Discussion on:

IT career: What's hot (cloud computing) and what's not (tech certs)

I'm personally stepping off this merry-go-round. After being laid off this year and only finding short-term contract jobs, it's time to strike out and do my own thing. Luckily, they all involve many of the "hot" skills this year, so I'll be keeping my skills current.

The Hackett group is only serving its own purposes by making this recommendation. From their website, "The Hackett Group, a global strategic advisory firm, is a leader in best practice advisory, benchmarking, and transformation consulting services, including shared services, offshoring and outsourcing advice." Of course they recommend not hiring US or European IT workers because the recommendation is self-serving.
As far as who will service the hardware onsite, the Commonwealth of Virginia outsourced their IT support and laid off most of the onsite IT personnel and kept a minimum workforce to run around and carry out the hardware and software fixes that the outsourced support couldn't handle. In a local facility, they went from six to eight IT techs to just two, servicing several hundred PCs, servers and printers. Needless to say, repairs that used to be done in hours are now done in weeks (or not at all). Just another great idea from self serving business leaders and politicians who couldn't make an honest buck if they had to!

I agree with what you are saying. This is my first time being motivated to post a response. I am a student, once an IS Tech, laid-off due to downsizing. I am back in school to receive training to become more marketable (Network Security).

The trend that I have seen over time is that businesses think that I.S. services are an expense they can do without, contracting out services on an as needed basis. Reports such as the Hackett Group lend support to this type of cost inefficient thinking. As someone else has suggested, you get what you pay for. Certain business industries can't afford to have a network down waiting for the contractor to show up. Having someone onstaff, that knows the system well and is readily available is well worth the investment in money.

We work hard to keep abreast of knowledge & updates to protect the systems we serve through on-going training, reading and (re)certification. Aren't we worth the payment of services rendered?

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Well, I found myself leaving a good job in NYC 3 yrs ago for a girl out here in New Mexico. I get here, get decent job, get layed off, play World of Warcraft for 2 months, get contract work, hate contract, get permanent gig, now get paid well... All in a crappy market AND in NM of all places. People are too lazy to get up and MOVE around this great country of ours (US in my case) christ, people used to move from place to place in search of work SEASONALLY (yes with the ENTIRE family and the family cow). We are too used to sitting where is comfortable and whining about our surroundings (local job market etc). Oh and I have no certs, though I still see value in them, although I dont think it would have landed me better job or more money in this economy. We have been taken out of our comfort zones and dont know how to react.

The Hackett Group is advising companies to not hire back U.S. and European IT workers who have been laid off; instead they recommend filling any needs overseas. (The IT positions they are referring to are those that such as support and systems administration.)

Oy vey. Haven't we had enough problems with this strategy? People like to be served by people who can speak their own language well enough to understand each other. Sure it may be cheaper but you get what you pay for.

I agree. When I read the Hackett Group's recommendation, my thought was, "Well, the Hackett Group can go..." you-know-what.

Hey, thanks a lot Hack Group! Great suggestion! Appreciate the support!

If that's how they feel, I hope every single one of them gets outsourced. That's why this economy is all screwed up! Yea great, keep taking jobs from Americans...nice work

I hope "someone" with 1337 h4x0r skills who had to move back into his parents basement because he got laid off takes enough time away from Warhammer online and job-hunting to read this and get motivated.

The Hackett Group doesn't know what they're talking about. Just look at the jobs they claim should be offshored: support and systems administration. Hello? Doesn't one have to be physically present to do tech support on hardware? Doesn't one need to be at the location of a router if it needs to be replaced?

What a bunch of morons! And the suits are stupid enough to believe them.

The "Hackett Group" (I first read that as the Hatchet Group) is obviously part of the race to the bottom in IT wages and quality.

Yeah, they can sell cheap third world IT bodies to service IT needs in countries where they don't even speak the language, but the customer satisfaction levels will be abysmal.

Seriously, you don't ask a butcher what the best career options for pigs and cows are. They'll talk up the stockyard.

For companies to overcome the hard times they need to cut costs but to hire overseas? That won't help the country they are based in! If the US or UK all hire overseas then our unemployment will be huge and our climb out of the recession will take years! Hire people in your own country, just don't pay them stupid money. Some people just don't look at the bigger picture.

The bigger picture is maintaining profit margins while GDP shrinks. Don't know about the UK, but in the US, you can hire 2 offshore developers for the same price as a domestic one. That means if you only hire 1, you've got nearly 2 extra salaries worth of budget to play with. The flip side to that is, no, you don't usually get the internal knowledge and creativity you'd want--which might be needed if your company is struggling.

In addition to the poor service we receive as result of overseas labor; we are also being robbed of jobs. Furthermore, this type of thinking denies money from circulating in the designated countries local economy and is just another scratch on a dire economy. Granted they are running a business and their main priority is profit and the bottom line, but where is the loyalty and gratitude for the local people and its primary customers (USA). In the long run, I think it hurts business because customers are loyal. Personally, I try to support local business whether the business in question competes in my local town or on a national level. And I think a lot of other think the same way. Just mt two cents...

They are only loyal as long as it is convenient for them. Their only loyalty is money and their motivation is to get everyone working for gruel.

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Over the last 6 months we have lost 19 developers / qa / app support peopole and brought in 30 contractors. The project is now 3 times over budget and the rollout date has been eliminated since it is taking a very long time to get the contractors up to speed. So I ask the Hackett Group, Were are the savings?

Poor project management/scope creep/looming disaster. Please tell me this is for an in house App and not something to be unleashed on an un suspecting public.

Thankfully it is a set of internal apps, but the overage on the project costs are starting to effect other money making projects. Hope they find the savings soon to make up for the money being lost now.

Seriously. "Don't hire back US and European workers?" Especially in this economy?

Economy aside, have they ever talked to actual people and listened to their anger and frustration at getting someone who doesn't speak the language, or speaks it with such a heavy accent it's completely unintelligible? This isn't just home user support, business support has this happen as well.

Sure, you get some short-term savings from having Jane Secretary (with little computer knowledge - typically just enough to do her job, who doesn't *want* to know there's a registry, the difference between USB 2.0 and 3.0, etc) call someone whose name she can't pronounce in India... but how much longer is she *down* because she's trying to understand TWO foreign languages (tech and unintelligible English) as opposed to just one ("tech?")

Horrible, horrible suggestion.

Denzel Washington said in the Movie Training Day, "It's not what you know, but what you can prove". I wish I had the proof because it wouldn't surprise me that the Hackett Group has some ties to the recommendations they make.