" about a call-center manager who is forced to move to India to train his replacement.

It's a silly B+ grade movie but it really gives you the feel of what it would be like to go work in a culture which is totally different than your own.

sundarurfriend2• 17 years ago

>India's economy will grow by 5.8 per cent [...] that's exponentially better than the negative growth predicted for the US

What does exponentiation have to do with this at all?!

Should you move to India for a job?

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