4 ms·
Why would you hire an $80k Indian when you could easily hire an $80k American from somewhere with lower costs of living than Silicon Valley.
by xwdv 6y ago
Why would you hire an $80k Indian when you could easily hire an $80k American from somewhere with lower costs of living than Silicon Valley.
- thekingofh 6y agoBecause hiring an American requires you to treat them like a human being.
- addicted44 6y agoPeople earning 80k in India, China, and heck even Europe, for that matter, almost certainly have a much higher standard of living than people earning that much in the US. And you can find far more 80k level developers in individual cities in India than you would in a small mid level city in the US.
- eldavido 6y agoYou say that, but I'm not so sure. At some point where you live matters a lot. You can be rich, but if you can't get things shipped because the roads are bad, you can't get clean water, there are no local services around (haircut places, restaurants, tradespeople to fix your house), not to mention fun things to do, it looks worse. I have this conversation with my friend Mike. I work and live in SF as a software engineer. He lives in Indiana and earns 8-10x what I do as a surgeon but I'm not sure he's actually better off. Especially considering there aren't great schools for him to send his kids to or interesting people to see in meetups.
- rorykoehler 6y agoI would wager an $80k Indian will be the far better engineer.
- HeroOfAges 6y agoI'd take that bet
- frandroid 6y agoIn spite of the current remote-work revolution allegedly happening, most companies still want an office with workings coming physically so developers can be tracked and teams can bond and share knowledge. You'll be able to hire an Indian team that will come to an office in Pune or Bangalore, but you probably won't be able to assemble a great team in South Bend or Fort Wayne.
- bluGill 6y agoSure you can. Of course pune has 10 times as many people (including those not in the city but close enough to commute), which limits things. I work in a city much smaller and we have several different great teams of engineers. Kids who grow up here are excited to bring their degree back close to their family. We have no problem relocating people from other parts of the US, when they need a job and look they realize our small city has what they need, and while the exact attractions are different and lesser, they are still good enough.
- ckdarby 6y agoThat $80k American is at a higher chance of leaving for opportunities domestically. Who is paying domestically $80k or +$80k/year in India? Probably just FANNG. I live in Canada and my assumption would be payroll & state taxes would be less in India compared to USA. There is also the advantage of having great leverage over a country when being a big fish in a smaller pool like in India.
- jupp0r 6y ago> That $80k American is at a higher chance of leaving for opportunities domestically. From anecdotal experience, turnover is much higher in India. Changing jobs every 2 years seems to be the standard way of advancing your career and getting a good raise.
- ckdarby 6y agoHow many people do you know in India making +$80k/Year switching jobs every 2 years?
- gdulli 6y agoA large American company might need 100 developers and would rather manage one relationship with one agency in India than search for and manage 100 individual distributed Americans.