Posted on 02/23/2008 3:44:22 PM PST by Momaw Nadon
Many of America's top jobs are moving offshore. Which jobs are most likely to be hit by "offshoring" and what can you do to protect and safeguard your career?
The list below shows four categories of jobs:
“The unemployment rate is a political number subject to manipulation. Show me the number of people filing a 1040 each year and the amounts they earn’
The unemployment rate only reflects those who are actively looking and who have filed for unemployment. Those who give up looking or take a lower paying job are not included. A person who was making $80k forced to take a $50k job to pay their mortgage is not counted.
“Let’s all become comedians or filmmakers! Yes, that’s the ticket to prosperity!”
Who is gonna buy the tickets if nobody else is working?
I’m a writer (technical), but have seen how vulnerable my job is to fluctuations in the fortunes of high tech. Still, as long as English is such a bizarre language, a shotgun wedding of germanic skeleton and romance flesh, it will be hard to find non-native supplanters.
“I am 34 and am contemplating a career in IT.”
There are still options but pay is lower and consider any job you get to be temporary.
“Are there any opinions on which Information Technology sector or jobs are least likely to be outsourced?”
CIOs probably won’t be outsourced. Everything else in IT is fair game.
Wages and other costs in India have gotten a little high.
A programmer who works for me, and makes $95K in the US, told me he could get $50K in India.
The cost of office space in India is actaully higher than many US locations. We’re paying $14 a square foot in Mumbai compared to $8 in Columbus, Ohio.
As the costs go up, people are less willing to tolerate the inefficiencies and communications overhead.
Of course, they might try to find a cheaper country, but it doesn’t seem likely for tech jobs. The Chinese are not as well-educated as they claim, and their English is non-existent.
The best advice is do what you are good at and like. Don't chase a job just because it is high paying. It might not be high paying tomorrow.
I've been contemplating getting out of IT, but I can't think of a skill I can leverage for a decent living. :)
” The employees who run the survey are highly trained and ask a tightly controlled set of non-leading questions.”
We are talking government employees here right? Chances are they do most of it via write-ins.
I cannot understand how people think outsourcing is good. The companies doing outsourcing don’t drop their prices. The people displaced generally earn significantly less during the transition and we are shipping BILLIONS of dollars over seas. On top of that we are training our competition. The biggest advantage we have is our knowledge, and we ship that overseas without a thought.
“I’ve been contemplating getting out of IT, but I can’t think of a skill I can leverage for a decent living. :)”
If you think of one please let me know. The medical field is one but since I can’t stand the sight of blood it probably wouldn’t work for me.
No wonder they’re going elsewhere:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1975070/posts
‘They call and have American names such as Carol Smith. It is really annoying.”
I love the banking and credit card companies that do this. Its heart warming to know that all my credit info is freely available and there are no laws to protect it.
The other 280 million people, you know -- the ones who went Poof! -- will of course never vote again, never collect a dime of welfare, and never complain or do anything to change their status. Like good little Proles, they will cluck to themselves "it is the way it must be" and of course, pull the Poof! switch on themselves and their families, never to be seen again.
Nice little fairy tale.
If you look at that list of jobs-at-risk, all IT/software dev jobs are at great risk or have gone offshore.
I work for a Fortune 500 company that does both hardware and software. They see their future customer base in China and India, so they’re setting up offices offshore that include sales, R&D, QA, tech writing, and graphic design depts. Not to mention the salaries are cheaper.
Many of the depts here have lost jobs, as they move existing positions offshore, too.
They are also acquiring small software companies, many of which already base their R&D offshore.
Project mgrs (with PMP certification) and higher-ups with MBAs have a better chance of surviving for a while longer. But even some MBA programs are requiring that US students reside in China or India for a time. Some companies (Cisco?) are moving US managers offshore.
My suggestion to you is look elsewhere, espcially if you are new to the field of IT.
I get copied all the time.
I used to get two years from my new designs. Now I get 6 months.
The only way I stay viable is by having so many models no one in their right mind would dare copy them all.
Telephone Operator is a moderate risk? I thought those went out with the 70’s.
They try. We have Indians working on our current project (a political decision made by someone much higher than me.) They tried to sell themselves to high level management as project management and scheduling geniuses who could take over what I was doing and make it better. However, just because they passed the PMP doesn't mean they have the dynamics and the ability to deal with people to be great project managers.
I’m in the same boat, will be getting out of IT. Fortunately I’ve saved enough money. My next job will be investor. In hindsight I wish I’d spent my IT time on Wall Street.
There is some good reasoning behind that list. Everthing is related to the need for proximity to the customer. I see a lot of blue collar schadenfreude over this trend. So much for the ‘service’ economy!
The only thing the government can do to build our economy is cut taxes and get out of the way.
Offshoring avoids:
1. Over regulation.
2. Threat of litigation.
3. Union wage scales.
4. Onerous taxes.
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