We could look at the Chinese vs. Indian from another perspective

Just my personal experience.

I have hired two Chinese and an Indian in our team in my current position. They all reported to me. I noticed a big difference between them.

The Indian understood the company culture in USA really well. If he was not quite clean on things, he immediately asked me. We worked with another bigger team closely. If the other team members asked him to do things that was not minor that could be done in 20 minutes and had minor effects on the system, he would talk to me first to see if we have enough resources. He understood the concept of the team, were fully aware of the fact that our team was loaded with work as well and we must finished our committed stories first. He understood the procedures. To be fair, he also tried to promote himself. It is normal, he just wanted to have a better career. He did it in an professional manner.

Here was what happened to one Chinese. First, he didn't ask even when he didn't understand the system well, and went there to make changes directly without thinking about the effects on the whole system. Second, he didn't follow the procedure. Once the bigger team asked him to make changes, it was like an order to him. He was worried that he would look bad if he didn't. He tried to impress the other team's lead. No surprise, he made two big mistakes in production systems. I had to talk to him twice, making sure that he must follow the procedure. If he followed, I would protect him even if he made mistake. If he didn't, I almost said it explicitly that I would kick him out for his next big mistake by myself no matter how other people liked him.

The other chinese also had the similar problem of not following the procedures, to a less degree. He was older than me and had more years of working experience. Probably due to this fact, he was reluctant to report to me. He went directly to proposing his "fantastic" ideas to our VP, to whom I report, several times without talking to me at all. He also tried to impress the bigger team's lead. To be objective, he is a good engineer, but his understanding on technologies in our fields are sort of outdated and not deep either. It is funny that they told me these in our lead meetings and made fun of his being unprofessional and his politics. I just pretended i hadn't know it and laughed it off as a joke. Deep inside, I felt really sorry for our fellow Chinese.

This is only my limited experience. I wouldn't make any conclusions. I can only say, till now, it is a much better experience to work with Indian, instead of our fellow Chinese, in our team.

所有跟帖： 

• Can you tell them how you fell face to face.BTW, most people thi -孤独求爱- ♂ (0 bytes) () 05/19/2010 postreply 02:43:43

• 回复：Can you tell them how you fell face to face.BTW, most people -孤独求爱- ♂ (162 bytes) () 05/19/2010 postreply 02:45:09

• It depends. -ffppyy- ♂ (993 bytes) () 05/19/2010 postreply 08:57:04

• I still respect you even if you had hard time with other Chinese -吃糖？- ♂ (75 bytes) () 05/19/2010 postreply 11:14:58

• I really appreciate the time that you spent on your subordinate. -tcn- ♀ (217 bytes) () 05/19/2010 postreply 11:26:36

• Thanks for sharing your experience. Learned a lot ! The most imp -tcn- ♀ (556 bytes) () 05/19/2010 postreply 07:07:02

• Good luck for your job hunting. -ffppyy- ♂ (335 bytes) () 05/19/2010 postreply 09:02:37

• true -吃糖？- ♂ (0 bytes) () 05/19/2010 postreply 11:16:29

• Thanks and I will remember that. -tcn- ♀ (0 bytes) () 05/19/2010 postreply 11:40:52

• 回复：Good luck for your job hunting. -goodluck2010- ♀ (236 bytes) () 05/19/2010 postreply 11:48:01

• 尤其珍贵的是你以一个领导的角度，来看手下。并在这里列出好的例子和坏的例子 -tcn- ♀ (100 bytes) () 05/19/2010 postreply 07:19:35