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/ February 10, 2005 01:36 AM |
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Outsourcing continues in the IT field and America will suffer for it. Lack of innovation, selling our secrets to other nations and housing sensitive data in places it shouldn't be are just a few of the detrimental things that will come back to bite us in the ass in the future.
Once again companies are going for the quick buck and the CEO's won't have to face the music because by then they will have moved on to other companies or retired.
IT Professinals Association of America
The IT Professionals Association of America, (ITPAA, inc www.itpaa.org) does not see any end to the decline of students pursuing degrees in Computer Science any time soon. Scott Kirwin, founder of the group states that shortage concerns voiced by industry leaders such as Microsoft, HP, and IBM are overblown.
"People vote with their feet," Kirwin says. "Salaries continue to decline in IT, and entry-level positions for new graduates are hard to come by since most of these have been offshored to India and China. Given that the average college student graduates with $50,000 in debt, it makes sense that he or she would avoid fields such as IT that are disappearing, and go into those that provide the income necessary to pay back that debt."
Kirwin believes that outsourcing and labor dumping - a term coined by Kirwin to describe flooding the American labor market with foreign workers - are to blame. "Pro-offshoring and pro-labor dumping industry sponsored groups like the IT Association of America (ITAA) and Compete America want talent, but they don't want to pay for it - so they head abroad to find that talent on the cheap. The free market goes both ways," he says. "If there are too many American IT workers, then their salaries go down and people avoid the field. If salaries began rising, then people would become interested in the field again, but that hasn't happened, nor do we expect it to anytime soon."
Kirwin believes that the IT industry has become hooked on cheap labor and has lost the ability to find the value of American IT professionals. "We see it in the lack of innovation across the board. There has been no major advance in software engineering in a decade, nor in hardware engineering or technical design - all fields that have been sent abroad."
"Americans are extremely creative and the most productive people on the planet," Kirwin states, "Yet that creativity and productivity has been ignored by the industry in pursuit of a few less dollars an hour."
Tipped by: Dean's World who thinks it's all overblown.
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Posted by Digger on February 10, 2005 01:36 AM (Permalink)
Back when I was in college, 96-01, IT was still a hot degree. I cannot imagine it losing so much of it's luster in such a short timespan.
Posted by: Chad Evans on February 10, 2005 05:55 AM
"I cannot imagine"
You could if you tried getting a job when you're over 40. Or heard someone talk about trying.
The thing to remember is this: Young people considering careers have eyes and ears. Meaning not only do they read about outsourcing in the media, they hear others speak about what the job market is really like.
And it's been obvious for years to working professionals that H-1B visas are a vehicle for age discrimination -- a mostly unreported aspect. This is often disguised by employers saying (older) workers lack current skills etc. In reality, if you have to allow someone time to acclimate to a technical job -- which is always necessary, no matter how perfectly someone's background seems to fit the job -- then it's a lot cheaper to do this with a new grad, which comes close to describing most H-1B people.
Posted by: eh on February 11, 2005 10:09 AM
I forgot to and should have added that of course outsourcing is not much more than sending the work there instead of bringing them here.
The company I work for now has a development office in Bangalore and is sending more and more projects there.
And the only reason is cost of labor: up-front wage costs in Bangalore are 30% of what they are here.
Posted by: eh on February 11, 2005 10:21 AM
I left the IT field when 911 sent it to its knees. And since 911, companies want someone to do the job of four IT professionals and wants to pay them about half of what they used to to do just one job.
It isn't worth it anymore.
Posted by: Rogue on February 12, 2005 09:16 AM
I'm in that boat now!! I have 5 years of college with a Degree in Computer Science. I wrote a 10,000 line code distributed program for a software engineering course that I've turned into quite a nice little web app. However, even though I've got this, a degree, a 3 month intership as a java programmer, and have been programming for 7+ years most IT employers wont even look at me..Where do I go from here??????????
Posted by: New Grad on March 20, 2005 10:38 PM
I don't know what to tell you, New Grad. It's been tough for years and with the outsourcing industry still stealing a lot of dev jobs I'm not sure when or if it's ever going to get better.
Maybe hook up with a business grad and try to get something started on the side while you work a crap job or continue looking for at least a decent computer related job.
It's the old catch 22 of no experience, no job/ no job, no experience.
Another thing you can do is put together some decent web demo's of what you can do and then you'll have something to show potential employers. Like artists and photographers do with a portfolio.
Posted by: Digger on March 21, 2005 12:50 AM
OK Digger, I've got one even better for you. I compiled about 95 pages of research for a senior level computer science research course in about 3 months time, while taking 3 other courses. Also, I wrote a 3,000 line code distributed game using RMI in about 3 weeks time at night while taking 3 other courses. I got an interview a few weeks ago with a small software company. The interview went fairly well; thought I would be offered a job. Recruiter tells me OK, they were impressed, they just want you to fill out this personality test and that should be it. So I'm thinking great I finally found a job! Well 2 days later I get the call: Well they're looking for someone that's a little more focused and not a social person as you seemed to have stated on the test.....
And here stupid me thought that employers really wanted their employees to have communication skills....So I guess 95 pagese of research in 3 months, a 3,000 line code working distributed game, a 10,000 line + code web-app, 5 years of college, A's in 8 out of the last 11 computer science courses taken, 10+ years of work experience in the American work-force, and excellent references constitutes a person not being focused...
What a CROCK!!!
Posted by: New Grad on April 24, 2005 11:11 PM
Reminds me of that TV commercial where the kids are saying things like:
When I grow up I want to have a brown nose.
I want to be forced into early retirement.
I want to have to work 60+ hours a week.
I want to work for 40% less money than what I'm suppose to get.
I may ask to be deported next week if at all possible so I can START MY OWN COUNTRY where companies still care about the people who founded this place.
Posted by: New Grad on May 1, 2005 10:27 PM
Posted by: New Grad on June 17, 2005 03:24 PM
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