Outsourcing and me...

The mass outsourcing of IT jobs to other countries is explained less by economic rationality (which is one way to explain outsourcing), but more to do with a lack of interest in the US IT job market. There are less qualified students coming out of American schools, and the working IT Professionals are being spread even thinner by a rapidly expanding job market. Drew Robb in Computerworld: Careers notes that "according to the Computing Research Association, the percentage of college freshmen listing computer science as their probable major fell 70% between 2000 and 2004." Furthermore, the appetite for skilled IT Professionals is only growing. Mark Hanny, vice president of IBM's Academic Initiative outreach program notes that "according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, one out of every four new jobs between now and 2012 will be IT-related." This illogicality between supply and demand is encouraging American corporations to look toward other countries to supply skilled specialists, and with good reason.

I don't think that it's a matter of foreign workers being more or less skilled than American students. Companies need staff to meet increasing technology needs, whoever meets the need should be the first one with the job. According to Lezlee Westine and Scott McNealy in USA TODAY, "By 2012, it's projected that the demand for technical jobs in science and engineering will increase by more than 25%, and 39% in math and computer science. Factor in the tech rebound, and the need will be even greater." Many American students are not encouraged academically or culturally to pursue education and subsequently careers in math or computer science, presumably because these skills are not encouraged by the American school system in addition to the decreased social stature associated with these fields. On the contrary, many other cultures are encouraged to practice a strong foundation curriculum that strongly enforces math and science in addition to rewarding academic discipline and hard work. Simple investigation of the general values of different cultures explains technology outsourcing, and importation of foreign professionals.

As for me, I think there is a very low probability that my career will be drastically affected by outsourcing in the future. I want to be a Television Producer, working in Programming or Development for a major network or production company. My observation (and logic) has proven that creative positions are difficult to outsource as they are regional, require a working knowledge of culture and vernacular, in addition to requiring a certain degree of experience/skill. While I see many aspects of the entertainment/media industry being outsourced, creative professionals will remain regional because of what their job requires. The same goes for creative professionals throughout the world, if you want to act, produce, design, or direct for a project in India, you need to have significant amount of experience with Indian culture.