As onsite assignments decline, home’s the new world for techies

Software engineer Hisham (name changed to protect identity) was sent by Wipro on a two-year assignment to work ‘onsite’ at a client’s facility in France but was unexpectedly recalled 18 months into the stint.

He resigned from Wipro and joined a European firm because his Indian salary wasn’t enough to repay the loans he had taken based on the expectation that the lucrative onsite assignment would run its full course and there would be more to come.

“For many of us, who had taken loans back home and dreamt of a better lifestyle, things have come to a halt,” said the 28-year old, who is among the thousands of software workers for whom the ‘onsite dream’ is ending.

The promise of working onsite and being paid three or four times the India wage used to be a major draw for those looking to work at IT outsourcing companies. But that attraction is waning as developed markets such as the US and Europe reach saturation and companies move more work offshore to India. “Overseas work opportunities are not happening in the same proportion as earlier of the IT sector population,” said Akhilesh Tuteja, partner and head of the technology practice at consulting firm KPMG.

In the early days of the IT industry, the obsession to work at a client location was driven in part by the possibility of enabling a much better lifestyle in India. The IT dream grew with young engineers returning from onsite to buy a new house, a bigger car, and better living conditions.

“IT companies are becoming much larger so your chances of getting an overseas posting are that much lesser.” said Tuteja, observing that the difficulty in obtaining work visas in the US, increased local hiring and cost-cutting by companies are other reasons for the reduction in onsite assignments.

Infosys, India’s second-largest software provider, has been reducing the number of people it deploys at client facilities in the US and Europe, according to employees. The move is seen as part of chairman NR Narayana Murthy’s attempt to cut costs and improve profit margins after nearly two years of under performance.

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