What's Life As A Programmer Like In Your Country? Programmer is the lowest profession here

[SP Rao 0]

I have some different comments to make about India. I do agree compared to a lot of other professionals here, the pay is good for a programmer. But, like others were mentioning, managers, consultants and sales people earn more than a programmer within the software industry.Now, what would be a great salary per month for a programmer? If he gets 400$/month it's considered extremely good salary here!!! I after two years of working in Asia's largest software company TCS, get a disgusting salary of 630$ a month! How many people would call that great? But, considering the cost of living here, it is a great income. Also owing to the fact that, getting a software job now is almost as simple as anything you can get here(assuming you have BE degree in IT), this route of career looks perfect for many. Most of them live an a dream world. Good jobs are offered by MNCs based outside India. Indian companies are mainly intio software consultancy which simply means "body shopping". Some other clients "hire" us. Our company does projects for clients majorly based out of USA and Europe... (almost all fortune 500 companies are in one way or the other rely on Indian Consultancy firms like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, Patni etc... for software development and maintainance.).Entry level salary for a programmer in all the above mentioned Indian companies vary between 250$ to 400$. The hikes are great. The best in Asia in any industry. But then again, the hikes for programmers are much lower compared to the managers. Basically if you are on the managarial side, you hikes are more; salary is way too high compared to that of a programmer.Basically within the industry of software, programmer has the lowest pay; managers and consultants the maximum.But, only good part abou these companies are, you get to go "onsite". Everyone wants to join these companies because he gets to go "onsite". (Onsite means working in the client's office.) Since majority of our clients are from USA and Europe, we get to visit these contries and work there. And while working there, we'll be getting very good allowances there... (Avg after paying taxes wages varying from 2000$-3500$ for engineers with <5 years of exp in USA, In Europe... around 1800 pound sterling... ).Now, if you don't get onsite, even the best of the pays for 5-8 years experienced programmers here are in the range 1000$-1500$. People here in India might argue that it's an extremely high salary. But the standard of living here is not even comparable with Developed countries. Roads are pathetic, no infrastructure and absolutely no value for a productive man's time. With all these difficulties, there is extreme work pressure on programmers. Too much.But , compared to other fields here we get far better pay as programmer. But then again, in a country where a Toyota Corolla costs around $28000!!! (I guess it costs 13,000$ in the USA) can't really say that we can afford luxuries so easily.... even if we have one among the higher paid jobs.All in all it's a decent enough profession here.

Edited September 1, 2006 by SP Rao (see edit history)

[Vyoma 0]

@SP

Tch. Tch. I had resisted putting anything here for quite long - as long as I had been to Xisto. I now feel that the lazyness was worth it cause you put all that I wanted to say here in clear terms - I could not have done it better.

 

Ofcourse, I will give the credit shamelessly to myself 'cause I did call you here and recomend this forum.

 

I would second what you are saying. Managers and other higher tier personel in a company get more than - way more than - what a programmer gets in the same industry in India. I cannot say for other industry and I cannot say if it is fair when compared to other countries. I think to blame any particular industry for paying less when compared to same in another country is a bit absurd because they would definetly be different, and these things would be different in different countries. Else, if all the features were economically flat, I doubt there would be any trade between two countries. I am not saying that would be fair or this would be - I am just saying that we are pointing fingers in a wrong direction if we think in that terms.

 

But yes, manager and higer tier do get paid way more (off the scale) when compared to programmers. I mean, you should look at even the entry level package given to a student out of a techinal college and a B-School. The graduate of a B-School gets a bloated one in India - I am not sure of other countries - but I am not sure if I am biased in saying that I value the technical knowledge that actually creates something more than another set of skill that basically deals with manipulating other people.

 

@Others

Sorry about inviting him over here. He is a bit of rambler sometimes (like me) but quite as much talented as me. Not better than me ofcourse.

Edited September 1, 2006 by Vyoma (see edit history)

[Chesso 0]

Well naturaly in any country and most likely any industry, a manager will have a higher wage than the workers underneath him in terms of responsiblity and what not.It's always been this way as far as I know *shrugs*.

[Vyoma 0]

Of course, responsibility does imply more stress, and thus does require more reward that should be given in terms of income package.I am not sure about other countries, but in India, I belive, at these times, the scaling is way of the scales. A techie with a Bachelors Degree would get about 250$ to 300$ per month as a starting package. Now the same for a B-School graduate on an average would be anywhere around 1000$ to 1500$ per month as a starting package. That would be about 1:4 scaling that I am not sure is fair or not - no matter in which country that may be.

[sparkx 0]

I don't know what country your living in were coding is for low lifes, I may just be the youngst person on this forums but I know one thing, In my country Flash 8 is not considered programming, In my opinion not even HTML or Javascript are programs, C++, PHP and Java will get the job done well.

[Chesso 0]

Well no, Flash 8, Javascript and I guess HTMl or scripting, not programming.

[NoMore1405241533 0]

Here its suxno one really know how its work and no one apriciate it enogha script that can be sold in $250 in the US will be sold in $25 here (max)thats why i dont selli work for my self, if anyone wants my scripts, he can give a disent pirce or go find it in some wehre elselike you put it, i may change my living town :PPS - I am doing buissnes with ppl outside Israel for somting else (not $$)NoMore

[mHelmy 0]

In my country (Indonesia), programmers are treated just like other employers, so we can't expect big salary from it. But every single work can be included in programmer's portfolio, that's what other type of employers don't have.And if you're a very good programmer, start browsing to codeproject and you can get much money.

[Chesso 0]

I think they are looked on as normal employee's mostly everywhere aside from special circumstances.Some are even looked upon as some type of modern cheap labour force.

[iGuest 3]

In my country, The Philippines, it�s just a usual job but for sure you can get a good salary I can't tell you how much because it will hit the currency you have and for sure you might think its lower or higher it depends your currency type. But for us, it�s really good money, not the best but its good. As you can see like India or other Asian countries we are also into BPO. Europeans, Americans, Australians or even some Asian nation outsource their business to us and that could only mean one thing.... JOBS! In our country a 100 percent of IT population consists only of:10 percent are programmers40 percent are technical supports in a call center20 percent are network administrators and DB Administrators and 30 percent are Associate IT (working on sales shop assemble and trouble shoot PC) in that estimate developers really in demand since Western companies in the Philippines need to establish systems on their business to grow. Its a Law of Supply and Demand, and developers are in Demand.We developers are not treated as Gods here or something, were just ordinary employees that can be fired whenever you have low performance or the company is in a danger of losing a client. If that happens we developers will not worry about it since lots of companies here in NEED OF DEVELOPERS.As for your country, maybe it�s not yet the time for your government to open you country into BPO or maybe they just outsource their systems from other countries like India or us. When time comes that your country opens up an IT business then maybe it�s an opportunity to you as developers.

[iGuest 3]

Well I took this field, but I am very beginner at this time, I love programing and designing but I am scared if I fail in this field, I want to be one of best programmers in the world, I need your advises, what should I do? I want to settle in Saudi Arab, I am currently in Pakistan..-Adnan

[iGuest 3]

programming

What's Life As A Programmer Like In Your Country?

 

I am looking to outsource some programming needs. FTP server with the ability for client login and contractor login with a static IP Address.

 

Could you send me your contact email; so that I might contact you directly?

 

-ray hodge

[tek3D 0]

In my country, programmers have to work very hard and there income is so low.So, there's so less percentage of programmer could be successful here.

[stteen 0]

well, I think programmers are under paid in China even though their incomes are relatively higher than many other workers.

[8ennett 0]

It's hard to get work as a programmer in the UK because there are so many people who think they can code but are at best a beginner. They apply for all the jobs that require a higher grade programmer and seriously undersell the rest of us.An employer in the finance sector for isntance, they hire business analysts and system analysts however they don't have a clue how difficult their job can be or what it involves, and because they don't understand it they think anyone who claims to be able to do it CAN do it. So they hire these complete amateurs who take forever to get the job done, which makes the employer think that this line of work isn't that important to the company.I was once employed to work on a project for a large life assurance company as an assistant systems analyst. The job was basically to transfer the database to a new incompatible system after the company was taken over. They brought me in because they were behind on the deadline and needed an extra hand. The first day I started I was shocked at how ineffecient their methods were, it was incredible. After working there for two weeks the project manager realised that by myself I had achieved a 500% higher workload than any other person on the project so was given the running of my area and the rest were let go. The project was finished 4 months ahead of schedule and left me out of work again and underappreciated. I single-handedly finished what was supposed to be a further 8 months of work for 7 people in to 4 months by myself.They then shrugged it off, didn't renew my contract and used the new system, hiring amateurs to develop the software for them leaving their general productivity a lot lower than it should be, simply because the amateurs will work for a lot less money. If they had kept me on to continue developing for them I could have reduced the amount of staff they required in the company by 1/3. Doesn't sound good on the employment side but in retrospect the company could have saved hundreds of thousands per year by hiring a professional. They didn't understand this fact though, and the cycle continues.Until the rest of the world catches up and actually attempts to understand how computer programming works the professionals amongst us will always be undersold by amateurs, and with the amount of amatuers growing (who lack the flare for programming the rest of us have) it's just getting too hard to keep in this line of business.