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This is what the large Indian IT-outsourcing companies do at scale. When they need to win the contract, they bring in bright and very qualified people to win t

This is what the large Indian IT-outsourcing companies do at scale. When they need to win the contract, they bring in bright and very qualified people to win the client-org over. After the contract is won and the work begins, they replace them with completely unqualified staff, managed/whipped by moustache-wielding blue-shirts to read from support-scripts.

baobabKoodaa 5y ago
That's not the same thing. The "completely unqualified staff" is not pretending to be the same persons as the "bright and very qualified people" who interviewed. There's no deception involved, just transparently bad business practices.
- klausjensen 5y ago
  The IT outsourcing companies do this at scale, pretending to be something during interview - and then really being something completely different once the "job" is won. It is deception as a business model. It is not the fault of the "unqualified staff" at all. Anyway, that is my take on it. Feel free to have a different opinion.
  - andirk 5y ago
    If the position is learnable from where their skillset is within a reasonable amount of time, they should learn up! I've been given plenty of positions that were above my abilities but that I could learn within a couple months. There are a lot of types of people in the world, and one type is people who don't mind being bad at their jobs.
  - baobabKoodaa 5y ago
    I share your frustration at this horrible business practice. I disagree with your assessment that this practice is a secret. I don't think it's a secret. The largest newspaper in Finland, Helsingin Sanomat, actually published a long-form story on this exact subject after your comment was written: https://www.hs.fi/visio/art-2000008571439.html https://www.hs.fi/visio/art-2000008571439.html Edit: to clarify, if the practice is not a secret, then it's not deceptive. If the client knows that the CVs on paper are not going to represent the workers who will be actually doing the work, then it's not deception. In order for it to be deception, the practice would have to be secret, surprising once revealed.
- kelnos 5y ago
  It's not the same thing, to be sure, but this is certainly deception.
dustintrex 5y ago
FWIW, this is not limited to Indian or IT companies. Many if not most consulting/banking/law companies have an "A-team" that gets trotted out to woo the customer, and as soon as the deal is sealed, the actual implementation is handed over to the Z-team of fresh grads.
- xmcqdpt2 5y ago
  Well of course! They can't ask the A-team to do the actual work, they are much too busy... interviewing with new potential clients!
digianarchist 5y ago
I remember when our company signed a contract with TCS. Our execs were very excited to get access to their “Center of Excellence” experts on some vendor products we were struggling with: LifeRay, AEM etc. Anyway once the contract was signed they didn’t send anyone and we had to hire other contractors who were also not very good.
- mcv 5y ago
  16 years ago I worked on a project with some people from TCS. The 3 on site were very good, and for a long time, I thought they were all the TCSers. Later I discovered there was also an entire off-shore team, and I only really found out because one of them somehow checked their "My Documents" folder into SVN. My impression was that the good people they have are very good, but the bad people are barely competent enough to warm a chair.

baobabKoodaa 5y ago

That's not the same thing. The "completely unqualified staff" is not pretending to be the same persons as the "bright and very qualified people" who interviewed. There's no deception involved, just transparently bad business practices.

klausjensen 5y ago
The IT outsourcing companies do this at scale, pretending to be something during interview - and then really being something completely different once the "job" is won. It is deception as a business model. It is not the fault of the "unqualified staff" at all. Anyway, that is my take on it. Feel free to have a different opinion.
- andirk 5y ago
  If the position is learnable from where their skillset is within a reasonable amount of time, they should learn up! I've been given plenty of positions that were above my abilities but that I could learn within a couple months. There are a lot of types of people in the world, and one type is people who don't mind being bad at their jobs.
- baobabKoodaa 5y ago
  I share your frustration at this horrible business practice. I disagree with your assessment that this practice is a secret. I don't think it's a secret. The largest newspaper in Finland, Helsingin Sanomat, actually published a long-form story on this exact subject after your comment was written: https://www.hs.fi/visio/art-2000008571439.html https://www.hs.fi/visio/art-2000008571439.html Edit: to clarify, if the practice is not a secret, then it's not deceptive. If the client knows that the CVs on paper are not going to represent the workers who will be actually doing the work, then it's not deception. In order for it to be deception, the practice would have to be secret, surprising once revealed.
kelnos 5y ago
It's not the same thing, to be sure, but this is certainly deception.

dustintrex 5y ago

FWIW, this is not limited to Indian or IT companies. Many if not most consulting/banking/law companies have an "A-team" that gets trotted out to woo the customer, and as soon as the deal is sealed, the actual implementation is handed over to the Z-team of fresh grads.

xmcqdpt2 5y ago
Well of course! They can't ask the A-team to do the actual work, they are much too busy... interviewing with new potential clients!

digianarchist 5y ago

I remember when our company signed a contract with TCS. Our execs were very excited to get access to their “Center of Excellence” experts on some vendor products we were struggling with: LifeRay, AEM etc. Anyway once the contract was signed they didn’t send anyone and we had to hire other contractors who were also not very good.

mcv 5y ago
16 years ago I worked on a project with some people from TCS. The 3 on site were very good, and for a long time, I thought they were all the TCSers. Later I discovered there was also an entire off-shore team, and I only really found out because one of them somehow checked their "My Documents" folder into SVN. My impression was that the good people they have are very good, but the bad people are barely competent enough to warm a chair.