Information Technology Jobs in India for Americans
Some Experienced Professionals
are Leaving the U.S. to Work in India
By Siddharth Srivastava
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Infosys in Bangalore,
India. |
Faced with the prospect of job cuts due to work being outsourced to low-cost economies, skilled foreign workers from the U.S. and U.K. have been doing the next best thing—finding employment in India. If you can’t
beat them join them. The number of foreigners working in India in the software and outsourcing industries is mounting at a rapid pace, surpassing 50,000 at the last count according to the registrar’s office in New Delhi.
“Many foreign nationals are looking at mid-level and senior level positions in India. Every week, we get at least one well qualified foreigner looking for a job here,” says Kris Lakshmikanth, founder CEO
and managing director of the executive recruiting firm Head Hunters (India). “As IT product firms set up shop in India, experienced professionals from the U.S. are also
on the lookout for jobs here and the trend is being witnessed by the top-tier recruitment firms.”
“Earlier only call-center jobs were being outsourced to India,” says Anil Mahajan, executive director of Talent Hunt Private Ltd.“ But now
as companies start to ship high-end research and senior managerial jobs to India as well, foreign workers see a huge opportunity for themselves.
“Till recently, we were getting regular job queries from expatriate Indians who wanted to move back to India. But we were also taken by surprise when overseas professionals from countries as far as the U.S.,
Britain, and South Africa also started to call us up to inquire about job opportunities here. This has now become a trend,” says Mahajan.
The Information
Technology Association of America (now owned by CompTIA) says only around 2 percent of the 10 million computer-related jobs have been sent abroad; 12 percent of IT companies have outsourced work, compared to 3 percent of non-IT firms. The most recent
projection for outsourcing is by Forrester Research: a loss of 3.3 million U.S. jobs by 2015, including 1.7 million back-office jobs and 473,000 IT jobs, which creates only a small
dent in the U.S. job market.
Foreigners are coming on their own
to India for the opportunities available and because it is
an attractive destination. An indication of the global reach
of Indian IT giants can be gauged from the fact that Infosys
Technologies, which has risen to become the
country’s 2nd-largest software maker mainly
due to outsourced work from the West, has reversed the
trend by investing $20 million to create nearly 500 consulting
jobs in the U.S. Infosys
Management Consulting Services is “aggressively
hiring in America,” Infosys
CEO Nandan Nilekani said in a statement. “As we
are looking to expand our global footprint, we are creating
local employment in the countries where we operate,” he
said.
Resources for Finding Work in India
Consult sites such as Monster India, TIMESJOBS for more information.
It is best to register with these recruitment websites, as employers and headhunters keep a constant watch. Prominent newspapers such as the Hindustan Times post job opportunity postings online every week. Another option is to visit the websites of prominent companies and look for job postings or submit your resume..
Siddharth Srivastava is
a post-graduate in economics. He has worked for the Times of India,
India’s largest selling English daily.
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