Slashdot Mirror
Lowering the Odds of Being Outsourced
Lam1969 writes "Computerworld points to a study by the Society for Information Management, which concludes that the best thing young IT workers can do to avoid being outsourced is beef up their management skills. The article quotes Thomas Tanaka, a recent computer engineering graduate, describing a recent job interview: 'While the Santa Clara, Calif., resident has generally been looking for entry-level software jobs with IT vendors, he recently had an interview with a financial firm looking to fill an in-house IT position. That's where his lack of business background was exposed.'"
Check.
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***** We apologize for the faults in the comments. Those responsible have been outsourced. *****
(Pleased to be reminding you, m00se vindal00 can be veryvery spicy...)
***** We apologize again for the fault in the posts. Those responsible for outsourcing the people who have just been outsourced have been outsourced. *****
(Hot-gritted m00se on the left half side of the screen in the third post from the top, given a thorough grounding in Slashbotese, 31337, and "O" Level Trollery by Pradeep Portman)
****** The managers of the contracting firm hired to continue the posting after the other people had been outsourced, wish it to be known that they have just been outsourced. *******
The postings have been completed in an entirely different style at great expense and at the last minute.
6 VENEZUELAN RED LLAMAS
142 MEXICAN WHOOPING LLAMAS
14 NORTH CHILEAN GUANACOS
(CLOSELY RELATED TO THE LLAMA)
REG LLAMA OF BRIXTON
76000 BATTERY LLAMAS
FROM "LLAMA-FRESH" FARMS LTD. NEAR PARAGUAY
and CMDRTACO and ZONK.
* C) The e-commerce Web site he started last year, for which he negotiates prices for his products -- imported herbal supplements -- with overseas suppliers?
Shah's degree and technical skills might land him the interview. But his entrepreneurial skills and business savvy set him apart from the pack
Herbal supplements? So he ran a penis pill spam ring from his mother's basement? And now employers are falling over eachother to hire him?
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Warning: Slashdot may contain traces of nuts.
Even before the Age of the Outsource came upon us, it was always a good idea to have multiple skillsets, even within a given discipline. However, I'd say that from the standpoint of avoiding being "rightsized" it's just as important to to keep the people who make such decisions aware of your value. That requires yet another skillset: politics. It's typical of software and engineering types who sit in their cubicles all day to be shocked when they get let go: they may feel (often correctly!) that their value to the company is sufficient to keep them on. What they don't often understand is that it's asking a lot to expect that information to somehow (by osmosis, telepathy or some other more direct means) to float upwards to the decision-making levels. If you're known as the "driver guy" and they can find some Indian dude to do (what appears to be) the same thing for a fraction of the cost ... well. The fact that you not only write drivers, but write proposals and specs, API documentation, user manuals, handle the occasional tough customer problem, help train salespeople and are an invaluable source of product information for everyone from engineering to marketing doesn't make a damn bit of difference if the guy pulling the trigger doesn't know it. Sure, your fellow employees may be devastated after you're gone, hell your entire division may implode without you, but that won't do you any good.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
And good hackers grok the spelling of the word "grok".
Some things in life are free. For everything else, there's extortion.
www.eFax.com are spammers
"Well-well look. I already told you: I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?"
Is there not one person in this thread that will speak the obvious?
Rise up, risk your pathetic waste of a life and seize the future for yourself!
You whine that you've wasted your life following the rules set by a powerful elite determined to rape you for every last penny you are worth, but what have you done? What do you have to lose?
The truth is most of you would never risk what job security you have left for even a slight increase in your standard of living.
Most of you will die forgotten, an embarassment to the next generation.
Yeah, the world is pretty fucked up. But most of you are cowards who would rather play Quake all day than learn to fight.
If you think for a minute 1,000,000 people could not take over this country in a week, you are crazy. Give up the video games, the porn, the masturbation, and whatever other vices waste your life away. We need to simply mobilize 0.33% of the US population and change will be immediate!
I don't read or respond to AC posts
About TFA, the solution seems more like jumping from a sinking ship to one with termites eating at a wooden hull.
Which is a better than jumping to a ship with termites eating at a metal hull, because those would be some tough termites.
The enemies of Democracy are
Last thing I want to do is sit behind a desk and listen to Jimmy Lipschitz tell me why his project is late again. Then I have to go to Kenny Pigfauker (my boss) and tell him ProjectY will be late because ProjectX had unforseen circumstances, and this is the last time it will happen. Yeah, fuck that. I'd rather re-write TPS reports.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
And my best managers have usually been women.
Ok ok.. We got the point. You know and speak to women... I will too... some day...