I had to google it too. I think it’s like at my old job, we had a couple offshore places where we sent busy work, or work they could do while we were sleeping.
Did you ever stop to think that the work you do used to be done by a first year IB analyst or research associate in the U.S. and those jobs are now fewer and farther between? I’m sure the college grads in this country that want to get into finance, but are stuck in jobs that don’t technically require a degree, would have a hard time showing any sympathy for you. There are a lot of them. I know, they send me resumes constantly.
By the way, being a first year anything–first year lawyer, first year accountant, and first year research associate–sucks. The truth is, your position is a perpetual first year position. Accept that and adjust your expectations accordingly.
vicky, welcome to the famed world of 1st/2nd year analysts and/or interns (depending on the shop, 1st year associates, too). At least, you’re not getting yelled at in front of a 100 other faces on the floor.
This is actually the reason why a lot of analysts/associates leave the field, but this is exactly how the structure is designed… to weed out the noise. People who survive have higher probability of climbing the ladder.
A lot of shops are losing a lot of revenue and are finding ways to cut costs. That’s where folks like you come into play. It’s good for the outsourcers since they don’t actually have to show you on the books. Sadly, for you guys, there is no ladder to climb.
^ For that to occur it will have to be shown that the workers can deliver at least three times the value over the current labor pricing of 1/3 what it is over here.
Based on the fact that my phone calls to outsourced operations take at least four times what they would if I was on the horn with a local, I’d say that’s a ways off.
^ my former employer also had South American outsourcing offices in addition to India. It was much easier to work with them. I’m sure some of that was due to no major time difference, but the language barrier was far lower. They spoke much better english and as a result I didn’t have to explain things 3 different ways for them to get it, which unfortunately is how things normally went with the indian office.
Since we had an annual objective of how many billable hours were outsourced, we sent as many black hole/time wasting projects as possible, regardless of the actual usefulness to us.
^ really? The south american office spoke better english than indian office?
Pretty much all the non-essential/manual labour is given to our indian offices. I don’t think anyone really trusts them with anything important, given how often they screw up the easier tasks. Oh, and they can’t be found when there’s a problem they created. Go figure. In a way, you get what you pay for.
I guess that’s why the brightest indians go to the states.
For people that don’t get what’s happening here, a background:
In the past decade+, investment banks have started to offshore SOME research, banking, or other “front office” roles to an India company that matches workers in India for the type of work needed. Example: what may have been an equity research team in the US of 1 senior analyst, and 3 associates, today may be 1 senior, 2 associates, 1 person in India. the Indian person will typically have an MBA, have some finance experience, or passed CFA exams, and is usually given repetitive work or mechanical things that are found in every job and just needs someone to do it, but the banks have realized why bother paying someone in the US $80k to do, when someone in India can do it for less than half. The theory is that this frees up the US folks out of these repetitive tasks and to focus on more revenue generating activities, and of course, the Indian worker is far cheaper. obviously, this does reduce the number of entry finance positions in the US
I’ve had 3 folks out of India before. 1 was really good kept him aroudn for 2 years, 1 was pretty terrible. it’s pretty easy to switch to another person though if you’re not happy. But saving money is the MO these days, so expect this offshoring to continue
Outsourced workers are a mixed bag of nuts. I think depending on which function you’re doing I would see it differently. I work with two teams based in India. One are programmers and the others do reconciliation. The programmers are really good and hardworkers. Sometimes it is difficult to get them on the same page though (because they’re so technical and/or the language barrier) The reconciliation team is kind of a running joke.
Its a bit painful when you say this, but reality is that thats the truth. The only way Vicky is for you to build TRUST with your clients. They pay money, so they have all the rights to be rude and No they are not rude because you are from X Y or Z country. They are rude because we messed up the work. Business is all qbout pressure, our mistakes could cost them dearly (generally such critical works are not being done by us though)! Good luck, bottom line is work your &&& off and gain the trust of your clients
And most importantly own up mistakes if its yours. Easiest way to build trust is not making mistakes of course, but if you do make it - own it up and say I did it!
The path to economic convergence is painful, in any era.
When the United States was an emerging market in the 1800’s, we did not have live news feeds or television on demand to show us how badly our lives sucked compared to some rare pockets of wealth in the world. You just did your job, avoided tuberculosis, hope your kids outlived you and that was that.
Today, young ambitious bucks from the developing world have access to cheap devices to see, in living color, how “awesome” it must be to be a hamburger wrapper-throwing, wine-guzzling, $100-bill-burning capitalist. The psychological effects of seeing the other side more clearly than at any other point in history provides the illusion to these people in the developing world that, because it exists so clearly and easily in another part of the world, that their countries should just be able to bypass a century of economic, infrastructural, political and cultural development.
It is so funny to me that those who condemn the West most heavily are the easiest to succumb to Westernization.
