How a Uber driver earns more than a seasoned software engineer in India
I was recently coming back from my shift in office after a 10 hour work. The travel was for nearly 1 hour so I stroke a conversation the taxi driver who told me he was earning more than 15,000$/year, I was shocked. He was very courteous and addressed me as “Sir” which has crept in our DNA after being slaves for the last 600 years to foreigners, I too address my seniors as “Sir” lol. But what threw me off was that he was only working for the last year and after 6 years my job was still not paying me that makes it comparable to a taxi-driver.
Prologue:
The Indian Software industry is known for its plethora of talented engineers and dedicated professionals who are leading the world today in this new dawn of digital revolution. From the likes of Sunder Pichai, Sataya Nadella, N R Narayanmurthy and loads of others the Indian subcontinent has given to IT an edge in this technological revolution. Today India is home to all the major Software companies and there is hardly any company which doesn’t have a call center or development or testing activity being done in India.
Initiation of the problem:
With her huge population and relatively high number of English speaking educated engineers, India is bound to have a considerable amount of talented engineers. Today India churns out 10 lakh/1million engineers every year, mostly from sub-quality colleges and this creates a huge glut in the demand and supply chain. This development creates a great advantage for the companies who hire these freshers at dirt cheap salaries. The average starting salaries of some of the top companies in India like Cognizant, Accenture, IBM, TCS, Infosys, Capgemini to name a few is 4,200$/year, the same position in US is paid 42,000$/year. The companies justify this divide using mainly three reasons: Firstly- The pay-gap justifies the standard of living in different countries. Secondly- Supply is more ,demand is low. Thirdly- There is hardly any labor laws or organizations that protect the rights of these employees.
Living with the problem and continuing to accept it:
It is not disputable that majority of software engineers are sub-optimal coders and nearly 80% are just going with the flow. The technological environment changes so instantaneously that you have to be on your toes all the time and keep on developing yourself, doesn’t matter if you are a fresher or a seasoned professional. The IT companies justify the less pay saying that they need to train the people in the relevant technologies because they know best. The freshers are just given random technologies without being asked. Its like asking a professional soccer guy to deliver pizzas as both involve walking/running. After seeing that large amount of engineers are going obsolete the IT companies have started a new initiative of retraining their associates, but this effort is mainly failing as after retraining also the person is not able to get a project in the same company as it requires previous experience in that technology. This retraining initiative is not included in the nearly 10 hours of office work that you are mandatory to do, which leads to drone type lifestyles and people not enjoying their work.
Solution and way forward:
There needs to major changes to education and job market if we want to elevate the life and motivation of the overworked and under-paid Indian engineers. The first is that the government needs to audit the education system followed by all the sub-optimal colleges and focus on producing quality graduates. The second is that students need to be taught 3.5 years and the last 6 months should be a mandatory industry induction, focusing more on the practical knowledge than the theoretical knowledge. The third is that the industry should increase its basic take-away salary and hire only if a person clears the 6 month induction plan, focusing more on quality than on quantity.
Summary: I don’t want to say if any one job is better than the other but the dearth of opportunities lead to the exodus of techies to foreign shores where they are treated like aliens literally. But don’t you think after 17 years of education, 6 years of working with some of the big names in the industry an Engineer should earn more than a taxi driver. Food for thought.
