Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Moving To an Offshore-Proof Career?
New submitter sundarvenkata writes: I am sure most slashdotters (including the ones who had the I-am-an-indispensable-snowflake stance in the past) have already foreseen the writing on the wall for the future of tech professions (with IT being the worst hit) given some of the ominous news in the past few years: here, here and here. Of course, there are always the counter-arguments put forth by slashdotters that "knowing the business" or "being the best in what you do" would save one's derriere as if the offshore workers will remain permanently impaired of such skills. But I was wondering if some slashdotters could share some constructive real-life experiences of planning a transition to a relatively offshore-proof career. If you have already managed to accomplish such a career change, what was your journey and what would your advice be to other aspirants?
Find a job that requires a super-high security clearance.
I would suggest plumbing: sophisticated enough that you can charge for $70/hr. There will always be plumbing in the buildings. Job has to be done here, not somewhere remotely in China or India.
Forum a union!
From what I have observed among my friends and acquaintances, it is that nothing in the tech industry is safe from being offshored in our globalized world.
The only "safe" jobs I can think of are security jobs that *require* a specific citizenship. Those reside within a nation's government or security companies with a focus on a particular country and its threats.
Also "offshore-proof" might be MBA, upper-management type of jobs that can't exactly be offshored to some person living in a country with lower costs and standards of living.
Other than that, being a coder in today's environment is pretty disposable. Experience is no guarantee to job security any more.
Be your own boss. Then nobody can fire you.
Learn a trade. You can't offshore something that needs to be hands on. It's either that or join the 1%ers. :-(
http://developers.slashdot.org...
http://itknowledgeexchange.tec...
in short: guy moves to malaysia (he had no ties to the area, just picked it on economic considerations) and doesn't just survive, but does well, on $16k/yr, working 10 hours a week
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
to qoute a certain chair thrower " installers installers installers"
cable installer, solar panel roof installer, wired home installer. installs man.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
People's toilets will forever be stopping up. And it is a hands-on job to un-stop them. The wages are good, often better than IT.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
Find, or create, a job that uses a unique combination of skills.
Both jobs require you to work very closely with project stakeholders, which is difficult to do remotely. There's plenty of work around, as well (at least in my neck of the woods).
The downside is that the money isn't that great.
It seems like the only way you can truly make yourself unoffshoreable is to acquire your own local customers by running your own business.
Crimey
Or will those be robots controlled remotely from India or China too?
Ah -- if you're in IT -- perhaps a better idea is to be the US guy in an offshore-IT-company.
More seriously -- be your own boss. Start a company and you choose if/when you offshore your own job.
If you're a developer, work for companies that build complete hardware/software systems rather than just software. Typically if they design and manufacture in-house, the bulk of the software work requires close collaboration with hardware, FPGA, and systems engineers, and this works best keeping everyone local. Attempts to outsource in these environments usually end in failure, and the companies that try often learn their lesson and don't try again.
Hardest and thankless job in the U. S. However, you get health care for your entire family, and summers off. Also, if you don't live in a "red" State, likely the teachers are unionized so your salary might be OK, and you might have a pension.
be replaced by a cheap immigrant!
It's really hard to offshore electrical wiring, plumbing, structural steel installations. Of course it doesn't lend itself to telecommuting either.
If you aren't willing to change jobs, find an industry that can't be outsourced and get good at their needs. Write software for plumbers, do tech support for electricians, etc.
I found a nice spot working for a consortium of roofers, none of them individually could afford a full time programmer but they had already started a pool for advertising and other common things, so it's working out. Sure, I only make 90k after self employment taxes and the food here is boring, but Amazon, Plated, and being able to buy a house with cash makes up for it.
And I'm set, at least until somebody invents a roofing robot. Then I'll have to hope rich people like shitty glass art made by former programmers.
Either:
1. Do something someone else can't do
2. Do something that someone else won't do
Example of #1: Be the best darn $LanguageDeJour expert. But this requires lots of functioning brain cells
Example of #2: Work in places that others would turn down. This only requires lots of guts.
Although in the case of #2 last year I didn't even think twice about not considering a $200k/yr job because it was situated close to a lot of drug cartel violence in Mexico - but the work was available. On the other hand, years ago I made good money on a 6 month engineering project in Siberia and had a great time.
Currently there is a lot of money to be made in large scale engineering projects the middle east. Or recently there was a lot of money to be made in Fly-in/Fly-out work in Western Australia in the mining industry (it seems to have peaked), and possibly the fracking industry in the US. Both of these required people onsite, but the work and living conditions are sub-optimal compared to cubical land anywhere.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Dice - you could save $ by offshoring timothy's job....
The question in TFS is another way of asking "How can I spend my whole working life doing the same thing without risk of change?" It's not much of an aspiration.
Better questions might be:
And there's another several hundred good questions along those lines. How to avoid your employment being outsourced is not one of them. Your life deserves greater ambitions than planned stagnation.
Service industry jobs cannot be offshored. Garbage collectors, police, housekeepers, store stockers/cashiers and other 'must be physically present' jobs cannot be offshored. Chefs, construction workers, beekeepers, doctors, plumbers, longshoremen etc...
What do you want to do?
If you are in a job that can be offshored, your best bet is networking. Not as in TCP/IP type networking, but in talking to people. If you know what you are doing and lots of people at other companies know that too, you have a much easier time finding a job. Hiring a qualified person is time consuming and expensive. If lots of people 'know a guy' and that guy is you, they don't have to go through the effort and you have industry job security even if you don't have it in your particular company.
If you aren't that good? There's always beekeeping...
Get a job that requires you physically be there. You can't outsource the fry guy to India. Then the question comes back to whether your job can be replaced by a robot or computer.
You can't find a "safe" job anymore. The best you can do is find a stable company and convince them you are indispensable.
If labour costs and skills were the same everywhere, then there'd be no risk of offshoring. So the quickest way to eliminate offshoring is to open the borders, both ways, for everyone. But the conservatives assert it'll have the whole world living like the worst of Africa or wherever, so we try hard to make sure we lose our jobs in a nice country, rather than raise the standard for the whole world.
Learn to love Alaska
My experience has been that people with strong people and technical skills are very difficult to replace with someone working in another country. It doesn't mean it is impossible, but it is very hard. If you want to find a job that cannot be outsourced, it probably means working with physical things that require hands on manipulation. On the other hand, if you consider why particular jobs are easy to outsource, you may find skills that you can develop in addition to technical skills that would make you very hard to replace with someone on the other side of the world.
That's basically the only chance you have to be neither outsourced nor replaced by H1Bs. I mean, who'd shoot himself in the foot?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I started my own company. Now I'm the boss, I'm the one who decides if I get fired. So far, that hasn't happened.
no, I don't have a sig
Barber or Masseuse. Something that requires your customer's physical presence.
I come here for the love
Might as well go where the jobs are.
That's the last time I run code posted in somebody's sig...
Work that requires hands-on access can't be offshored. If you work with just a keyboard and monitor, you're screwed.
But even hands-on work can be "dumbed-down" by using an offshored expert (via telepresence) with a cheaper local technician.
My approach (chosen because it is immense fun, not because it is relatively offshore-proof) has been to specialize in developing software for embedded/real-time systems, mainly instrumentation and controls, and more recently "IoT". While embedded software is my "job" (either on bare-metal, with an RTOS, or with Linux). I have had to get involved in all levels of system specification, design, implementation and, most importantly, troubleshooting/debug across multiple disciplines (software, electronics, electromechanical, mechanical, physics).
The alternative is to offshore the entire project, something that is happening more often when there are no IP issues involved. But when trade secrets are present, or patents are being filed, or when the development window is tight, offshoring often adds delays that can cripple the time to market. That's where "on-shoring" often works best: Hire local gunslingers (contractors) to speed the process.
I've also done the local hands-on self-employed contracting thing, and managing it is a PITA (quarterly taxes, health coverage, SEP IRA, etc.). Fortunately, there are more companies that handle all this for you, either by hiring you as a consultant, or just being your "benefits administrator". But marketing is still a PITA.
Otherwise, you're left with the hands-on trade or service industry: Retail sales, carpenter, carpet cleaner, massage therapist, and the like. At the top of the list income-wise would probably be Plumber and Nurse.
There is no proof.. if not offshore, technological-unemployment will hit you. ..probably one doesn't exist]
So learn personal-finance. Save more. Be frugal (cook -- plant based food).. take care of your health.
Whatever income you can generate, save as much. Hopefully basic-income arrives soon.
[yeah there is nothing I could offer as a career choice
Thinking way outside the cubicle, one non STEM-based possibility is something where people value and pay for your personal presence or involvement in the product or service; e.g., the entertainment industry. Not sure how much this can provide by way of a livelihood, though.
With the advent of reliable shipping, we offshored the manufacturing facilities (physical offshoring).
With the advent of reliable communication, we offshored the technical support (locational offshoring).
With the advent of H1Bs, who needs offshoring; just import your workers from offshore ;)
How about choosing a career you love and/or are very good at and can perform with passion. Choosing a career out of fear is probably not the best way to go. Just be so damn good it doesn't matter.
Being afraid that your job will be taken away by "overseas workers," besides its vaguely racists and xenophobic connotations, is just the latest flavor of a very old fear.
Back in the days of the industrial revolution, it was automation that was going to take away the jobs. And in a sense, it did. But the population of (for example) the United States is larger today than at any time in its history, and most people still have jobs. Whahoppen? And yet now some of the people who weren't even alive during the industrial revolution are worried that robots and other machines will take their jobs away. Or foreigners.
The best wait I can explain it is that you should never approach an employers with the idea that you are a consumer asking the employer to give you something, in this case a job. You should think of yourself a a business resource -- which is what you are, and in fact the most valuable one that exists on the planet. When you apply for a job, you are OFFERING an employer something. You are not the consumer. You are a supplier. So as an autonomous resource who has control of your own destiny, how do you increase your own value so that you are more attractive to your current and future employers? It ain't gonna happen by you taking a job and then sitting down at your desk and pretending you're going to do the same job for the rest of your life.
If you're afraid that you've got the kind of job that your employer could just hand to somebody else tomorrow -- somebody you've never met, somebody who's never met anybody on your team, somebody who maybe doesn't even speak the same language as you -- then my first question is, don't you like money? Why are you in that job, when it can't be worth what they pay you for it and you could already be doing a lot better for yourself.
A lot of tech workers seem to get confused and think their value to their employer is in the skills they have. That's true, partly. But I'd say at least half of being successful at any job -- and maybe even 80 percent -- involves interpersonal skills. How well do you work within the team? How able are you to anticipate what the business needs and act on that? In cases where there's a leadership vacuum, can you fill it? And then when it's time to follow directions, can you still do it?
Or how about this one: Do you LIKE your job? Do you show up every morning feeling good and ready for work, because you feel like what you do for a living is something worth doing? I've talked to a lot of people who don't feel that way, and honestly I feel like a lot of that is on THEM. Going back to the idea that you're not a customer, you're a supplier ... you've gotta stick up for yourself. For most of us (hopefully) nobody has stuck a gun to our heads and made us take ANY job. It's true that they wouldn't call it work if it was all fun and games, but many of us spend more of each 24-hour day at work than we do sleeping. And certainly more than we do spending time with our friends and families. My advice is to spend that time on something you think is worth doing -- not something that a 10-year-old could do for you, if that was legal.
Do that, and you're already ahead of the game. When you're in a job where your real value is not to some nebulous economic concept, but to the people who make up your business, then you're in a pretty good spot. You can outsource Worker X but you can't outsource Dave Johnson, because there's only one of him.
So don't be Worker X. Maybe it sounds glib, but that's really the whole game. That's your life.
Breakfast served all day!
I've worked for six companies that have offshored project management, and all of them have had to move it back. Senior management and C-level people get tired pretty quickly of dealing with someone that can't communicate and doesn't work the same hours as they do. Plus, understanding the product and the customers is vital for that job. Coming from a technical background for that job is also a huge plus. I've worked on a lot of different software projects from Facebook games, accounting systems, payroll, and education, and in all of them, the offshore people were a disaster since they didn't understand the product or the customers.
A bonus is that the PM jobs are usually pretty easy. Most of the PMs I've worked with worked about 1/2 to 2/3 of the hours that the developers are required to.
There will always be need for some local ‘hands on’ help. Networking is highly local, cabling, fiber , technicians, etc.
However, so long as scum bag companies (like Disney, firing 100’s of US programmers then claiming they can’t find help and pushing for an increase of H1B’s), the job problem will only get worse.
The fact is, the oligarchy that runs this country only cares about market cap, eps, and shareholder value. Screw American jobs, if they can reduce a cost by a penny, it’s done. If you’re at the top of the living scale country, you’re screwed – if you live in a 3rd world sh#t hole with no environmental, intellectual or labor laws, you’re king.
They only way to stop the trend is to take big money (IE: corporate dollars) out of politics. Use tariff’s like they are intended, recognize corporations are NOT people (neither are chimps) for the simple fact that no one is ever held accountable . So, unless you all want to start crapping in outhouses over rivers in which you bath and drink from (google river pollution in India – the nexus of where your job likely went) , get politically active and vote OUT anyone opposed to campaign finance reform.
I've had fairly good luck in freelance computer repair. I found that there were enough customers to scrape together a living who were tired of "tech support" they couldn't understand and weren't any help.
I'd say, work for yourself, find a job that requires the personal touch, and just be better at it than any offshore or H1B contractor could be.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
That's all folks.
Sex worker.
While outsourcing sex workers will work for the vacation bonk, the daily bonk needs to be closer...
Pucker up, its working time...
Problem solvers are far more in demand than ever, and that won't go away till we get strong AI (at which point the problem won't be offshore, but inCPU).
I don't mean 'engineers' like code pigs or most IT drones (not a dig at IT, really good IT people are engineers too). You just have to be someone who can take all information about the problem, including the constraints, then design and implement the best solution given the constraints - that means time, budget, reliability, support needs, end of life, etc.
The trouble is that most people can't do that, which is why it's in high demand. Risk assessment and mitigation are crucial and mostly untaught skills. Most people will just do what you tell them to, or take their favorite hammer and chainsaw and use it on everything in disregard of practical requirements. Most offshore 'engineers' fall into this category as well, which is one reason engineering outsourcing has such a bad stink among those who jumped on the bandwagon in the 2000s.
Which leads to the other problem - it's nigh impossible to learn except by doing. Normal path is to get an engineering degree, then join an engineering firm and work on actual products - though if you join a big boring place like HP you still may end up just learning to be a code pig unless you're lucky enough to end up in one of their very few interesting divisions (memristors!). Obviously this is long term project, high expense. High risk till you get the degree, then fairly low risk.
The other option is to just start making things. Make 'products' for yourself and try to finish them - i.e. make it something you could sell, even if you don't. This is easier than ever now thanks to explosion of low cost boards, motor controllers, cameras, drones... Get your hands on. Someone who can code, breadboard, solder and do servo control is a highly contested prize.
The bad news is you may find you're just not suited for it. In which case your best hope is probably to find an avoided niche like COBOL.
The good news is that if you're suited for it it's ridiculously fun and rewarding. Some days are still gonna suck, but generally you're solving interesting problems and making real things and people are using the things you made (this is THE BEST). Usually not as lucrative as banking or politics, but making decent money and helping rather than being scum of the earth (unless you go to work for Facebook, *zing*) is worth a lot of peace of mind.
The "writing on the wall" has been there for about two decades now. When is it actually going to happen?
I worked for The City of San Diego and career advanced to a $65K per year job. One of my sons is a Registered Nurse, the other works as a machinist for a small machine shop that has many contracts with local aerospace and aviation companies. Get an education or vocational training.
Truck drivers are always needed, and the work is fairly easy. Making it a very good fall back job if nothing else is in the works.
Welders need to be on-site or nearby to repair equipment; skilled, talented welders get to fabricate new stuff - more interesting and remunerative.
Talented people will always be in demand.
Of course, if you're sub-mediocre, you should probably worry. Because, yeah, sorry, your decade old skillset that you've never bothered to improve is not worth $150k/year.
This trend is never guaranteed to hold but most of the large companies I deal with have US citizens on their product and internal IT security teams although I have seen in recent years a few H1Bs get in the mix. I am not talking about general IT security but specialized security teams within the company that do PKI, work with HSMs, CIRT leadership team (I have seen the analysis teams get off shored), PEN testing of internal and external applications, security teams that do government customization, and black box testing of products.
As one person I know put it "I've had a good career, there was always steady work in roads and commodes". And I doubt there is a H1B threat out there. 've been to India and their infrastructure is terrible.
Another friend of mine has had a nice stable career in AC electrical, mostly architectural and industrial construction work. Both of which required on-site inspections and 'boots on the ground'. AC electrical is also in demand for integrate alternative energy sources with a grid. Which also requires local inspections and 'boots on the ground'.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
It's not so much citizenship, but whether you are a US person. A legal permanent resident (i.e. holding a green card) is a US person. A US citizen, working for a foreign government or company is NOT a US person.
For export controls, there's a difference between ITAR/US Munitions List and EAR - Commerce, too.
Security clearances are granted to both US citizens and legal permanent residents and even some non-permanent residents.
Sure, the employment ads say "US Citizenship Required", but that's not technically the case.
they may be able to source say, something like network support overseas, but at the end of the day, when hardware fails or need replacement or new installs in data centers in the US, you still need those guys who can do cabling, swap 6509's and so forth -
I think the idea of a overseas proof career in IT are over, however. Ensuring you are always at the top of your game and being up on the latest skills even if it eats some of your personal time can go a long way though
RB
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ah honey, we're all resplendent - Bill Mallonee
My IT career was mostly in (boring) accounting systems. Working with auditors, etc.
Turns out, this work met the experience requirements to be a CPA in the State of California (because the department head was a CPA..) This can also work in similar areas like Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. I already had an MBA but I needed some accounting specific credits from a community college, passed the exams (a major challenge) and, voila, now I am a Certified Public Accountant in California.
Totally offshore proof. Very specific initial requirements and lots of continuing education.
But it works for me.
Heck, we'll hire you too, and a few of your friends. Business is booming.
You should enjoy hacking on stuff like emulators, boot loaders, compilers, OS kernels, and programs that analyse either binary executables or source code. It's great if you can deal with assembly code for any architecture.
You get 40-hour weeks with optional paid overtime. You can run Linux. You can wear flip-flops. You can choose Austin, San Antonio, several couple sites near DC, Huntsville, or the main site in Indialantic/Melbourne, FL. Most sites offer offices with walls. Most sites offer extreme flex-time. Hint for the undecided: there is no state income tax in Florida or Texas, and housing is super-cheap in Florida.
You can use http://advancedsecuritylabs.com/ to learn a bit more, and https://rtnsi.theresumator.com/apply to apply. The cool jobs have "Research" and/or "CNO" in the name.
Use the money you're making while you still have a job to cram your 401k and IRS full of at least a few hundred k and preferably a million or more. Invest it in interest bearing bonds or dividend paying stocks. When your job finally gets off-shored, set up "Substantially Equal Periodic Payments"(google it) and live off that and do what the fuck you feel like doing. You might have to move to a smaller city if you get a late start, but it beats working even the coolest job. Hardest part is pitching it to your wife. You may have to replace her if she can't stand the idea that you get money without having to work.
Any skill level you can achieve in the US (I assume you are from the US) can also be achieved in any other country. Maybe India and China are not yet up to speed, but it is only a matter of time that they on the same level. Especially, when I look at today's students and their inability to code and to design software. Recently, I learned on an conference that my impression from my little world was shared all over the world. So you might be able to be above average, but from a general perspective for every above average there is one below. So either you are already in a save place because your skills and your capabilities are required or you just average or worse then you will get paid less in future. Maybe you should offshore yourself and follow the jobs.
Plumber, elevator tech, electricians, HVAC, brick layer, pipe fitter, maintenance worker. Pick one. Cant offshore the things that REQUIRES hands on work.
With 10 years of IT experience and with a college degree in computer science, I made the jump into HVAC and i'm currently service an apprenticeship with a HVAC install and maintenance shop. My age (maturity) and my technical background allowed me to transition well. With that said blue collar apprenticeships is tough work (at time hard manual work and long hours). But its not always like this and it does get better over time. You just have to prove to your coworkers that they can trust you.
If you have a good mechanical aptitude, capable of working on your feet, and can speak to customers, then blue collar is the way to go.
I was chatting with a guy who runs a small wood fired brick oven pizza oven at the local farmer's market. Turns out he is a former IT guy who quit his day gig to do the farmer's market circuit year round. Gets to be outdoors, and his work load is a lot lighter for about 7 months of the year when the days and hours scale back for winter. Can't say it would be my first choice, but compared to cube life it doesn't look too bad. So starting your own business is an option.
In my case I do mixed signal ASIC design for a German company, so I am actually on the off-shore side of things (there is a limited talent pool in Germany more so than a wage gap). While there plenty of places doing ASIC work, it still appears that the barriers to entry are high enough that design shops pop up where there is a critical mass of workers with experience rather than just where the rent is cheap.
For some reason offshore workers are efficient only when you tell them exactly what to do. If there is only a small part left to interpretation they will do it wrong. Jobs where you are given only vague ideas and you have to fill the gaps yourself should be safer.
I'm not saying that foreigners are worse than locals but those who aren't will not be the ones you'll get when you look for cheap labor.
How do you like washing dishes or flipping burgers? What am I kidding, flipping burgers can be offshored...
..or an electrician, or a carpenter, or a gardener or any other profession where physical presence is required to do the job
If virtual presence is good enough, you can be anywhere with good internet
All the jobs suitable for introverts, autistic spectrums, and people with just plain bad social skills are gonna go. The jobs left will be those actually calling the shots and bringing home the bacon. If you're reading this website that's probably not you, in other words. Thanks for playing!
WalMart Greeter. Fry cook at McDs. Office cleaner....
Get a job, or enter a career that require that YOUR HANDS touch the hardware. If you can use Skype, Webex, LogMeIn or TeamViewer to do your work, your job can be outsourced to India or the Philippines. (The Philippines are taking online-support work away from India because Filipinos often speak excellent English, while Indian and Chinese accents are sometimes unintelligible.)
For example, I work for a document management company that started as a copier company. Our copier techs drive to the customer's location and repair and maintain the machines onsite. I work remotely, but in close consultation with the on-site technicians.
Now here is the rub: A lot of places -WANT- someone with a clearance.
They don't want to get your ass cleared though. In fact almost nobody will clear you unless you have some skill set that is absolutely needed.
Trust me on this... I've been to many interviews where I was asked my clearance ID, or my CISSP ID... and with neither, I was told, "sorry... next in line please" and shown the door.
As for job recommendations. Go law. Pass the bar, and you never have to worry about unemployment again unless you get disbarred. LA and NYC are exceptions, but every state in the US needs good lawyers, and they are not getting offshored anytime soon. In fact, this is what high school conselors are telling the bright kids to do. Practice in debate class, go business, get your JD, and have an actual profession as opposed to fighting for scraps with the H-1Bs.
Don't recollect any being displaced by foreigners. Pretty high barrier to entry.
Professor J. Rufus Fears taught me that a "career" is a French word that means "path." He says it's a path to get from graduation into a retirement home. I have tried to internalize this concept, and it helped me take risks with quitting multiple career-type jobs to open up my own businesses. Roll the dice, and see how they land. Have an adventure, not a career.
One business of mine is a software development company. This is my primary means of livelihood. Right now, I mostly contract out development services to small-to-medium sized organizations that have trouble staffing programmers. The vast majority of my clients are not large enough to hire a full time, on staff, programmer to help do what I (literally me programming, most of the time) do for them. I've developed a relationship with a programmer in Kazakhstan, where I can take advantage of the lower costs to get things developed cheaper than here. However, now I am working primarily with a MUCH more expensive local programmer, since his efficiency is higher, the Kazakh guy isn't as available and finding a new one is a ton of work, and on some projects the local presence far outweighs the cost savings by outsourcing. Plus, the American is my friend, an early mentor that taught me about web programming when we were both employees, and things are slow with him now so I wanted to get started working together (on a relatively small project for a client.) I'm also working on developing a software product for passive income, but that takes a LOT longer, and is much riskier than contracting.
Another business I have is rental property close to the local university. That business is, by definition, tied to my geographical area. When software is slow, rents come in and I can work on home improvement projects. When software is busy, rents still come in and I can pay someone else to do emergency repairs, and put off improvements until a slow time.
The concept of relying on a single employer for all my income is extremely scary to me. I would much rather diversify my software earnings across multiple clients to mitigate risk. Similarly, I'd rather have multiple one-bedroom apartments to rent out as compared to a big house to rent so that when one of the college students decides he cannot pay his rent this summer, and that he's leaving two months early (despite his two, international, trips setup...) I still have rents coming in. I have two companies which provide me with income, in terms of about seven clients/customers/renters. Both the Albuquerque software industry (most of my business is serving local customers) and the Albuquerque university rental market would have to collapse, simultaneously, for me to be majorly screwed. If anything, I'm pretty tied to Albuquerque and should try and diversify geographically more! I love Albuquerque though...
I do not have a family to provide for. I'm working on changing that, with trying to be as good of a boyfriend as I can be, with the goal of getting married someday. I am not saying that you should throw away all sense of security for your family (if you have one) and become a hustler overnight. "Look kids, we get to have the BLUE Ramen noodles for dinner tonight! Insurance? Who needs it?!? Jesus is my insurance!" No, that's not what I'm talking about... My local, subcontractor, friend (that I am just starting to work together with) took the plunge about three months ago and went into business for himself. He has a wife and two kids. He prepared extremely well, and setup enough contracts to be making about 1.7x his salary for the first three months from basically day one. This is his first slow two week period, so we are working together. My local community has all sorts of people that are interested in promoting entrepreneurial activities, helping you get started, and providing free advice. I am extremely
My father in-law has a super top secret clearance (worked on the stealth stuff for the F-22) and he cannot get another job. There are quite a few people already that have clearances like that and they don't need anymore nor will they for the foreseeable future.
If you know the right crowd where you can realistically get the job, CEO.
If not, politician or physician.
All STEM job are offshorable and subsequently insecure.
I am a software manager for a device company and we outsource a lot of our engineering, project management and manufacturing.
This is the normal in these types of companies, its not the outsourcing you fear, its the opposite. We outsource to fill a gap in our skills or to augment our teams or to do stuff that we do not normally take on.
We engage local companies and find local talent., no I know that this is different for large scale IT.
WE WOULD NEVER EVER EVER OUTSOURCE OUR CORE IP!!!!
this means that we will always have engineers and developers that our part of our company.
NOTE: look up wages and inflation on India, China ETC. you will see that it is almost cheaper to keep engineering and manufacturing local. do the research on this and you will be surprised. at one point I was really fearful of this and it almost made me change careers ( I am glad that I did not).
Plumbing and auto repair are safe so far...
Figure out new ways to make/deliver unique solutions.
And move back to the US
Except that it won't, except in very special circumstances.
Let's be honest here: Most IT jobs - being a sysadmin, writing software, setting up a network - are not complicated. Most systems don't need much other than some some packages and configuration handled by something like Puppet. Most software doesn't do anything remarkable - it just shuffles data from point A to point B and displays a few things to an end user. Etc., etc.
A vast majority of IT jobs only require mediocre skill and knowledge. Most H1-B folks I know have rarely been mediocre, but they ARE cheap and management doesn't know the difference anyway. All they know is eventually their widget does the new X they've been asking for. So what if the code is a terrible mess and deployment is a gigantic pain? The management doesn't see or care.
Knowing the business? That's what project managers and other management-y types are for (or so they think). You and I know that a software engineer who is well versed in a certain business will design better systems, for example, but I've not once seen a manager that believes this way.
Management sees IT staff as nearly a commodity with people easily interchangeable. They're not entirely wrong - not entirely - but they think they're not wrong at all.
Remember: It isn't what YOU think that is important when a company is doing the hiring. What is important is what THEY think and how cheap they can get you and how much they can work you before you burn out.
Love sees no species.
But I was wondering if some slashdotters could share some constructive real-life experiences of planning a transition to a relatively offshore-proof career.
Well, how good are you at giving blow jobs? The oldest profession is unlikely to get offshored.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
They dont outsource network engineering as much as they do with software engineering, and is less prone to H1bs. If you have years of experience + know what you are doing + some certs = you should be in a good spot
Want to have the most crisis-proof career? Then start living the life of a survivalist. The idea is to grow, build and fix as much of everything you need. Then as a sideline, get any job that doesn't pay starvation wages and give you enough time off to starting growing, building and fixing the things you need. Make sure the stuff that you can't DIY is merely a luxury not an essential when worst comes to worst (nuclear winter, zombie apocalypse, asteroid impact, etc). Or at least make sure the thing is easily repaired rather than an iGadget only a service center halfway across the country can fix. Then you can use the income you get from your taxable job to buy your iPad, aPhone or electric scooter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_analyst
From the course I've took, it was a bunch of IT guys that noticed they where the ones who most understand how their companies "work" as whole, as they were the ones who developed the systems that enabled communication between all areas - a feeling I share. In the beginning their diagrams, artefacts and terminology resembled much of that of IT, but, as the field progresses, they are diverging, I'm considering investing more time on this on the future as companies start to see value on it, although now I'm (more than) fully employed in IT, and happy on it.
A lawyer specializing in a state that's too small for an outsourcing firm to bother with. What Indian student is going to want to specialize in Rhode Island law?
Table-ized A.I.
Portugal has many aspects that portend to the a good place to give up US citizenship.
But do the homework to move money to Swiss Banks, a few, before settling in and establishing shop.
As a member of NATO, security clearance and access are not so different from within the USA; accurate records and dates needed.
Added benefit: once a citizen of Portugal, retirement money instruments from other countries are not taxed by Portugal!
Have fun.
People are always going to need heating and cooling. You get in the Sheet Metal Workers or Pipefitters union and you get to live with a little bit of dignity instead of playing dog eat dog with the hungriest dogs in the world.
Don't think about your career. Think about your life.
I was part of the last generation for whom academia was a good career choice. I see the hollowed eyes of the kids who are still thinking a PhD is a golden ticket to a tenured professorship and banging co-eds. I got lucky because of when I was born. I hope those of you in tech, in the US, are smart enough to see the writing on the wall.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Get involved with security... as in securing things, not as in requiring security clearance. A lot of things cannot be exported due to federal regulations, and security is one of them. Americans don't want to trust their national security to another nation. Try checking out CISSP certification.
Perhaps civil engineering or hvac engineering. Engineering-level construction jobs can be very rewarding and are well paid.
I also happen to think that software development will continue to be a rewarding career. I recently went back to it myself when I realized that the need for software is going to increase faster than the world can supply talented developers.
this signature has been removed due to a DMCA takedown notice
Write applications for an Apple or Android app store. Then you don't have to worry about getting hired and fired. Just know that it's hard to make your app stand out.
When you use your computer or mobile device, be on the lookout for times when you get annoyed because something is awkward or impossible to do. Then see if you can write easy-to-use software for that problem.
Become a garbage man.
There is lots of different US military hardware that has been named M1 (model 1.)
The coffee would be rather cold if the pour is done halfway around the world.
SD
-Judge Smails
The only jobs that are "offshore-proof" are jobs that require a *very* high security clearance and can't be done by non-citizens for reasons of law and national security or jobs that literally cannot be done from a remote location, such as janitorial work. So, you have to either be the absolute top in your field or switch to menial labor.
Or, and I know this might sound ridiculous if you buy into right-wing politics, you could actually support politicians, laws, and unions that work towards ensuring that every American has a good paying job and that penalize companies for sending jobs out of the country.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920
Even if the job is mostly remote (as mine is), many clients want to see you once in a while. Or, maybe you are doing internal testing which requires you to be on-site, but only project-focused, not all the time. I've managed to off-shore myself (literally, on an island), while being responsive to clients and still able to travel in a reasonable period of time when needed.
Dear Slashdotters,
I have not had the chance to share my story with everybody because its a rather dark, twisty tale. However, I will say this.
I was recently approved by a program in my Country. (Canada) for Severe Handicaps which guarantees a wage of around 1500-1700 per month along with Health benefits; Permanently. I consider working in server rooms since the age of 20 to prssent (Lets say 30i, ugh I hate to say it but I might as well get used to it, Cuz It won't be long.)
-I have worked in IT and worked my way up through it since I was 17 Years old; starting with small IT Shops as early as 12 on a volunteer basis as well as obviously programming, building PC's, trying to beat at-the-the-time gamegods in quake competitions, etc. I had a pretty fun youth, but was also in Foster Care for a large part of it.
(Wow that was long,)
-I burnt out very fast, After about 10 years.
I was taking many courses as well, Business Analyst type stuff, Business Management, etc.
I ended up spending far too much time the last few years doing inspirational things over the weekend or overnight, Which I know see was manic behavior once I became engineer in datacenter type IT guy doing all sorts of things, all sorts of meetings with Telco suits, Fake suits, Sexy suits.
I started using Drugs, Amphetamines (Then Prescribed at the time to me for ADD-type tendencies, AKA having an almost impossible time being a regular worker-bee and doing what I wanted, even if I wanted to be sitting at my desk, Sometimes I just couldnt get myself to sit there and would wander around.)
Drugs like those, Gave me far greater amounts of stress and doing things like 48-hour'ers - I have proof of thousands of unpaid hours. But, I have not taken my employer to court; after breaking down and not being able to deal with anything related to IT infrastructure shortly around or after the time heartbleed happened.
-I am Cisco-Certified.
I do know know what I plan to do, I live in Canada; Particularily an area of the country known for great trades and wealth in oil. My stepfather has given me an opurtunity to go live with him up there, If I am serious about working there. In this case "There" is Fort McMurray. There are alot of Redneck type people, Hard working type people; and drug and all sorts of people from all over the world working in this "Very small Town" which, On average for example: Tim Hortons employees are pair 18-20 an hour to start there vs the 10-11 an hour to start in my town. They also recieve over 20-30$ in tips every couple days. Whereas in my town, My Mother is lucky to receive even 2 dollars tips in a few days as its not custom, nor expected at such a place. I am rambing tldr but you get my point, Its a wealthly Place.
-So I am considering either picking up a solid trade, Recognized by my country and having standards in place country-wide; and a very good designation to have of any sort in high demand or practrical or otherwise
-I have little skills with Building, or other Hard, Complicated or Physical cleverness. I am very good with computers, IT Infrastructure, Everything you could imagine from even managing MPLS networks; etc. But I am considering starting from the bottom as an Apprentice as IT is not reognized as a trade in my Province, nor my nation; nor anywhere else I know of.
The fact I've worked at Dell and been promoted at Dell, worked at IBM, worked at two Companies who had been around since the 40's and had IT since the 80's into Virtualization and Red Hate Enterprise Linux, or the fact I've been an Apple XSAN Administrator seems to mean nothing to nobody.
Add that to the fact I am guaranteed 1600 a month, To do nothing doesn't make it easy to ignore the fact the TRUTH that IT IS DANGEROUS.
Not only to health as I went mental (Yes there were amphetamines involved, but still). I literally stopped showing up at the datacenter. Please note, There was various large Telco High-Output (Max of Safety Code regulation, Unusual for such a densely populated Urban area but it is grandfathered
Dear Slashdotters,
I have not had the chance to share my story with everybody because its a rather dark, twisty tale. However, I will say this.
I was recently approved by a program in my Country. (Canada) for Severe Handicaps which guarantees a wage of around 1500-1700 per month along with Health benefits; Permanently. I consider working in server rooms since the age of 20 to prssent (Lets say 30i, ugh I hate to say it but I might as well get used to it, Cuz It won't be long.)
-I have worked in IT and worked my way up through it since I was 17 Years old; starting with small IT Shops as early as 12 on a volunteer basis as well as obviously programming, building PC's, trying to beat at-the-the-time gamegods in quake competitions, etc. I had a pretty fun youth, but was also in Foster Care for a large part of it.
(Wow that was long,)
-I burnt out very fast, After about 10 years.
I was taking many courses as well, Business Analyst type stuff, Business Management, etc.
I ended up spending far too much time the last few years doing inspirational things over the weekend or overnight, Which I know see was manic behavior once I became engineer in datacenter type IT guy doing all sorts of things, all sorts of meetings with Telco suits, Fake suits, Sexy suits.
I started using Drugs, Amphetamines (Then Prescribed at the time to me for ADD-type tendencies, AKA having an almost impossible time being a regular worker-bee and doing what I wanted, even if I wanted to be sitting at my desk, Sometimes I just couldnt get myself to sit there and would wander around.)
Drugs like those, Gave me far greater amounts of stress and doing things like 48-hour'ers - I have proof of thousands of unpaid hours. But, I have not taken my employer to court; after breaking down and not being able to deal with anything related to IT infrastructure shortly around or after the time heartbleed happened.
-I am Cisco-Certified.
I do know know what I plan to do, I live in Canada; Particularily an area of the country known for great trades and wealth in oil. My stepfather has given me an opurtunity to go live with him up there, If I am serious about working there. In this case "There" is Fort McMurray. There are alot of Redneck type people, Hard working type people; and drug and all sorts of people from all over the world working in this "Very small Town" which, On average for example: Tim Hortons employees are pair 18-20 an hour to start there vs the 10-11 an hour to start in my town. They also recieve over 20-30$ in tips every couple days. Whereas in my town, My Mother is lucky to receive even 2 dollars tips in a few days as its not custom, nor expected at such a place. I am rambing tldr but you get my point, Its a wealthly Place.
-So I am considering either picking up a solid trade, Recognized by my country and having standards in place country-wide; and a very good designation to have of any sort in high demand or practrical or otherwise
-I have little skills with Building, or other Hard, Complicated or Physical cleverness. I am very good with computers, IT Infrastructure, Everything you could imagine from even managing MPLS networks; etc. But I am considering starting from the bottom as an Apprentice as IT is not reognized as a trade in my Province, nor my nation; nor anywhere else I know of.
The fact I've worked at Dell and been promoted at Dell, worked at IBM, worked at two Companies who had been around since the 40's and had IT since the 80's into Virtualization and Red Hate Enterprise Linux, or the fact I've been an Apple XSAN Administrator seems to mean nothing to nobody.
Add that to the fact I am guaranteed 1600 a month, To do nothing doesn't make it easy to ignore the fact the TRUTH that IT IS DANGEROUS.
Not only to health as I went mental (Yes there were amphetamines involved, but still). I literally stopped showing up at the datacenter. Please note, There was various large Telco High-Output (Max of Safety Code regulation, Unusual for such a densely populated Urban area bu
The guy is asking for a job which is offshore proof, and you guys go off tangent talking about cost of offshoring to five-eye countries ...
Anyway, the one and only way to ensure that what you do does not and will never go offshore is to create that career for yourself
You can never rely on somebody else ... ie., and employer ... because they are there to make a profit
So, pick a field, a field which you know you are very capable in, and start your own business in that field
And since it's YOUR OWN BUSINESS, you, as the boss, get to have the final say on whether you gonna offshore the operation of your own company, or not
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
There are tons of jobs that cannot be exported.
Mike Rowe has given some good talks about the shortage of skilled labour in the US and what a problem it is. This kind of thing can't be outsourced since, well, the labour is needed in the US. I suppose it could be replaced with H1Bs but that doesn't seem to be happening.
Most of it is stuff like plumbing that isn't glamorous, and even can be dirty, but it is necessary and will continue to be necessary. Eventually robotics may advance to the point of replacing it, but not in the foreseeable future.
A couple of years ago I got into repairing sewing machines. Not something I really chose, wife just kind of dumped it on me. But have you seen a modern sewing/embroidery machine? They've got on board computers, dozens of sensors, touch screens, stepper motors. It's a pretty girly sport, but the machines are crammed with robotics and technology. More work than I know what to do with - and the women are genuinely thankful when you repair their 'baby'.
Now I drive Metropolitan Electric Trains.
I make more money, spend more time with my kids, and never bring work home.
Being a school teacher is not that bad if you can do this job. Otherwise just plain hard core software developer seems like a pretty decent path.
I doubt that India and China can raise outsourcing levels, quality is poor and the cost is going up by an hour.
All other countries are small or have a very long way to go. Looking around me I find that even pretty inept engineers are employed. Yes, the most inept engineer I met in past 25 years moved to be a store manager but he was really exceptionally inept.
IMHO, all remaining outsourcing trends are due to the fact that management simply could not find anything else to do.
So, if you can do something beyond filling getters and setters generated by your IDE, your job prospects are decent. If you know why setters should be deleted (*) your job prospects are good relative to most of the other mass occupations.
BTW I do believe that sucking the rest of world dry from talent is a good idea in many respects. Among other thing it is way easier to compete against some one making 1/2 of your salary vs one making 1/10th.
(*)Setters break encapsulation - for ones who did not learn it yet.
satisfaction is amazing. Pay is reasonable. Automation prospects are negligible.
You have to like people however amd have a thick skin
its the clear choice
I have been a programmer for over 30 years now. The best way to keep your job is to jump on the hard technologies that real industry is doing, not the latest dot bomb thing. That stuff goes to India or Costa Rica. Manufacturing needs big data to reduce production costs. Marketing needs it as well. It is hard stuff you can't just hack out, and you need practical math. The clients also expect good communication skills and don't mind grey hair. I think being a data engineer is going to hold out against large scale offshoring for awhile. That is my bet, anyways, and I have managed to stay at the forefront for quite a few years. Also, get the heck out of Silicon Valley. Go to America's offshoring places. I am in Utah, and get paid much less but can buy so much more. My cost of living is fractional of CA. We are America's India and business is booming.
... is become one of the 1-percent. Otherwise, if your job isn't offshored, you'll be replaced by a robot. Basically, you have to own the robots to win.
Periodically (maybe once or twice a year) go interview at another company. Not because you necessarily want to quit, but just so that they know who you are. If you did well, they will know who you are and contact you from time to time to find out if you're interested. This has a few effects:
1) Other companies know who you are and know that you're competent, and want you to come work for them.
2) Keeps your interview skills up to date.
3) Offers an insurance policy in case things go downhill at your current job.
Nothing more satisfying than turning in your two weeks notice the day after some C business student whose only real skill is ass-kissing talks down to you as if he knows more about your job. I thought he was going to cry.
Seriously, you have to own the business. Oddly, america has load of ppl with great skills that should be focused on starting their own company as opposed to working for others.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
That's going to make finding such a career difficult. We've got H1-B visa workers coming in, but also illegal immigrants. The H1-B visa holders are pushing people out of white collar work. The illegals are pushing people out of low-end work (my old neighborhood in NJ used to have paid white lawnmowers; emphasis on "used to").
The only solution I see is to halt both the visas, illegal immigration, and perhaps even reduce legal immigration. The problem is that most politicians (both right and left) are bought and paid for by the Immigration Lobby (FWD.us and others). People need to work together to get politicians to act properly on this issue.
It is not for everyone, but when I get tired of doing IT I am going to teach tai chi. I have been training for almost 15 years now and while I am not a master, I have some proficiency with it. Tai chi is good for health and the philosophy behind it is one of the better ways to live a life.
I am not too worried about my job leaving any time soon. Given the average competence of my co-workers and the lack of competence that I have seen from H1Bs, I know that my position is going to be stable for a while. The reality is that there are not that many people who understand IT environments from top to bottom (technically) and who can also work with the business side to transform their needs into working systems that are delivered and managed on budget.
Just as I've never seen a legislator vote to reduce their own pay, I've never seen a manager offshore their own job. Every other job, yes. Not their own.
Just as I've never seen a legislator vote to reduce their own pay, I've never seen a manager offshore their own job. Every other job, yes. Not their own.
Having just finished a contract in the investment banking arm of a Swedish bank, I can point to a range of frontline support and development roles which are going to be RELATIVELY outsource-proof. Telephony system support; desktop support; trading platform support; algorithm/decision support system development; basically anything that an investment banking trader is going to need in order to process a deal, although the specifics are going to vary by company.
Those traders are (a) paid a metric crap-ton of money, and (b) stressed by anything and everything from reflections on the screen to their coffee being too hot.
Having to pick up a phone and shout at someone in another country is not going to work - even someone in the SAME BUILDING, but on a different floor does not do it. They want someone in the same room (same room is not a small office, this is typically a trading pit with 250-300 people in it, so pretty big) who they can grab (sometimes literally), point at the problem and yell "fix it", before running off to chug down a couple of valium. If they do not get what they want, they bitch at their managers about how the company is not giving them the tools to do their job (make tons of money for the bank).
The typical overhead for one of those traders by the time their Bloomberg and Reuters real-time data licences plus software licences and broker fees is included, is well over $10,000 per month, and that is without accounting for their salaries, bonuses, IT hardware or software licences that are calculated at a corporate level - operating systems, Office package, databases etc. Overall, the "normal" monthly investment that the bank makes in that trader is over $100,000, so for the business, even when it is run by bean-counters or Harvard MBAs, whatever that person needs to increase their productivity, they get. So if the users say that they NEED an IT guy on the spot who can be at the desk within 20 seconds to look at and start working on the problem, that is what they get. If that IT guy is going to cost $80,000 - $100,000 per year instead of $15,000 per year for some guy called "Dave" with an Indian accent working out of Bangalore, tough shit, $65,000 is pin money.
Remote access from outside the bank is almost always flat out refused for security reasons, so while off-site support can work, third-party support has to be on-site and in person.
The only exception to the "local first" rule that I have seen, is the Bloomberg helpdesk. Those guys work remotely, and can be reached either by telephone (usually a call center somewhere in the same geographical region as the user) or by pressing F1 twice on your keyboard, which brings up a Messenger-style chat window. You type your question and it gets routed to a team that hopefully knows something about the specifics. Almost invariably though, when a trader gets a Bloomberg problem, it is batted off to the in-room IT guy who goes through the problem with the Bloomberg tech while the trader goes to pop another valium and get a massage to de-stress.
Basically, if you are someone who can turn Excel inside out, write high quality C++ code while being constantly interrupted, and solve whatever random crap problems come up while maintaining a calm demeanour and keeping the world's most stressed people from flying into hypertensive shock, then you have a job for life.
A typical day? Printer is out of paper; another printer is jammed, and has a full waste toner bottle; internet connection for user X is down; User Y has just sent a naked picture of client A's wife to client B by mistake; Murex overnight jobs have failed so the D3 trading platform has the wrong start prices and wrong date, so someone needs that escalating to the Murex support team to get it fixed; User Z has just got in and spilled coffee in his Bloomberg keyboard so the biometric login does not work; vendor A upgraded their app without telling anyone last night, so now all the users of that system cannot login; the row of desks 24-48 are completely dead, Christ knows why, although t
Any job that requires a license cannot be performed by someone off shore. Immigrants *can* do them, but only permanent ones. You can't make a claim that a guest worker is needed because he (as a foreign national) is licensed. But even that doesn't really hold up. The only people who still have the job they had 40 years ago are the ones who have stake in the company. So chose employment which offers partnership.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
I enjoyed reading all the offshore proof ideas people posted.
I get the sinking feeling, "there is no sanctuary" for most of us. The offshore proof 'good' jobs are only a few, and once a city has X many plumbers, or lawyers, or nurses, doctors, mechanics, ...then what about everyone else?
It seems that there may be a finite reservoir of total possible jobs all of humanity can do, they seem a resource to think about like we do for drinking water, farm-able land, and such.
With the constant upward growth of global population from 7B ==> 9B, it looks like it is a race to the bottom for most of us. Too many people chasing too few 'good' jobs, and every year the odds less in our favor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
Vote against the bug-business robot congressmen who want to balloon the H1B program and/or support offshoring. Most of this job instability, you voted for it, in your own ignorance of what it would mean to you. Obama wants your job offshore. So does Chuck Schumer, Kevin McCarthy, and Mitch McConnell.
They can't outsource that, yet!
But not someone who mans a drive thru window. Because they've already outsourced that!
Outsourcing is pure evil.
Fast food industry?
Tracy Johnson
Old fashioned text games hosted below:
http://empire.openmpe.com/
BT
burger flipper at McDonald's
Good luck on that. in my experience there doesn't seem to be an IT job that is no out source able. If you find this unicorn let us know
Returned to school at 46 YO, 2 years of prerequisites followed by 4 years of dental school. $150k in student loans at 6.8%.
Dentistry is exactly the opposite of engineering. My work is appreciated by my patients, and I get respect. They can't send my job to China/India/wherever because they can't send my patients to China/India/wherever. Pay is a little more than I made as an engineer and growing rapidly.
I just wish the ADA wasn't so far to the right on the political spectrum...
An SUV with 5 lawyers went over a cliff. What was the tragedy? There was room for one more lawyer.
Ain't no such thing. Get over it.
Diesel engine mechanic. It's dirty work but there's no arguing that trucking and rail are the lifeblood of the US freight system.
(2) Make sure that your skills are needed on the site of the work, and your job doesn't depend on having communications. We've lost 75% of our communicatinos because of the crane operator putting a load through one of the satellite radomes, so my work on this vessel is safe until the end of the contract.)
(3) multiple languages help. Anything other than English (I have moderate French and Spanish, a smidgin of Swahili and a dash of Russian) is an advantage against people who only have English.
(4) Get used to travelling. I'm half-way through this trip, with another month to go. Maybe more - who knows ? (No-one. Anywhere.)
Ummm, they're the main bits of advice I can give you.
What? You want to go to your home every night, and you work in communications of some sort? Well then, sir, you are in direct competition with millions of people all over the world who also intend to go home at night and work in communications. Many of them live in a lower cost economy than you do (in fact, precisely half of them live in a below-median cost-of-living economy. That is what "median" means.), and so you are, irrevocably, vulnerable to losing your job to them. It's called globalisation. Welcome to the brave new world. No, you cannot leave.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"