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Comment by ajju | Hacker News Reader

I don't think the fact that you are Indian justifies your self-admitted bias against Indian managers.

He's had experience with many managers, mind you - and if a fair number of those were from India, it would justify his bias.

In my experience, his third point (on them trying harder, and thus being more willing to treat ethical boundaries in an elastic manner) is spot-on.

By his own admittance, OP worked for one company for 6.5 years and had ONE good manager. I suspect his bad experience with managers, Indian or otherwise, had as much or more to do with his employer and the work culture.

Another indicator that this is true is that he says that being on a work visa required his colleagues to push ethical boundaries. Having worked for many years, multiple employers and many managers on a work visa myself, I can assure you that this is not true everywhere, or even most places.

Seriously, any one on a work visa who is being pressured to do something ethically repugnant should change their job. In many cases this is easier than you would imagine.

I agree that since we are in New York its a cut throat environment but I would say that we have one of the best work cultures in the city. Other places (banks + hedgefunds) are much much worse.

But yeah it might be very different on the west coast.

And your wrong its not easy to change a work visa because you lose your line in the G.C race if your not in the 3rd stage. Thats the clincher.

With present EB3 approval rates, its possible this could set you back 5 years. EB3 India is a mess right now.

I agree that the green card process is quite ridiculous. The inability to change jobs while you are in it and in many cases, inability to even get promoted are two of the most ridiculous policies I have ever seen.

Fair enough - though see his point about the green card process. It's pretty painful to have that process reset on you, and to actually find an employer if you do lose a job.

What he meant, I rather suspect, is not so much as 'ethically repugnant' (in which case I might agree with you) but rather within the gray area, where unvoiced pressures such as these can affect the choices you make.

Yes, the green card process sucks.

I understand that feeling and its not the real reason why I stated that indian managers are mostly bad. I also mentioned that there is an inherent selection bias.

My friends and I have had many many managers and a good many were indian. Only one of them I would rate as good. Funnily enough I used to be his manager a long time ago. I've actually learnt a lot from his style of leadership though I've never worked under him.

He (ie 1) is the exception who IMHO proves the rule.

I think the fact that your bad experiences with managers have inspired you to work hard on becoming a good manager is commendable. Fight the good fight!

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