Outsourcing

[der_kluge]

My company has gone through numerous layoffs, and restructuring for the last two years. Largely, I had been unaffected, but not anymore. Now, the latest rumor is that the "master plan" of our CIO is that he wants to remove -every- developer from the company and outsource all of it. Ouch.

But, I've been looking for a new job for a while now, and so far, I've only got one, maybe two leads that aren't sure things. I'll continue to look, but the job prospects in my area are only going to get bleaker when everyone starts looking elsewhere. I mean, Monster lists like just over 100 jobs that are open, I hate to imagine what that will look like when 4,000 IT folks start clamboring for positions outside the company.

 

[reapersaurus]

my sympathies, die_kluge

I.T. is a bitch now, and it's only going to get worse.

Let me put it this way:
If you make over $50K (total guessworked line-in-the-sand) a year, you'd better treat your salary as a big Red X that is being looked at as a potential way of getting your company under their carved-by-management-in-stone line that they must get under some upcoming quarter.

Unless you are doing something absolutely unreplaceable for your company, than they believe they can replace you.

And if your company is downsizing because of a down-turn in the industry?
Well.... I don't know of too many that haven't gone _below_ skeleton-crews by now, and the writing's on the wall...

 

[shouit]

Sorry, die_kluge, as we have talked before, you know that I work for IBM. The whole tech industry as a whole is very very rough. We went through lay offs just two weeks ago. I was "affected" but my friends were. That is what sucks about lay offs, they say your unaffected, but in reality, you cannot help but be affected.

 

[d4]

i feel for you, die kluge. hopefully everything will turn out OK.

i'm glad i got out of the computer industry when i did. (of course, it wasn't intentional -- i got laid off and couldn't find any more work.) it seems even more cutthroat now than it was a few years back.

i decided to go back to college, and i'm now working on becoming a math teacher. if there's one thing this country will never have enough of, it's math teachers.

however, if you've got a family to support, school is basically not an option.

good luck.

 

[der_kluge]

D4, well school is always an option, if I want to take out huge cost-of-living loans to support myself and my family while I do that.

Maybe my wife will get her clinical therapy license and can open up her own practice. Then we'll be set!

I just sent out two more resumes today. There's stuff out there, it's just not easy to find. I'll have to dig a little harder, I guess.

Fortunately, I've nothing to do at work right now, which means I can spend all day looking for a new job.

 

[isidorus]

I really feel for you die kludge and hopefully ever thing is alright and it gets better for you!!! Good luck!



I am currently laid off myself, just no new contracts. it seems many jobs are getting outsourced to india china etc. I know my brother is itchy since his wireless design work may go to china. I was outsourced in the 80's manufacturing, so went back to surveying to keep working. But my chemotherapy killed my hearing fairly good so it dangerous to myself to me and others in that line of work. So I started doing lab tech work, no laid off again.

Was thinking of going back to school and getting a degree in CS to give my self training a piece of paper hey I can do this, but now changing my mind since I been reading slashdot so much about It and tech outsourcing. Not sure what to take now at college.

Damn should have got that degree in something when I was younger, approching 38 and now thinking about it. Must be crazy!

 

[wizardoftheplains]

Well, I just found out yesterday evening, and got some more details on it today, that about 650 people where I work (big 3 phone company; not WorldCom) are going to be outsourced. Apparently, to either IBM or EDS.

Anyway, anyone need a Unix/C programmer with 733t database skills?

Hey di_kluge,

Sounds like Sprint. Heard some things through the grapevine. I work at Hallmark (hi, neighbor). We're also cutting back, especially on IT over the next year. If I hear of anything I'll drop you an email or post to this spread.
Good luck.

Gary

 

[Dinkeldog]

As someone entering his 12th month of unemployment, my two pieces of advice are: 1) start looking now, look hard, and take something offered to you now and 2) re-evaluate what you want to do for the rest of your life. It took me 6 months (way too long) to get around to that, and it's costing me 9 months of time I could have been in school.

 

[Sholari]

I really feel for you. I do not exactly work for the most stable company myself and have seen some people in adjacent departments and even within my own deparment get laid off.

In terms of your situation typically how these arrangements work the outsourcer guarantees to reduce IT costs up to a certain amount or they make up the difference as part of the contract. Then they will look at better automating processes, changing infrastructure, reducing headcount, etc.. Roughly, 30-40% of the IT staff will make it through this stuff. If your function is pretty critical and your performance is good you will probably end up at IBM or EDS which looks good on your resume. If you are not as confident then I'd have to agree to start looking now. A year or so ago the healthcare industry was looking for IT people with HIPAA regulation, though not quite sure on the current status of this. Not entirely sure where else to look besides maybe government/military perhaps? Retail IT might be another area to check out.

Being a former database person myself, I have been quite surprised at the speed and extent to which IT is getting outsourced to other countries. My approach toward job security has been through hybridization. Your more generic/standardized forms of IT are easy to outsource. However, by also mastering a functional area (marketing, supply chain, finance, etc.) you bring to the table a more unique skill set that is harder to outsource. Believe me most people in marketing do not like to do IT stuff and most IT people do not like to do marketing stuff. However, there is a real need for people that understand both things but very few people who have that skill set. Hybridization also gives you the flexibility to hop between one area and then next if things start looking spotty.

All in all, the only job security for any of us these days is going to come down to supply and demand. People will get paid a premium where there is a limited supply of a needed skill set. People will get laid off where there is too much supply of a needed skill set.

 

[Cedric]

I work at Dell...a lot of our core systems support has gone out of the country (india, phillipines, panama, etc). But Dell has used this as a reason to promote many of us in the states to expert center support.

I do corporate wireless networking support.

Cedric