Offshore yourself: Making the move to New Delhi

New Delhi, in the 20-million-strong Delhi capital region of India, is a city of extremes, with the best of the best and the worst of the worst, says Brian Barnes, vice president of technology at American Express. “As an experience, it is only as good as the support you get from the company and the people you work with,” says Barnes.

[ UseInfoWorld’s interactive map to learn about 12 hot cities and 6 regions you should consider for tech jobs abroad.  Learn more about India and its other tech hot spot, Bangalore. ]

What’s hot: When it comes to tech jobs, New Delhi and the greater Delhi region are about technology consulting and systems integration. The skill sets needed are project management, high-end analytics, an understanding of credit and risk models, and critical system integration.

U.S.and multinational tech companies: Unlike Bangalore, New Delhi does not attract the high-tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Oracle that are doing software and product development. Nor is it the locale for the major outsourcing providers. Instead, because New Delhi is more about tech consulting and systems integration, you will find companies like American Express, GEPact, Prudential, and RMSI centered here to support analytics and other back-end products. “It’s more of a systems-type approach,” Barnes says.

Red tape: You can’t just come as a tourist and expect to get a job; a work permit is required. But getting one is trivial. Still, the paperwork will be easier if you can say you are filling a specific position for a named company. Permits can be submitted by the applicant to the Indian embassy in his home country, by an Indian company offering a position or as an intra-company transfer by an employee of a foreign company who needs to be transferred to an Indian branch. Immediate family members are permitted to join the applicant while living in India.

Language: The language of business in India is English. Those on a work permit are not expected to know any of the dozens of local languages and dialects such as Hindi, Punjabi and Tamil.

Financials: With the cost of living taken into account, jobs in New Delhi pay the same as jobs in the U.S. “You’re not really going to gain financially, but you won’t lose,” Barnes says. He indicates the reason to come to New Delhi is not to make a lot of money but to benefit from the experience and personal growth.

For example, New Delhi has the second highest housing costs in the world, second to Manhattan. “Most people will be shocked at the prices of housing,” Barnes says. To figure out local pricing, Barnes has developed a rule of thumb: Raw materials and natural resources — such as labor, cotton, rice, beans, vegetables, and fruit — cost 25 percent of what you pay in the U.S. Minimally processed goods cost about 75 percent to 100 percent of the same item in the U.S., whereas highly processed goods cost anywhere from 125 percent to 200 percent as much. For example, a car costs twice as much.

A two-bedroom furnished apartment goes for about $1,290 per month. A loaf of bread is only 41 cents, a Coke 76 cents, a beer 82 cents, a cell phone $82, and a pair of men’s shoes $46. But if you want imported American junk food, the prices go sky high: Special K cereal will run $8 a box, and a small bag of Doritos will run $5.50.

Family: The family support system in New Delhi is very good. There is a strong American ex-pat community around the U.S. embassy, with an excellent embassy school available. “There are also a lot of after-school activities,” Barnes says, noting that his six-year-old daughter plays in a local soccer league.

Also, because it is the capital, New Delhi has some of the best hospitals and doctors in all of India, Barnes says.

Daily life and culture: “Nothing we did in our life prepared us for New Delhi,” Barnes says. It is noisy and chaotic. Many people are governed by their Hindu beliefs. For example, if you ask a street vendor to wash the glass he gives you he might just give it a wipe — many people don’t believe getting sick is a matter of transmitting germs but rather is a matter of faith and karma.

Of India’s cities, New Delhi is probably the closest to a Western city in India, with a better infrastructure in terms of living conditions and transportation than others. New Delhi also has the largest nightclub in the country.