General update
Oct. 21st, 2003 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azekeilThere are quite a few stories around, but I think this one (thanks ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sciamachy) from The Guardian gives a good idea of the bigger picture.
I agree with the historical justice slant in the story.. but I was not around when this sort of thing was going on. I made career decisions based on the facts as I understood them at the time, which I now see as less than foolproof. I now need to think about my own security. I'm seriously beginning to wonder if it might be prudent to retrain in a job that can't be shipped out to another country. One of the 'skilled' trades which are undervalued like carpenter, plumber, electrician, mechanic, builder. I realise that people can be brought in to this country to do those jobs too but then they have to face the same cost of living problems we all do, so we'd be competing on a much more level playing field.
I've also not been enjoying my job of late, although parts of it I have. I wonder if making that decision soon is wise, given there will be a large workforce out of work who are also technically inclined who will start to think on similar lines?
Food for thought, at any rate. I may have to do some research.
My time off is coming to a close - well actually I should be at work now, but I'm not.kissycat1000 is asleep upstairs and I'm sitting here somewhat frustrated by the garage who yet again have failed to do the work on my bike when I asked for it. I must admit they're not entirely to blame but there was a bit of a communication crisis as per usual. The risks of trying to do things cheaply I suppose; still, it should all be lovely when they finish *fingers crossed*.
Yesterday there was a bit of a continuous child crisis at one point, which saw me involved in their lives as much as I ever have been. J was climbing out of his seatbelt in the car through frustration I think and my keeping him held there was probably adding to it, but he accepted his discipline well enough and had calmed down remarkably when I went to get him from his room later. T is having a few problems at school - the usual for someone starting at a secondary school, made more so because she's someone who so wants to please people and become their friends. We were able to talk to her and she has been listening to what we have to say. I think she feels better and hopefully will take our advice to heart the next time difficult situations present themselves. These times are very important in her development.
Also, after I put J to bed, there was a small crash and anguished crying.. when I went up J had wedged his foot in between some furniture in his room and had managed to cut his toes. He seemed to calm down when I tended to it andkissycat1000 came up to help me (and T to see what all the fuss was about). After it had been cleaned up and J calmed down, I put a 'special sock' on his foot which he didn't seem to mind about and he went to sleep. This morning he called for me; there was some confusion about wanting me to carry his three towels, toy AND Nemo beanie AND THEN give him BOTH hands AND carry him, AND on my shoulders (which I refused) and then wanted me to do some amazingly complicated dance with the doors upstairs before he'd allow me to carry His Royal Highness downstairs and then protest that there was STILL unfinished business upstairs.. *sigh*. So that was fun. :S
For me, all these things make me feel worthwhile and valued and accepted in their lives, which means a great deal to me.
kissycat1000 has just emerged but is not really awake yet. Perhaps another cup of coffee and tea is in order :) Oh, and marmite on toast apparently.. *grin* (and no ninneviane, I'm not under the thumb :P~~ )
sciamachy) from The Guardian gives a good idea of the bigger picture.I agree with the historical justice slant in the story.. but I was not around when this sort of thing was going on. I made career decisions based on the facts as I understood them at the time, which I now see as less than foolproof. I now need to think about my own security. I'm seriously beginning to wonder if it might be prudent to retrain in a job that can't be shipped out to another country. One of the 'skilled' trades which are undervalued like carpenter, plumber, electrician, mechanic, builder. I realise that people can be brought in to this country to do those jobs too but then they have to face the same cost of living problems we all do, so we'd be competing on a much more level playing field.
I've also not been enjoying my job of late, although parts of it I have. I wonder if making that decision soon is wise, given there will be a large workforce out of work who are also technically inclined who will start to think on similar lines?
Food for thought, at any rate. I may have to do some research.
My time off is coming to a close - well actually I should be at work now, but I'm not.
kissycat1000 is asleep upstairs and I'm sitting here somewhat frustrated by the garage who yet again have failed to do the work on my bike when I asked for it. I must admit they're not entirely to blame but there was a bit of a communication crisis as per usual. The risks of trying to do things cheaply I suppose; still, it should all be lovely when they finish *fingers crossed*.Yesterday there was a bit of a continuous child crisis at one point, which saw me involved in their lives as much as I ever have been. J was climbing out of his seatbelt in the car through frustration I think and my keeping him held there was probably adding to it, but he accepted his discipline well enough and had calmed down remarkably when I went to get him from his room later. T is having a few problems at school - the usual for someone starting at a secondary school, made more so because she's someone who so wants to please people and become their friends. We were able to talk to her and she has been listening to what we have to say. I think she feels better and hopefully will take our advice to heart the next time difficult situations present themselves. These times are very important in her development.
Also, after I put J to bed, there was a small crash and anguished crying.. when I went up J had wedged his foot in between some furniture in his room and had managed to cut his toes. He seemed to calm down when I tended to it and
kissycat1000 came up to help me (and T to see what all the fuss was about). After it had been cleaned up and J calmed down, I put a 'special sock' on his foot which he didn't seem to mind about and he went to sleep. This morning he called for me; there was some confusion about wanting me to carry his three towels, toy AND Nemo beanie AND THEN give him BOTH hands AND carry him, AND on my shoulders (which I refused) and then wanted me to do some amazingly complicated dance with the doors upstairs before he'd allow me to carry His Royal Highness downstairs and then protest that there was STILL unfinished business upstairs.. *sigh*. So that was fun. :SFor me, all these things make me feel worthwhile and valued and accepted in their lives, which means a great deal to me.
kissycat1000 has just emerged but is not really awake yet. Perhaps another cup of coffee and tea is in order :) Oh, and marmite on toast apparently.. *grin* (and no ninneviane, I'm not under the thumb :P~~ )
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no subject
Date: 2003-10-21 03:39 am (UTC)Has
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Date: 2003-10-21 04:03 am (UTC)Fancy setting up a plumbing company together?
Bodgett & Scarper, Fixit & Leggitt spring to mind
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Date: 2003-10-21 04:03 am (UTC)Want to make that a 3-way partnership?
I'll do the charming-the-pants-out-out-of-single-guys-and-old-ladies routine, and you two can do the bodging and scarpering!
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Date: 2003-10-21 04:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-21 04:06 am (UTC)Azekeil can be Bodgett, I'll be Scarper
Charm, Bodgett & Scarper it is then
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Date: 2003-10-21 04:09 am (UTC)*Flutters eyelashes disarmingly*
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Date: 2003-10-21 04:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-21 04:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-21 04:54 am (UTC)Re: Ponderings on careers (PART I)
Date: 2003-10-21 05:08 am (UTC)I started out in computing as a self-taught programmer on the ZX81*...I didn't view it as a career option though...Had other ideas about what I wanted to do...It was just a hobby
Years later, I ended up living abroad for almost a decade, learning to speak languages, with the intention of becoming an English teacher abroad...It dawned on me after a while, though, that fun (and satisfying) though it was to learn languages a) I didn't really want to do just that for the rest of my life and b) if I wanted to do anything else, I was kinda buggered living in a country where language skills were rife...Going to a potential employer was gonna consist of them asking me what skils I had, me answering that I spoke multiple languages fluently and them, good-naturedly, thinking that there had been a mistake and saying "Yes, of course, but I meant what do you do?; what skills do you have? What's your profession?"
So, I decided to retrain...went and studied other subjects (Psychology/Computer Science & Education) because I was actualy interested in them. The reasoning was that if I was interested in them, I'd be good at them and so I'd a) be guaranteed a job no matter what and b) always be interested, always learning and thus always employable
And computing was still highly regarded...a well-paid industry.
So, finally retrained at the age of 29, I stepped out into a bright new future, ready to be enthused and successful.
And the first job I got was thanks to my language skills...Oh, it was an IT job, but the reason I got it was because they needed multilingual support...and I was multilingual.
After about 18 months of disillusionment with the fact that, whilst my skills and talents were recognised by others like me, my employer was neither technical nor linguistically inclined and thus had no real sense of what it takes to gain those skils...no real sense of the talent at their disposal that they were underemploying**...I left
I took on another IT related job in a mono-lingual environment, working in a hardware/comms environment, despite having no prior experience of either...I learned fast and well, but, once again, was disappointed at my employer's lack of understanding of just what I had to offer
So, I moved to a different employer, once again in a multilingual support role, but, this time, working for the manufacturer of networking, storage, CPU, RAM and various other peripheral hardware products. The reasoning was that here I would a) once again learn something new and b) be working for the manufacturer rather than simply a third party, so I would be better supported in my role...better understood from a technical standpoint. Moreover, they wanted me to design, implement, develop and manage both their CBT and Intranet projects from the ground up.
I have finally left their employ after over five years of watching my job-role become degraded to the extent that I don't need any skills other than the languages and a good telephone manner. The extra project work I did for them was successul; I'm leaving a legacy of succesful use of my technical, pedagogical, informational and creative skills behind me in the form of an Intranet and CBT programme.
*Ah...those were the days when a good poke was worth something
**Not everyone is a programmer, never mind a good one, never mind in multiple computer languages, never mind in multiple real world languages...And not just anyone can listen to someone describe, badly, a problem they don't have, work out what the real problem is and fix it over the phone
Re: Ponderings on careers (PART II)
Date: 2003-10-21 05:10 am (UTC)My colleagues became as disillusioned as I over time and, as a result, the Company accomplished the task of getting rid of the expensive, highly qualified, highly skilled employees it needed to operate as a first class service provider as well as manufacturer and left itself in a position to employ cheap, itinerant, unskilled multilingual staff, who could be relied upon to last long enough to recoup the initial costs of employment, but not to stay long enough to start becoming skilled and commanding a higher salary.
All those years spent studying, gaining qualifications, skills and experience...and for what? ... So that I can be offered a salary a fraction of what I'm actually worth performing a role using a fraction of my skills.
The only thing that got me the jobs in the first place was the fact that I spent around eight or nine years bumming around Europe, picking up languages...otherwise they could've picked any old computer scientist.
And that's how it's going...IT is becomming completely deskilled...The rest of the World speaks English, so they won't need the multilinguists much longer...For those areas where skill is required, an Indian programmer or web designer is just as good, but comes cheaper...Techies are stil viewed as people who have no social skills or graces***, so we aren't going to get invited to do anythig else either.
So, the time has come to either change career...or move to one of the developing countries where there might be some hope of landing a reasonably paid job on the basis of our insider knowledge of the culture(s) they are servicing...and even then we'll be changing careers, because we'll be team leaders/managers rather than techies...sociocultural consultants
As the developing World continues to develop and the career prospects there become brighter than here, so more of us will be obliged to leave...So their economies will become even stronger...So ours will become yet weaker...So more of us will be obliged to leave...It's the inevitable decline of an empire as the barbarian nations start to outperform it culturally and economically
But don't expect it to be a bright new world for the likes of us...They don't need us; we just desperately need to catch the last boat out before it becomes impossible to get a decent career <>there either...before, like the US and Australia, etc. before them, they too start imposing immigration restrictions that mean only the very best of us have a chance at anything more than contract-limited visas and have to send the money home for when we, inevitably, have to return
It's time to get out. We're surplus to requirements here. The US doesn't need us; they've got the Second and Third Worlds to exploit. The Second and Third Worlds don't need us; they've got their own, home-grown and competatve talent. We're on the scrapheap.
It's time to either scramble to the top...or get out of the crusher.
***But is it any surprise that we don't mix well with our employers? ... We're highly intelligent, highly motivated. How do you expect us to enjoy sitting with you at the dinner table discussing football, what car you're driving now, what your house cost, blah, blah, fucking blah...and never anything that is actually intellectually stimulating?...How can you expect us to be at the board-meeting listening to your half-arsed ideas about the need for some new technology you don't even have the faintest idea about, realising as we do so, that you don't even understand the actual business-pertinent aspects of what you're talking about...without becoming dispirited, despondant, morose, disillusioned, cynical, short-tempered and irritable?
Re: Ponderings on careers (PART II)
Date: 2003-10-21 05:30 am (UTC)Re: Ponderings on careers (PART II)
Date: 2003-10-21 05:53 am (UTC)As a multilinguist I new that *I* was gonna be relatively secure for life because, whatever you do, if you do it in a foreign country you are being employed either because there is a need for native speakers of your mother-tongue...or else because you speak the language well enough to perform as a native-speaker...it opens doors that don't exist for others because you can work in many more places
It's just that I, naively, figured that IT was gonna be relatively immune to the worst ravages of globalisation because it was a highly academic and highly skilled activity requiring more than average intellectual capacity...that it would be one of the last areas to be affected
I didn't realise that it was gonna be one of the first to go.
So, no, it's not something I wasn't expecting...but it is a shock to see it happen so fast*
And in terms of Azekeil's original contention that he'd be better off doing something completely different, I think my points capture the historical reality of what he and the original article are saying...It's not simply contention in the abstract...It's not a friend of a friend story...It happened to me...and my experience seems to parallel the article so well, that I figure there is some value, therefore, in alluding to my own personal experience in response.
I'm not the only IT person at the moment (or the last couple of years) bemoaning their fate and (despondently) talking about getting out of the industry...I'm not alone in my miserable experiences of the last few years...I just happened to elaboate a bit on my own case by way of example.
And *I* could be a lot worse off...at least I have the language skills to fall back on
But I don't think there's any point in sticking one's head in the sand and that was what I was responding about...the situation is pretty dire right now...and it's gonna get a lot worse
*Even though, for other reasons, I'd already long since predicted that things were going to go into overdrive and it would all happen much faster tha anyone thought...for which I am now kicking myself for, once again, not listening to myself properly and not seeing what I meant**
**You think Casandra had it bad?...Even *I* don't listen to myself!
no subject
Date: 2003-10-21 06:24 am (UTC)Having worked on several occasions with people educated in the Indian-subcontinent universities, I will happily admit that they're well-trained, intelligent, careful, hard-working, personable, etc. However, I always get a sense that they've learned by rote, and are unused to incisive and original thinking (or "thinking outside the box" in management speak). The problem clearly isn't with the people - those who boarded at my school, and went to my university, in the UK didn't have this failing - so is presumably with the culture or educational system.
The skill set they have would be great for technical support work, call centres, and the like. It would also be fine for well-understood programming tasks like device driver writing, data conversion utilities, virus description creation, report generation, systems administration scripting, etc. What it doesn't teach is how to summon into being a whole new complex software package which does things no software has done before, or has never done before in quite that way.
Britain is noted for its inventors, and those of us who invent still have a very important place in the world. If you don't invent, my advice would be to get good at inventing as soon as possible. (-8
I'm not sure senior managers in big corporations appreciate this issue. There is much talk of migrating R&D facilities. But I don't think I'm being complacent - the skills to do R&D in a competitive way genuinely aren't there in Bangalore. Yet.
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Date: 2003-10-21 06:37 am (UTC)But they will be eventually...more people from here will be obliged to go there...because the economy is developing, there will be more opportunity for the kind of individual who has an entrepreneurial approach...so the skills drain will not simply be limited to the IT sector...ultimately, it will affect every aspect of our economy, as those countries become more attractive for a wide variety of reasons (For instance, if can't get an academic research post here, go there, you might make a name for yourself and be able to get a better position elsewhere as a result)
And it isn't limited to the Indian subcontinent. In my previous company (who are Number One in the World at what they do...and have been for over twenty years) the R&D for Europe, the Middle-East, Africa consisted of one guy and two students on a placement researching the specs of systems in order to make a recommendation based upon the OEMs' information made available...There was no development...That is carried out not even in the US (home of the parent company) but in Korea!
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Date: 2003-10-21 08:42 am (UTC)For me, all these things make me feel worthwhile and valued and accepted in their lives, which means a great deal to me.
Ahhhh... ^_^