Raghu, That's the 12 Trillion $ question. I honestly don't know the answer. These are unprecedented times.
Also, keep in mind that "downturn" in the IT industry is only subjective. Out here in the US: - Healthcare IT is going to get serious investment from the Government for Electronic Health Records. - Government Agencies are going to see = or better budgets in 2009-2010 for IT spending because it is understood that IT is beneficial to running a more efficient operation. - GreenTech will continue to move along - smart power grid management systems, solar power, battery technology - all are getting healthy investment. If you look at India specifically, you will notice that companies like Citigroup and Sony are either selling their BPO units or outsourcing their technology operations. Sony will be outsourcing $100M in contracts this year alone - TCS is in the running for them from what I have read. Add GE, Citi, BritTelecom, Nokia and BankOfAmerica to that pile and you are looking at $4BN. That's not insignificant. Additionally, in the event TCS/Infosys/Wipro/HCL/Cognizant/Satyam start to really feel the pinch - the right thing to do would be for the Government of India to step in and leverage their excess capacity and skills to fast-track some public service projects. There are no shortage of aspects IT can improve for India. Cloud Infrastructure for a billion person constituency? I like the sound of that. So, yes, the news is overwhelmingly negative - but the media loves to do that. The reality is that our industry is trimming the fat and "leaning" out their operations. The day you see 50,000 person companies shrink to 10,000 person companies that then merge or get acquired - is the day you really should panic. Fortunately, I don't see that day in the near future because IT remains essential. Cheers, Zubin. On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 2:57 AM, raghavendra chary <[email protected]>wrote: > On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 1:04 PM, Zubin Wadia > <[email protected]<zwadia%40gmail.com>> > wrote: > > > Thanks Saifi. > > > > The way I see it, since the time our awesome profession has existed, > there > > has only been one common requirement for a technology professional - > > skills. > > > > Technologies come and go, approaches come and go, companies come and go - > > as > > long as you have strong fundamentals and the will to keep your skills > > sharp, > > no downturn is going to stop you. > > > > Your mentality in a downturn should be default positive. You cannot go > > through your degree, internships & projects thinking your industry is > going > > to abandon you. That's not the case, far from it. > > > > I graduated in about as bad a time as you can imagine - 2001, in New > York. > > With the dot-com bust and 9/11 - big corporations were revoking job > offers > > like water in a famine. While it was disappointing to see companies not > > keep > > their commitments, I remained positive and kept myself at the edge of the > > technology curve. > > > > I also leveraged the friend network around me. One thing in my favor was > > that New York always had something happening, so about 4 months before > > graduating, I was already working full-time (at night because I had to > deal > > with Australians and study/sleep in the mornings). It's 2009 now, and I > > have > > absolutely no regrets. > > > > So, keep getting to the other side of the river, breathe, and pay no > > attention to the water around you. It may slow your progress, but you'll > > get > > to the other side! > > > > Cheers, > > > > Zubin. > > > > Thanks Zubin, > > What do u think is the cause for this situation and where would it end up > finally ? I mean how long is this going to last ? > > Raghu > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
