E-commerce companies are not only setting trends in terms of innovation but are now shelling out big money in acquiring brains that innovate. HR reports confirm that e-commerce companies are paying mid-level project managers more than what they could earn in a senior profile in technology companies. Taking a look at the figures, the gap is only widening every year.
TCS and Infosys pay around 70 lakhs to 1.5 crore annual salary to top level managers such as Vice Presidents and Chief Marketing Officers having an average experience of 18-20 years in the industry while mid-level managers are paid around Rs. 15 lakh to 25 lakh annual salary.
On the other hand, taking the likes such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon, the annual salary for the mid-level executives range from Rs. 50 lakh to Rs.1.5 crores for an experience in the IT field of more than 10 years. The top level executives are paid Rs.1.5 crore to Rs.3 crore, which is probably in multiples to what the big technology companies such as IBM, TCS etc offer.
E-commerce companies are not only generous in their pay cheques but also are known for being extremely flexible in terms of working. It’s because of them that we now hear reverse brain drain, wherein the E-commerce giants have managed to lure top level Indian executives from the Silicon Valley.
Reasoning out the wide gap in the pay structure between the e-commerce companies and traditional IT companies, “The kind of people ecommerce (firms) are looking for are not easily available in the service based IT sector. They are looking for people mostly from product-based companies, and are willing to pay more for people working on new technology and tools because these people are scarce resources”, says HR manager Alka Dingra.
The improvised skill sets such as data analysis, data structuring are much in demand and programming languages and user interface such as Python, Hadoop, DevOpsis being used extensively but since this kind of human resources pool is hard to find, hence the hike in salaries.
Anuraag Gupta of a HR company called Magna Infotech points out, “Ecommerce companies have very small core teams, and the kind of people they need are very different from the IT services companies. They would not in the long run create an army of coders, testers, etc., and may eventually outsource work to the IT service sector, keeping the core technology team small.”
Keeping yourself updated with the industry patterns can help you land a job in these e-commerce companies as the Indian digital market is expected to grow at 33% this financial year, as reported by IMAI (Internet & Mobile Association Of India). The Ecommerce market in India is currently pegged to cross $16 billion in this year alone. The rise in IT services is not going to slow down anytime soon and keeping abreast of all developments is the key to survival for aspiring engineers.
If they paid these guys a little less, the cost of my goods would go down…. just a thought….