Being a software developer in India vs Canada
Have you ever wonder, how other software developers are spending their day in developing country(India) vs developed country (US/Canada)?
I know you always want to have on-site opportunity if you are working in India (I was also one of them). I successfully make that happen after sheer amount of hard-work, devotion and luck.
I was beginner, intermediate, senior developer and technical lead in 8 years of journey while I was in India and this experience helped me immensely to get a first job as senior developer in Canada within 2 months of arrival.
But there are differences for being as developer based on my experience. I am not considering pay scale differences which is very well known. All I am here is to talk about working style.
- Work Type : Mostly support/fixing bugs in India Vs Developing new features in Canada
Being senior developer and technical leads in India, I spend very little time writing entire new feature from scratch. It was hardly 15–20% of my working hour per year spend on developing new feature (It include whole software development lifecycle).
In a year I spend 80% of my working hour per year spend on developing new features.
2. Dependency : A day time work conclude on next day in India vs same day merge in Canada
While working in India, Many times I spend more than a week to get my work as done because of approval from onsite coordinator or product owner or conflict with other feature/fix or requirement misunderstanding.
While working in Canada, My work gets approve or resolve conflict in a less than a day.
3. Break Time : 3 – 4 breaks per day in India vs a break in Canada
I know many of you spend lots of time playing on table tennis or pool or visiting outside tea stall. It is normal.
1st break at 10 AM (avg. 25 mins): After arriving in office for morning breakfast with team member or friend you made after joining company.
2nd break at 1PM: Lunch (avg. 45 mins) + walk (avg. 15 mins) : After having lunch walk is common exercise we prefer.
3rd break at 4:30PM: Evening Tea/Snacks (avg. 25 mins) : Relaxing break to call it the day and
4th break anytime between day based on availability of common resources like foosball, table-tennis and pool table (avg 20 mins) : extra activities while working to keep mind focus during work.
In comparison to that there is only single break of 30 - 40 mins for lunch in Canada.
On average, I spent 2–3 hours for relaxing 8 hours of work and end up stretching 11–12 hours in office vs 30mins of a break.
If you’re serious about taking your life to the next level and utilize best time of yours try to minimize break and stick to office work hours to achieve your task. This will help you to devote your valuable time to learn new technology, spending time with family or what’s next in life. Because time is limited entity, folks.