> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of > n rf > Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 11:39 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: Technology, Certification, Skill Sets, and Looking > [7:70816] > > > > > > The dark side is that technology changes, and has a way of > becoming > > more appliance like, meaning that what as skilled labor > yesterday is > > out of the > > box tomorrow. Thin about it. All you folks who are AVVID > > experts and > > therefore in high demand. How long before AVVID is nothing > more > > than another > > PBX, and routers self configure for QoS? Think the telco > > employee who drives > > the truck and installs your DSL is making 100K? not likely. > > There's an even more ominous trend afoot and what is ironic is > that > network engineers may be actively sowing the seeds of their own > destruction. One of the holy grails of networking is to foster > telecommuting and virtual offices > - the idea was that through ever cheaper and more reliable > bandwidth > which enables ever more powerful and complete networks, you may > never > need to step foot in your office - you can replicate your > entire office > from your house using videoconferencing, unified > communications, remote > control of complete systems, and so forth. Sounds great, > right? You > don't waste time in a rush-hour commute, you can work while > still > watching the kids, and in short the quality of life of your > employeer's > improves dramatically - so there's no downside, right? > > Uh, well, not exactly. Virtual-offices sounds great when you > realize > that it frees you from geographical barriers until you realize > that it > also frees your employers from geographical barriers too. > Specifically, > employers can now hire workers from anywhere in the world, and > we all > know exactly what they're going to do - they're going to hire > guys who > are a hundred times more skilled than you but are wiling to > work for a > fraction of your salary. > Guys from India, China, Russia, and places like that. Instead > of > hiring a > bunch of high-priced American network engineers to run your > NOC, you can > just hire a bunch of guys from India on the cheap to watch over > your > network remotely, and just hire an American cable-monkey on > minimum wage > to do all the physical stuff like checking cables and racking > gear. Or > let's say you need a complete network design. Again, why hire > an > expensive American network designer when you can just send your > design > requirements to China and get back some well-done Visio's and > router > configs, and you can videoconference/whiteboard/IM your remote > designer > and hash out all the details to your heart's content, all for > cheap. > Sure, that might seem harsh, but surely you can see that if > companies > can use these tactics to save money, you know they will. > > Now don't get me wrong. I'm not a Luddite and I'm not a > nativist. > Truth be told, a lot of those guys from India, China, and > Russia are > smarter and work harder than many Americans.
A lot of them aren't guys. They are women. In a lot of countries (certainly not all but a lot) there's way less prejudice against women being in high-tech. Of more importance, there aren't assumptions made in primary (elementary) and secondary (high school) that girls are "bad at math." Instead, girls are encouraged, with an understanding that they tend to be better at many aspects of math. Why don't you get involved in your local high school? Encourage more girls (and boys) to go into computer science. One major aspect of the problem that you describe is that fewer and fewer Amserican students are studying engineering and computer science. Part of the problem is the prejudice against females. A bigger problem is that our schools suck. The government spends our money attacking other cultures instead of developing our own. Priscilla > All you have to > do is go > any American high school and remark on just how lazy and > unmotivated the > kids are today. In this new global economy, service-oriented > work is > going to go to wherever the sharpest, cheapest, and > hardest-working > minds of the world happen to be. That's the way free-market > capitalism > works. > > Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=70937&t=70915 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
