Stuck in Code
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I came across a blog article which captured the the trend in "Indian IT industry" accurately. The article talks about how the senior person in a role of a developer is considered "Stuck" coding. It does not come easily to folks that it could be by choice.
One of the reasons I quit Avaya (as a manager) was because I was not enjoying my work, solving people problems (non-technical) For a "techie at heart" person like myself, it was not at all satisfying.
There was a time, when one of the VP (from US) visited our Avaya office. He was comparing his Senior Technical people with what we call "Senior" Technical people in India. In US, the senior person was at least 10+ yrs experience. He/she has to interact with person with experience of 3-5 yrs, as their peer. Add to that the fact that most of those people (or their colleagues) were losing jobs, due to economic down turn, and it was as clear as a day light, that friction was inevitable.
In my own experience, the senior tech leaders in US had a very frustrating time dealing with their Indian counterparts. (Unfortunately I was stuck in between solving the "people" issues on both sides)
I was told (back then I wasn't a manager) that things are bound to change, and we'll see real technical jobs in Indian IT industry requiring higher experience.
I think things are changing a little, but it takes people like you and me, to ensure that when some organization is looking for senior technical person, they have a choice from a pool of talented engineers with 10-15+ yrs experience.
After quitting Avaya, I joined another org as "Software Architect", unfortunately even here, they are
trying to make me a "manager" just due to number of years of experience. So currently I am pushing back with my management, and trying to stay "hands on" person.
Here is the link to original article : http://pindancing.blogspot.com/2009/04/stuck-in-code.html
Please share your views in comments.
