paleogryph
MIS
This is a must read:
>Think for yourself<
...or someone else will do it for you.
>Think for yourself<
...or someone else will do it for you.
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- Thread starter paleogryph
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AIXSPadmin
MIS
Certainly, I won't disagree that is where the money is. Definately an AIX kernel programmer or someone who programs IP stacks is going to be making a lot more than an in-house app programmer for 'mom & pop distribution,' but there are more 'm & p' jobs than there are for someone to develop the AIX 5.4 kernel. Same for middleware, the giants have the strangle-hold on the market, but it is the apps that 'm & p' develop who have purchased or use the middleware product. Not too many developers needed to develop the next MQSeries. Even Fortune companies (I worked for one) that use MQS develop apps in-house using it, but that development isn't going offshore because it is used for Web Apps, etc.
dilettante
MIS
You might be surprised how much work still remains to be done building connectors to MQSeries and MSMQ on legacy platforms. Problem there is that those minority platforms are dying off too as platform commodotization continues to stifle diversity.
But even application work at the next tier (programming against the middleware APIs) is beyond the masses of programmers. Even at this late date I believe most people who claim to be programmers are building simple one or two-tiered stuff. I'm appalled at how many "programmers" in the Windows market don't know what message queuing is, and don't even use DCOM/COM+ to create synchronous multi-tiered applications. Maybe the AIX development community is more sophisticated.
My point however being that while the U.S. has droves of these desktop and monolith programmers, I don't think those are the jobs that get offshored and H1-B'ed. What we're losing are the things that use higher skill levels and would normally pay well.
You're right that the system-level programming job market doesn't grow much. But the level above that sure does: demand for integration development and building scalable apps is high now (the need to "do more with less" is very high). Both of these are job catagories we can't afford to lose.
I think one reason employers have been unhappy with U.S. programmers is the average skill level. One outfit I work with brought in H1-B types because their in-house people couldn't even hack a 3-tiered VB application. All they knew was simple "desktop to db" development, and kept insisting that there was no way to build the architecture they were given to implement! You don't want to see their shoddy web applications.
But even application work at the next tier (programming against the middleware APIs) is beyond the masses of programmers. Even at this late date I believe most people who claim to be programmers are building simple one or two-tiered stuff. I'm appalled at how many "programmers" in the Windows market don't know what message queuing is, and don't even use DCOM/COM+ to create synchronous multi-tiered applications. Maybe the AIX development community is more sophisticated.
My point however being that while the U.S. has droves of these desktop and monolith programmers, I don't think those are the jobs that get offshored and H1-B'ed. What we're losing are the things that use higher skill levels and would normally pay well.
You're right that the system-level programming job market doesn't grow much. But the level above that sure does: demand for integration development and building scalable apps is high now (the need to "do more with less" is very high). Both of these are job catagories we can't afford to lose.
I think one reason employers have been unhappy with U.S. programmers is the average skill level. One outfit I work with brought in H1-B types because their in-house people couldn't even hack a 3-tiered VB application. All they knew was simple "desktop to db" development, and kept insisting that there was no way to build the architecture they were given to implement! You don't want to see their shoddy web applications.
- Thread starter
- #43
paleogryph
MIS
The article that xutopia referenced also mentioned something interesting:
Indian call center workers receive meticulous training before they are allowed to field tech support calls. Farhat Gupta, owner of several Bangalore call centers, said that little attention is paid to technical training, as "all the answers are always on the computer screen in front of the workers. We exist for people who do not want to use the Internet themselves to find their own answers."
>Think for yourself<
...or someone else will do it for you.
Indian call center workers receive meticulous training before they are allowed to field tech support calls. Farhat Gupta, owner of several Bangalore call centers, said that little attention is paid to technical training, as "all the answers are always on the computer screen in front of the workers. We exist for people who do not want to use the Internet themselves to find their own answers."
>Think for yourself<
...or someone else will do it for you.
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