Wall Street Journal: India graduates millions, but too few are fit to hire

[the DRIZZLE]

Can you type 25words a minute in vietnamese? Same thing, its not their native lang. If they had degrees in english I could understand.

Read the article. They are just generally not competent because the quality of the education is crap.

 

[Vette73]

Read the article. They are just generally not competent because the quality of the education is crap.

Did YOU read it? Most are getting cut due to speech and grammar in English, not because they can’t use a computer or understand a diagram.

"The average graduate's "ability to comprehend and converse is very low," says Satya Sai Sylada, 24/7 Customer's head of hiring for India. "That's the biggest challenge we face.""

 

[the DRIZZLE]

Did YOU read it? Most are getting cut due to speech and grammar in English, not because they can’t use a computer or understand a diagram.

"The average graduate's "ability to comprehend and converse is very low," says Satya Sai Sylada, 24/7 Customer's head of hiring for India. "That's the biggest challenge we face.""

Yeah I did read it. They say cheating is rampant, the teachers don't give a shit, and students don't know anything when they graduate.

 

[Vette73]

Yeah I did read it. They say cheating is rampant, the teachers don't give a shit, and students don't know anything when they graduate.

Same could be said for a lot of US grads/colleges as well.

But the examples given in the article seem to be cutting people based on english skills, not knowledge. I am sure there are many that just float by but again I saw the same thing when I was in college.

 

[Infohawk]

Same could be said for a lot of US grads/colleges as well.

But the article doesn't say that.

The article confirms what more and more people are realizing about third world education systems in Asia. They generate cookie-cutter robots who can do calculus in elementary school but fall apart when asked to think a little outside of the box. There's a reason why elite universities still offer liberal arts educations in this country, they produce well-rounded individuals.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

Same could be said for a lot of US grads/colleges as well.

But the examples given in the article seem to be cutting people based on english skills, not knowledge. I am sure there are many that just float by but again I saw the same thing when I was in college.

I should have seen that coming. Obviously there are slackers everywhere, but the article implies that even in the hard sciences their programs are a joke.

 

[KMFJD]

Did YOU read it? Most are getting cut due to speech and grammar in English, not because they can’t use a computer or understand a diagram.

"The average graduate's "ability to comprehend and converse is very low," says Satya Sai Sylada, 24/7 Customer's head of hiring for India. "That's the biggest challenge we face.""

I enjoy our conversations with people calling from India for support...having a problem communicating with support? just talk faster, and do the needful

 

[HumblePie]

But the article doesn't say that.

The article confirms what more and more people are realizing about third world education systems in Asia. They generate cookie-cutter robots who can do calculus in elementary school but fall apart when asked to think a little outside of the box. There's a reason why elite universities still offer liberal arts educations in this country, they produce well-rounded individuals.

Sort of.

I'm going to post my general stereo type I've come to find working as a software developer for a long time.

First off, I've worked with plenty of people from India who were great workers during my professional career. There have been some good ones, but there have also been many bad ones. The better ones are second gen Americans usually, but I've known quite a few people fresh from India that are very good too. Actually one person who is of the upper management in my company is a guy from India. A damn smart and great guy. I've been to a few India buffets with him for lunch too.

Still, most of what I seen from India in the technical field rarely is all that good. Most are what I call processor type of people. You have a list of steps to do from A to Z and need to always be done that way? Well training them at first may be a bitch, but once they know all the steps A to Z they are damn fine at doing them. As long as it always remains constant and sequential. Many techie India grads are fast at doing that.

The problem arises when they have to think out of the box. For example, if you had a bunch of steps to do from A to Z, but sometimes you might have to skip Q or sometimes you need to go back to H after doing R then they will almost always royally be stumped. This is especially true if the reasoning for the changes to the steps arise based on conditions not in control of the person but must be reasoned out when to make those deviations. Sure they can do calculus really well. That's because it is usually done the same way every time. They are drilled into doing things the same way. It's part of their culture and education. They are rarely ever taught critical thinking and analyzing skills from my experience. Some Indians realize their shortcomings and fix it. These are the good ones. Most don't however. A friend of mine works at a very predominant company here in town that hires LOTS of people from India for techie work because they are so cheap. He hates it because they are always constantly asking him for the simplest answers to coding problems that could be answered with some deductive reasoning. The problem is they don't usually do that. So he as a supervisor has to structure their work differently otherwise it would never get done.

Still they get hired, despite lack of skills, because they are usually willing to work for peanuts and at least usually know some of what needs to be accomplished.

Most of us in the tech field has known about people from India with so called tech degrees and their worthlessness for awhile now. I'm surprised it is just now it's finally hitting main stream media attention.

 

[HomerJS]

To all those greedy companies so eager to give away our jobs to India....

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Yeah your opinion doesn't count.

A) Apparently you can't speak English either.
B) Australians have had a nasty habit of killing East Indians studying in Australia lately.

Kind of undermines your position, or lack thereof.

offended indian detected.

 

[busydude]

Sort of.

I'm going to post my general stereo type I've come to find working as a software developer for a long time.

First off, I've worked with plenty of people from India who were great workers during my professional career. There have been some good ones, but there have also been many bad ones. The better ones are second gen Americans usually, but I've known quite a few people fresh from India that are very good too. Actually one person who is of the upper management in my company is a guy from India. A damn smart and great guy. I've been to a few India buffets with him for lunch too.

Still, most of what I seen from India in the technical field rarely is all that good. Most are what I call processor type of people. You have a list of steps to do from A to Z and need to always be done that way? Well training them at first may be a bitch, but once they know all the steps A to Z they are damn fine at doing them. As long as it always remains constant and sequential. Many techie India grads are fast at doing that.

The problem arises when they have to think out of the box. For example, if you had a bunch of steps to do from A to Z, but sometimes you might have to skip Q or sometimes you need to go back to H after doing R then they will almost always royally be stumped. This is especially true if the reasoning for the changes to the steps arise based on conditions not in control of the person but must be reasoned out when to make those deviations. Sure they can do calculus really well. That's because it is usually done the same way every time. They are drilled into doing things the same way. It's part of their culture and education. They are rarely ever taught critical thinking and analyzing skills from my experience. Some Indians realize their shortcomings and fix it. These are the good ones. Most don't however. A friend of mine works at a very predominant company here in town that hires LOTS of people from India for techie work because they are so cheap. He hates it because they are always constantly asking him for the simplest answers to coding problems that could be answered with some deductive reasoning. The problem is they don't usually do that. So he as a supervisor has to structure their work differently otherwise it would never get done.

Still they get hired, despite lack of skills, because they are usually willing to work for peanuts and at least usually know some of what needs to be accomplished.

Most of us in the tech field has known about people from India with so called tech degrees and their worthlessness for awhile now. I'm surprised it is just now it's finally hitting main stream media attention.

Spot on! Excellent post.

The education system in India is not tuned for thinking out of the box, and add to it the culture also makes it even worse. You seldom go against the will of the elders(family) or your superiors(job) and never question them.. even if you don't actually like the idea.

There are a lot of factors that play into this.. like huge classrooms, unqualified teachers, little to no encouragement in extra curricular activities, etc.. which encourage creative thinking.

P.S. I am an Indian studying in the US.