Tim Ansell wrote:
On Sat, 2006-07-29 at 15:00 -0700, Kamilche wrote:
Hey, offshoring has been the bane of this profession for the last few
years. Maybe we should put it to good use and pay some poor guy in a
foreign land $100 to recreate it in Pygame, what do you think? :-P
GUI libraries are a huge amount of work, even at an off shore rate it
would cost many thousands (if not more) to develop.
--Kamilche
Mithro
Yeah, I know, it was a joke. That subject is interesting to me in
general, tho - I've been a computer programmer since before PC's were
invented, and have seen lots of things come and go. For a long time now,
I've been seeing American companies offshore computer programming and
other IT jobs, and using the excuse that there's a 'shortage' of
American workers, when in actuality, American programmers all around me
are unemployed. Some friends go work on foreign soil to reduce their
living expenses, so they can keep their jobs and remain competitive
against foreign workers. Most don't go to that extreme measure tho; they
just give up looking for work, and eventually switch careers. I've known
computer programmers with degrees, become nurses, truck drivers,
computer salesman, etc., because too many IT jobs in America have been
offshored.
I bring all this up whenever a young person expresses an interest in
computer programming. I laugh and state that he will probably be
competing for his job against a foreign worker who will work for 10
cents an hour; an exaggeration to make a point, but the gist of which is
true. The amount of money they'd have to charge per hour to compete is
so low, they wouldn't even make enough to feed their family, much less
pay rent - they'd likely have to keep living in their mom's basement. I
tell them 'If you don't have a severe love of programming, you should
enter a different field, because this one is getting harder to find a
job in.'
I remember when the main problem in the computer programming field, was
most employers expected you to work too many hours for your pay. They'd
hire you for 8 hours, but want 12 or 14 hour days out of you for that
amount.
If you're interested in the topic, I can recommend
http://www.washtech.org/reports/AmericasHighTechBust/AmericasHighTechBust.pdf
, and that whole site in general. There's an interesting bit in that
report, where chart the numbers of tech jobs in several large cities
over several years, and you can see those numbers plummet over the
years, in some cities by as much as 40%. If the jobs had stayed here,
those numbers would be increasing, not decreasing.
--Kamilche
