[chapliboy]

I interviewed for Zerodha a few years ago. They really did have quite an easy going attitude. Their tech team is really well shielded from the rest of the organisation and the CEO and CTO both recognise the value of this.

It was one of two roles on my final shortlist, but I ended up going with the other option.

I still love the fact that there is an Indian tech team that is really mainstream with such a unique outlook on development methodology.

[mise_en_place]

Out of curiosity what is the Indian tech scene like? Is it a full 996 style of work, or somewhere in between that and US, EU.

[icy]

It’s bit of both. The newer companies (startups mostly) are quite like US/EU companies—if not better in some cases. Excellent pay, great benefits etc.

The older, more established “MNCs” (think Adobe, AMD, Intel, Goldman Sachs) are slightly more rigid but not too bad.

The worst offenders are the services companies—Accenture, Infosys, TCS, the likes. They’re the sweatshops: terrible working hours, terrible culture (or lack thereof), shit pay.

But yes, as another commenter says, there are exceptions to everything.

[fellellor]

Calling TCS a sweatshop is pretty crazy. There are office politics you will run into if you are a high performer, or even working hard to rise through the ranks. Other than that it's a pretty chill place. Your mind will eventually rot with no relevant work experience though. So definitely not 996, but not a great place either.

Anyway the amount of generalisation in both the question and your quite incorrect answer is pretty funny.

[callmekatootie]

It varies - usually product oriented companies have a good work life balance - comparable to that of US and EU. Service oriented companies are sweat shops through and through. There are exceptions on both sides.

[chapliboy]

I can only speak from personal experience (and second hand I guess).

There is close to no 996 really. Most Indian tech startups are trying to emulate the FAANG style of work, both good and bad. So that means officially there is an 8 hour a day expectation, but in practice, there is a lot of cultural pressure to work more, stay at office longer, work on Saturdays etc. But even with that, I don't think I would compare that to 996.

My first job was a fairly early stage startup, and all of us were really young and rearing to go. So there was a group of us that did a 995 for about a year, but it was just a small group, and a lot of it was boardgames after 7pm.

My second one was a later stage startup. They were far more "professional". Nobody worked extra hours because no one cared enough to. So that got a little boring after a while.

Larger companies tend to have more sane working hours. But cultural pressures vary by the company.

My view on Zerodha itself, through the onsite visit I had, was that the hours would be fairly sane, maybe a few saturdays here and there. But there was also a huge social aspect that they highlighted, which was after-hours activities in the office premises, which comes with a certain amount of pressure to attend.

[nonamechicken]

Some one posted this in /r/developersindia today: https://old.reddit.com/r/developersIndia/comments/vrtk3z/we_...