Help with work

January 16, 2007 2:14 AM

What advice would you have for a young american looking for work in India?
posted by vapidave to Work & Money (5 answers total)

don't do it. there are enough people in india that are in dire need of the income. unless you want to volunteer and then i'd contact oxfam through their website.
posted by taff at 2:22 AM on January 16, 2007

Helping with the pronunciation of call center staff as an in-house ESL teacher is a niche market that foreigners are in demand for.
posted by Meatbomb at 2:35 AM on January 16, 2007

Education/experience/skills? Big difference if you're looking for professional vs. casual labour. Also what visa status were you intending to use? Do you have a visa? Have you ever visited India? If so, for how long?

Also, have you ever lived outside the US? Not taken a holiday, but lived for a year or more? There are well documented issues with cultural separation that long term ex-pats have to deal with.

Finally, and this is perhaps most important - have you ever lived in The Developing World? That would probably be the biggest hurdle to get over. Some folks just can't accept the poverty / suffering / cultural differences that are on full display to those living in a Developing Nation. It's all very diffferent on holiday.
posted by Mutant at 3:28 AM on January 16, 2007

Work for an IT consulting firm (Cognizant, Wipro, Sapient, etc.)

They will send you over there sooner than you can say aloo chana chaat.
posted by cmicali at 6:31 AM on January 16, 2007

There was an article in the Guardian or the Times about Britons of Indian descent returning to India. I got the impression from the article that there is an emerging market for middle class consumers (in the right cities of course). Since it is an emerging market there are opportunities.
posted by jouke at 9:30 AM on January 16, 2007