Now, explain to me, please - why would any U.S. student go to the trouble and expense of getting a Master's degree in a technical field when there is no demand?
But if we don't develop people with such expertise, what is to become of America - militarily, economically - in the next few years?
Are our children and grandchildren all to servants to Chinese and Indian overlords? That's where we're heading.
If you want on or off my offshoring ping list, please FReepmail me!
This is part of the employment picture that doesn't get enough attention, IMHO. It's not just outsourcing that's hurt folks in tech, but the H-1Bers and the L-1ers as well.
When I was going to school to get my CCNA, my college had an entire program specifically tailored to help H-1B types get further certifications. Upon learning of it, I thought why the hell even bother trying to educate myself further, if the freakin' college itself is cutting my throat with one hand, while taking my tuition check with the other?
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
OMG! The poor man, having to associate with the dregs of society! /sarcasm
These kinds of anecdotal stories are interesting, but indicate nothing other than the fact that there is turmoil and change in the business world. So when has this ever been any different?
What happened to the employees of the candle-makers, the buggy-whip companies, and the astrologers? Oh, wait, they're still here, but in fewer numbers.
"Life is difficult" - The first line in the book 'The Road Less Traveled' by Scott M. Peck.
Suggested new headline: "College techie discovers world doesn't owe him a living."
Laid off in 2001, started my own company aimed at small companies who did not have an IT staff. Got bought out (maybe I sold a little too quickly). Sold new vehicles for about a year, and now back in IT with a vengeance.
Up and down. Isn't that how it's always worked?
$710.96.. The price of freedom.
."There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore," Carly Fiorina, chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co., declared earlier this year. "We have to compete for jobs."
Notice Carly still has a job? What do you want to bet that Carly is talking about you and me and not Carly.
its interesting, during the boom years there were so many people jumping on the bandwagon and frankly earning far more than they were really worth based on what they were producing. you can have all sorts of technical skills and knowledge but if you cant make useful things and sell them and make money then you arent in business. when the crash came, so many incompetent people lost their jobs. people like me didnt. i wasnt the smartest or the best technically: i just made good products in a decent timeframe and people paid for them. simple.
from the experience with my current organisation, foreign outsourcing (to india in this case) isnt the best solution to every problem, its only certain kinds of work that is worth farming out to them and there is substantial local skills and jobs needed to help run these projects as well.
the fact is, if the people who were working all around me several years back in the good times were actually delivering value for money to their clients and customers then we wouldnt be in this situation. information technology failed business in a general sense (though many still are in denial about it) and this is the result. IT is only there to support business and our other endevours. we should never make the mistake of thinking we are more important than the people our technology enables.
When I read horror stories like these, I again thank God I'm a federal government employee. We're not getting rich, but at least we've got job security and pretty good benefits, including a fully-funded pension program and the best health care program around -- and the latter is included in our retirement package. Every time I read stories like this, I know I made the right decision when I started my government career over 20 years ago.
I was watching This Old House on pbs yesterday (no doubt a re-run), and they showed a glass manufacturing plant in Wisconson. Uses a couple of train cars full of sand every day. Very very automated (I think I saw two control rooms). Makes TWELVE MILES of wide glass a day! I saw fewer than 20 employees (this is a guess). I'm trying to say that I think automation is also a big factor in the loss of manufacturing jobs in America, as well as outsourcing.
First, my question to you - should all career decisions be based on current or future market/employment predictions? If a person has talent and loves a certain field, why not study that field (or be a double major)?
Another argument (for tech) would be that maybe NOW, in a maybe down market, is the perfect time to set-up for the next tech hiring cycle. Everybody "knows" all the tech jobs are going to India. Everybody been wrong before.
Boycott companies that farm out customer service as much as you can.AOL and Ritz camera are a couple of them.
Boy, this article really hits home.
Being unemployed for a long time, a man soon finds out how closely his self-esteem and status in the community is tied to what he used to do for a living.
I just thank God that I have a wife with skills in the medical field who is willing to support us.
We're not so bad off as some. Our house and cars are paid for, and we have medical insurance (although it takes a full third of my wife's pay). So we can go on "just getting by" indefinitely.
But it's a real shock having nothing fun to look forward to except old age.
Corporations cannot by themselves just waltz into another country and set up business. It takes the hated "government interference" to make it possible. It takes the hated "government interference" to protect against risk doing business "over there." They don't call Ex-Im Bank Boeing Bank for no reason. Then there's OPIC and other types of hated "government interference." The good kind of "government interference."
IMO this is more than jobs chasing cheap labor. It's the Third Way. It's Kyoto-lite, redistribution of wealth that lets corporations profit instead of forced redistribution of wealth to the third world.
This is post-America. Leftist tranzis, "free" traders, multi-national capitalists, leftists, rightists have all moved beyond being Americans. As long as there are enough young, patriotic Americans to enlist and fight to protect them they will continue to loot America and profit -- oh, and BTW, those young Americans have no right to a job when they return from war.
Let's have fair trade, not "free" trade driven by ideology and government interference (the "good" kind). Our decades-old trade with Europe is free trade. Let developing countries prove their comparative advantages, first by eliminating corruption and tyranny.
I used to work as an IT contractor, good pay, but the periods between contracts have been farther and farther apart.
Now I'm in the process of incorporating my history website (which has been a valuable Internet resource for 6 years) into a non-profit foundation with 501c(3) status. Hopefully this will get the ball rolling again. It will mean biting the bullet for a while until we can receive grants.
While working on this, I have also gone back to my dream of writing novels.
I get discouraged sometimes, but I don't believe that G-D closes one door without opening another.
If we have to compete evenly, ala Carley, they level the playing field.
Until I see some action on that, like Miss Fiorna taking a strong stand for individual rights and an end to such pernicous practices as madated affirmative action I will need to continue boycotting HP products.
Wonder if he bought any IBM stock while employed with them.