I have finally come around to penning down my experiences of working in India and the US. First of all, this article is not meant to offend anyone or malign any country. Both countries have a unique and different culture. The primary aim of this article is to point out to people(Indians), that despite what all the hype would have you believe, you are probably better off working in India. Also, my background is from working in the Information Technology industry and hence, people in other lines of work should take it with a pinch of salt. With that out of the way, let me put the remaining article into perspective by giving some background information about myself: I did my undergraduate from Delhi, worked in Bangalore for over 2 years and have been enrolled in a Phd program at the University of California, Irvine since 1997. I have done several summer internships and short stints in companies in the US.

Right, lets get down to it: so how does working in India and the US compare ?

1. Work quality:

One of the biggest myths that people have concerns work quality. They think that there is no good work taking place in India and that all the work taking place in the US is good. The fact is that, as in the US, 10 % of the projects in companies in India are good projects, whereas the rest are upgrading, maintenence, etc type of work. The number of companies in the hi-tech industry in the US are more and this leads to many more opportunities and choices of work place. However, as India's tech industry is growing at almost 50 % every year, work quality will continue to improve.

Another general observation is that project assignments initially, in bigger companies, are luck based. That is, you could get assigned to a project which does not align with your interests only because thats what the company has been contracted to do. However, as you build your reputation and expertise, you can move around to better projects. IITians should be wary that they have to get rid of the chip on their shoulders; they are treated as equals to all new employees.

Another myth is about so-called "bad" work ! Bad work is not bad !! Alright, alright, I am clarifying. Testing is not a bad job; testing jobs are the hardest and highest paid jobs in the industry. System administrators make more money than software developers. And you learn much more in these jobs since they involve getting to know the guts of the system inside-out. One of the most important skills of a good hacker is software testing, since that is the only way they can find the vulnerabilities in the system !

2. Work-environment:

The Indian work environment is like the culture of India; if you have to discuss (or interface with) some work a colleague is doing, you go over to his cubicle and thrash it out. US culture and therefore, US work environment is IMHO a bit more formal. Usually, people prefer to call a meeting, which may include people with peripheral interest in the subject. However, this again depends on the culture and size of the company. I have found that in general I ended up attending many more meetings in the US than I did in India. The problem with meetings is that after a week of being cc-ed on emails, once everyone converges on a meeting time and place, everyone sits through a 2 hour meeting listening to 2 people working out a problem/interface that they should have done on their own anyway. This is interspersed with the usual smart-ass, typically useless, advice from the other people at the meeting. Big meetings also mean that a few people dominate all of the time.

In general, the office environment is colder and more impersonal in the US. It is uncommon for people to hang out and just talk. This is reserved for lunch time, which is strictly non-shop. In India, you look forward to going to your office due to the interpersonal relationships you develop. However, this also means that the Indian work environment tends to be very gossip-oriented and in this way, non-professional. As someone once pointed out to me; have you ever imagined how hard it is for a widowed woman in the office in India. The culture of calling meetings in the US (and not just popping into someones cubicle) is to a great extent, an attempt to respect the independence and privacy of others.

The American work environment is very professional and will almost never allow things such as nepotism or favoritism. The Indian IT industry is *reasonably* professional and not like traditional family businesses. But even today the Indian "respect your senior even if he/she is wrong" paradigm prevails and leads to lower productivity and employee morale. One can see this in big Indian companies (even multi-nationals). However, the new breed of young professionals who are starting up companies in India, are much more dynamic, both in their ideas and their attitude to the work space.

3. The Indian Software Industry:

Although the IT industry in India is still pretty services based (i.e., they provide services to other companies, rather than developing new products, technologies), this is changing fast. An evolution has taken place from maintenence, testing, debugging to parts of products to entire product development. More and more companies are realizing that Indians work best (and are cheaper to hire) in India and hence, have chosen to open R&D centers in India (IBM Research for example). The road blocks are that the main market for hi-tech products has traditionally been in the US (which is also changing due to the explosive growth of the middle-class in India and Asia in general). This makes it hard to gauge the market and leads to only parts of products being given to Indian companies. Furthermore, body shopping is still, unfortunately, a lucrative business for most companies.

Quite a few of my friends/fellow conspirators from college, have chosen to stay and work in India. They are all working on good projects and are frequently send to the US/Europe for short intervals. These people seem to love it since they are getting the best of both worlds.

4. Money:

Money is always a much debated subject when comparing India and the US. I have found money is much better in India in the IT industry. You can live like a king with the amounts you earn there. In the US, you can be a millionaire and still not be in a position to employ any household help. In India, money is much more powerful. While I was a "highly" paid bachelor in Bangalore, I regularly ate at 5-star hotels (loved the Oberoi Coffee shop and The Taj Residency's Chinese restaurant). See this article about how expensive it is to work in the Silicon Valley.

5. The Bigger Question:

Now for a little bit of my personal opinion about life, the Universe and everything and going quite off the topic; I would like to comment on a bigger question that people (especially fresh graduates) often wonder:

What should I do after my undergraduate studies ? My opinions:
After you finish your undergraduate degree, you should work for a few years, preferably in India, and use this time to decide whether you want to continue there, get a MBA/MS/PhD. Most people who work in India before going abroad are more likely to come back. They are clearer about the ground situation in India and realize that the work situation is not as bad as people/Indians in the US want you to believe. Also, you get to have the satisfaction that you atleast contributed a few years to the brain bank of your country.

In summary , you have to challenge the traditional Indian notion that you must do your undergraduate and graduate studies in one go and get it over with. There *is* a lot of time ! Work experience is a very powerful tool for you to evaluate your life, to realize where you are going and where you want to go and is hugely appreciated when you apply to graduate school and future jobs. Also, remember your parents are out of the 60s-70s and have no idea about the opportunities and new work environments that are available in India. I found the best resource for information, knowledge and guidance about career prospects and life in general were my college professors (thank you, Profs. Nagchoudhari and Ravikumar).

Well, I hope this has been an useful article. Please feel free to contact me at sumitg at gmail.com

Sumit Gupta
http://www.4bearsonline.com/sumitg

Please leave a comment. I really look forward to your experiences and feedback.

Other articles I have written

• Other Marketing and Education Articles I authored
• What do Product Managers do?
• How to move from Engineering to Product Management
• I am an engineer; should I do a MBA?
• Startup Marketing Article - Its All About Figuring Out the Customers, Stupid!
• Should I do a Phd? Or should I do a Masters?
• My take on the NRI quota at the IITs
• Comparison of Indian versus American Education

Other articles about working in the US

• Good prespective about working in Microsoft
• Articles by Dr. Vidyasagar
  • His returning to India Article posted on soc.culture.indian
    
  • It's a topsy-turvy world: about the growing trend of people returning to India
  • Article reminiscing about Prof. A. P. J.Abdul Kalam

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