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As a current CS student from India, I can completely back this theory. Most in my class are very sure they want to pursue a career in Computer Science, but have

As a current CS student from India, I can completely back this theory. Most in my class are very sure they want to pursue a career in Computer Science, but have little to say if you ask them why. A good fraction of them, every year, end up joining consultancy firms in nontechnical roles, or (what I hate more) in HR - and are perfectly fine with it. Computers in India are not associated with the amazing feeling most of us had the first time we wrote a program that worked correctly. They are associated with a guaranteed (heh) paycheck and a comfortable life, and the quality of the work produced in this fashion is a natural result of that attitude. The outsourcing industry is at the centre of this idea, but it also supports a large number of degree mills and certificate farms producing a mind boggling number of absolutely useless "computer engineers" giving all of us the reputation we do. I, for one, would love to see companies like TCS and Infosys gone.

secfirstmd 10y ago
Sounds like most of the people I know who working banking and finance.
kirRoyale 10y ago
Damn there are some really solid responses in this thread... Thanks for the input
- thewhitetulip 10y ago
  Wait till you hear the stories feom inside those three companies and more mentioned in the article! You'll be surprised :-)
sanketdasgupta 10y ago
Can confirm all of the above. I study in an average college in India, and it seems the only motivation for studying computer science is to get a "lucrative" job at an outsourcing company. Getting a job at an top outsourcing company is considered pretty respectful by all of society. The interviews are pretty rough too. The screening is done based on an aptitude quiz (it's an entirely different thing that is hardly related to the CS curriculum) and once you crack that, the "smartness" factor gets involved. I have had people confess to me that they got the job just because their english speaking skills were good. A lot of this is due to the fact, which I think is the primary motivation, that the salaries offered at these companies are actually quite high compared to other markets, all you have to do is shell out four years somehow. This leads to students not even caring about computer science as a subject, but a ticket to the "IT dream", if you will. Also, note that this represents the "average" colleges of India, which is what most of India is filled with. The demand for studying engineering becomes higher every year, and to cope up with that, engineering colleges are built of nowhere with no real regard for education.
jon_richards 10y ago
Another thing to note is that Indian schools have quotas for majors, so what major you end up in depends on how well you test. You end up picking the hardest major to get into that you qualified for, which happens to be computer science. I see tons of recent computer science grads who want to do "anything that doesn't have to do with computers."

secfirstmd 10y ago

Sounds like most of the people I know who working banking and finance.

kirRoyale 10y ago

Damn there are some really solid responses in this thread... Thanks for the input

thewhitetulip 10y ago
Wait till you hear the stories feom inside those three companies and more mentioned in the article! You'll be surprised :-)

sanketdasgupta 10y ago

Can confirm all of the above. I study in an average college in India, and it seems the only motivation for studying computer science is to get a "lucrative" job at an outsourcing company. Getting a job at an top outsourcing company is considered pretty respectful by all of society. The interviews are pretty rough too. The screening is done based on an aptitude quiz (it's an entirely different thing that is hardly related to the CS curriculum) and once you crack that, the "smartness" factor gets involved. I have had people confess to me that they got the job just because their english speaking skills were good. A lot of this is due to the fact, which I think is the primary motivation, that the salaries offered at these companies are actually quite high compared to other markets, all you have to do is shell out four years somehow. This leads to students not even caring about computer science as a subject, but a ticket to the "IT dream", if you will. Also, note that this represents the "average" colleges of India, which is what most of India is filled with. The demand for studying engineering becomes higher every year, and to cope up with that, engineering colleges are built of nowhere with no real regard for education.

jon_richards 10y ago

Another thing to note is that Indian schools have quotas for majors, so what major you end up in depends on how well you test. You end up picking the hardest major to get into that you qualified for, which happens to be computer science. I see tons of recent computer science grads who want to do "anything that doesn't have to do with computers."