Archive for the 'Career' Category
With Friends Like This, Who Needs Enemies?
I spent several hours today reviewing a patent application for a software application that I was the lead architect and developer of. As I read what the attorney had prepared I couldn’t help but notice the unique language that you get when you combine the geek speak that I provided to the lawyer with the legal speak that he added while composing the patent application. It resulted in a pretty dry document to say the least!
The most significant revelation that I had while reviewing the document was the reasoning behind submitting it in the first place. Most patent applications are intended to protect intellectual capital of an organization from competitors. The likelihood of a competitor stealing the ideas that were trying to protect in this patent application is slim to say the least. The real reason we submitted a patent application is to protect the jobs of my team of engineers and developers from being outsourced. The rationale used for submitting a patent application by my manager is very simple. One of the evaluation criteria for outsourcing is if the software is protected by a patent then the work cannot be outsourced. So in essence the reason we are filing the patent is to help protect our jobs from being eliminated by our own employer. Does anyone see the problem with this?
If not then let me explain. The work of my team is not evaluated on its own merit. Instead, this group of talented developers is looked at simply as resources that can be replaced by cheaper developers. Forget the fact that we designed and developed one of the most innovative applications in the world. We have to protect ourselves from our own employer who is supposed to be on our side! Who can you trust?
Isn’t it ironic in corporate
Develop Your Strengths!
How many of you have strengths and talents that are unique to you? How many of you have weaknesses? Well the obvious answer is every body! I feel compelled to share with you something that I discovered several years ago that is a product of positive psychology. The valuable nugget of wisdom that I found was an assessment called the Clifton StrengthsFinders. The StrengthsFinders assessment is an incredible tool that will help you identify and assign a name to the talents that your creator instilled within you. It’s certainly altered my perception of who I am and how I should pursue my career. As a matter of fact the results of the assessment were so liberating that I now realize I should continue to develop my strengths and only devote the minimum amount of resources to bringing might weaknesses up to acceptable levels. The theory is that I can really excel at my strengths but I will never excel at my weaknesses. This is almost intuitive isn’t it? Let me explain further.
No commentsIs Outsourcing Really Good Business?
Greed Ultimately Drives Business
In the pursuit for increased profits, companies are continually searching for opportunities to lower labor rates by moving operations to countries where labor is cheaper than the domestic workforce. In the United States this trend started with manufacturing and has continued with white-collar services such as technical support, help desks, and software development. This move is particularly lucrative when the foreign nationals speak English and India is the biggest benefactor of this trend because of the large population of college educated people who can speak English. And while senior managers and bean counters project large cost savings by outsourcing, I wonder, in the long run, does it really save the corporation money or are there hidden costs that management does not consider in their financial models?
What about the intangible side effects such as cultural differences, time zone differences, communication misunderstandings, and overall customer satisfaction? I would like to offer my opinions on the subject but I will freely admit that I have not been privy to anybody else’s perspective except my own and those around me (I also have experience as a consumer who has been forced to deal with offshore help desks, if you know what I mean).
Are Software Developers Commodities?
I currently develop software for a large financial corporation and have steadily observed functions within the organization move offshore and the associated domestic resource right sized (i.e. laid off). I have seen outsourcing start off small but it has grown more and more pervasive. As a matter of fact in my department the current goal is to outsource 30% of the staff. These are just target numbers to senior managers and bean counters but outsourcing is having a real effect on the American worker. I have seen whole development teams experience associate impacts (i.e. laid off) and their jobs moved offshore. I personally am under constant threat of having my job outsourced, continually asked to justify my existence even though my work and the work of my team speaks for itself. Are us developers simply a commodity that performs work that any person with programming knowledge can do? To me the answer is not only no but hell no!
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