   Offshoring and entry level coding jobs
  I just heard a program on the radio that was talking about offshoring.  One of the experts on the program noted that alot of low-level programming jobs are going over to India and China, usually the kinds of entry-level grunt work normally reserved for a new coder.  Just wondered what you guys thought of that, and if you think we should ban or tax companies who offshore.   --------------------Just waiting for the mothership... 
  This is called "outsourcing," and there was an entire thread on it just over a month ago. PErsonally, I find it fine, since a lout of outsourced jobs are coming to canada.   I Want My Island"The same people who so greatly oppose slavery, so much that they are willing to kill over it... have just forced me to fight the battle for them."- Robert (I Want My Island) ;  This is why I decided comp sci can go to hell and I''ll be a computer engineering major instead.Robotics isn''t being outsourced anytime soon ;  Yeah, it would be nice if they could tax outsourcing overseas. Luckily, the entry level job''s I''m looking at are in the defense industry, and those jobs can never be sent overseas .Seriously though, the type of jobs I''ve seen mentioned are jobs I''d rather not do, entry level or not. A lot of code maintenance is outsourced, and I don''t care about that type of work. Any job that requires innovation isn''t going to be outsourced, only the menial ones will. Still sucks though. ;quote:Original post by Promit  Robotics isn''t being outsourced anytime soon  HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!Aww, isn''t that cute, it''s like you actually beleive that. IF anything, robotics will be the next thing to be outsourced. Think about it."Should we have our robots built and programmed locally, where it will cost X dollars?"OR"Should we have our robots built and programmed overseas, which, thanks to different labour laws will save us Y dollars?"   I Want My Island"The same people who so greatly oppose slavery, so much that they are willing to kill over it... have just forced me to fight the battle for them."- Robert (I Want My Island) ;quote:Original post by Wavinator  ban or tax companies who offshore.I''m pretty sure that would be illegal under WTO trade laws, just as subsidising domestic firms over foreign ones.From a global point of view, it''s a good thing. India has cheap labour; by using that labour, the company cuts costs and thus is more able to cut prices (assuming they''ve got some competition, and assuming that a codemonkey from India is the same as a codemonkey from anywhere else). It also frees up resources for other uses - i.e. all the people capable of being more than codemonkeys no longer are required to be codemonkeys. Increased global efficiency in the allocation of resources.From the point of view of person-who-doesn''t-get-the-job-because-it''s-been-moved-offshore, it''s obviously bad.Also, the fact that it''s the entry-level positions that are disappearing means either (a) you can''t enter any more, or (b) you''ll be entering higher up. The former is bad, the latter is (probably) good. ;  I don''t see the least bit of a problem with outsourcing. It promotes competition and us Americans getting off of our asses and actually working for our jobs.On the same token, I gave up Comp Sci a couple of years ago and am currently a Computer Graphics Technology (will probably go into the Manufacturing Graphics discipline) anyways, so I''m not exactly worried about losing my job prospects, because companies are still hounding after people like me.America leads the world in one thing when it comes to technology - creativity. We create a field and then someone else perfects it (or more precisely streamlines it) and they take the field, so we create something else. Its been like this for a hundred years now... and low level coding has now past the grips of the States. Its time to move onto other things.   ---------------------------------------------------laziness is the foundation of efficiencyretrospiral.net | llamas! | megatokyo | gamedev.net | googleTiffancy_Smith fanboy;  Just like steel manufacture. I''m not worried. ;  But its not just entry level programming jobs that are going offshore.  My uncle, who worked for Intel since the mid 80s, watched his entire department go offshore, I think to Costa Rica.I'm not sure of his exact job description, but needless to say he wasn't doing 'entry level' work.  After about year, he now teaches at a college, at about two thirds of his former salary.No long range studies have been conducted, but many economists feel that outsourcing will eventually benefit America consumers with cheaper goods.  I just wonder what kind of affect will it have on the middle class.PS . Interesting article on the subject [edited by - yspotua on February 3, 2004 12:06:15 AM];quote:Original post by yspotua  No long range studies have been conducted, but many economists feel that outsourcing will eventually benefit America consumers with cheaper goods.  I just wonder what kind of affect will it have on the middle class.Make them work harder to be middle class? ---------------------------------------------------laziness is the foundation of efficiencyretrospiral.net | llamas! | megatokyo | gamedev.net | googleTiffancy_Smith fanboy