India Will Get Expensive
I had a conversation with a friend of mine recently about the cost of goods in India. Some things are still a bargain compared to the West. I routinely have dinner for under $2. Lately, I have been topping dinner off with a Falooda for an extra 60 cents. A rather complete lunch is served for about 40 cents in the office canteen. A ride in an auto (a motorized rickshaw, not an automobile) that would cost upwards of $5 in NYC costs about 50 cents here. Custom tailored clothing can be less expensive than the “ready-made” alternatives.
One of the most noticeable increases here in India is in the technology field. With 15% year over year salary increases, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for employers to retain valuable employees. Even when the country is crankin’ out 400,000 technology workers from schools each year, the supply is simply not enough to keep up with the demand from the West.
It’s all very reminiscent of the late 90’s when technology workers in the States were jumping ship from the mainstays and heading to the .com companies in droves. In India, workers usually have to remit 30 days notice to their current employer, but a prospective employer can acquire that notice period for some agreed sum.
The level of experience in India compared to the States is noticeably different. Indians with vast amounts of experience are usually already in the States. 5 Years of development experience here and one is branded as a “Senior Engineer,” but it’s just the nature of the scale that exists. A Sr. Engineer who is in search of a new job will likely have between 3-6 offers soon after being declared a free agent depending on various factors of experience and geography. Employers must be quick to make an offer knowing that the market is extremely competitive and driven largely on one thing we all understand: personal wealth.
At the current rate that salaries are growing, within 5-7 years India will be very close, if not on par, to American software engineering salaries. The value paradigm will shift from a model built primarily on economics of using offshore resources in developing nations to one that stresses the growing domain experience of Indian developers. I met an Indian company recently that knows as much about the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as any US healthcare software vendor that I have ever met. But it’s not just related to US laws and regulations — they understand our industries and they’re starting early.
I walked up to my 9 year-old cousin who was sitting at the computer busily spouting off seemingly technical jargon in his quasi-English accent. The 9 year-old was teaching the 7 year-old HTML — hand coded. He wasn’t using any slick Integrated Development Environment (IDE) — he was using Notepad. And he knew more HTML than the geek who was standing behind him with his jaw on the floor.