- Whether to mention a pregnancy in a job interview
- A possible meeting protocol
- What are an end-user's responsibilities?
- Another take on opening PCs, or not
- Getting some process going
- Selling a more open environment to management
- Running an effective meeting
- Licensing rules for virtual machines
- The ROI of metrics
- Legal challenges to virtual machines
February 25, 2007 | Comments: (0)
More on offshore
My recent posting about offshoring ("Thoughts about the economics of offshoring," Advice Line, 2/19/2007) resulted in quite a few comments. Two common threads deserve a reply.
The first is the common complaint about job loss. It's a very real worry. It's also a worry with precious little evidence to support it. Employment in the United States is quite high at the moment, including employment in among IT professionals.
I have little doubt that IT employment, like employment in other sectors, has become more volatile than it used to be, and competition from offshore service providers certainly has contributed to this trend. My best advice is this: Expect to be laid off.
Plan your finances on the assumption that for every three months you are gainfully employed you'll be unemployed for another month. It's a pessimistic outlook that will have, as a useful side-effect, better finances when you retire.
The other set of comments were in response to my statement that we aren't shipping jobs offshore; rather, offshore companies are outcompeting onshore IT professionals for the work.
The commonly stated response is that they aren't outcompeting us. What they're doing is working for a fraction of what American workers are willing to accept, because they're willing to live in much simpler conditions than we are (conditions our grandparents or great-grandparents, would, I suspect, have taken for granted).
Well, yes, exactly. I imagine IBM and Compaq felt much the same way about Dell when it got started. It was willing to live with a simpler lifestyle - a leaner management structure and thinner margins. Before that, IBM had a beef with open systems, whose manufacturers were willing to live with a leaner management and thinner margins.
And, right now, many commercial software providers complain about open source software providers, who are willing to live with the leanest imaginable management structure (none) and exceptionally thin margins (none).
That's the nature of competition. Sometimes it's on price, sometimes on features, sometimes on quality, sometimes on convenience. Nothing about this changes, just because you're the product.
Want to sell your services at a good price? Stop complaining that your offshore competitors are willing to charge less than you are.
Instead, start thinking of yourself as a business. Take a clear-eyed view of the competitive landscape and figure out what you have to offer that your offshore competitors don't, that justifies the higher price you want to charge.
Once you can clearly articulate the answer, you'll be in an excellent position to receive the salary you want. If you can't, you'd better think harder, because "That's what I want to earn," just isn't compelling logic for an employer looking for the best value.
- Bob
Posted by Bob Lewis on February 25, 2007 07:40 AM
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- COMMENTS
when you're right you're right.
america just cannot afford americans
if it's going to stay #1 in whatever it's still
#1 in, like infant mortality, incarceration.
would a rickshaw driver's license help?
Bob Lewis said:
"Plan your finances on the assumption that for every three months you are gainfully employed you'll be unemployed for another month. It's a pessimistic outlook that will have, as a useful side-effect, better finances when you retire."
I understand the "pessimistic" disclaimer. Still, the idea that one should plan for a personal unemployment rate of 25 percent is something that makes IT look pretty unattractive, no? It almost sounds like a passive-aggressive way of saying, "Don't let the door hit your ASP on the way out."
In addition, the recent growth in "IT" employment has largely been about finance and accounting expanding their fiefdoms.
It's becoming common for larger companies to put a "technical pros need not apply" glass ceiling on their CIO position.
The crux of this resentment is easy to understand. Just as "if you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball,"... if you could pass all the calculus needed for your CS degree you obviously have the candlepower to perform pretty much any other position in the white-collar world.
You chose IT because you believed in making things work rather than chessboarding the creations of others (law/finance), and it seemed that you would be rewarded with compensation on par with what your peers in other business units were making.
But now, you're in one of the only professions where your own trade publications, your own management, are sticking you with a derogatory label. All together now: "You are a heads-down coder!"
Yes, insults like "bean counters" and "flacks" fly fast and furious around the coffee maker, but they're almost always made by rival business units. Only IT, which actually -makes- something, has internalized a negative label for its own staffers and even adopted it as a buzz phrase.
That's when you know your status is low. Quick: you meet a beautiful woman at a party. Would you rather tell her you're 1) in IT, or 2) a starving artist?
The writing's on the wall. Instead of preparing for permanent instability, cross-country moves, and unappreciated heroics, use your next layoff to study up for a job where you will get respect.
Posted by: Douglas Paul at February 26, 2007 05:39 PM|
Three books. Three ways to change the world, your life, or at least Bob Lewis' bank account. Leading IT: The Toughest Job in the World distills the world of IT leadership into eight learnable skills and gives you concrete, practical techniques for each one of them. Bare Bones Project Management: What you can't not do makes project management manageable, even for first-time project managers with no formal training in the discipline. ManagementSpeak: What managers say/What they mean … well, it won't help your career, and won't make you a better manager. Mostly, it will make you chuckle, guffaw, and maybe even chortle. Make friends - it's the perfect gift for anyone who has ever suffered through one of those meetings. Order your copies today! |
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