A question about outsourcing

[tedbean]

I am thinking about the future job opportunities. Will I get a job in computing after receiving a degree in CS or SE considering more and more computer jobs are disappearing in the local market due to outsourcing of these jobs to cheaper waged countries?

[Insectoid]

http://compsci.ca/blog/important-computer-science-jobs-are-not-outsourced/

[tedbean]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-23/india-s-next-outsource-market-converges-with-iphone-apps-tech.html

The computer technology is changing the world job market fast!

Quote: 'India is the world?s largest recipient of outsourcing orders, according to Elance, whose website showed more than 450,000 professionals offering their services as of yesterday.'

[Insectoid]

Quality control will ensure that skilled programming jobs will always be close to home. If you're paying $15/hour for an app, you're getting an app worth $15/hour. If you want a quality app, you want a quality developer, and quality developers are a lot harder to find, and consequently cost a lot more money.

[RandomLetters]

The question is, will companies want quality developers? Can consumers really tell the difference between quality apps and recycled junk? When companies like Zynga boast over 200 million users for games that are essentially human powered spambots, how can we be assured that any but the most elite jobs won't be outsourced?

[Insectoid]

If you're making a flashlight app, or one of the millions of practically identical games on Apple's app store, then by all means outsource to india.

But if you want an app that does something, or anything sizeable that takes more than 2 people, you need a professional, managed team, and there is still a huge demand for it.

Do you expect something like RAGE for iPad coming out of India? No. India will supply $2 throw-away apps, the same way China supplies plastic crap that lasts a day before being shipped to a landfill.

[RandomLetters]

Yet, such things are arguably what the majority of consumers will buy.

[Insectoid]

Just because a guy buys a plastic gun doesn't mean he won't buy a 52" TV. They're completely different markets.

[tedbean]

India is only one of the countries that provides outsourcing staff, there are many other countries competing for cheaper services.

The projected figure for Indian's population in 2050 is expected to be 1.6 billion, overtaking China with a growth rate of 1.41%. This means the 450,000 people quoted above would become almost 600,000 by that time. It certainly would be an underestimation because the Indian government are doing a lot of stuff to push up the country's overall education level. I think a number approaching 2 million in 10 years time is not at all unlikely. Note that the figure above is only from 1 company, there are many other providers of outsourcing services on or off the net.

The actual figure would be much much larger when we include other outsourcing countries such as China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Egypt, Poland, Malaysia, Russia, Argentina, Vietnam.....The competition with local job market is continuous.

[Tony]

tedbean @ Sat Jan 21, 2012 5:06 pm wrote:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-23/india-s-next-outsource-market-converges-with-iphone-apps-tech.html

The computer technology is changing the world job market fast!

Fun fact -- if you had started University at the same time as Apple's AppStore appeared, you would still be in school today (AppStore is 3 years old).

But anyway, from the same article

Quote:

Elance Inc.?s service, where companies such as MoFirst will bid to win app-development projects lasting from a couple of weeks to several months.

Woah, you could have had up to several months of contract work with a technology stack where no-one right now can possibly have "senior level" experience (due to its recency).

Sensationalist headlines are fun. I've been hearing about "outsource" for the last 10 years, but "local" salaries have only gone up. The software industry was one of the few that was virtually unaffected in the recent recession. Currently there is a huge shortage of tallent.

[mirhagk]

The simple fact is that the computer will need more and more developers. And outsourcing is only really done for small contract jobs, jobs that wouldn't be worth taking here anyways (a weeklong contract is not really worth it unless it's a lot more money, because after a week your looking again).

Companies want their senior staff on hand, to go to meetings with them regularly, and share ideas. Outsourcing takes all of this away. The crappy starting jobs for things like testing may perhaps get outsourced, but even cheaper than outsourcing is internships or co-ops, which a lot of companies are heading towards.