Like many hi-tech firms, my company is starting to outsource some works to Indian. The next project I am going to work on will have half of the engineers located in Indian. None of us is particularly fond of working those the Indians. It is not because of their English, we can sort of understand what they say. It is not because of their skills, some of them are brilliant but the rest is just what you pay is what you get.

The problem is the world is not flat, literally. There is a 12 hours time difference between Vancouver and Bangalore. The normal working hour of both side do not overlap. Email is not a very effective communication tool, especially when it involves discussions. The turn around time is too long. We must have teleconference to get both side on the same page when trying to solve some technical problems. I have two options, either having the meeting at 8a.m. in the morning or 8p.m. in the evening. Both options are not very desirable. It seems I don’t have much choice, I have to work with the Indians to get things done. I would rather fly over to India for a week then having 8a.m. meeting everyday for a week.