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Should you move to India for a job?

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Re: Should you move to India for a job?

#21

Post by badri »

plinkplonk wrote: post #16
rjurney wrote: post #13

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:…

"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.

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

Re: Should you move to India for a job?

#22

Post by furyg3 »

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.

Re: Should you move to India for a job?

#24

Post by wheels »

andresmh wrote: post #19
mauricio wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

America is a continent :)

This has somehow become a cause célèbre for native Spanish speakers, but it's simply not accurate. The correct translation from the English "American" (or German "Amerikaner") to Spanish is "estadounidense", not "americano". This would be like English speakers correcting Spanish speakers for using "pretender" and not meaning "a faker".

As for the continents themselves, it just depends on who's doing the teaching. English speaking countries define North and South America as separate continents:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent#Number_of_continents

Re: Should you move to India for a job?

#26

Post by sundarurfriend »

param wrote: post #18

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…

>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.

Re: Should you move to India for a job?

#27

Post by davidw »

wheels wrote: post #24
andresmh wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America is a continent :)

This has somehow become a cause célèbre for native Spanish speakers, but it's simply not accurate. The correct translation from the English "American" (or German "Amerikaner") to Spanish is "estadounidense", not "americano". This would be like English speakers correcting Spanish speakers for using "pretender" and not meaning "a faker". As for the continents themselves, it just depends on who's doing the teaching. Eng…

Interesting. Italian has 'americano', which is sort of the common way of putting things, even if not entirely correct. 'statiunitense', similar to the spanish word you cite, is the more formal term. It is however, an unwieldy word that's mostly limited to news or official things, and 'americano' is what I am to most people here.

Re: Should you move to India for a job?

#28

Post by wheels »

davidw wrote: post #27
wheels wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has somehow become a cause célèbre for native Spanish speakers, but it's simply not accurate. The correct translation from the English "American" (or German "Amerikaner") to Spanish is "estadounidense", not "americano". This would be like English speakers correcting Spanish speakers for using "pretender" and not meaning "a faker". As for the continents themselves, it just depends on who's doing the teaching. Eng…

Interesting. Italian has 'americano', which is sort of the common way of putting things, even if not entirely correct. 'statiunitense', similar to the spanish word you cite, is the more formal term. It is however, an unwieldy word that's mostly limited to news or official things, and 'americano' is what I am to most people here.

The more informal Spanish version would be "norteamericano", which also packs some odd ambiguities, since it is mostly a reference to people from the US.

The bit I was digging into there, by inference (not necessarily clear for those not familiar with Spanish) is that because North and South America are taught to be one continent in Spanish, and "americano" references the peoples from that aggregate, Spanish speakers (mostly Latin-Americans) have a habit of correcting English speakers in online forms when they use the word "American" to refer to people from the US.

Re: Should you move to India for a job?

#29

Post by paraschopra »

rjurney wrote: post #13

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:…

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.

Re: Should you move to India for a job?

#30

Post by param »

sundarurfriend wrote: post #26
param wrote: post #18

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…

>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 b…

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