[SI-LIST] Re: [OT] Offshore engineering
- From: "Zabinski, Patrick J." <zabinski.patrick@xxxxxxxx>
- To: si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 07:22:43 -0600
Martin,
Although not necessarily a technical topic, I do believe
the topic is relevant to this forum (albeit we should
constrain such discussions to a minimum).
In brief, I don't believe the decision you (and all of
us) are faced with is a simple decision, but instead boils
down to your personal beliefs, values, and goals.
As a person, I believe we should be aiming towards helping
each other, including helping other countries and companies through
contracts, technical collaboration, and technical
interchange (like the SI-List). I believe it's a good
thing to bring up the technical level of all countries
to the point where they are reasonably efficient and can
interface with the rest of the world.
Yet, as an American, I am also concerned that we are
giving away too much technology to too few countries,
such that our level of capability in a few niches is
leveling off while the countries we're helping are
starting to surpass our capabilities in those same
areas. As the trend continues, we're seeing the
majority of such technical work shift from US-soil to
foreign-soil, and we are now having to pay non-US
companies to develop our own technology/products.
Long term, this is a nasty trend.
As a pseudo-businessman (i.e., I'm employed by a large
company, but I've helped several small companies here-and-there),
I have witnessed the issue you're specifically dealing with
regard to hiring non-US companies/employees. The labor
generally comes at a lower cost, and can sometimes be
just as good if not better than from the local pool of talent.
In the short-term, it's helpful to your company. In the
long term, we are helping foreign companies (and their
respective countries) by training their people in our technologies
and even paying them to do it, which I believe has
aided a few countries surpass us in abilities in some
areas.
So where does all this put us? To me, the issues and perspectives
contradict each other, yet they need to be addressed simultaneously
if they are to be of the most value.
My personal view is:
* help the countries/regions/companies that really need it (i.e.,
they
are far behind the technology curve) through contracts,
hiring employees, technical interchange, etc.
* for the countries/regions/companies that are well on their way
towards being technically competent, we put on our
"capitalist hat" and protect our own futures the best
we can.
The difficult question for simple folks like me is to know which
companies, countries, and regions are in true need of technology
and which ones are on their way to catching up with us (if not
already exceeding us). This question is beyond me.
Take care,
Pat
P.S. These opinions are mine alone, not that of my employer. ;)
> My apologies for the OT post. If it's seriously irrelevant
> please don't
> respond so that the thread does not consume list bandwidth.
>
> A current thread initiated by a vendor posting and ad touched
> upon a painful
> sore which is the migration of all sorts of jobs from call center to
> engineering to countries like India and China. This is a
> subject I continue
> to attempt to understand as the game unfolds. I can't say
> that I have a
> grasp for what the end-game will be or where we are going, I
> just know that
> I have to pay attention to it.
>
> As a small business that's expanding and facing the need to
> hire engineers
> soon, I have to look at the marketplace and consider what's going on.
> Offshore engineering sure feels like an unavoidable element
> of remaning
> competitive. If other companies in your field choose to go
> that route, how
> can you possibly compete while paying 10x the wages locally?
>
> I guess I'm looking for wisdom from someone who understands
> where this is
> going. I want to hire from and support my local engineering
> talent pool. I
> don't think that, as a country, we can afford the wreck that
> this offshore
> business might leave behind. However, I'm not sure what we
> can do about it.
> And, BTW, "country" here might not necesarily apply to the US
> alone, as I'm
> sure this is an issue in countries like UK, Germany, France, etc.
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Martin Euredjian
> eCinema Systems, Inc.
> voice: 661-305-9320
> fax: 661-775-4876
> martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> ecinema@xxxxxxxx
> www.ecinemasys.com
>
>
>
>
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