Posted on 08/04/2004 3:09:37 PM PDT by Willie Green
NEW DELHI: Currently, there is a great demand of hi-tech IT jobs in the US. The Reason, however, is obvious. The country has lost thousands of technical jobs to India, as a result of which unemployment is rising amongst the American youth.
According to sources, joblessness has nearly doubled in the last three years, while the number of Americans calling themselves IT professionals has decreased by nearly 160,000.
In typical doublespeak, even the US government has agreed that the tech jobs are not likely to stay onshore, despite the growth in demand....
(Excerpt) Read more at economictimes.indiatimes.com ...
Well, at least they got the reason correct. It's cheaper.
So much for the "Information Economy"
I'm in IT, have been for 8 years. 2000-2002 was a pretty rough stretch, but the job market has picked up in Dallas and I am now working for more money than I ever made before. I am still receiving 2-3 calls per week of eomploers and agencies trying to fill jobs... in fact, I turned down an interview with Microsoft just last week.
What kind of systems do you work on?
Are you writing software or maintaining systems?
The above link shows, among other things, a 20 year IT effort for India's first domestically-produced battle tank has had large amounts of trouble, delays, and cost overruns.
But hey, the labor for all of those hours was "cheap!"
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
Willie's just helping Kerry out here a bit.
I'm a network admin. I'm also going to college to become a programmer.
I've been in IT around the same amount of time, and haven't had an issue either. I do know that I've had to remain a moving target, swapping specialties whenever prudent. One cannot just have an MCP and assume employment for life.
There is no shortage of IT jobs for those that are technically competent, up-to-date with their skills, and flexible with location.
Have any of you guys noticed the incredible lust for certifications that has transpired since the bottom fell out of the tech industry a few years ago? Seems no one cares about practical experience and know how, just how many certifications do you have. I do have Cisco cert by the way, but I have run across some folks that have the almighty certifications that couldn't route or troubleshoot their way out of a paper bag.
The whole idea of "certifications" is a relatively recent phenomenon, which would answer why it's growing. I suspect that hiring people with such things is the easy way out for personnel folks.
I don't really have to put up with certs, because I write embedded software, and there really aren't any certs for that.
Perhaps embedded "C" software doesn't count as "IT", but my background goes back to Cobol and banking software that certainly now constitutes "IT".
LOL, they aren't hiding behind the productivity argument anymore. Guess all the grilling has shown them they can't hide.
Employers who look only for certifications are going to get burned big time, too. Everyone knows people whose primary expertise is taking tests. Engineering school faculties are packed with them. I don't even want that kind of job. What's the 1/2 life of one of these certs, a year? It's not worth the bother.
Not true here in NY/NJ/CT. I can write you a book about the IT field and how it has collapsed. I jumped out and now and doing something else. Good luck to you! Network Security is the place to migrate.
The certifications mania grows out of the CMM, CMMI and PMI mindsets that have KPAs for certifications and qualifications. Since it is a buyer market they can get away with it for now.
I had to look at you post with amazement. It's funny how competence has been replaced by this crap. But, it has been coming for quite awhile. I usually stay way clear of job posting that list these first as a requirement without qualification, and yes have a number of them but by themselves they are worthless.
Refer to the "flexible with location" clause above. ;-)
You're right about the network security thing. That and identity management are just starting to be treated in a thorough manner. Consistancy will come later.
I just got hired after 14 mos. of uncompensated un/under employment. It feels really good.
"Currently, there is a great demand of hi-tech IT jobs in the US."
Not true, can't find any EZTRIEVE work. That's still hi tech isn't it?
Well, I'm not too sure about the "hi". The mainframe is slowly evolving into a multi-million dollar data store. Not that there's anything wrong with that...
If you follow this sort of thing, you already know that most of the jobs that are being created are low-level, commodity "grunt" positions (ie. programming). Dime a dozen. If you want to protect yourself from the axe, get a solid grounding in software engineering disciplines (Project Management, Software Analysis/Design, SQA Mgr) that aren't easily offshored.
If it isn't easily offshored, it'll be undermined by flooding the market with immigration.
Oh, yes. I program JAVA for a living. I'm also a Certified Java Programmer. The language trivia covered on the test is not relevant to 98% of what I actually do on a daily basis (sometimes I feel more like a sysop than a developer). Don't get me wrong, you WILL reinforce some good skills when studying for these programming certs, but from my perspective that doesn't necessarily correlate much with the job skills you actually need in a typical IT environment.
As for the Indian phenomenon -- let's just say my place is trying that experiment now. Let's also just say that it's a mixed bag at best. Oh, management loves it because we've now got guys doing 350 hours a month for peanuts! Of course, we haven't actually seen much in the way of useful code out of all that effort, and our lead developer (a better programmer than I could ever be in my dreams) is teetering on the edge of a breakdown from all the hours he's putting in trying to ride herd on these people and fix their crap, but they are cheap, no doubt about that.
I have the CCNA, as well as AIX System Support, AIX System Administration, and MCSE. I also have a business degree and a sales background. I think my employer likes having a technical person who can still operate in sales mode, so to speak. I have friends, though, who once they managed an MCP, or a CCNA, just assumed they would always be in demand. Cert's are kinda stupid, but if the company pays, I'll collect them. I'm thinking of getting an MBA, to round things out a little, in case I decide to switch to the dark side and pursue management.
Jeezus Green. Is this the best you can do? Post some poorly translated foreign web site to prove how you hate corporate/capitalist America and Dubya? Phfthhh!!!!
Clicking on the indiatimes.com link to the article brought home a very nasty virus. Don't know what yet, but that computer is fubar.
There are more IT jobs now available to Americans,at higher pay,right now,than there have been in the past 3 years!
No matter what, we're all screwed. At all times. There's nothing we can do. We might as well give up. What's the point? We should just slash our wrists. There's no hope. We're dead. We're totally screwed, blued, and tattooed. We cannot compete. There's no hope. We have no future. Woe is us. It's never going to get better. How can we have any hope? Look at how things are going. We've gone from the frying pan into the fire. There's nothing left to do. It's all over but the shouting. Why bother? The fat lady sang. We're all almost dead. There can be no improvement. Our lives are over. It's finished. We tried. We failed. It's pointless. Who cares anyway? It's totally ruined. Why bother? Who can do any better? No one. Our lives are sad and pitiful. There's nothing anyone can do about it. We'll probably get started and mess it up. They're all out to get us. We'll be sabotoged. It cannot work. The fat is in the fire. We thought we could win but we can't. Let's all just give up. Surrender. There is no other option.
My hope is that this India thing will pass and companies will slink back to hiring US workers. There is nothing more faddish than upper management. Hell, they'd all jump off a bridge if one of them did, provided someone had told them it would save a few bucks or 'bump their numbers' for a quarter (or whenever their bonus numbers are calculated).
I think outsourcing to India will bite them in the butt a few years down the road in terms of company value and a quality product, if they have the foresight to ever look ahead that far.
Same with NC. I think they are listing network installation/maintenance (which actually requires a warm body) with software development, which is outsourcable.
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