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30 Days (Outsourcing)

Last night I was watching Morgan Spurlock's show "30 Days" last night about outsourcing of IT jobs. The subject person was Chris Jobin who was a programmer with Morgan Stanley until his job was subcontracted out to Bangalore, India. Over dinner with his family he makes a comment that he would suggest that his son become a "plumber or something.." as if that were a step down from "programmer."

This is exactly the type of mentality that lead to the current problems we have in the construction industry. Starting many years ago the education system has somehow created an environment where people believe that a career in construction is a bad choice where one in IT and some other "professional occupations" are good.

Let me remind you of a few things -

(1) Most construction workers make as much if not more than these "professional" jobs

(2) Most of these so-called "professional" jobs that the weak education system trains people for are basically low-level jobs that actually create little value and there is no reason why a company wouldn't want to subcontract these out as cheaply as possible - be real with yourself about your work - are you really creating value or is it basic data entry / analysis stuff?

(3) while some pre-fabrication activities for construction can be done out of the country construction jobs are pretty immune to outsourcing and

(4) It was us "dumb" construction workers that laid the fiber across the county and across the oceans (while getting paid a lot!) that allowed for 3rd world countries to start pulling themselves up out of poverty.

I sincerely apologize for the harshness of this post but I love construction - it was the path I chose. When I was in school I was told I wouldn't amount to much because of this chosen path. At least I had the benefit of good vocational classes when I was in school - today kids don't even have that opportunity. Wood, metal and auto shops have been replaced with computer labs. Great job! Create even more kids that think construction is a bad career choice who will soon have their jobs outsourced.

Building your career in the construction industry is a great opportunity - don't listen to the masses!

Posted by David Brown on August 4, 2006 07:26 AM|Permalink

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