My professional field is dominated by Indians. Is this good or bad?

[VetLegion]

if you face "true" competition from India, ie you provide "only" the same value as they can, you have lost, and better find a new field... but I bet you can provide a lot more so there is hope yet, despite of price disadvantage

I can't provide more really, at least looking at CVs that are public on LinkedIn.
Many of these guys have lots and lots of expertise. Perhaps I'd have an edge
in a company that hired along racial lines, but I would not want to work for such
a company.

It's not that I'm complaining... I refused a pretty good offer last week. I'm being
a bit picky.

[VetLegion]

like accountant, psychologist, lawyer etc... you are a member of a profession...

I am surprised to hear that they do not exist in India as such though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profession

They do not exist here either, in a sense that they would grant one a distinct legal
status. So I'm not really getting what aneeshm is trying to say.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

professions for sure exist in Croatia, if you want to be a nurse, you need to get in with "Hrvatska Komora Medicinskih Sestara" and full fill the requirements to be able to join, same for psychology, law, architecture and so on... if anything being a "professional" has more stringent requirements in Croatia than in the west...

I am not arguing that this in itself is good, as IMO, in that respect Croatia is often too strict... or has too many requirements, some almost ridiculous, but we certainly have professions ; I would be suprised though that none exist in India.

also, if you cannot provide more, I am not sure who is hiring you and why , if they have an easy and cheaper alternative...

edit: but in general for remote support work/development, getting hires do what you expect from eastern europe is easier, especially if you need more complex work to be done.

[VetLegion]

You can be an architect without joining the chamber. Very few professions
legally require chamber membership... although the number is growing.

Obligatory chambers are a German thing which we unfortunately imported. All
they do is stifle competition and raise prices. If there are no such things in
India, then aneeshm should be happy that it is so.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

well - I disagree here, they provide a minimum level of competence checked by third party.

How well this is done, it is another issue, but it is very important that they exist, as otherwise any idiot could pretend to be a "professional" scam people and so on, which happens often otherwise... how about to going to just about any car mechanic, esp in UK ... I like to go to garages there too, except that this is not legally required... so this is a proactive measurement, which is really good for some more important activities than repairing a car... one of the good regulatory measurements that exist.

[VetLegion]

Nonono... you completely misunderstood why these things exist. They exist
solely to create barriers to entry so that competition would not undermine
prices. This is true even for doctors.

Every profession tries to prevent competition. This is natural and not a problem
in itself. What is bad however, is when they manage to lobby the lawmakers
to enshrine those barriers in law.

Whenever, and I literally mean whenever, you hear that someone is licensed or
certified by the government, you can be sure that it's a scheme to take more of
your money.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

there are two sides to every story, and this is one of the side effects, but still well worth the value of their contribution.

Thinking solely on money terms, professionals are a lot of the middle class of modern societies, and they are not pricing themselves out of the reach... it is not in their interest either. In this case such barriers, or "minimum level of competence" checks are good.

Do you want a 10$ per hour doctor operating your spine? No - I didn't think you'd like that ...

Or even better, you can have one, but he will not be a member of the profession, which should be telling you something.

[VetLegion]

I can find a good doctor in the market via the reputation mechanism. I don't
need the state to guarantee quality. Even today when it supposedly does
that, people commonly ask around for which doctors are good, they don't
just go to the first random one.

[DanS]

Whenever, and I literally mean whenever, you hear that someone is licensed or
certified by the government, you can be sure that it's a scheme to take more of
your money.

You're a wise man, VetLegion.

[KrazyHorse]

Licensing adds (on average) something like 10-20% to the price of labor. It's unionization for non-government professionals.

[KrazyHorse]

I should start lobbying that we create stringent license requirements for quants. We will grandfather in those who already have jobs, but new entrants wil have to have a PhD from an accredited mathematical finance program. After this, they will enter their 5 year residency program under the direct supervision of an attending quant. Can't be too careful when trying to prevent another financial crisis.

[DaShi]

How many years must they first serve in the marines?

[KrazyHorse]

Marines are automatically excluded.

[giblets]

I should start lobbying that we create stringent license requirements for quants. We will grandfather in those who already have jobs, but new entrants wil have to have a PhD from an accredited mathematical finance program. After this, they will enter their 5 year residency program under the direct supervision of an attending quant. Can't be too careful when trying to prevent another financial crisis.

Do doctors get away with this in other countries?

[Kuciwalker]

Licensing adds (on average) something like 10-20% to the price of labor. It's unionization for non-government professionals.