Why I Outsource Offshore

Friday, July 18, 2003 | Me

[FoxPro]

Why I Outsource Offshore

Friday, July 18, 2003

When the planes hit the World Trade Center, I was sitting in my cozy sunroom home office. Living in Fairfax County Virginia, we actually heard the plane that hit the Pentagon fly very low overhead. We knew something else was going to get hit. Then we actually heard and felt the explosion. The next minute my son and I were outside in the street looking up into the sky. We didn’t know what to expect.

I didn’t know that my life had radically changed that day; I knew the country had, that was quite apparent. But the downward spiral I was about to take wasn’t going to be pretty.

I remember telling my sons pre 9/11 about the phone calls I would get from headhunters, at least once a day. I would tell my kids’ that was real job security, having skills that were readily needed in the marketplace. I actually made $16,000 in about a day, tracking down a bug in a major government computer system. I remember working on another system on my laptop aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean (the cruise ships had just gotten email capabilities, and my client had no idea where I was, and didn’t care). Talk about working from home! We all probably all have many great memories of the good times.

The week after 9/11, nobody returned my phone calls. I had a couple of contracts with a very large city government. We couldn’t even get into the building. Of course I later found out that the city was much more interested in detecting anthrax and acquiring and placing cement barriers than the work I was doing for them, tracking the maintenance of the cities trees and processing abandon vehicles left on the city streets. I was instantly unemployed. It was the end of an era.

It was time to send out some resumes, nothing, time to get out the Rolodex and tap into my “old boy network”, nothing. A month goes by, then two. I remember going to the local shoe retailer, because they had a sign posted looking for a store manager. I showed the current manager my resume, and he told me not to bother applying, they knew I would be gone the instant I got another tech job. Time to send out thousands of resumes, all over the world, nothing. Several months pass. I tap into my homes equity to pay the mortgage, sort of like chewing your own arm off. All my friends are doing likewise. We talk with each other, it deadens the boredom and pain, misery loves company.

Ok, so I am going to re-tool, so I buy some on-line coursework to learn Oracle 9i. I start digging in 8 hours a day, going through the coursework; I hate every second of it.

I actually started reading articles about offshore outsourcing here on freerepublic.com. I was upset by this as most people were. I had lost my wife by then, and it is apparent that the house that I had planned to play with my grandkids in will be gone soon also. I am at my low point.

Just through dumb luck, a complete stranger calls me up one day, and tells me he ran into my resume, and was impressed with my background. He tells me that over the last year, he has cobbled together a team of programmers in Moscow that can write computer systems in just about any language. He tells me they are quite good, and I believe him because I have worked with Russian programmers before. The he told me one thing that would change my career goals forever. The Russians will write computer systems, Including Oracle systems for as little as $15 per hour. In other words, I am beating my brains out to learn a computer database system that can be done elsewhere in the world for about the same price as is paid to a cahier at the local grocery store. This changes everything. I rewrite my rather lengthy resume.

I cobble together a list of email addresses of headhunters and other companies from several job boards. The title I put on my resume is “Offshore Outsourcing Project Manager”. In my resume under the skills section I put the rather lengthy list of technical skills the Russians posses. The list includes just about every major computer system I have ever come across. It is the ultimate resume. I mail out a few hundred. I don’t have to wait for long.

The next day, the phone rings. Another telemarketing call, I am thinking. The man on the other end of the line tells me he is looking at my resume. He starts explaining a project he needs accomplished, actually two projects. I have no idea what he is talking about. And I can tell he is getting frustrated. He tells me that he is going to email me his address, and I should show up the next day at 1 PM. I am excited yet confused. I don’t sleep well that night.

I am ushered into a boardroom a little after one the next day. I didn’t eat lunch, partially because I really don’t have much money, and I am a little dizzy (lost 30 pounds through the last 12 months). They start explaining the projects to me, three guys, a marker board and me for 3 hours. The last hour I am just sitting there with my mouth hanging open. I am starting to get what they want, two computer systems for arguably the largest retail chain in the world. They are massive undertakings using cutting edge technology, and it is obvious it will take dozens of programmers and other specialists (maybe more). Then they tell me how much they want to pay for all of this, and it isn’t much. But it beats the heck out of what I made in the last 6 months, which was nothing. At this point I am only thinking that I want to just get something going, anything. I just want something to do, any form of cash flow, to make some contacts and get the hell out of my house once in a while.

I instant messaged the Russians the next morning. They couldn’t believe whom the project was for or the massive scope of the undertaking. I had my Visio thing going most of the night, and I had some pretty dead on flow charts of what was explained to me, which I emailed to them. They started sending over some very impressive examples of XML scripts based on my previous nights work and the hours of conversations we had. The client liked it all. They were impressed. I could not believe what I was getting into.

We all signed the clients NDA’s, and wrangled over some small details in our various contracts. We put together a scope of work, and set a timeline with invoiceable milestones in MS Project (the Russians are very good at this also). My project leads wife had a baby, and we all send each other pictures of our kids. Weeks pass in preparation. I am starting to get to know these guys, and they work together as a precise seamless team (woman are not allowed in there office building). They work late into the night (5 PM EST is 1 AM Moscow time). The client is happy, we are busy and I can’t provide any further details for legal reasons. Suffice it to say your mother/sister/wife will probably use this system at a store near you within the next few months. And I get to point to it and say, “I did that”. I didn’t make much money off of it, but it sure beat sitting at home all day playing computer games.

A little information on the team:

They don’t speak English, but they read and write it well. In the late 80s the Russian defense industries essentially imploded, and a lot of very intelligent people were left jobless (sounds familiar). It was at about this time the Internet came into its own (well email initially). They started getting possession of US computer systems documentation. Many of them learned English by mastering these systems. It took them several years to do this. Thousands of hours of hard work and study. They are very good technical writers and write proposals and documentation like no others that I have seen. They are very productive, and are slowly getting rich (by there standards). I have never met any of them personally, but look forward to doing so someday. I do enjoy working with them. They are slowly becoming good friends.

In conclusion:

Am I taking jobs from Americans, yes, do I feel bad about this, yes, do I have any other choice other than waiting tables, no.

Should I mop floors to keep an American in a cubicle, I will let you decide.

[Lion in Winter]

Mr. Bannon, you see they do not care if some Americans are out of work just as long as it is NOT they who have no job.

Simply law of the jungle there, old boy.

Too bad there are many conservatives who are junglesque "savage beasts" on this F.R. site.

Ah, too bad. How depressing?

Good luck old man in your search for gainful employment.

Wish I could offer you something.

[Lion in Winter]

Just as I suspected, you make a living from this outsourcing... why, of course, you support it.

[meatloaf]

There's a bigger picture than just cheaper labor. I talked to a state bridge engineer a few days ago and he mentioned something in passing that stuck. "We can't build the infrastructure in the present that we did in the past." The cost of doing things in the US has risen from other things and not just unions or high priced professional salaries.

It's not going to be pretty.

[mo]

Prices are going down over here-for most everything but housing. Nothing you buy this year in Walmart is as expensive as it was 8-10 years ago. The point is that given the tax and regulatory burden an American taxpayer is required to support-a dollar spent offshore by business is better spent. This is precisely why all industry and business is leaving and why those of us trying to compete against an international community are handicapped.

[Ramius]

Sorry Race. I understand the frustration but I haven't yet heard from you how you would fix it. If we can't compete with the world it remains OUR problem not theirs and not the fault of the consumer, wherever they may be, domestic or otherwise.

As far as the USCG is concerned, since you must be talking about the Aerospaciale H65 Dolphin, which American helicopter company makes a competive product, again?

This might be a good time to bring up: In order to get the contract, Aerospaciale was forced to put GE engines in the helo. This compromised the power, and created huge reliability issues. It's sorta like saying we'll buy a bunch of jaguars, but we want GM V8's in them. Sure it can be made to work but it will sacrifice reliability and performance. Maintenance issues are out of this world.

Furthermore... is the american taxpayer then required to pay more for helicopters in order to "buy american" at any price? Gee... thanks... as a taxpayer that pays enough to support a whole platoon of marines I'm really really grateful.

[FoxPro]

Each time we allow technological jobs to leave our shore we strengthen our economic enemies?

Excellent post! Actually, I could argue this issue fervently either way. What does that mean. Am I frigin schizophrenic?

[RaceBannon]

Good Grief, it is not about high wages or anything like that!!

While we can whine about losing our high paying job, the problem is that we are losing the ability to produce!!

The machines necessary to make things are moving to China!! The replacement costs of new machines is prohibitive unless you have a market for it, only if you cannot make it cheaper than a slave can, you have no market!!

What product am I going to make that cannot be reverse engineered by a geek with a set of verniers and a tape measure and calipers and shadowgraph?? Even if I did design somehting unique, since we handed the technology of machine tools and the methods to produce to these slave labor countries, my new product will only exist in competitive form in this country for no more than 3 years. Once it makes it overseas, and is recognized as a commodity that grreedy westerners will buy, it will be copied and mass produced for pennies on the dollar, and we GAVE THEM the means to do so!! They didnt develop it!! They didnt design it!! They didnt spend the money necessary to finalize the design or methods, they just copied what they saw or outright bought the machines that the originating company used to make this product!!

Goodness! People are so stupid!! We are handing away the store on this stuff, the technology we are giving away is not just intellectual, it is a the physical machines we used to make widgets, buttons, fabrics, filters, oils, sheet metal, (did you know that? Even the simple sheet metal bending industries are losing work to China?? The simple press brake is going to disappear because a SLAVE can learn how to bend metal just as well!!)

This is why I scream at this: Most people who are the free trade cheerleaders must have never worked in manufacturing in their life. They have no clue as to what is happening to us!!

[RockyMtnMan]

We are giving away the means to ruin our country and we are calling it FREE TRADE!!

All true capitalists should know nothing is FREE.

[RaceBannon]

I would suggest the Kaman SH-2, one that is already in the US Navy inventory, is small enough to fit on Cutters, and has a proven track record AND IS MADE IN AMERICA!!

[William Terrell]

It would be like this, I think.

When an assortment of states, like our 50 for instance, hold legal sway over a central government, like the fed for instance, a party seeking to take that union over and remake it would have to conquer and occupy each of those 50 states.

With a central government holding sovereign will over its member states, all such a party would have to do is take over the central government. Works the same on a global scale.

A global sovereignty, with all resources under a Hydraulic Empire, would be so much worse, we would lose the meaning of "bad". Power brings out the evil in men's hearts.

I'd just as soon give up any pleasant aspects of global sovereignty to avoid that one bad one. Man has not been able to govern himself for millennia, but to have him not be able to govern himself globally rises the stakes much too high.

[PuNcH]

So we should do what they do? Is that the answer?

I dont think you understood. There is NO free trade! Can I make that anymore clear? You support a communist govt and it's slave labor practices. YOU DO WHAT THEY DO.

The US Constitution is not comparable to communist china. Protecting American society does not equal socialism.

On these threads what the constitution calls for is considered socialism while sweat shops and slave labor competing directly with our high taxed and regulated society is considered "free trade".

[RockyMtnMan]

Wait until China learns all our manufacturing secrets and is responsible for all intellectual capital and new development efforts. At that point China will give Corporate America (tm) the boot and compete with them directly at a far reduced rate. Then the corporations will be screaming, protect us it's unfair.

[palmer]

Freedom isn't free. Remember that when you buy your cheap Chinese made TV.

[RockyMtnMan]

You're pinging the wrong team. My point was Free Trade is a sham the Chinese and Indians are getting a much better deal than a 20% discount on TV's.

[FoxPro]

What is the REAL reason your wife left you?

It wasent because of the money situation totally, and you know that. That helped no doubt. I wish her well....Sort of.

[Ramius]

While we can whine about losing our high paying job, the problem is that we are losing the ability to produce!!

You know, Race, I think maybe we don't disagree by very much. I agree that we're losing our ability to manufacture in a way that is competitive with the rest of the world. There are lots of reasons. Some of them rest on unions, some of them rest on regulation.

I don't happen to think, though, that we should place blame on the consumer. Consumers must make decisions based on cost-effectiveness and little else.

[buccaneer81]

I thought it was a kitten?

That's if you use your left hand ;-)

[Lion in Winter]

OH, my!

Do you mean they will actually build the bridges in Singapore, for example and just haul it over for installation?

Isn't that just amazing!

I am positively in awe. Of course, that will save billions in labor costs.

Just one small detail, however. Where will they find the plane big enough to fly it into place?

Merely curious, Mr. Meatloaf. */:^ )

[Ramius]

OK... so what WOULD you do? How do you fix it?

[palmer]

Sorry, you sounded like a "capitalist", but I guess that's the label you were giving them.