ideas on movie to be made on hi-tech jobs going overseas.

[frederick]

I want to make a movie about jobs that are and will be impacted by outsourcing hi tech jobs to foreign workers. I would appreciate ideas.

[zzyzzx]

I'd want to show a frustrated shopper reading the label on merchandise and only finding things that say Made in China. Also show people on the unemployment line talking about how they trained the Indian who now has their job.

[galactica]

Id like to somehow see zzyzzx's signature incorporated into the movie.

Perhaps the still for the main menu!


man that thing cracks me up! even though ive seen it 1000+ times hahahahhahaa

[tgpo]

Didn't Michael Moore do someting like this before??? You may wanna look through a few of his movies to get an idea of what you should look for when making a movie on a subject such as this.

[Faustus]

Or how Dell says they have "Award winning tech support" when in truth a large number of callers get India whenever they call for help and the quality of support is awful. So awful that many pay another branch of dell support money out of pocket for support when they get frustraighted enough, just because they can communicate with the people they are talking to there.

[MOVIEGEEK]

The movie tgpo was refering to was "Roger & Me".
As to the topic at hand contact M$ they are exporting thousands of jobs to India.I'm not picking on India this is happening in other countries as well.Cigar chomping CEO's export more U.S. jobs just to save a buck and make their stock look attractive.
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=exporting+jobs+to+India%2Cmicrosoft

[sterno]

I'll pick on programmers first. The best programmers you find here in the US will usually be Americans. The worst programmers you find here in the US will also be Americans. The best American programmers are often better than their foreign counterparts, but there aren't enough of them and they cost a lot. The worst American programmers are often worse than almost any foreigner you'll find getting paid to program, and they're really common and still cost a lot. Since programming teams can often just be given an assignment and a deadline, you can outsource them anywhere in the world. The main problems will be the occasional need for a teleconference with somebody in a time zone 8-12 hours away and the code that will be documented in broken English (at best).

Things like helpdesk and tech support should never be sent overseas because these people must be able to communicate clearly. Try to solve a complex problem over the phone while speaking a foreign language at 4:00am sometime, and see how well you do. Nobody else does much better, but companies outsource these functions anyway. It's almost always a disaster, but they do it anyway.

Networking and systems support is very difficult to outsource. If the network is down, nobody can fix it without being physically present. Companies usually think ahead enough to know that and they don't want to ship their servers far away from where they're needed, so network-, system-, and database administration is usually not sent overseas. When it is it's usually just because they need 24/7 monitoring and they have a full-time staff on site here in the US - the overseas support is just a supplement so that the on-site people don't have to put in quite so many hours. I will say that the Indians here in the US on work visas seem to have a particular talent for being Oracle DBAs, though.

[poopyhead]

suggest that American programmers be willing to accept lower salary to compete w/ foreigners

....otherwise, don't pick a job field that has a high chance of being outsourced...

[themichael]

I had a job in engineering support....

The engineers are still here.
Helped train the 5 people in CHina that now do my job.

What else won't be shipped overseas?

As a side note:
I was in Mexico helping to set up an assembly line, they know how us Americans felt a few years back when all the blue collar jobs were going to Mexico. They were losing their jobs to China....

[sterno]

suggest that American programmers be willing to accept lower salary to compete w/ foreigners

Companies don't ask programmers if they'll take a pay cut instead of losing their jobs, companies usually don't even lower their starting salaries - they just stop hiring and start firing. Heavily-industrialized nations like most of the US and western Europe also tend to have higher costs of living than a lot of other parts of the world.

[poopyhead]

Heavily-industrialized nations like most of the US and western Europe also tend to have higher costs of living than a lot of other parts of the world.

that's what minimum wage is for

[themichael]

minimum wage is an artificial price support on labor.

If nobody pays less than X, then nobody will pay more than X.

What most CEO don't see is that the labor savings gets lost in other costs. These costs don't show up under labor so they save money. These show up as "waste", training costs, delayed launch or releases, low quality products, and so on.

Also missed is the fact that the population in the countries outsourced to don't buy the products they make. What countries are the biggest source of pirated movies/software/music?

Lastly, what happens when Joe Beer-drinker stops buying beer,gasoline, food, cable TV?

[poopyhead]

@themichael,

just pointing out that in a bad economy with many layoffs, ppl should be willing to accept lower wages if they wanna get work...otherwise, they can remain unemployed...

or don't pick an industry that's laying off ppl by the thousands...i.e. the IT industry

[themichael]

poopyhead:

I've heard than line before, also "you shouldn't be so picky", "I would dig ditches if I had to (still employed)", "there are plenty of jobs if you're motivated"

Most of it bullsh*t from people with jobs they had for more than 10 years. Can't get rid of them, age/sex/wage/reverse discrimination. Or they are the ones doing the firing.

The last areas that should be laid off are IT and training, but yet they are the first.

There is school system out there where the IT guy is the gym teacher. He got the job because he knew how to use Word and Excel. Came in for training at the school I was at because in was in WAY over his head. Still is. There is an airport near me where the IT department is now anything that runs on electricity!

I went from a 3k a month take home to 1k overnight. I also have a part time job delivering pizza that gets me another 200 a month. I have now cashed in my 401K so I could keep my house for another 6 months. The city is taking about raising taxes and assesments to help pay for services (what services? our public schools suck and crime is still bad).

I haven't been "picky" and I am "motivated" (i like to eat, bath, and sleep in a bed). I have skills in many areas. There just ain't no paying jobs within 50 miles. I live between two MAJOR cities. The state job listings number less than 1000 for my tri-county area.Most of the listings are senior level requiring 4 year degrees for 24K a year. 2 years ago these were 80K. They are still empty.

Unemployment calims are the lowest since Feb. Lets see - no increase in the last six months? Could be because people are going back to work? or because after 6 months the unemployment runs out?

Am I bitter? F*** yeah! I actually had a collection agency ask me to send them $200 when I cashed out my retirement or they would put a negitive on my credit report! I told her "I am facing foreclosure - do you think a $200 bad mark for a medical bill worries me?" She still wanted the money!!!

Sorry about the rant. Would delete it but it makes me feel a little better.

Now if I could just get my PAL->NTSC TV show conversions to work!! off to search for a fix....