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Comment by goatinaboat | Hacker News Reader

It’s not that there is a lack of talent. I’ve seen many enormously talented developers. However, the very best won’t work for Indian salary levels

No, there is something more complicated going on. India has a space programme and nuclear weapons. They have the talented engineers to make that happen. I guarantee those engineers are not all “we are facing an issue” and “please do the needful” like everyone who has dealt with Indian IT has heard when they lack the basic competence to do the job. So where is the disconnect?

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Working on a space programme and nuclear weapons is a "perk" on its own that can lower the salary. Maybe not for you, but for a lot of people.

It's like when people write entire programming languages for free. The job is so enjoyable that it lowers the salary to zero.

> It's like when people write entire programming languages for free. The job is so enjoyable that it lowers the salary to zero.

Dang, I thing you nailed it!

(I'd work on rocket engines for free, too!)

Are SpaceX salaries lower than average then?

Anecdotally, SpaceX pays less than other aerospace companies. Source: I used to work at Boeing, I have friends at SpaceX and various other aerospace companies.

How does SpaceX even succeed at what they do while paying below market rate?

It's supply and demand. Lots of people want to work on rockets, so SpaceX doesn't need to pay them as much. It actually is the market rate for rocket engineers.

Double down on this. I want to work in Aerospace, but not for the military industrial complex. Who do I work for?

You won't be doing any military work if you work at BCAC (Boeing Commercial Airplane Company).

Not to mention the benefits that comes from a government job in India.

Interesting. If true, this (and maybe to a lesser degree games developers) is a micro example of the macro job market. Akin to minor league baseball players, entry-level news reporters, bloggers, etc.

Well you get all kind of software Engineers in India. Software engineers that make less than 8kUSD per year to software engineers that make more than 70k an year. You get what you paid for. And most of the times foreign companies pay lower than what a McDonald's employee make an hour in USA and expect back services of a software engineer that gets paid 100K+ USD in USA.

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