Monday, December 22, 2003
Recently I'm reading a great deal about outsourcing white-collar jobs to countries with cheap labor. Perhaps, the fact that I work for an Indian software company doing work that only a few years ago would have definitely been done state side, is keeping the issue fresh in my mind. I read about dentists in Deli working for an American insurance company, looking at the X-rays of American patients and deciding whether they should get coverage. It costs a boat-load to become a dentist or a computer programmer, at a good private school we are talking about over $100k. Most of the programmers I work with have master's degrees like myself. Also like me, they still owe a ton of money in loans to pay for their educations.
What's going on now is fundamentally different from the readjustment costs of technological change. The skills in question are still very much in demand. It’s also different from the loss of low skilled manufacturing jobs. In the later case the cost of learning an equivalent trade in both time and money is low. For a dentist or a programmer to learn a new skill with similar complexity could take over six years and another $100k.
This makes getting an advanced degree a gamble. Which is problematic for so many reasons. You study hard pay your dues with years of school and suddenly you can’t earn a living in your chosen profession. That is corrosive to a society. People need to believe if they work hard they will be rewarded. Not just as famous athletes, as something they are a bit more likely to achieve without physical abnormalities.
I am not saying we need to outlaw off shoring. In fact I don’t think that would be a very good idea at all. But with the cost of education at an all-time high, doing the right thing can’t be a gamble. Hopefully my concerns are exaggerated.
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
There is a certain type of mind that is obsessed with patterns and my brain falls squarely in that category. Despite being in a different city, among different people, working for a different company, I can’t help but feel some past era of my life is about to repeat itself.
Maybe it’s the cubical, identical to a past workstation, maybe it’s using Lotus Notes 4.5 again, or the fact that my computer here runs NT 4.0, each alone could make me feel like its 1999. Waking up for work, a distant memory of a time before grad school, has once again become routine.
I am not really sure where I’m going with this blog entry. There is a quote I can’t attribute that reads “history never repeats itself, it only seems that way to people who don’t know the details”. I suppose that’s right, but I also think people have some qualities that stay constant through out their lives. It’s possible that those qualities will keep leading them into similar situations. It’s obvious to me what my life will look like in the next few months, what I can’t decide is whether or not that’s a good thing.
Thursday, December 04, 2003
Buffalo...Yep folks I’m in Buffalo. Never in my life did I dream of living someplace so cold yet here I am. Haven’t quite made up my mind about the town yet. As a general philosophy I tend to believe that where you are, is less important, then who you’re with. Since I haven’t met many people here I’ll reserve judgement for a bit longer.
My company is putting me up at motel this week. The motel is in the city’s northern suburbs, near Niagara Falls. I work downtown in the HSBC building, the only tall building in the city. It’s about a 20 mile drive to work, and during rush hour it takes me about 15 minutes. There’s no traffic here ever. The motel is somewhat ghetto. It’s about on par with an average hotel in London.
Saturday is moving day. I found a flat in Buffalo’s theatre district. Its really nice except for the fact that is has wall to wall carpeting. I hate carpets! Anyway, the apartment will keep me sane. It is probably the only place in Buffalo walking distance to restaurants, movie theatres, playhouses, and dance clubs. It is also only half a block to the subway. Yes, they have a subway here, it only goes about 3 miles, but it does happen to go directly from my office to my new pad. I guess this is all a futile attempt at self-deception, by living in the most urban area of Buffalo I won’t be reminded how far from home I truly am.
Work has been ok so far. The project is for the most part interesting, and small enough for me to be the only interface designer. 40 hours is the maximum time I can work. If deadlines are tight they will approve overtime, which is paid. This utterly amazes me. Maybe the 12-hour New York day is the aberration, but somehow I think it’s doubtful.
