Jobs and perks draw Americans to India, a bright spot in a dark year

February 27, 2009

Jobs and perks draw Americans to India, a bright spot in a dark year

10 Comments |
E-mail |
Print
- Share:

By MARTHA IRVINE
The Associated Press

GAUTAM SINGH / AP

Rana Rosen, a former freelance writer in Chicago, is now in charge of setting up an internal training program for Mindcrest, a Chicago-based company that does outsourced legal work in Mumbai.

CHICAGO — Rana Rosen can hear the stress in her friends' voices when she calls home from India. It's getting increasingly difficult for them to get by, they tell her.

So she finds herself downplaying details about her new life in Pune, India, where she moved four months ago to take a job. She has a driver and a housekeeper, both common perks for corporate types there, even younger ones like her. At age 31, she's already a senior manager.

"I almost feel guilty telling them how well it is going," says Rosen, a former freelance writer who's now in charge of setting up an internal training program for Mindcrest, a Chicago-based company that does outsourced legal work in India for American firms. "But the truth is, I'm busy, thriving and eager as ever."

That's no small accomplishment, especially in a global recession. But recruiters, business owners and employees themselves say that despite its own financial woes, India is, so far, a relative land of opportunity.

Last month, one of the country's leading financial newspapers went as far as declaring 2009 "The Year of India." Word of such optimism is spreading to this country, where Stephanie Bartosiewicz lost her job at a New York City management consulting firm last fall. A few weeks ago, she picked up and moved to India, a country that had always intrigued her.

"It sounds like a naive thing to say — but it feels like I can't lose," says the 29-year-old, who's looking for work in Mumbai and amazed how cheaply she can live there. "If nothing else, at least it's a grand adventure."

Lisa Johnson, director of consulting services with Cartus Corporation, a global relocation firm based in Connecticut, has heard the buzz, too, and believes there's something to it: "India is one of our hot topics," she says.

An annual survey done for Cartus and the National Foreign Trade Council found, for instance, that India replaced Germany last year as one of the top four countries where multinational companies planned to move employees. The other three were the United States, China and the United Kingdom.

Rosen's company has hired four other Americans to work in India in recent months, an unprecedented number.

"The American dream, as such, is there," says Ganesh Natarajan, president of Mindcrest. "I'm not saying it's gone from here, but it's that same kind of feeling."

In this economy, he and others say they're getting more applications than ever from Americans looking for work in India. And that, they say, matches well with a demand for management skills that's been growing in India over the past few years.

"There's no shortage of entry-level types of people for relatively routine kinds of jobs in India," says Colin Gounden, the CEO of Grail Research, a data-mining company with offices in several countries, India included. "But for the more skilled jobs, the more knowledge-intensive it is — those have been consistently in short supply in terms of talent."

Steve Watson, an executive recruiter in Dallas, also is seeing more applicants — from business-school graduates to experienced veterans who view international experience as a way to stay competitive in a tough job market.

"Moving up in today's world really is requiring an overseas assignment," says Watson, international chairman and managing director at Stanton Chase International, an international executive search firm.

He is among those who see India and China as the top two markets for opportunity. And, he says, India is often more attractive to applicants because it's more Western and language is less of an issue.

That doesn't mean making the transition to India is always easy.

Rosen, a Chicagoan who was working in New York before she took the job in India, misses bagels and a good slice of pizza. She also hates having to turn on a heater for hot water, which regularly runs out during her morning shower.

"That really kills me on a daily basis," she says with a slight chuckle.

Dan Baxter, a 35-year-old Canadian, has found that it can be very difficult to find work in India if you don't have a job lined up before you get there. He works in Mumbai as a senior vice president for Fleishman-Hillard, a global marketing and communications firm, but his wife is still looking.

"There is a lot of red tape and preference for hiring Indians where possible," Baxter says.

He says being a Westerner in India still can have distinct advantages.

"In many cases, it is assumed that we come with new or rare skills and can teach Indian clients and colleagues things we learned elsewhere — though I don't know for how long," Baxter says. "I'm sure that India will take our knowledge, learn it better than us and sell it back to us sooner than later."

10 Comments |
E-mail |
Print
- Share:

10 Comments

jeff on February 28, 2009 7:37 AM | Reply

no matter Obama comes as president of usa or Osama. The fact remains that time always changes.It doesn't stop neither for usa nor for china or india. So outsourcing in not a thing that can be started or stopped .It's a basic concept that i would not use word "cheap" however i would say a product that can be related to a person or a object will always preferred, flourish, be in demand ,succeed,no matter you put a lot of restrictions , put taxes or ban it do what ever .India and China are leads in less price better quality tommorow it may be africa.

auntyBettY on March 2, 2009 9:42 AM | Reply

Adoi sistah:

Your weekend swamped with work. Kinda mAKES jILL NOT HAVING TIME to play with Jack...huh...
So sistah...today already Monday,
I am sure you have accomplished quite a bit. I wonder what's Freeform is like without FissA?

dhruv on May 5, 2009 1:00 AM | Reply

I'm an Indian-American, and was born and raised in the U.S. Sometimes I wonder if it would be beneficial for me to move to India. I have been there several times recently and the speed of development is great - you really feel like things are happening there. I don't get that feeling here.

Every other year when I go back, I see something and think, " why didn't i bring that here!?"

The Indian market embraces so many things Western, that I feel like i can just pick up an American franchise and take it there and become really prosperous!

That combined with the cheap labor can afford me domestic help (a full time maid, cook, and driver) and I think that would give more more free time to spend with my family --- if they all move there with me!?

ED on January 17, 2011 11:47 AM | Reply

HOW DOES SOMEONE FIND A JOB IN INDIA, THERE IS NO JOBS IN AMERICA ANYMORE

Niraj replied to comment from ED

Because Indian economy is self-sufficient and does not require American companies. Plus India is getting stronger.

Anonymous on April 30, 2011 11:37 AM | Reply

it is totally illegal to move to india on a tourist visa and look for work.

not that i have anything against illegal immigrants or anything...

Nazia on May 25, 2011 11:31 PM | Reply

I'd like to work in India Im from USA. Can u help me get a job there?

Faded on April 27, 2012 3:57 AM | Reply

This idea of easy jobs even in the toughest of times for graduates of top-name schools with degrees in a “hard” subjects is a myth—at least if you’re Hispanic and disabled.

I’m part-Hispanic and grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. However, my grades and test scores got me into me into the nation’s #1-ranked business school with majors in finance and accounting. Even though I graduated in the top 10% of my class and was fluent in four languages, I was closed out from firms like Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch and Citibank because of my ethnic background.

However, I pounded the pavement, earned my CPA and eventually was getting unsolicited job offers all the time. I developed a successful career making 5,000 times my age as a financial analyst and fund manager—2,500 times your age is how much you have to earn for your investment in a degree to be worthwhile.

I was working a terrific job in lower Manhattan, and post-9/11 became ill from exposure to the fumes and was nearly bed-ridden for five years. I developed a visible disability, which means I get now get double discriminated. I have long abandoned my search for senior positions, and I’ve been rejected for every one of over 3,000 positions for which I submitted a resume or application. Some years ago I was supervising a staff that was preparing tax returns for millionaires and Fortune 500 corporations. Nowadays, I’m even turned away for $10/hour positions at places like H&R Block.

Furthermore, I suddenly discovered that my Hispanic background is a huge liability, as the US is currently presenting a huge negative reaction to immigration. Over the past five years, Hispanics of all classes have become the scapegoats for the rise in unemployment among whites and blacks alike.

In summary, an Ivy League business degree, a graduate degree, a CPA, 15 years of international and Wall Street experience, a track record of integrity and four languages mean nothing in 2012 if you are Hispanic and disabled in the USA.

Marie on July 15, 2012 2:55 PM | Reply

Start your own business if you're super qualified and can't get a job. Your background and experience are worth as much as you believe they are worth. You can't let others define you.

David Matthew on September 19, 2012 11:47 AM | Reply

You can not go into any hospital or IT Department without seeing people from India. We were worried about Mexicans and other Hispanics taking our menial jobs, but what about the well-paying jobs that the East Indians are taking? How are we allowing this to happen? And we wonder why economy is failing. The East Indians are making six figures and sending it to India. The majority of the money made here is not being spent in this country. They share housing with each other to keep housing costs down, they sleep on floors to not spend money on beds and such. They cook their indian food bought from Indian merchants in the states or have food frozen and bring it back with them from India. I work in the IT field and I have been around them very much so I have first hand knowledge. They are nice people, but it is really hurting our economy. They are also driving pay rates in IT down because they will accept a lower wage, so the companies are hiring them instead of Americans. The Americans are forced to reduce their rates to try to compete, but the East Indians are winning the bids, I guess they go even lower to get the work. It is crazy. We must do something now!

Jobs and perks draw Americans to India, a bright spot in a dark year

10 Comments

Leave a comment