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Exporting Myself?

Posted by Cliff on from the moving-to-where-the-jobs-are dept.

sennomo asks: "Years ago, I was told that I needed a degree to get a programming job anymore. So, I went to college. A couple of years and thousands of dollars later, there was still no job for me, in spite of my all-powerful B.A. in C.S. The most common explanation I get is that jobs are being exported out of the country. So, I've decided to export myself. Moving to higher ground, so to speak. I have heard a few others discuss this, but how many are actually trying it? And how is it going for them? Are there any hotspots for American expatriate programmers?"

3 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Look harder, get a hobby, improve your resume. by Carnildo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm in Spokane, a city suffering from chronic economic problems, and I didn't have any trouble getting a job. I sent out a grand total of a half-dozen resumes, got two job interviews, and one job offer (I accepted). A few major factors that helped me get a job were that my degree was a BS in Math and Computer Science, rather than straight CS, that I'd held jobs (computer programming and otherwise) before, and that I'd been involved in several major freeware projects as a hobby.

    --
    "They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
  2. Re:Wait a bit by GigsVT · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I have no degree, and yet I have a programming/admin job, imagine that!

    And I don't even live in a tech centric area.

    Here's the secret, work for a company that actually produces something. Something other than just software, or intellectual property.

    Consulting/support companies that do custom things for each customer are OK, but you are still liable to be replaced by a very small shell script someday.

    It's funny that Slashdot is basically a site about how intellectual property is being reformed in huge ways, and yet most of the people reading it still want to get jobs based on obselete business models of "owning information".

    --
    I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
  3. Re:Accept less money by the_womble · · Score: 3, Interesting
    your standard of living is going to go way, way, way down

    Rubbish. I moved from the UK to Sri Lanka and my standard of living has improved in many ways. I earn less in absolute terms but the cost of living is MUCH lower.

    whether my standard of living is better or worse is actually quite subjective. Examples:

    • My car is a Hyundai, but I pay someone else to drive it for me.
    • I eat out more and mostly at better restaurants, but the best here are not as good as the best in London and there is less choice.
    • I can afford more holdiays within the country and stay at much better hotels than I could afford in England, but I can afford fewer foreign holidays.
    Overall the only things I really miss are the theatre, big bookshops and (BBC) Radio 4.

    Alhough I am now used to it having done it a few times, moving countries is very difficult for those who are not used to it. It is not just the financial cosnequences that matter. You have to make cultural adjsutments, and learn how things work (and put up with lots of little things being different from what you are used to), and move away from friends and familly.