i am not an expert on the matter, so this is just my opinion: i believe the above effect is temporary. programming is not difficult and it is well suited for outsourcing. those going through outsourcing disaster will learn from their mistakes... already, i know of many fellow indians in the US who are getting into the very lucrative career path of acting as a sort of outsourcing liaison, leveraging their knowledge of both worlds.
I don't think it's happening because Indian programmers are not good enough, I think it's happening becauses long-distance management is even harder than local management.
joanna, i actually greatly admire your company. they were internet pioneers and the geek in me looks up to their innovative work. but they were charging enterprice prices for badly put together products long before there was any outsourcing.
Absolutely, no question about it. Actually I think they suck and so far as the internet pionnering stuff, I think they just got lucky.
my guess is that when you add up the numbers, outsourcing will still be cheaper. i just read an article (i believe in business week) in which a programmer, who was earning $200,000 (!!!) a year, was complaining about the loss of her job and questioning what was wrong with america, etc. $200,000/year??? i could probably count on my fingers the number of programmers who deserve that kind of pay!
Yeah, that's an incredible salary. I know some top flight programmers with eons of experience...none of whom make more than 130,000.
Joanna
