The Great Migration
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A Happy Diwali and New Year to all of you!
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A friend of mine, who was assigned to my project after joining my company, got fed up with the work in about 6 months. He originally wanted to work in embedded systems, and had heard that my company had a couple of projects in that area. But there wasnt space in those projects, and there was an 'urgent requirement' in mine, so he landed up here. To make things worse, he was put into the QE section because that's where the requirement was - even though he didnt want to do it.
Six months of testing drove him up the wall, and he quit. When I asked him where his new job was, he replied that he didnt have one yet. But he had a good idea of what he wanted from his new job - he wanted to work in a small company, he wanted to work in embedded systems, and the company had to be a PRODUCT company. He'd seen enough of service/consultancy type companies to realize their problems. After leaving work, he bought a couple of books on embedded systems, learnt about the field, and started applying to companies that fit his criteria. Happily, he found a job in a company he liked, in a few months.
This story would have probably ended differently if it had been 10 years ago. Our hero would have eventually joined some other service company, because nearly every software company in India then was a service company. And he would have been ridiculed by friends and colleagues for being impractical. That isnt the case today.
My friend isnt the only one. More and more people are realizing that there's no such thing as a techie career in a service company. Many of them are also realizing that if there's no company working in the area they like, it doesnt mean the end of the road - it means an unfilled niche. They are using the experiences they gained from their outsourcee days to start up their company and do what they like. And they're finding people like themselves who want to work in just such a setup.
All this reminds me of the way service companies mushroomed all over India, about 5 or 6 years ago. Ambitious kids who wanted to start their own business left big service companies, took some clients with them, and started their own garage service companies. Darwin helped separate the good managers from the bad ones, and a big crop of service companies came up. We're seeing the results now. The sad part is, the bad managers of those days, the ones who couldnt run a company and eventually joined a bigger one, were probably very good technically. But the environment was not favourable for product development, so they couldn't go anywhere else.
Ironically, all the hype around outsourcing today has given Indians the confidence to think they can create their own product. The American media, which used to project India as a land of dhoti-clad paupers drinking tea, now talks of us a super-intelligent programmers who are comparable to Americans. It makes India software products much, much easier to sell.
As a result of the Indian Geek's dissatisfaction with outsourcing, and of the environment putting him in a favourable light, he thinks of himself as deserving a better deal. And the more adventurous ones of his ilk go out and start a tiny garage product company. The less adventurous ones wait till the company is established, then think of joining it. They dont want the domain knowledge gained from their current project to go to waste. But even the most timid of them will eventually notice that their friends in such product companies are doing better intelectually and financially than they is. And they *will* eventually want to move, if they're capable of it.
Look around you. While service companies are growing more and more desperate to grow in size without taking on complex work, product companies are creating ever more relevant technologies. The former are now hiring anyone who can use a computer, and training him to be an obedient code monkey. And the latter are coolly hiring the best people in the market - because the best people are sick of being faceless, replaceable workers in service companies. The supply of jobs in product companies is less than the people trying to get them. And the other way around for service companies.
Here's a third angle. Ten years ago, if you wanted people in India with enough experience and knowledge to develop a product, you'd have a hard time finding them. But since the outsourcing boom began, computer science graduates are everywhere. Thes guys have been working for the past few years. And today, if you want a clutch of people with very specific domain knowledge, you will find them. A few months of working with you, and they'll be a world beating team.
To summarize : The market for Indian products is developing. The would-be entrepreneurs have worked long enough to be a part of the world market and decide to develop products for it. The workforce to implement these new products is being created in outsourcee companies.
Expect to see outsourcing become the second-grade industry it is, soon. Expect to see product companies take the limelight. Soon.
A Happy Diwali and New Year to all of you!
-------
A friend of mine, who was assigned to my project after joining my company, got fed up with the work in about 6 months. He originally wanted to work in embedded systems, and had heard that my company had a couple of projects in that area. But there wasnt space in those projects, and there was an 'urgent requirement' in mine, so he landed up here. To make things worse, he was put into the QE section because that's where the requirement was - even though he didnt want to do it.
Six months of testing drove him up the wall, and he quit. When I asked him where his new job was, he replied that he didnt have one yet. But he had a good idea of what he wanted from his new job - he wanted to work in a small company, he wanted to work in embedded systems, and the company had to be a PRODUCT company. He'd seen enough of service/consultancy type companies to realize their problems. After leaving work, he bought a couple of books on embedded systems, learnt about the field, and started applying to companies that fit his criteria. Happily, he found a job in a company he liked, in a few months.
This story would have probably ended differently if it had been 10 years ago. Our hero would have eventually joined some other service company, because nearly every software company in India then was a service company. And he would have been ridiculed by friends and colleagues for being impractical. That isnt the case today.
My friend isnt the only one. More and more people are realizing that there's no such thing as a techie career in a service company. Many of them are also realizing that if there's no company working in the area they like, it doesnt mean the end of the road - it means an unfilled niche. They are using the experiences they gained from their outsourcee days to start up their company and do what they like. And they're finding people like themselves who want to work in just such a setup.
All this reminds me of the way service companies mushroomed all over India, about 5 or 6 years ago. Ambitious kids who wanted to start their own business left big service companies, took some clients with them, and started their own garage service companies. Darwin helped separate the good managers from the bad ones, and a big crop of service companies came up. We're seeing the results now. The sad part is, the bad managers of those days, the ones who couldnt run a company and eventually joined a bigger one, were probably very good technically. But the environment was not favourable for product development, so they couldn't go anywhere else.
Ironically, all the hype around outsourcing today has given Indians the confidence to think they can create their own product. The American media, which used to project India as a land of dhoti-clad paupers drinking tea, now talks of us a super-intelligent programmers who are comparable to Americans. It makes India software products much, much easier to sell.
As a result of the Indian Geek's dissatisfaction with outsourcing, and of the environment putting him in a favourable light, he thinks of himself as deserving a better deal. And the more adventurous ones of his ilk go out and start a tiny garage product company. The less adventurous ones wait till the company is established, then think of joining it. They dont want the domain knowledge gained from their current project to go to waste. But even the most timid of them will eventually notice that their friends in such product companies are doing better intelectually and financially than they is. And they *will* eventually want to move, if they're capable of it.
Look around you. While service companies are growing more and more desperate to grow in size without taking on complex work, product companies are creating ever more relevant technologies. The former are now hiring anyone who can use a computer, and training him to be an obedient code monkey. And the latter are coolly hiring the best people in the market - because the best people are sick of being faceless, replaceable workers in service companies. The supply of jobs in product companies is less than the people trying to get them. And the other way around for service companies.
Here's a third angle. Ten years ago, if you wanted people in India with enough experience and knowledge to develop a product, you'd have a hard time finding them. But since the outsourcing boom began, computer science graduates are everywhere. Thes guys have been working for the past few years. And today, if you want a clutch of people with very specific domain knowledge, you will find them. A few months of working with you, and they'll be a world beating team.
To summarize : The market for Indian products is developing. The would-be entrepreneurs have worked long enough to be a part of the world market and decide to develop products for it. The workforce to implement these new products is being created in outsourcee companies.
Expect to see outsourcing become the second-grade industry it is, soon. Expect to see product companies take the limelight. Soon.
posted by Sudarshan | 4:21 AM
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