Reading through the blog entries, i stumbled upon this entry by Sriram clearing out some of the misconceptions that people generally have. Started writing a comment for it but then realised that it was huge enough for a post. Here are my views.
A good thought well put by Sriram ! I am from Bangalore and most of my friends are here with me in different IT companies. Well does that mean that Bangalore is the thriving software city or the next silicon valley ! definitely not ! Companies have started looking at other avenues and cities which will provide the right atmosphere to start a new division. To name a few Hyderabad, Delhi, Pune, Bombay, Chennai, Chandigarh and Bhuvaneshwar are opening up to support such ventures.
I read a statement recently by Narayana murthy. Ok let me paraphrase what he said : "The employee is a liability to the company. Get attached to your work rather than to the company". Well i've seen that it is true in rather many a case when the company wants to squeeze all the work possible out of you and doesnt care much about the compensation in terms of culture and pay for the work. I think this whole notion has cropped up due to many companies outsourcing to India because of cheap labour and talent available here and in order to bring in more work eventually end up overtaxing the developers with all sorts of work. Eventhough it provides good oppurtunities and exposure, what lacks in developers in these companies is the attachment with the company that i see in most bloggers from MS. That includes me too :( but can't help it though.
Recently, Rory posted about “Jobs moving back from India” . Well i can understand how enthralling the news would have been to most people, eventhough it was later dismissed as another hoax. My point is that, the software industry, or be it any developing industry strictly behaves in sync with the survival of the fittest and the laws of change. Now it doesn't mean that Americans have lost their fitness, definitely not or neither does it mean that Indians have suddenly become uber-fit ! It is just that America has gotten bit by its own economic boom now and that the cost of living, the contract allowance, the industrial compensation standards, and many other benefits are expected beyond what the companies can afford anymore apart from being able to show a decent profit level !
hmm i perfectly agree with what Darell had commented in Sriram's post.
“Businesses are outsourcing so that they can get the same quality for less money. This is a standard business imperative in a capitalist society. Right now this benefits you, but eventually it will move on to some other "up-and-coming" nation, and India will be experiencing the same angst as US workers are now.”
What he has said here is the undeniable truth and fact of the software industry. Or rather you could call it the law of the universe : “Follow the Path with least Resistance !”. Every country will face the same only that at different points in time ! How to solve this and implement the solution is where we have to be looking at rather than fighting or even cribbing about the current scenario.
I dont blame people who are crazy about going overseas say US or somewhere else on a software job just for the pay. All these guys have the notion of a cakewalk future, after working in US for about 5-6 years coming back to India and then settling here. Unfortunately, the culture i must say is radically different in these two places and people as we know dont like change and it becomes difficult to accept the truth that you can't come back to India and spend the rest of your life here. I've seen this happen quite a few times now and so i am totally against the idea about indians travelling to work overseas and then returning back to India.
And about the colleges and universities. Ok for people in US. let me ask you this : 'Is MIT and Stanford the only good universities over there ?'. Well the questions seems obviously absurd to even me but unfortunately people outside India do not realise the same about Indian Universities. To tell you frankly, there are not many bad colleges here and you could easily say with conviction that around 35 % of them produce quite a number of bright students every year. There is no need to be prejudiced about the whole scenario thinking that (cream from India == IIT). Nope change the vision please !
Well anyway these are my thoughts. My 2 cents to clear up the trash of prejudiced ideas and wrong notions that have existed so far about work in India. All comments are welcome !