Have noticed a concerning pattern when trying to hire full-time developers in India for some companies I am working with as a contractor. Mostly observed this in the Rails ecosystem in India, though I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same—or worse—for other tech stacks.
Like clockwork, every time I post about an opening, a bunch of Rails developers who work for consulting companies and outsourcing firms apply.
You’d think they’re applying for themselves. No, even though they show up as an individual applicant, they’re recruited by these firms to get clients. So, even though the client thinks they’re hiring a dedicated, full-time developer, behind the scenes, the dev is just another benchwarmer in the consulting company’s lineup. Not only this wastes a lot of time for the clients, but also sets up wrong and misleading expectations, if the candidate ends up getting hired.
What’s more, since these consulting companies hire fresh graduates in droves, the quality of the candidates is not so great. Even though they show many years of experience, and list fancy projects on their resume (such as ‘inventory management system’, ‘project management software’ or ‘hospital management system’ yada yada yada), the most work they’ve done on these projects is not much more than fixing a few bugs and adding small meaningless features (that is, if these projects are real: many are just invented out of thin air). Many of these developers just know to grok the buzzwords (RoR, React, AWS, etc.) and haven’t done any real-world programming at all.
Adding to the frustration, I’ve a strong feeling that many consulting firms take a huge chunk of the dollar-based salary and pay their developers a pittance in Indian rupees.
To be clear, I don’t have a problem with the consulting business model. But if you’re running an agency, be transparent: have your sales team reach out to the client, pitch your services, and then assign one of your consultant developers to work with the client, where the expectation is clear: the client is paying the consulting firm who is providing developers to work with the clients. Just don’t send your below-average developers to randomly apply for each and every positions you see under the guise of full-time candidates, hope they get hired, only to underpay them while taking the lion’s share of the client's budget.
No one benefits here. Western clients get a bad taste in their mouth about overall software ecosystem and the quality of developers in India (even though there’re many talented developers doing amazing work for solid product companies). Meanwhile, these developers are short-changed, don’t get any good, real-world experience as they’re thrown from one project to another, without any learning opportunities that one gets by staying on one project for a long time.
So, developers, don’t settle working for these shady consulting gigs, where you’re just a faceless cog in the system. Aim to work with reputable product companies, or respected agencies like BigBinary, Josh Software, RailsFactory, Kiprosh, etc. (there are many in India). You’ll learn more, earn more, and grow much, much faster.
For clients (especially North American and European companies trying to hire in India), I don't have a great solution, to be honest - I'd stick with recommendations from people you trust and hire from personal network, rather than a generic post on a job board.
Okay, rant over, just wanted to share my frustration. Can anyone relate?
