A Programming is technical, designing is technical. Is that where the technical ladder stops? Read on and decide for yourself.

Tech Ladder in India – is it real or unreal? Most people in India think that the tech ladder does not exist here. On the contrary, it is a reality in India and it’s just a myth that it exists only in California. Why should it be otherwise, especially when local markets are on a level playing field in the new globalized world economy? Why should it be otherwise, when India is the cooking pot for the software required by the whole world? The result is the cloning of wants and needs of technology professionals played out across geographies irrespective of borders.

Tech Ladder a Myth ?
Andrew Griffith, Manager-Human Resources, Global Development Center, Cisco Systems points out “Tech people can be the influencer of change rather than the controller of change vis-à-vis the management ladder.” The fundamental difference between the technical and management ladders is that the technical ladder is one of influence and the management ladder ‘of control’. Hence some think that the technical ladder does not exist as the management ladder is seen as one up over the technical ladder seemingly putting the former in the driver’s seat.

Pawan Goyal, Director of Engineering, Veritas Software India says, “This thinking is further strengthened by the fact that the other industries in India don’t have a role model for a technical ladder.”

Many people seem to agree that the pure tech ladder does not exist at all because one has to do a lot of customer interaction and selling as one goes higher up the technical ladder – hence a perception is that there is no pure technical ladder. There are even many Indian companies that believe in this concept. But actually customer-interfacing activities need not necessarily kill technology. L Gopalakrishnan, Director, Platform Technologies Group, Oracle India Development Center concurs, “ Some people believe that the pure technical ladder exists only in California which is actually a myth.”