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.

[Cyber Liberty]

I just hope that when my day comes, I'll be as resourceful as the fox.

[Willie Green]

do I have any other choice other than waiting tables, no.

Same lame excuse offered by generations of prostitutes as they spread venereal disease throughout the community.

[FoxPro]

Why not outsource management?

I have thought of that before. I asked that of an executive at a large tire company recently. The meeting ended very quickly (I could tell they were just pumping me for information on off shoring, and I would never make a dime off of them).

[meadsjn]

Thanks for your story. I have a few questions but should send them through freepmail.

[jocon307]

"I'm beginning to wonder what real security looks like, and if it was only a temporary, post-WWII phenomenon that began to die in the 1970s. To survive, we are all going to have to get tougher, faster, smarter, and bolder. Bitching about all the little yellow people who will work for less than us is probably a big waste of time."

I think you are mostly right in this. Think of how insecure most people in the world are today, and always were throughout history. Not just economically, but in every way. Everyone loves to remember the great old days of the agrarian economy, which was actually a lot of praying for rain (but not too much, and not at the wrong time), and back-breaking labor. We rather spoiled boomer and later Americans are certainly going to have to get tougher, I mean we are pretty fast, smart & bold, but we seem to be turning into a nation of wimps. I don't mean anyone on these boards, but in society in general.

The liberal establishment seems to want this to happen in the worst way (all possible puns intended). "No dodgeball, it's too mean" is just about the most perfect example of the whole body and soul ruining mindset I can give. The media's recent spotlight on some unhappy enlistees in Iraq is another. I'm sure those guys are p*ssed and want to come home, who could blame them? But I certainly hope they are punished for speaking against their commading officers to the press over such self-indulgent concerns. I'm starting to doubt we could beat the Nazis today, and that is a frightening thought. You are right, we shouldn't worry about the third-worlders who want to work really hard for cheap, but we do still have to worry about the ones who want to continue to slaughter us.

I am now going to reveal my theory about the past 50-60 years of American domestic labor, which some may find offensive, or controversial. I think what killed this country's labor base was welfare. Before welfare poor people had to work, and so took jobs that didn't pay much money. After welfare there was no driving need for them to do that, so foreigners had to be brought in to be our maids, chauffers, laundresses, porters, etc. The Great Society, like many liberal programs, actually killed the thing it sought to create. Just like legal abortion has basically taken away women's right to bear all their children. It seems the left is founded on an Orwellian relationship to reality.

Of course you are doing the right thing Fox, sounds like you are doing a great job for your client, you are providing honest labor for honest people, and you are not becoming a public charge yourself. Those are your responsibilties, you are not the person responsible for providing full employment for the American workforce. I am a person who feel overly responsible for all things sometimes, I think you might be the same way. I just try and remind myself of what I DON'T get paid to do and not do that stuff. Continued good luck with your project, and who knows, if you continue to do well, maybe you can hire some unemployed American(s) also!

We've got to tackle the problem of public elementary education before we are going to have any shot at curing what ails our nation. Also defeat the stinking terrorists and the festering communists around the globe. Including those on our shores.

[Cyber Liberty]

You are definitely gonna "get your piece of the pie" but you apparently don't care if the rest of us are living under a bridge.

Do you care if Fox lived under a bridge? It's not his, nor my part to worry about your living conditions. I am, however, willing to donate an old refrigerator box.

IOW, why should I care about people living under bridges? That's why we're overtaxed, isn't it?

If I were Fox, I'd be looking at property in the Caymans, to keep people who live under bridges from trying to rip me off by way of taxes. Then I might donate to a nice charity that doesn't object to using the money the way I'd like to see it used.

[Bahbah]

Well, let's see. You have children to support, a mortgage and a habit of eating that you don't seem to have been able to get under control. I see no problem here.

[gieriscm]

I am also a software developer in the DC metro area. What I've found is that if you have a clearance you have a much better chance of getting a job. There is a ton of gov't IT work that will never be sent offshore due to security concerns. In fact, my company is hiring...

[Semper911]

I just hope that when my day comes, I'll be as resourceful as the fox.

You and me both, partner. My hat's off to FoxPro.

Drink deeply from the well that flows...

[FoxPro]

It's wrong to send American jobs overseas.

So I should take that job mopping floors at the local church. Great, and will you come and help me, you can be my assistant floor swabber, it will save jobs dontcha know.

[lelio]

IOW, why should I care about people living under bridges?

Bravo! Let them eat cake.

[FoxPro]

if you have a clearance you have a much better chance of getting a job

I dont have a security clearence. If you dont have one it is almost imposible to get one. If you do have a security clearence, it is very easy to get one. See how that works?

[Cyber Liberty]

Why should I care if they eat cake? Be responsible for your own bread and you'll have cake.

[narby]

That might be because they don't like the idea of "foreign", as in, there's some place in the world that's not the US. The wars wouldn't be foreign if they're all US, right?

The part I don't get is why is it such a great idea to have trade protections around the US border, but not between the States of the Union? If trade freedom is good between the states, then obviously it's good between countries.

I guess if someone just hates people from other countries, and wishes them harm, then it might be a good idea. But if "our" country is more expensive at some particular work than another one is, then its our fault. Not the other countries fault.

I don't believe in trade unions using coersion to artificially get higher wages. And I don't believe in trade protectionism doing the same thing.

[Puddleglum]

I would have to wonder why this international retailer expected to pay so little for the project that they could only pay $15 an hour? Fast-food wages, practically. Is it that, knowing they could pay so little overseas, they refused to hire American? Or is it because of inferior American programmers? Or is it a lack of American programmers? Or is their competition already doing this and so they have to adjust to compete?

I know, business has no loyalty, person or national or otherwise. Therefore consumers owe no loyalty to these businesses, or even goodwill. And for what it's worth, government owes no subsidies or tariff protection to these businesses. But I guarantee they'll piss and moan and send $$$ to Capitol Hill to get the sort of protection they expect others to do without.

It's hard for me to see a silver lining to your story, other than your personal triumph over unemployment and your ingenuity.

[lelio]

I guess if someone just hates people from other countries, and wishes them harm, then it might be a good idea.

Why on earth have borders then? You setup borders so that you can make your own rules. I don't think its that much of a stretch to say that your own country should make rules to benefit a majority of its own citizens.

[Dead Dog]

It's an sarcastic comment, in a sense. Our management tells us to move up the "value chain". This is exacly what you have done, I definately don't fault you for it, it's your only choice. That or trade burn barrel recipies with Willie Green.

The problem with moving up the "value change" is that you become a middle man, overhead. Your customer will bypass you ASAP, just as these execs were trying to do. If a company/country/people can't design or build something, they won't be selling it very long.

I'm stressed, I still have my job, but who knows for how long. I'm racking my brain for anything I can learn to do that adds value to a product and creates wealth. I figure I've got a maximum of 5 years to do it, otherwise It's soup lines...or possibly a PLA bayonet.

[FoxPro]

I'm beginning to wonder what real security looks like

I actually read your post twice. You make some very interesting points. I think I will read it one more time (its like watching a great movie for the second time, you just get more of the subtleties of the thing each time).

[FreedomCalls]

"The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them."

~ Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

[narby]

I would have to wonder why this international retailer expected to pay so little for the project that they could only pay $15 an hour?

If gas cost $1.30 at one gas station and $3.40 at another, which one you gonna go to? If the retailer knew they could get software for $15/hr, then that's what they'll pay.