

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

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rjurney
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>

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

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socratees
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...](http://www.economist.com/markets/indicators/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12818136))

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param
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.

~~~
sundarurfriend
>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.

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

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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.

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philwelch
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.)

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mauricio
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?

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illumen
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...](http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2003/01/31/how_many_america.php)

Would be quite an adventure though... :)

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

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sundarurfriend
>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?!

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jleyank
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?

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

~~~
andresmh
America is a continent :)

~~~
wheels
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>

~~~
davidw
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.

~~~
wheels
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.

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cvboss2
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 :)

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st3fan
And compete with people who do your job at 1/50th of your salary? No thanks.

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

