Ask HN: Do high quality work environments exist in India for programmers? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do high quality work environments exist in India for programmers?

8 pointsshubhamjain10 comments

Today, I saw the Jobs section of Disqus[1] and was really startled at what they offer. Brand new Apple computers with 30'' monitors, free lunches, games and what not. With offices like this, I would love to go every day and thats not Disqus alone. Companies like Google, Facebook, Majority of startups, Fog Creek offer the same, at least in USA but I am not sure if such offices exist in India. Do they?

[1]: http://disqus.com/jobs/

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I work at at Indian IT services company. And no, the development environments are sub par. Slower machines, no freedom of software choice. Tight budget restrictions on development tools. No innovation in automating tasks. It's not bad, but not as good as the companies you have mentioned.

There are no free breakfasts or lunches or anything. If you come over the weekend to work, they don't switch on the AC for cost cutting, even in peak summers when temperature here reaches around 100 F.

Some companies have not given any hike in two years. There's one company I especially hate. They have enforced stupid school like rules. If you don't complete 9 hours in office, and that too on the floor and logged on to machine, then your leave is deducted. If your leaves finish, they cut your pay. They track how much time you have spent away from your machine. This makes employees take measures like using something to keep their mouse moving etc. They enforce wearing business formals every Monday and Tuesday, without reason, just to show the strictness. If you don't wear a tie, you are sent home. There are many more examples.

>they don't switch on the AC for cost cutting, even in peak summers when temperature here reaches around 100 F

If you don't mind me asking, what company does this?

> ...over the weekend to work, they don't switch on the AC for cost cutting

To be fair, this can be true in the US as well. Some buildings literally charge thousands per day to run AC during non-business days. It'd be a stupid waste of money to pay that much for just a handful of people to work.

Of course, no one should be working in a 100F office. They should be working remotely or not at all in that case.

There is so much competition for the jobs in India (supply of people for any technical position is very very high) that there is really no incentive for the companies to even come close to offering a work environment similar to the US. If someone is not satisfied with the work environment, it is not as simple as going to a better place. Someone else will gladly take over their position as it is still going to be a top job in India.

Since a lot of these software companies operate as satellite offices for major US firms, their primary goal is to maximize the margin for these firms, so they will do the bare minimum to get by.

I especially love Bollywood movies that portray software jobs and also call center jobs similar to the US but the reality is far from the truth.

Well, I am not disregarding the fact that there are really great Indian programmers out there but seeing CS grads out of Tier3/ Tier3 colleges and seeing the growth of software industry, aren't passionate programmers still not an asset like in US ?

There are very few companies that do provide these kind of amenities. However the majority of them treat their employees as commodities. As @avenger123 said the supply of technical people in this country is abundant.

However the best advice I'd give is instead of complaining about the lack of such companies why not create them. We do have potential!

Thoughtworks used to provide some of what you are asking for. A friend worked there a couple of years ago. I'm not sure how things have changed since but I've only heard good things.

Google India has a lot of the perks they have in the USA (another friend used to work there).

Redhat has a pretty nice work environment.

I have no idea if this is accurate, but here is what Glassdoor has to say about companies based in India ranked from best to worst: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/india-reviews-SRCH_IL.0,5_I...

Some of the very new, very small startups (like ours) have started having Bay Area equivalent offices...but they are hard to find and certainly not "safe" jobs like the MNCs.

Nope

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