Indian techies in South Korea expose fat salary lie

Anand Sharma is one of the many software engineers from India who came to South Korea dreaming of big money and early rise in career but who are now desperate to return home. Sharma, a 32-year-old software engineer, belongs to Madhya Pradesh.

Dreaming of better job prospects and huge earnings, he had come to Seoul six months back. Today, however, he is an unhappy man watching his dreams crumble before his eyes. His salary, which he thought was handsome when he accepted the job offer, is not sufficient to sustain a decent lifestyle in Seoul, one of Asia’s few ‘First World cities’. Needless to say, savings are well-nigh impossible.

Many other engineers from India find themselves in the same plight as Sharma. They, too, had come to South Korea in search of better career prospects but are finding it tough surviving on their salaries. Most engineers, in fact, are not willing to extend their stay here beyond one year, the minimum contract period. This is so despite the fact that South Korean companies are keen to employ Indian engineers and are willing to pay them salaries that are impressive by Indian standards.

“I came to Seoul eight months back,” said Brijesh Bollar, a software engineer from Mumbai. “But now that I have worked here for some time, I am disillusioned as I do not find here the kind of growth I was expecting.”

Bollar said work conditions in Seoul were tough with very little growth visible for the first year or two. “Indian engineers are paid far less than their foreign and Korean counterparts,” he said.  South Korea has a large number of software companies looking for electronics and I-T engineers. The companies are in the business of software and games for cellphones and other electronic gadgets.  

They place advertisements in Indian newspapers for software engineers and hire them through recruitment agents. The average salary offered by these companies is Rs80,000 per month or more, depending on the applicant’s experience in the relevant field.  However, those who’ve bitten the bait say they’re far from happy with their jobs. “Seoul is a very expensive city,” said Sharma “That aside, food, accommodation and language are major problems.”

Sharma said most companies did not provide food or accommodation, but left you to fend for yourself. “It is a very expensive proposition,” he said. “There are virtually no savings at the end of the day.”

The engineers are expected to work long hours and the conditions in South Korea are nowhere as good as those in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. “We have to work almost 12 hours a day,” said Neil, an engineer working in Seoul. “It is tolerable but it hurts when you realise that you are paid less than South Korean engineers or those from other countries. It does not matter that you are no less qualified than the engineers of the favoured nationalities.”

Besides the discrimination in salary, the high cost of living in South Korea is the other reason why no Indian wants to settle here. “Education is very expensive here,” said an Indian businessman who has been staying in Seoul for the last two decades. “Even local people think twice before having a child.” 

The businessman said educating a child in an English-medium school costs around Rs10 lakh per annum. “Even house rents are very high,” he said on condition of anonymity.

Kamala Roy has been living in Seoul for nearly 16 years. “I have seen many Indian youths who came here with high expectations but soon realised that the city was not for them,” she said. “Some youths left during the global recession.”

LG and Samsung are the major South Korean multinationals who have extensive business operations even in their country of origin. The two MNCs are the main companies hiring engineers from India. The companies pay an average salary of Rs80,000 per month with one year’s extendable contract. The Indian community in Seoul is very small despite the fact that local companies are keen to hire Indian engineers. But some Indian have been living here for many years, perhaps because they are at top posts in the businesses that employ them.

Some names have been changed to protect identity.