> Generally these outsourcing services are not sold as "we can charge you less 
> because we hire ill trained young Indians to replace your experienced 
> technical people"! They are more likely to be sold using a combination of 
> "wages for well trained technical people in India are much lower than they 
> are in US/Canada/UK/etc." and "your experienced technical people are overpaid 
> prima donnas who deserve some pain", both of which arguments probably appeal 
> to some extent to the C-suite crowd who are not themselves likely to face 
> being outsourced any time soon.

I concur. All I'm saying is - it's not right to point the finger at us 
professionals who are already left trying to fit in the shoes of technical 
experts. But it's always the case that "the company" is fed up with the 
technical people and not at management for selling them on something that's 
less than true (Gee.. look how much I can cut your costs!). I fail to see the 
correlation. With just a look at a person, you could guess his/her age and how 
much he/she could have explored mainframes.

> I have noted that a number of the Indian participants on these lists feel the 
> need to give themselves a "Western" nom de plume (nom de clavier?). I hope 
> that this isn't from fear of not being welcomed, or of being treated as a 
> "drone", but I suspect it is.

It is. I've seen a few cases in forums where someone asks for help on a problem 
(granted, he/she hasn't put the requirement across completely), and most of the 
experts just say - "R.T.F.M".
It's better to not say anything than to say that. I mean, what good is that? 
There are loads of manuals; there's no need to spoon feed I agree, but not even 
point the direction?

- Vignesh
Mainframe Admin

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf 
Of Tony Harminc
Sent: 22 April 2014 23:39
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Sorry state of IT education?

On 22 April 2014 15:45, Sankaranarayanan, Vignesh 
<[email protected]> wrote:

> I personally take offense to the "drone" bashing. Because I'm a "drone" now, 
> apparently.

I read this not as drone bashing, but as management bashing. The word "drone" 
with its implication of idleness and other even less appropriate functions is 
not well applied here, but it has come into common use.

> All of these comments seem to be from the perspective of higher ups
> and folks who've had - years-of experience on the mainframe. It simply
> isn't fair to expect the same depth of knowledge from a (relatively)
> newcomer. Without a doubt, the technology that is mainframe, is
> massive. It's not sane to expect some 100,000 manuals get cooked right into 
> an IT professional, when most of the folks on this (& elsewhere) list have 
> acquired the knowledge over years of beating on their craft.

Indeed it isn't. And while I think you will find a friendly welcome here for 
anyone who is able and willing to learn, things get a bit tricky when inability 
is because of lack of time and/or opportunity rather than of willingness or 
native intelligence.

> You ought to consider the conditions under which we're
> working/learning. When a service provider takes up your IT
> infrastructure service support, there's a reason that it's achievable at just 
> x% of what it cost earlier. No points for figuring out where that money is 
> cut out from.

Generally these outsourcing services are not sold as "we can charge you less 
because we hire ill trained young Indians to replace your experienced technical 
people"! They are more likely to be sold using a combination of "wages for well 
trained technical people in India are much lower than they are in 
US/Canada/UK/etc." and "your experienced technical people are overpaid prima 
donnas who deserve some pain", both of which arguments probably appeal to some 
extent to the C-suite crowd who are not themselves likely to face being 
outsourced any time soon.

But in fact, of course, the first claim is closer to the truth than the latter, 
and the lack of appropriate training and opportunity is largely disguised by 
the very distance and seen only in the long term results.

I have noted that a number of the Indian participants on these lists feel the 
need to give themselves a "Western" nom de plume (nom de clavier?). I hope that 
this isn't from fear of not being welcomed, or of being treated as a "drone", 
but I suspect it is.

Tony H.

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