I'm sitting in the contact center of an outsourcing company in Mumbai, India as I type this. I'm not sure how many other posters here have A) been to India or B) are planning to visit to implement an outsourcing project, but I can tell from most of the posts here that the majority of/.ers fall into neither category. This means they have absolutely NO CLUE what they are talking about.
I work for a major US corporation that is currently installing infrastructure in India to outsource call center jobs and here's what I've learned about India in the past two weeks:
1) If you have any illusions that salaries here will rise quickly enough to deter US companies from outsourcing jobs, then you're sorely mistaken. Salaries here are so far below the US average that they will take DECADES to increase significantly. Call center reps here are earning about US$3,000 to US$4,000 a year... (that's about 1/7th the going rate in the US) and 75% of them have MASTERS DEGREES or higher. The guy sitting in the next cube has a masters in botany and speaks PERFECT English. For comparison, my driver here makes about US$700 a year. My ususal tip of 100 Indian Rupees (about US$2) equates to his normal daily pay.
2) Mumbai has 15 million residents. Most of them live in Asia's largest slum, which extends for miles in all directions. There are huge shanty towns made up of left over metal scraps and plastic tarps.
3) The roads are in very poor condition (it is the monsoon season) and there is no visible public sanitiation. Garbage is literally EVERYWHERE. You can see and smell it wherever you go.
4) Ever seen a "Stay in school" commercial on TV in the US? Did you take your free public education for granted? Here they run commercials urging parents to keep ONE child in school while the others work to support the family.
My company will save millions of dollars by outsourcing to India over the next few years. Even if the salaries here rise steadily for the next decade, they still will not be anywhere near US salaries for the same jobs. Plus you get a worker with 6 years of college education for 1/7th the cost of a high school educated American.
And what happens when India gets too expensive? Well, thats what our long range plans for China and South America are for!
Slashdot Mirror
I'm sitting in the contact center of an outsourcing company in Mumbai, India as I type this. I'm not sure how many other posters here have A) been to India or B) are planning to visit to implement an outsourcing project, but I can tell from most of the posts here that the majority of /.ers fall into neither category. This means they have absolutely NO CLUE what they are talking about.
I work for a major US corporation that is currently installing infrastructure in India to outsource call center jobs and here's what I've learned about India in the past two weeks:
1) If you have any illusions that salaries here will rise quickly enough to deter US companies from outsourcing jobs, then you're sorely mistaken. Salaries here are so far below the US average that they will take DECADES to increase significantly. Call center reps here are earning about US$3,000 to US$4,000 a year... (that's about 1/7th the going rate in the US) and 75% of them have MASTERS DEGREES or higher. The guy sitting in the next cube has a masters in botany and speaks PERFECT English. For comparison, my driver here makes about US$700 a year. My ususal tip of 100 Indian Rupees (about US$2) equates to his normal daily pay.
2) Mumbai has 15 million residents. Most of them live in Asia's largest slum, which extends for miles in all directions. There are huge shanty towns made up of left over metal scraps and plastic tarps.
3) The roads are in very poor condition (it is the monsoon season) and there is no visible public sanitiation. Garbage is literally EVERYWHERE. You can see and smell it wherever you go.
4) Ever seen a "Stay in school" commercial on TV in the US? Did you take your free public education for granted? Here they run commercials urging parents to keep ONE child in school while the others work to support the family.
My company will save millions of dollars by outsourcing to India over the next few years. Even if the salaries here rise steadily for the next decade, they still will not be anywhere near US salaries for the same jobs. Plus you get a worker with 6 years of college education for 1/7th the cost of a high school educated American.
And what happens when India gets too expensive? Well, thats what our long range plans for China and South America are for!