Can Obama Keep IT Jobs in the U.S.?

[AK]

Thanks for the first-hand observations kev374.

This all reminds me of some Gary Watts propaganda from a few years back … IIRC he claimed Americans would soon be split into hereditary classes of homeowners and landless peasants, specifically citing India as an example. I guess our second-favorite real estate economist never read Marx’s hypothesis that the concentration of wealth results from the cash-rich buying up assets after a bust 🙂

[SDEngineer]

[quote=afx114]I’ve had nothing but headaches working with Indian programmers. You get what you pay for, really. Sure you can get them for cheaper, but you’re not going to get the quality or support that you need.[/quote]

I’ll second this as well. We have several teams of Indian engineers on an outsourcing contract. Their work (on the whole) has been substandard.

Not that they are all bad – we’ve had some truly excellent engineers from there. The problem is that the truly excellent ones gain experience and reputation, and then either gain a toehold in a non-contract position over here, or go off to start their own business in India (we’ve lost several high performers from that team over the past few years to both).

This is probably true to a certain degree of the contract industry in general, but I’d think more so in outsourcing companies, since their main draw of outsourcing is cost reduction, the outsourcing companies are under pressure to hold their wages down, and thus probably attract a less-skilled employee base, whereas the focus for contracts in the US is less on individual cost reduction, and more on providing either manpower or skillsets that are not needed long term for particular companies – but as many here can attest, US based contract work pays quite well, so frequently can attract and hold high performing engineers.

[SDEngineer]

[quote=afx114]I’ve had nothing but headaches working with Indian programmers. You get what you pay for, really. Sure you can get them for cheaper, but you’re not going to get the quality or support that you need.[/quote]

I’ll second this as well. We have several teams of Indian engineers on an outsourcing contract. Their work (on the whole) has been substandard.

Not that they are all bad – we’ve had some truly excellent engineers from there. The problem is that the truly excellent ones gain experience and reputation, and then either gain a toehold in a non-contract position over here, or go off to start their own business in India (we’ve lost several high performers from that team over the past few years to both).

This is probably true to a certain degree of the contract industry in general, but I’d think more so in outsourcing companies, since their main draw of outsourcing is cost reduction, the outsourcing companies are under pressure to hold their wages down, and thus probably attract a less-skilled employee base, whereas the focus for contracts in the US is less on individual cost reduction, and more on providing either manpower or skillsets that are not needed long term for particular companies – but as many here can attest, US based contract work pays quite well, so frequently can attract and hold high performing engineers.

[SDEngineer]

[quote=afx114]I’ve had nothing but headaches working with Indian programmers. You get what you pay for, really. Sure you can get them for cheaper, but you’re not going to get the quality or support that you need.[/quote]

I’ll second this as well. We have several teams of Indian engineers on an outsourcing contract. Their work (on the whole) has been substandard.

Not that they are all bad – we’ve had some truly excellent engineers from there. The problem is that the truly excellent ones gain experience and reputation, and then either gain a toehold in a non-contract position over here, or go off to start their own business in India (we’ve lost several high performers from that team over the past few years to both).

This is probably true to a certain degree of the contract industry in general, but I’d think more so in outsourcing companies, since their main draw of outsourcing is cost reduction, the outsourcing companies are under pressure to hold their wages down, and thus probably attract a less-skilled employee base, whereas the focus for contracts in the US is less on individual cost reduction, and more on providing either manpower or skillsets that are not needed long term for particular companies – but as many here can attest, US based contract work pays quite well, so frequently can attract and hold high performing engineers.

[SDEngineer]

[quote=afx114]I’ve had nothing but headaches working with Indian programmers. You get what you pay for, really. Sure you can get them for cheaper, but you’re not going to get the quality or support that you need.[/quote]

I’ll second this as well. We have several teams of Indian engineers on an outsourcing contract. Their work (on the whole) has been substandard.

Not that they are all bad – we’ve had some truly excellent engineers from there. The problem is that the truly excellent ones gain experience and reputation, and then either gain a toehold in a non-contract position over here, or go off to start their own business in India (we’ve lost several high performers from that team over the past few years to both).

This is probably true to a certain degree of the contract industry in general, but I’d think more so in outsourcing companies, since their main draw of outsourcing is cost reduction, the outsourcing companies are under pressure to hold their wages down, and thus probably attract a less-skilled employee base, whereas the focus for contracts in the US is less on individual cost reduction, and more on providing either manpower or skillsets that are not needed long term for particular companies – but as many here can attest, US based contract work pays quite well, so frequently can attract and hold high performing engineers.

[SDEngineer]

[quote=afx114]I’ve had nothing but headaches working with Indian programmers. You get what you pay for, really. Sure you can get them for cheaper, but you’re not going to get the quality or support that you need.[/quote]

I’ll second this as well. We have several teams of Indian engineers on an outsourcing contract. Their work (on the whole) has been substandard.

Not that they are all bad – we’ve had some truly excellent engineers from there. The problem is that the truly excellent ones gain experience and reputation, and then either gain a toehold in a non-contract position over here, or go off to start their own business in India (we’ve lost several high performers from that team over the past few years to both).

This is probably true to a certain degree of the contract industry in general, but I’d think more so in outsourcing companies, since their main draw of outsourcing is cost reduction, the outsourcing companies are under pressure to hold their wages down, and thus probably attract a less-skilled employee base, whereas the focus for contracts in the US is less on individual cost reduction, and more on providing either manpower or skillsets that are not needed long term for particular companies – but as many here can attest, US based contract work pays quite well, so frequently can attract and hold high performing engineers.

[Author]

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