Indian developers are not over-rated. Infact noone outsources India because they think they think that Indian coders are geniuses. They know that Indian developers are mediocre but management believes that mediocre is "good enough" at half the price , and guess what , it might hurt your ego , but in many cases mediocre developers + long working hours can solve most problems that typical devs encounter. You just need…
Often what they leave behind is nearly unmanageable code that cost's 2x as much to maintain and support.
Ask HN: Are developers in India highly over-rated?
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Re: Ask HN: Are developers in India highly over-rated?
#22Re: Ask HN: Are developers in India highly over-rated?
#23Indian developers are not over-rated. Infact noone outsources India because they think they think that Indian coders are geniuses. They know that Indian developers are mediocre but management believes that mediocre is "good enough" at half the price , and guess what , it might hurt your ego , but in many cases mediocre developers + long working hours can solve most problems that typical devs encounter. You just need…
Often what they leave behind is nearly unmanageable code that cost's 2x as much to maintain and support.
If you do that you'll find that outsourcing to India is actually not such a bad idea and guess what , we're cheap :D.
Re: Ask HN: Are developers in India highly over-rated?
#24Re: Ask HN: Are developers in India highly over-rated?
#25Most Western engineers I have worked with don't think much of their Indian counterparts. While no single assessment will ever properly fit everyone in such a large group of people, the quip goes "the Chinese will do exactly what you tell them to do, but nothing else; the Indians will do exactly nothing you tell them to do but a whole lot besides." This seems about right to me, so I don't think anyone is being over- (or under-) rated. If you hand a project to India you will get something that mostly works, is three times as complex as it needs to be, took five times too long to produce, and is completely unmaintainable. Despite some very impressive individual results, the education system in India is atrocious, on the job education nonexistent, and technical leadership and independence completely lacking, so this result isn't surprising. Americans or Brits sent through the same system and given the same management would produce similar results.
By the people who decide that work should be done by Indian engineers instead of those in the company's home country? The answer is more complicated. Most corporate management is extremely short-sighted; the incentives of the role demand it. Their primary incentive (handed down by their superiors) is typically lowering home-country head count, average salary (and in the US, especially those oh-so-costly medical and insurance plans), and other coarse personnel cost metrics. By these metrics, Indian engineers are not overrated. By the metrics the company will actually be judged by the competitive marketplace, which include time to market, total development cost, and product quality, they are overrated. Managers who think about these things will conclude that the cost of Indian engineers relative to what they produce has been bid up beyond fair value; i.e., they're overrated. But few do.
Re: Ask HN: Are developers in India highly over-rated?
#26There's some top talent in and from India, but they will be as hard to find or expensive to pay as anywhere else. It may have been slightly different in the past, but it settled quickly at a point where you get what you pay for. Developers below the top talent in India can often be worse than bad developers locally, between the distance, language, managerial and cultural differences you can end up with a mess that wo…
Re: Ask HN: Are developers in India highly over-rated?
#27Indian developers are not over-rated. Infact noone outsources India because they think they think that Indian coders are geniuses. They know that Indian developers are mediocre but management believes that mediocre is "good enough" at half the price , and guess what , it might hurt your ego , but in many cases mediocre developers + long working hours can solve most problems that typical devs encounter. You just need…
Often what they leave behind is nearly unmanageable code that cost's 2x as much to maintain and support.
Re: Ask HN: Are developers in India highly over-rated?
#28So, if you want good freelance developers it might be difficult to find good one in India. But, if you are a startup that gained some traction in the US or elsewhere and want to start an office in India, you'll find good developers if you pay well.
Re: Ask HN: Are developers in India highly over-rated?
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Often what they leave behind is nearly unmanageable code that cost's 2x as much to maintain and support.
Then you need to review the code once in a while and also put some code quality related clauses in the contract. If you do that you'll find that outsourcing to India is actually not such a bad idea and guess what , we're cheap :D.
Overall it has been my experience that you pay multiple offshore resources to get the output of 1 onshore resource. If you bring them from offshore to onshore their productivity does go up some. The caveat to that is they do have really good QA teams and I wouldn't hesitate to leverage them in that role.
Re: Ask HN: Are developers in India highly over-rated?
#30Indian developers are not over-rated. Infact noone outsources India because they think they think that Indian coders are geniuses. They know that Indian developers are mediocre but management believes that mediocre is "good enough" at half the price , and guess what , it might hurt your ego , but in many cases mediocre developers + long working hours can solve most problems that typical devs encounter. You just need…
Often what they leave behind is nearly unmanageable code that cost's 2x as much to maintain and support.