IT Survivors - Staying Alive In A Software Job

Filed in archive Business on December 26, 2005

I ran across a really good article written a while back by Harshad Oak entitled IT Survivors - Staying Alive In A Software Job. For me it was a very fresh, open and honest look at what it is like these days for an IT professional in India. My takeaway from the article is that all is not well in the Indian IT industry. Being asked to work 14-hour shifts to finish a project that is late is one thing. I know and I have been there myself. However, feeling that you need to work that hard everyday, because of cultural pressures, is something else entirely.

India is going to have a large number of very unhealthy, damaged, professionals on their hands. Something is going to have to give at some point. The sad thing is whether it is the people themselves or the companies that employ them that push back the outsourcers won't tolerate it. Fewer hours worked per day and stretched deadlines means more expense for those outsourcing the work. They will then start outsourcing to a different country and create another society of unhealthy, damaged, professionals there as well. I'm sure some sort of equilibrium will be reach some day but that could be decades away.