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I've heard nothing but negative experiences from those who outsourced to India, or anywhere remote for that matter. Could it be that the author is so gun-ho abo

by blurry 18y ago

I've heard nothing but negative experiences from those who outsourced to India, or anywhere remote for that matter. Could it be that the author is so gun-ho about it because he has a consulting outfit in New Delhi?

maw 18y ago
I think it mostly boils down to bad hiring decisions. People -- mostly nonprogramming managers -- said "hey, these guys are just as good and only cost a third as much" and hired more or less indiscriminately. (As with any other group of people, some Indians are smart, some less so. Some are passionate about what they do; others view it as just a job.) So they ended up with some guys who were indeed as good at one third of the price, and many more who weren't. They got the same result, of course, as what they'd get hiring indiscriminately in wealthier countries. I don't think companies with good hiring cultures have these problems, in India or anywhere else. There are other problems with outsourcing to somewhere far away (which India is for many people): people will have stay up late or start very early to attend meetings, language can be an issue, and matters that are simple but take a few rounds of communication can end up taking days to resolve. Those problems can all be managed with smart leadership, but when that's lacking, it's easier to point fingers at people with little chance of fairly defending themselves.
- gaius 18y ago
  Here's how it works: Joe Manager goes to Silicon Valley and sees all these incredibly talented Indian engineers and thinks wow, I gots to hire me some of them. What he fails to understand is that an Indian entrepreneur in Silicon Valley is not really representative of Indians as a whole, any more than a pro athlete is representative of the fitness of the average American, or a Hollywood A-lister is representative of how the average person looks. In fact the quality of engineer you will get outsourcing to India is lower than the average, because the most talented engineers (in any country) aren't really interested in working for huge companies on other people's dull corporate applications. They're busy working on their own startups or at least for small companies doing interesting work, whether in India or in the US.

by blurry 18y ago

maw 18y ago

I think it mostly boils down to bad hiring decisions. People -- mostly nonprogramming managers -- said "hey, these guys are just as good and only cost a third as much" and hired more or less indiscriminately. (As with any other group of people, some Indians are smart, some less so. Some are passionate about what they do; others view it as just a job.) So they ended up with some guys who were indeed as good at one third of the price, and many more who weren't. They got the same result, of course, as what they'd get hiring indiscriminately in wealthier countries. I don't think companies with good hiring cultures have these problems, in India or anywhere else. There are other problems with outsourcing to somewhere far away (which India is for many people): people will have stay up late or start very early to attend meetings, language can be an issue, and matters that are simple but take a few rounds of communication can end up taking days to resolve. Those problems can all be managed with smart leadership, but when that's lacking, it's easier to point fingers at people with little chance of fairly defending themselves.

gaius 18y ago
Here's how it works: Joe Manager goes to Silicon Valley and sees all these incredibly talented Indian engineers and thinks wow, I gots to hire me some of them. What he fails to understand is that an Indian entrepreneur in Silicon Valley is not really representative of Indians as a whole, any more than a pro athlete is representative of the fitness of the average American, or a Hollywood A-lister is representative of how the average person looks. In fact the quality of engineer you will get outsourcing to India is lower than the average, because the most talented engineers (in any country) aren't really interested in working for huge companies on other people's dull corporate applications. They're busy working on their own startups or at least for small companies doing interesting work, whether in India or in the US.