How not to get "offshored"

Even with taking the advice

Even with taking the advice you give in your article IT workers will still continue to experience offshoring and general outsourcing of their jobs for the following 2 reasons:

1. IT is not a core business function and is easier to outsource then any other non-core function besides food services and janitorial. Sometimes companies outsource even if it means paying more in fees if it might mean no pension of medical dependancy.
2. IT is easy to remove from the process during mergers. Usually its the easiest thing to remove. With all the mergers going on lately it makes sense to keep things thin for the eventual merger that may strike with little warning.

The fact that India and Mexico come to mind as attractive areas to hunt for an outsourcing firm is simply because they are currently cheap. As the standard of living increases in those countries you can bet the hungry capitalists will find greener pastures to find IT help in.

There is only 1 way for Mr. IT worker to get away from the risk of being replaced by someone from another country remotely. This is to leave the IT field and join another field. Unfortonatly they will need to use their own hard earned cash to get re-trained. I suggest accounting since the pay is nearly the same and companies will not easily offshore CPAs.

I decided to remain in IT but I beat the outsourcing pinch by finally deciding to look for work in the public sector. I found an IT Manager job working for a City and ever since the fear of offshoring or outsourcing has been minimal. I can control my destiny. My team is equally outsourced to consultants and insourced to city employees, this balance allows flexibility and stability all at once and seems to keep costs under control as well. People want to work there and enjoy the enviornment.

There is interesting work, a true mission that you can believe in, and no rich executives to get richer off your efforts.

It is not for everyone. There are no big bonuses and I am making half the salery I made 5 years ago.

If I last 24 more years I will be able to retire with a pension. That is far more then any privite sector IT management job (that I could attain with my BS degree and 15 years experience) would give me.

The biggest reason to stay where I am is that I don't need to worry about cheap labor from India or wherever taking my job. I don't have to compete with people that don't speak english and will work for 30% of my pay because their countries currancy is worthless. Why is this? Many public sector organizations require specific residency standards and have strong employee associations or unions that prevent offshoring. It is unlikely to change anytime soon.

So, basiclly, my feeling is that you can have my old private sector job. Good lucky with it, I'm sure my old IT customers will treat you even worse since your just a voice on the phone. They sure did not value IT workers or the secruity of their data, if they did, they would never have offshored it all. So, good luck to you. In the end you may find that being an offshore IT worker is not as enjoyable and meaningful as you thought it could be. You are the end product of devaluation of a career choice.

People, I'm from a country

People,

I'm from a country that is taking advantage of the offshore process, and I think, the fight is not country against country, it's professional against professional...
In my carrer I worked with same americans, ones really good profesionals, others, not so good, others.... really, really bad.
I do agree with Rajeev... US is taking advantage of all the 3er. countries around the world... and it's being doing that for A LONG TIME... and It's OK... It's capitalism and we are all in the same game. So, please, what are you complaining about?? Instead, try to adapt yourself to the new situation without complaning about Chine, India, Latin American countries, etc. etc.

The outsourcing equation is

The outsourcing equation is quite simple, and people in a capitalist country should not complain. I don't see too many people complain about manufacturing jobs being sent to China at a much more higher rate than IT jobs to India. Is it because you can buy cheap clothes and appliances at Walmart for a half of what you used to pay? You are happy to buy a Dell laptop for as little as 500 bucks, but at the same time you complain about Dell's outsourcing policy. So the consumer in you is pleased with outsourcing, but the employee complains vehemently. Give it a thought guys...

After reading the articles,

After reading the articles, blogs and references, it appears the notion of outsourcing and finding 'safe havens' don't take into account that most of the safe haven industries are going under heavy consolidation. I think consolidation is the number one IT 'un-employer' in the US.

Most of my employment contracts stated 40 hours a week. I average between 80 to 115 hours a week because of my drive and interest in research, etc. I can't believe people pay me for what I love to do. I can't accept a paycheck unless I know I've contributed in some way to return at least 100 to 1000 times or more in revenue to the company.

I have no idea what the person who mentioned coffee breaks is talking about. They must be fed a line of propaganda. Hopefully, the sources of propaganda will help with the use of the English language, spelling, etc. I remember a senior IBM executive at the United Nations recently stating they fired off a quick e-mail response because they were in a hurry between plane flights only to find out this email was her introduction to the board of directors. So, even now, I'm worried about typos, grammar, etc and wish we all had better skills so it is easier to communicate.

The rest of this article is more about semantics than syntax.

According to those in software engineering areas, I remain one of the world's top prolific software engineers/programmers (without coding errors) even after doing it for 30 years this coming September. All solutions are delivered with 100 percent quality, 70 percent functionality (no user has ever given 100 percent requirements up front) and 0 defects. All hosted solutiosn are deployed centrally with the caveat that if an error is introduced in a live environment, by counting to 15 and trying again, the problem will be resolved. Any language and only the best secured data design and integration. Any database tuning and any data format or encryption. Any business situation.

While schooled and re-schooled and self-taught and training-the-trainers in software engineering, emerging software technologies, distributed software, open source, collaborative subscriber services and business distribution channels, I just consider myself the untiring artist. An artist that paints in any language, situation or industry. An artist that increases productivity and removes waste, that refuses to offer software to those firms that will cut employees rather than take employees that work hard and show up everyday along with them to enjoy their increases in business volume.

And... an artist that is sick of the machines, or so called certificate mills, that: Teach marketing messages but not how to integrate. Teach screens for some product, but not the protocols that make it happen. Teach candidates to put Internet Information Server on their resumes but not teach them what a web server is or how to administrate it.

Artist seek the truth, and don't hire [rare but not that uncommon] liars whether the come from the 'certificate mills' with no experience or they come from India with bloated resumes that can't explain anything about the business they supposedly automated.

So I do not fear the hordes of SAP programmers (think of how many successfully deployed SAP or Peopleware solutions are out there) and thousands of other consultants and job applicants that I have reviewed from India or anywhere else. I only wish those coming over actually were positioned with useable skills. Knowing a fraction of 1/4 of a percent of an SAP project is just not experience. Not knowing the business model that was automated, not knowing the project management challenges faced and how they overcome, is not experience.

What everyone should fear instead is the system in America where so called schools provide "dead certificates" - Novell, Windows NT workstation, Windows NT server, etc as they con Americans and Foreigners alike to get loaded in student loans and leave their establishments unhirable.

I remember there once was a Grumman Data Institure that had a program that taught business systems analysis, took the student through (now dated) programming languages like BAL/360 Assembler, COBOL, RPG and basic. However the graduates left with the ability to get hired into business environments.

As for the original article, thank you. Neither side of the ocean should fear the other. Both should read the articles and the successful ones will bridge the fears that were mentioned in the previous responses and my point of view as well.

Since 2000, I have created new mechanisms for the coming digital age (who thought we were really there yet) and glad to see five years later Google and others starting to pick on it. The 'implementation' of this research proves that it saves jobs and creates additional jobs (including over 60 interns at just one location over the past five summers). For those interested in IT and business and gaming and animation software development, it's our responsibility to provide the training grounds. I just want it to be cost effective and also able to provide starting jobs at multiples of the minimum wage so people get a fair start and learn how to contribute.

If you've been around, find a way to give back. Never give up. Remember, innovation saved the American economy again, and although Google is leaning too much to the Wall St mentality (why, why would it ever buy a piece of AOL unless it was to keep other competitors away).

In the mid-1980's, I coined and helped define the Solutions Architect role and trained many to understand the depth and breadth required to perform at that level. To guarantee the solutions delivered, rather than just that a schedule was kept by a program manager. To communicate the financial stakeholder's requirements enterprise-wide (and to all vendors, even those not on your project), rather than just management consultant insightful ROI projections to a limited audience. Like programming it was painting a business rather than painting a program as part of a broader picture.

During that time, many multi-national companies wanted to create their own business or corporate solution architects for assistance with their thousands of software programmers in other countries through acquisition and expansion (it wasn't outsourcing at that time). The road to India, Vietnam, Phillipines, China is two way. We have to learn about each other's cultures and be respectful. It's business. It can be great business.

So no matter what side of the 'ponds' is yours, its a global community and its sad that someone has to wait until aliens show up before the masses understand we're here together.

Let's make art!

Similar to what the 'Hindu'

Similar to what the 'Hindu' coder has to say. Outsourcing/offshoring is a strategic move to reduce the ineffective and inefficient flab in the organisations. The non-Hindu coders put a lot of time and energy in their coffee breaks and do not know what does high quality product is. Its not just the cost but the quality which is making the difference. After all, who would like to pay fat paychecks who is surviving while writing codes which even he/she cannot understand on a second look. Compare the quality and then one would realise. Last but not the least its the sheer dedication and the willingness to hard work which gives this. Not because I cannot code today.... today is a ball game.
With about 30% college drop-out rates, things will be more out-sourced than staying here.

Hi, Though few idiots put

Hi,

Though few idiots put some bad comments about hindu and all, i totally agree what you say.

But let me tell you the truth, the coders are awafully bad in coding and the major thing is they charge the amount which is 1/20 th of what so called hindu charged.

Hope this will clear some filthy minds.

a Hindu coder

Rather than take the

Rather than take the 'Republican' approach (question integrity, intelligence, integrity, honesty of your opponent -then wrap yourself in the flag), I'll try a more pragmatic approach. You're right! However, you forgot to suggest being multi-lingual.
Management needs SOMEONE that can carry an intelligent conversation with the hired help in bjalla-bjalla, Indo-somewheria.
And, with-a-little-luck: The person that knows the WHOLE picture will rise to replace the short-sighted management that looked at ONLY the short-term least-expensive solution to pad their current-year bonus.
By-The-way: Is Visual C++ (or .NET) coding possible in Chinese?