Top 10 challenges with programmers from India
Programmers in India are often the talk of the software development industry for their lack of quality compared to Western developers. But not all developers lack quality; there are competent ones in the country. As you know, a fair percentage of them work for technology giants worldwide, considered the top-quality resources there.
There are many challenges with programmers from India, including their lack of passion, inefficiency in the education system, ignorance of technological developments, etc. You can learn about those challenges in detail in this article. However, many developers from the country are dedicated to their profession, have excellent coding skills, and are up-to-date with the latest technologies. With the proper support and guidance, they can be highly successful.
1. Accidental developers
The first problem is that a good percentage of Indian developers are the ones who become coders by chance, not by their choice. Most of them land in engineering courses due to parental or peer pressure.
Even those without IT backgrounds often apply for IT jobs through campus interviews because of the lucrative compensation packages, not because they have a passion for software development. Such developers are called “Ctrl + C, Ctrl +V” developers. Because many of them work robotically without any interest in programming, their code will eventually be lower quality.
Solution
To solve the problem of low-quality code written by programmers, you should try to find developers with interest in coding and who are trying to work with genuine enthusiasm to improve the quality of their work. When hiring, ensure they are willing to work and find joy in programming, along with their eligibility and educational qualifications. Ensure the new hires can keep up with the training their new employers provide. They should be eager to learn more about the technological advancements around them.
2. Ineffective college education
Another challenge with programmers from India is the ineffective college education they receive. Usually, what Indian college education does is mould graduates with high scores but not with the practical knowledge of the subject they study. Even the teachers rely on books and don’t have any real practical experience.
In addition, the syllabus they study could be more effective. As you know, the new technical information is said to double every two years, which means what the students learn in the first years of their four-year degree course will get outdated by the time they finish the course.
Solution
What the developers can do to solve the problem is to understand that the years they spent in college education cannot be considered a complete learning process. And it only lays the groundwork for future learning opportunities. As the syllabus update is a distant dream, what they should do is make constant efforts to update their technical knowledge and continue learning throughout their lives. So try to find candidates with the willingness to constantly learn and improve.
3. Ignorant of the changing tech world
Now, ignorance or not being aware of the technological advancements around them is a problem for most of the developers in the country. They tend to focus only on what they already know or don’t bother to leave their comfort zones to learn something new.
Some of them attempt to learn independently, but their efforts are flawed. There is too much technology jargon in the crowded technology space. As a result, they need help to track down relevant updates and compare themselves to industry standards.
Solution
Make sure to provide a supportive tech community for the developer professionals. This community should provide a platform for developers to learn from each other, share best practices, and collaborate to solve complex problems. It should also provide mentorship opportunities and access to resources that can help developers stay up to date with the latest trends and technologies. This support group can come from within the team itself. Or can be found in the form of online communities around technology topics.
4. Non-coding team leads
Most IT professionals aim to become team leaders once they achieve five years of experience. It is, of course, because of the high compensation they get as team managers. But it also gives them the option to not code. So they will stop programming and improve themselves and they will focus more on assigning tasks to the team members. As a result, it slows technological advancement and limits the expansion of developer resources.
Solution
As a solution to the challenge, what should be done is that the team leads should also be involved in the programming tasks assigned to the team members. So that they can stay up to date about technological advancements and learn constantly to help out the team members in an effective way without being a waste as a developer resource.
5. Monotonous work routine
If programmers from India land a job of their interest at a company, they usually find themselves stuck in a tiring, task-oriented life with some unnecessary policies. It does nothing but hinder the growth of developers and kill their passion, making their jobs boring. It will seem to them that their job is just to complete the task set they were assigned, thereby completing the task easily at a minimum quality level.
Solution
Help the developers to find a way to find work-life balance to solve the problem of tiredness from the monotonous work routine. It can be done through proper time management and a sense of well being. If you help the employee to be able to do a little planning and take intentional actions, they can get through a long and hectic workday and have a stress free working environment. Thus, the developers can stay active and productive in their work.
6. Treated as a moving crowd
The programmers are considered a moving crowd at several companies in India. Even though they are given attractive salary packages at the time of hiring, the companies hesitate to give raises. They consider training the programmers in new technologies a dead investment as it will enable them to switch jobs. Even though training is provided, it will be highly specific to the tasks they have to do.
Because of this, existing developers typically do not have the opportunity to see the technology from all angles and tend to stay in their own little bubble. On the other hand, companies find it convenient to hire new developers who can handle new technologies rather than upgrade their existing employees.
Solution
It is a bigger challenge with the programmers from India. It can only be solved by the genuine efforts of the developers themselves to improve themselves. They should invest in improving their technical skills and explore more about new technologies by attending various training programmes. It will give them more job opportunities than getting stuck in a company without proper remuneration.
7. Inactive tech communities
In India, there are a number of tech communities, but the majority of them are inactive because of the lack of participation from the developers. The programmers from the country find excuses like not having time to learn and saying they are always under work pressure to not be a part of any tech community.
Solution
The problem can be fixed by the developers becoming more involved in these communities, which will hasten their learning and adoption of new technologies. It is important that they become involved in the communities with the utmost passion and enthusiasm.
8. No Open Source contributions
The Indian developer community is a failure when it comes to open source contributions. As you know, open source is a huge platform that allows them to tweak and improve their skills to match industry standards. But they don’t make use of it.
They seem to feel like it is something beyond their reach and standards. So even though they use open source libraries, they would simply copy and paste and wouldn’t bother to understand how it works. It prevents them from improving their coding standards.
Solution
The solution to this problem is to build a strong community that practises open source contributions. Otherwise, it will be hard to improve the quality of the code written by the coders from India.
9. Lack of effective communication
The developers from the country lack effective communication skills. Even some of the veteran developers are finding it difficult to convey their ideas effectively to others. They often believe that coding is enough and no other talk is required. But they do not understand that coding is only one aspect of the job and that it is essential to get the ideas systematically conveyed to other colleagues as well as the clients.
Solution
The problem of ineffective communication can be solved by developers making deliberate decisions to communicate clearly at all stages of the development process. Also, conduct proper team and client meetings where everyone actively participates, voicing their opinions and ideas without any hesitation.
10. Underutilised or overutilised
Because there is not a proper ecosystem in place to achieve the most desired industry standards, as was previously stated, companies only train them for specific tasks, and they are either underutilised or never used at all. It will halt the growth of the developers and their careers.
Solution
A proper ecosystem with active technology communities should be developed with the right growth mindset. The companies should promote such communities so that they can break out of the echo chambers they are in. It will help them to know their potential and work more efficiently.
So, the article discussed the top 10 challenges facing programmers from India. The country is full of talented developers. But there are some problems with them, like anywhere else in the world. The country has yet to reach its full potential in the IT industry. Many tech nerds are helping to advance the technological framework in the country.
Interesting Links:
Is India home to many unqualified software developers?
Why are a majority of Indian Programmers, bad coders?
Pictures: Canva
The author: Sascha Thattil works at Software-Developer-India.com which is a part of the YUHIRO Group. YUHIRO is a German-Indian enterprise which provides programmers to IT companies, agencies and IT departments.
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