News and numbers from US IT world

Jobs can be Offshore resistant

Though it is presumed that outsourcing routine and menial work will see an upgrading in the quality of work done in US, few IT professionals bank on this scenario. In fact, very few foresee any of the promised career upside of outsourcing: only one in five expects opportunities to work on more innovative projects as menial tasks are moved out, and just 13% see new hires to support outsourcing work.

One in three people in the survey say their employers send work offshore; half do either U.S. or offshore outsourcing, however, most are confident that their careers can survive amid competition with low-cost labor abroad.

But experts say that it is about time people woke up to the realities of Outsourcing and take the necessary steps to avoid layoff. It is seen that, most IT pros may be underestimating how much they need to work at positioning their careers to compete against lower-cost workers abroad. David Foote, president of research firm Foote Partners says that employees should judge how "offshore resistant" they are not by their job titles but by the roles they play.

If theyre working directly with customers or applying specific knowledge of the business, their jobs are unlikely to be outsourced. So the jobs of people doing straight programming are at risk, while application developers who know the technology and the business environment are in high demand. The same holds true with data mining and business intelligence expertise thats combined with knowledge of the business.

Yet a mere 6% of managers and 2% of staff consider "understanding the companys business strategy" an important factor in their jobs. Just 12% of staff and 19% of managers ranked as an important factor that their work is important to company success.

Periodic training and updating of skills can make you layoff resistant

Periodic upgrading of your skills can make you layoff proof. However IW survey reports that just 42% of IT staffers and 43% of managers receive education and training as part of their benefit package. Even fewer gets tuition reimbursement: 30% of staffers and 28% of managers. Many IT pros have to come up with the money and time to keep their skills up to date. But even then, training yourself is important.

Take George William for example. To the 61-year-old, knowledge about his company and industry is critical. William has been in IT for 24 years, the last 15 as a database administrator and the last five at his current employer. Hed like to keep working as a DBA, at least until hes 70.

William is realistic that database administration work can be outsourced, but he believes his situation makes it far less likely. He brings a lot of knowledge about how the company uses the data. And perhaps most important, the work involves much of the companys proprietary mathematical and statistical modeling. "They want to keep that under lock and key," he says.

William also works with software licensing and batch job software, since he doesnt want to be seen as someone with a narrow tech specialty.

Thats a good way to gain more company knowledge or customer exposure, to be seen as someone who can shift outside an area of expertise or job title. William thinks offshoring can create job opportunities for IT pros in the United States, but only for those with complex skill sets and experience.

William has more than two decades of IT experience, but he still takes about two weeks of IT classes every year. Most recently, he completed an overview course on the latest version of Microsoft SQL server. He also has taken classes on statistical analysis to get tips on how to make the companys databases run faster. He attends Web seminars as well as in-person classes. William agrees that its a struggle finding time to study while devoting a lot of hours to a job, but he believes theres no alternative. "The pace of change is intense," he says.

Now, Ian Diaz seems like the kind of IT worker who should be worried about outsourcing. He started in tech support and help desk jobs 10 years ago, straight out of high school, having gotten the tech bug while tweaking PCs to maximize game performance. IW survey finds help desk pay has stagnated in the last three years, with median total compensation at $49,000. Diaz realizes that must expand his skills, though he is not very keen on it.

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