If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys

[anthonyk]

Odd as it may sound, India is also pricing itself out of the outsourcing market. Most US companies are looking elsewhere, like the Philippines. Egypt was starting to get popular, but folks are a bit hesitant to put anything there these days.

China's starting to get bigger, but it's even harder to find good English speakers there.

As for the US educational system, I can't imagine even 3 out 100 college grads being able to do the most basic phone or email support in another language. It's hard enough to find some that can speak proper English. I still have nightmares of opening a support center in Dallas. Sheesh.

[fatbuckRTO]

I don't have any first-hand knowledge of Indian undergrads, but some senior level engineering classes count as graduate level courses too. The Indian grad students in my classes cheated their way through every test. Bold, overt cheating.

Part of a our graduation requirement was a design project that spanned our senior year. As part of one of their graduate level classes, two of those grad students were assigned to handle a related facet of the project my team was working on. They showed up once during the entire school year. So far as I know they never worked on their own project again.

[OneSickPsycho]

Originally Posted by anthonyk

Odd as it may sound, India is also pricing itself out of the outsourcing market. Most US companies are looking elsewhere, like the Philippines. Egypt was starting to get popular, but folks are a bit hesitant to put anything there these days.

China's starting to get bigger, but it's even harder to find good English speakers there.

As for the US educational system, I can't imagine even 3 out 100 college grads being able to do the most basic phone or email support in another language. It's hard enough to find some that can speak proper English. I still have nightmares of opening a support center in Dallas. Sheesh.

I talked to that guy once when calling about my student loans.

[Homeslice]

whose hobby is international travel. But when probed by the interviewer, he conceded, "Until now I have not traveled."

[Particle Man]

Originally Posted by OneSickPsycho

I talked to that guy once when calling about my student loans.

"Thank you for calling, my name is John"

yeah, right.

[anthonyk]

True, I'd much rather hear, "Thank you for calling, my name is Hardshit."

[EtyrnuSS]

This is coming from someone who works in a call center:

[Papa_Complex]

Sounds like educational standards dropped, in order to take financial advantage of a business boom. Pretty much the same thing happened here, back in the 1980s, with the PC tech boom. Everyone and his brother decided that they wanted to be in electronics, whether or not they had any native ability. It really screwed over people like me, who messed around with electronics since getting their first Radio Shack 101-in-One kit, for their 8th Christmas.

[tallywacker]

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex

Sounds like educational standards dropped, in order to take financial advantage of a business boom. Pretty much the same thing happened here, back in the 1980s, with the PC tech boom. Everyone and his brother decided that they wanted to be in electronics, whether or not they had any native ability. It really screwed over people like me, who messed around with electronics since getting their first Radio Shack 101-in-One kit, for their 8th Christmas.

I had the same kit

[Homeslice]

I think that article is exaggerating things a bit, claiming how only the cream of the crop get hired at a call center. Turnover rates at Indian call centers are pretty high. They used to be considered a decent job for a college grad...........But now that India's economy has grown, those jobs are just considered stepping stones for 2nd-tier graduates who weren't good enough to get something better. So they'll put 6-9 months in, and then leave.