Comment by kanakiyajay | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kanakiyajay | Hacker News Reader

There is good evidence in terms of attrition numbers published by major tech companies --- it has gone as high as 22%!! India is also experiencing a major demand for software developers

It's due to venture funds, remote work & high demand ...

Cash is cheap. US, Europe & Japan have unleashed >$9 trillion since the pandemic in stimulus checks & buying of bonds in the market. Global venture funding hit a record high of $221B with 250 start-ups becoming unicorns this year. Coinbase debuted publicly with a market cap of $89B on its opening day. Indian start-ups have received a record funding of $8.76B

Salary Difference is Huge . The average salary of a software developer in the US is $107K with senior developers commanding $300K in San Francisco, a stark difference compared to India. Demand for talent is coming from all industries, the automotive sector hired more software engineers than the tech sector last year, all the more reason for going remote

Which means remote postings have risen by 457% since the past year! Engineers prefer to continue WFH as it enables flexibility, increased productivity & reduced commute times. Even the challenge of different time zones can be solved using good asynchronous communication in remote work

To recap, an engineer can work for - FAAMG (Remain the top pick) - US & EU software giants (Coinbase, GitLab, Automattic) - 3000 India Dev Centers (Eg: John Deere) - IPO-bound unicorns (Zomato, Paytm, MobiKwik) - Freshly funded start-ups (100s) - 2800 IT services firms

What is the impact?

Attrition rates in Indian IT will be at an all-time high of 22-23% this year. Top-tier candidates now get multiple offers with an eye-popping 2x-3x (not 20%-30%) raise. The 2-3 month notice period means candidates continue interviewing after accepting the 1st offer. Developers are consistently learning new skillsets on AI, Machine learning, cloud computing, automation, blockchain to be in high demand. No doubt, multiple founders have recently tweeted about this new competitive market & candidates informing before joining date

Recruiters & founders need to differentiate themselves not just with cash, but also with ESOPs, buybacks, venture backing, eye-watering benefits, rapid career growth & work even harder to retain existing talent

The war for talent is on

Inflation in India is close to 15%(every thing added). If you are a rich person sitting on a fortune you have to invest and spend it. If you are worth 3 digit crores, you are losing 2 digit crores an year, if you are 4 digit crores you are losing 3 digit crores an year.

What this means is you need to keep investing money to even stay afloat, hence the VC investment madness.

India has seen this trends in the past too. And it doesn't end well. When businesses don't make profits the employees suffer. Loans are defaulted, homes are lost and careers are set back by decades. I call this job tourism.

I've been there and been through this several times. In the early 90s I remember it was considered a windfall period for managerial talent in India. When ABCL(Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited) collapsed it unleashed hell on people. Dot com burst, 2008 crash. It all starts with crazy salaries and ends in tears. In 2008 I personally remember filtering out resumes of people whom we called 'job hoppers'. Have a frequent jump trial on your resume? Congrats a lay off now means you will be job less for 2+ years. Even when you do get a job after that time, it's not like they'll be offering 500% hike on the market standards. If you don't show the jumps on the resume first question we'd ask is 'Can you explain the gap in your resume'.

Where do you think the exhaustive background checks come from?

The funny thing is that the 2-3 month notice period was created so that people don't quit.

But now it has turned against companies!

It was always like that, people used to continue interviewing even after notice period. It was always known to be a counter productive thing for companies. HR departments work differently so they still ain't got the news yet.

Yes but in the usual market openings are low and budget is low. Now a days loads of ppl quit so openings are high and companies have to give better salary.

That tilts the scale in our favour.

So now ppl quit and then get multiple offers otherwise salary doesn't increase. That's the only way to get a raise.

It should be a crime, a literal crime to ask for current salary.

If I am let's say 5yr experience you give me appropriate salary as per your bands. Why is it a rule to give only 30% based on your current salary?

And then the same HRs cry on Linkedin about how people are not joining!

>>Now a days loads of ppl quit so openings are high and companies have to give better salary.

Has always been that way. The easiest way to replace people is to hire freshers who are looking for a break. That way they don't have to pay high salaries. This is why you see every year there is an ever increasing demand for freshers.

If you are experienced you need to be enough responsibilities free to attempt crazy job hopping lifestyle. That is ok for salaries sake, but no one will offer you loans, and you will miss out on the only investment avenue for (upper) middle class, that is real estate investments. So you can't forever play this game either.

Most people who understand how the long term game works, don't hop often. They know there is nothing like ever increasing 300% hike yoy on hopping jobs. On the other hand lack of stability means, you can't work on building assets, or making a rent income stream for the winter days of post-40s. And crazy work hours have a tax on your health. Eventually you end up losing your salary money to inflation, with no retirement stash and with diseases.

The only people hopping are really people who are easy to staff in body shops.

>>Why is it a rule to give only 30% based on your current salary?

Contrary to whatever you believe nobody has the demand to offer 300% raises to every one person. And I will drop a another cold fact on you. Most people who leave can be easily replaced by freshers with minimal training for 1/4th cost. This is not because companies are evil or something. But the facts here are bulk of the software industry doesn't need rockstars. There are not enough rockstar projects, to need rockstar developers.

And yeah most start ups who offer those crore rupees salaries never pay up. Several of them shutdown, most people lose jobs before IPO. Even if they have jobs, they'll be made to work so hard they'll quit. Sometime lots of additional clauses exist in salaries eg: Variable pay, conditional vesting etc which make that offer letter basically a scammy document.

People pay just 30% because they don't want to deal with any of this.

I'm not advocating for a crazy job hopping lifestyle. But without job hopping salaries don't even increase wrt inflation. I worked for 6+yrs on a low salary because I didn't realize early enough that I have to switch to get good hikes

My salary has increased now in much more magnitude than my old org. Also my friends who hopped 1 more time than me have significantly more salary than me. All in the same city so they have no issues getting loans or building assets.

> There are not enough rockstar projects, to need rockstar developers.

Is this true even for Product companies and captives?

> People pay just 30% because they don't want to deal with any of this.

Then they shouldn't cry rivers of blood when people who've stayed half a decade at their first company takes their offer to get 5 other counter offers and doesn't join in their company for a meagre 30% hike.

>>Is this true even for Product companies and captives?

Yes, even more true in Product than Services companies. And for a very simple reason. Shelf life of most projects is small, and it resembles to be quite honest 'throw away work'.

>>Then they shouldn't cry rivers of blood when people who've stayed half a decade at their first company takes their offer to get 5 other counter offers and doesn't join in their company for a meagre 30% hike.

They don't. In fact they are happy you left, if they had to fire you they would have to pay severance. Now not only are you gone, you can be easily replaced with a fresher.

It's a brutal market. Plan for your retirement before you are forced to retire.

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