Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

This article has some predictions about technology (and other sector) jobs moving out of the states and to foreign soil.

This has become a hot topic where I currently work. We already have a "team in India" that we contract quite a bit of work out to. And several places that I have worked in the last 4-5 years have had at least some tertiary involvement with outside contractors that were not based in the states.

While this is a little disconcerting for a Java developer such as myself, I am honestly not all that alarmed. Even when the linked article shows over 100K jobs moving abroad, I still dont panic.

The reason is that I consider this to be the free market and a fair system. If companies CAN get what I do done at a much cheaper cost overseas and doing so helps those companies succeed than so be it. I think that is easier said in concept than done, but again, more power to them if it can be done. How many UAW workers do you hear professing that?

I think that employees need to protect THEMSELVES rather than have the government or some silly union try to do it for them. What I mean is adapt and dont become replaceable. My job involves more than just typing in code, it involves architecture and original thinking, thats where I think I am at least partially set apart. I think it will be VERY hard to separate design and architecture and outsource it, unless of course entire ventures are outsourced and even then they are oft dictated by a design.

I think that an employee has to demonstrate to a company why they need to be there and to be a part, if they cant, then their jobs should be, and will be, in jeopardy. Its just the free market at work.

Also, as to technology jobs, I think people will in the long run learn that "you get what you pay for" is true. I dont think 100K jobs are leaving because I dont think you can manage that successfully and get the quality results that companies will require. With software development this becomes extremely important. It doesnt just have to work, it has to work well and it has to be maintainable and extensible going forward.

Companies will likely get some stuff done abroad but for the most part I think jobs that require actual thinking and or that put at least some emphasis on quality will not be lost (and this is not a jab at the quality of foreign software work, its a realistic look at managing ANYTHING from a distance of continental miles, it can be done, but not as well as with better contact, not to mention communication issues).

For more see the linked article.