Sounds a lot like my watch: Sets its time every night and is solar powered. Band and case is titanium which has no real benefit other than hey, it's titanium! It doesn't know the timezone automaticaly though and it has a single button that is inset so at least is unobtrusive. The watch came set to my timezone so I've never had to push the button (dunno how it works).
Even with my limited exposure to daylight (and light in general) it seems to keep running just fine. Supposedly can store enough of a charge to run for several months without light.
From my own experience, what I have seen is not what this article promises. I'm sure some are well educated and can do their jobs just fine. I've seen this, but the majority of what I've seen leaves much to be desired.
That said, I've been to India (Mumbai), for my employer, to train and work with one of the companies we use for outsourcing. We also have a bunch of employees here in the office, on visas.
For the most part, I would say the people we end up with in the office can do their job reasonably well. However, these are not the people who end up doing the bulk of the work. These are the star pupils of whatever company we are currently dealing with. Those sent to make the company look good.
When it comes down to doing the work, it is done by the cheapest person they can get their hands on in India. The description above makes it sound as though the companies are all out there to better the US market, what better intrest could they have? Well, money in the pockets of the owners is really what it comes down to. I've yet to see an exception to that rule, whether companies here or there.
While in India, several of the people who I trained had quit before I even left. Originally we were not even told about this. It wasn't until I started noticing faces missing that we got an answer. Within a week of returning to the states, most of the rest of the group had left. The turnover is crazy, it's a market of paying the lowest you can hoping the person won't get a better offer and leave.
What this all results is in really crappy coding. There wasn't much point in my trip to India since just about everybody left. Our software is incredibly complicated, so the new people coming on don't really have the expertise needed to do the job right. Lesson learned there at least (on my part and hopefully my employers).
While they may have a lot of years of education, from my personal experience, they don't know how to apply it. Now that is going to be true regardless of whether the person is fresh out of school here or there. But instead of investing the time to train up our local workforce, we spend the time to train up a workforce that is only here to temporarily help us. Where is the long term benefit in that?
I'm not secretly venemous like the article implies is a situation that abounds. However, I'm not greatly pleased to see half my company is now staffed with foreign workers who may be gone tomorrow. Even if they are doing an excellent job, that knowledge leaves our hands in an instant.
The jobs we mostly hire for in the office (from overseas anyway) are designers. They don't do the coding. That gets shipped back to the inexperienced office in Mumbai. My job has been basically reduced to Newbie Coder Hand Holder. And when I'm finally getting some people to the point where they understand what I expect from their coding they might suddenly disappear, to be replaced by another fresh out of school no experienc employee. This must be great for India, I'm training their workforce.
I don't hold it against the Indians I've met. They are trying to earn a living like everybody else. It's my employer that wants to take advantage of the cheap labor and is convinced it can be done just as well as we could do in house (that is one thing I don't believe will ever be true). Also I blame the companies in India who are out to make a quick buck and don't care so much about the result. I definitely feel that many of the programmers I've seen are somewhat exploited in their low pay and it shows by the lack of company loyalty (the turnover).
It is unfortunate that those Indians employed in the US have to face what they do at times. When it happens, I don't think it is right, but they must also understand the environment they are coming into. They ARE the most visible result of some disturbing changes. This whole shift to outsourcing has caused me nothing but more work. Perhaps if it worked as advertised (less work in house, better results, cost savings) people might not be so resentful of it.
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Even with my limited exposure to daylight (and light in general) it seems to keep running just fine. Supposedly can store enough of a charge to run for several months without light.
http://www.fsiwebs.com/shopcart3/SC_ProdView.asp?L inkID=wZa4wZ1gCl6AQTY3HJ1lalwfyCnX2BFs7WFzTWKFBCeo pjHJXVxaAgg1heCK8hVR
From my own experience, what I have seen is not what this article promises. I'm sure some are well educated and can do their jobs just fine. I've seen this, but the majority of what I've seen leaves much to be desired. That said, I've been to India (Mumbai), for my employer, to train and work with one of the companies we use for outsourcing. We also have a bunch of employees here in the office, on visas. For the most part, I would say the people we end up with in the office can do their job reasonably well. However, these are not the people who end up doing the bulk of the work. These are the star pupils of whatever company we are currently dealing with. Those sent to make the company look good. When it comes down to doing the work, it is done by the cheapest person they can get their hands on in India. The description above makes it sound as though the companies are all out there to better the US market, what better intrest could they have? Well, money in the pockets of the owners is really what it comes down to. I've yet to see an exception to that rule, whether companies here or there. While in India, several of the people who I trained had quit before I even left. Originally we were not even told about this. It wasn't until I started noticing faces missing that we got an answer. Within a week of returning to the states, most of the rest of the group had left. The turnover is crazy, it's a market of paying the lowest you can hoping the person won't get a better offer and leave. What this all results is in really crappy coding. There wasn't much point in my trip to India since just about everybody left. Our software is incredibly complicated, so the new people coming on don't really have the expertise needed to do the job right. Lesson learned there at least (on my part and hopefully my employers). While they may have a lot of years of education, from my personal experience, they don't know how to apply it. Now that is going to be true regardless of whether the person is fresh out of school here or there. But instead of investing the time to train up our local workforce, we spend the time to train up a workforce that is only here to temporarily help us. Where is the long term benefit in that? I'm not secretly venemous like the article implies is a situation that abounds. However, I'm not greatly pleased to see half my company is now staffed with foreign workers who may be gone tomorrow. Even if they are doing an excellent job, that knowledge leaves our hands in an instant. The jobs we mostly hire for in the office (from overseas anyway) are designers. They don't do the coding. That gets shipped back to the inexperienced office in Mumbai. My job has been basically reduced to Newbie Coder Hand Holder. And when I'm finally getting some people to the point where they understand what I expect from their coding they might suddenly disappear, to be replaced by another fresh out of school no experienc employee. This must be great for India, I'm training their workforce. I don't hold it against the Indians I've met. They are trying to earn a living like everybody else. It's my employer that wants to take advantage of the cheap labor and is convinced it can be done just as well as we could do in house (that is one thing I don't believe will ever be true). Also I blame the companies in India who are out to make a quick buck and don't care so much about the result. I definitely feel that many of the programmers I've seen are somewhat exploited in their low pay and it shows by the lack of company loyalty (the turnover). It is unfortunate that those Indians employed in the US have to face what they do at times. When it happens, I don't think it is right, but they must also understand the environment they are coming into. They ARE the most visible result of some disturbing changes. This whole shift to outsourcing has caused me nothing but more work. Perhaps if it worked as advertised (less work in house, better results, cost savings) people might not be so resentful of it.