Wow, this must be the most discussed topic for a while. While most will never read the 1638th comment, I'll just put in my opinions like anyone else.
Americans complain of their jobs going overseas, politicians are becoming protectionist, etc... but why won't entreprenueral, creative IT programmers, technicians, engineers, HR, payroll, project management, and whatever outsource-able job holder re-make their business model and provide more value to customers?
Invent a better programming language that makes it cheaper for programmers to churn out bug-free code faster and better; provide better face-to-face contace and customer service, tout the benefits of direct contact vs. off-shore activity; do any number of things to make american services value for money to corporations and business so that they don't always jump on the outsourcing option the first chance they get.
Well, that's my two cents worth. I live in Singapore and many IT jobs are going to Malaysia, I don't know how long I'll last.... I'm certainly going to put my money where my mouth is (or was it the other way round) and start thinking of selling better, cheaper services than the Indians, Malaysians, Chinese, Phillipines,.....
Ed
Non-programming jobs?
on
Ageism in IT?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
What about all the other IT jobs that do not involve programming?
I started out as a lowly Technical Writer and 3 years later I'm a regional quality manager. I have staff who are older and younger than me.
There are many other roles where experience definitely actually adds value - Project Management, Service Delivery Management, Sales, etc...
I hired a Service Delivery executive in his forties who did Data Center management for 15 years, then left to a variety of jobs before getting stuck in the unemployment trap. I asked the potentially biased question of how would he take to working in an environment of 20-30 somethings and a boss nearly half his age. I was so impressed with his humble and honest answers (and of course his wealth of experience), I hired him on the spot. It was also smart of him to ask for a salary range comparable to the 20-30 somethings, which meant I could stay in budget and get much more value in terms of experience.
Older programmers just need to stay abreast of the trends and see where the "older" jobs are. If programming is going in favor of younger staff, ageism prevailing, rightfully or wrongfully, it's time to explore other alternatives.
I didn't have the guts to do it. But a friend in another department took the plunge. Being amazingly good at what he did, he found another job at a competitor faster than you could say "Lotus Notes to Exchange Migration" (he is a Microsoft Exchange expert). Worse still, he brought along several other good people with him to start his new empire. His replacements have less talent than his left toe and we're suffering bad.
Life goes on in this shitty company. We're missing SLAs, management is breathing fire down our necks. I put up with the aforementioned 50-60 hours a week, and get overloaded with information.
Even one of my best staff left and got a job at another company and is now earning more than me!
I guess the moral of the story is, there are opportunities out there, sieze them well if you find them. Bring along your department while you're at it.
I pulled out some statistics from my email activity for the past two and a half years:
Highest number of emails sent in one day: 14 May 2003, 26 emails Highest number of emails received in one day: 10 Jan 2003, 80 emails Average number of emails sent daily: 4.75 emails Average number of emails received daily: 15.2 Total number of emails sent (to date): 1747 Total number of emails received (to date): 11355 Ratio of received to sent emails: 6.5 (ie. 1 email is sent for every 6.5 emails received)
The above numbers are spam-free. I use Lotus Notes to extract my email data to excel and use data analysis functions. My average received these days is more in the range of 50-70, since I got promoted from a lowly tech writer to a quality manager, *sigh*.
I was unable to segregate the number of emails where my name is in the "To:" list compared to the "CC:" list, this information would probably give me a better handle on how much of my mail actually matters. But my sent to receive ratio suggests roughly 5 out of 6 emails are not directly of interest to me, an 83.3% information obesity factor?
Slashdot Mirror
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Ed
Wow, this must be the most discussed topic for a while. While most will never read the 1638th comment, I'll just put in my opinions like anyone else.
.....
Americans complain of their jobs going overseas, politicians are becoming protectionist, etc... but why won't entreprenueral, creative IT programmers, technicians, engineers, HR, payroll, project management, and whatever outsource-able job holder re-make their business model and provide more value to customers?
Invent a better programming language that makes it cheaper for programmers to churn out bug-free code faster and better; provide better face-to-face contace and customer service, tout the benefits of direct contact vs. off-shore activity; do any number of things to make american services value for money to corporations and business so that they don't always jump on the outsourcing option the first chance they get.
Well, that's my two cents worth. I live in Singapore and many IT jobs are going to Malaysia, I don't know how long I'll last.... I'm certainly going to put my money where my mouth is (or was it the other way round) and start thinking of selling better, cheaper services than the Indians, Malaysians, Chinese, Phillipines,
Ed
What about all the other IT jobs that do not involve programming?
I started out as a lowly Technical Writer and 3 years later I'm a regional quality manager. I have staff who are older and younger than me.
There are many other roles where experience definitely actually adds value - Project Management, Service Delivery Management, Sales, etc...
I hired a Service Delivery executive in his forties who did Data Center management for 15 years, then left to a variety of jobs before getting stuck in the unemployment trap. I asked the potentially biased question of how would he take to working in an environment of 20-30 somethings and a boss nearly half his age. I was so impressed with his humble and honest answers (and of course his wealth of experience), I hired him on the spot. It was also smart of him to ask for a salary range comparable to the 20-30 somethings, which meant I could stay in budget and get much more value in terms of experience.
Older programmers just need to stay abreast of the trends and see where the "older" jobs are. If programming is going in favor of younger staff, ageism prevailing, rightfully or wrongfully, it's time to explore other alternatives.
Life goes on in this shitty company. We're missing SLAs, management is breathing fire down our necks. I put up with the aforementioned 50-60 hours a week, and get overloaded with information.
Even one of my best staff left and got a job at another company and is now earning more than me!
I guess the moral of the story is, there are opportunities out there, sieze them well if you find them. Bring along your department while you're at it.
I pulled out some statistics from my email activity for the past two and a half years:
Highest number of emails sent in one day: 14 May 2003, 26 emails
Highest number of emails received in one day: 10 Jan 2003, 80 emails
Average number of emails sent daily: 4.75 emails
Average number of emails received daily: 15.2
Total number of emails sent (to date): 1747
Total number of emails received (to date): 11355
Ratio of received to sent emails: 6.5 (ie. 1 email is sent for every 6.5 emails received)
The above numbers are spam-free. I use Lotus Notes to extract my email data to excel and use data analysis functions. My average received these days is more in the range of 50-70, since I got promoted from a lowly tech writer to a quality manager, *sigh*.
I was unable to segregate the number of emails where my name is in the "To:" list compared to the "CC:" list, this information would probably give me a better handle on how much of my mail actually matters. But my sent to receive ratio suggests roughly 5 out of 6 emails are not directly of interest to me, an 83.3% information obesity factor?