Recruiting Engineers from Asia - A Recruiter’s Perspective

My background
Started career with Wipro in the start-up stage
Founded Nexus, the first technology recruiting firm in India at
Bangalore in 1990
Helped Cadence, Motorola, Lucent, SAP, Hughes and others recruit
Asian engineers in the ‘90s for their offshore centers and on-site
positions
Moved to US as a part of the founding team of e4e, a fund devoted
to investing in companies with offshore delivery business model.
Helped recruit executive teams for portfolio companies and build
offshore delivery centers
Set up Global Executive Talent in 2004 as a specialist
transformational talent search firm working with Valley firms to
identify and on-board leadership talent in engineering, sales etc. in
countries like India

SV firms: Journey this far….
80’s recruitment from US campus and through Body
Shoppers
90’s saw the emergence of offshore centers
00’s led to geographically distributed engineering teams
Today and Tomorrow will be about “Glocalization”
Confidential

How do SV firms assess foreign engineers…
Assessment process has moved from Indirect to Direct….
Local assessment
Closer view on the ground through internships, contests, programs
Engagement with top schools across the globe
Cadre of hiring managers who are from similar background
Mature in-country certifications : NASSCOM’s NAS-Tech for entry level
engineers
Verification agencies to vet qualifications
Future : US Universities setting up offshore campuses

Recruitment standards moving up…
Would we hire this person if he was US
qualified?

Recruiting Experience this far with India….(Positives)
Diversity of skills
Domain expertise: Banking, Capital Markets, Insurance,
Telecom…
Some “hard to find” skills
Team dynamics (smaller companies)
Mobility
Role flexibility
Confidential

Recruiting Experience this far with India…
(Challenges)
Lack of design skills
Non-availability of marketing, product management talent
Product vs. Project mind-set
Unrealistic expectations
Communication gaps
Culture mismatch
Confidential

How do SV firms recruit foreign engineers?
Large firms
Joint development with large offshore services companies
Acquisition of companies with large large pool of foreign engineers
Local engineering centers
Direct campus recruitment
Hiring through temp firms
Mid-size firms
BOT model
Direct presence in one select location
Start-ups
Incubation centers within Engineering schools
“Foreign leadership” as a part of the founding team
Confidential

The largest providers: India and China - Comparison
INDIA China
Positives
Positives
Significant learning over the
Growing on similar lines : SV
past two decades
connection, tech. campus,
Manpower export is a big part
Chinese immigrants
of the GDP - Govt. support
Attitude
Availability of leadership talent
Reasonable expectation
Negatives
Negatives
Competing domestic companies
Crowded talent market with
ever increasing competition
Lack of trained engineers
Retention: a big headache
Mobility??
Ever rising costs
Recruiting ecosystem
Security
Leadership talent
Infrastructure

Unanswered questions….
Who is a foreign engineer?
The effect of reverse brain drain - Are we prepared?
‘09 onwards……..
Beginning of a TRANSFORMATION PHASE for SV firms?
Confidential

Thank You
www.globalexecutivetalent.com