Sea of Managers
Readers every day in India these days we hear about Layoffs, especially in the IT/ITES and software fields. People seem to place the blame on external factors when this happens. Sometimes it is true and politics is at play, but quite often it is not.
What has brought about this nemesis? On an average, Entrepreneurs insist that the blame lies with the employee. Sometimes they claim the issue is about political factors(Donald Trump's anti-outsourcing policies etc). Again, this is a tendency to pin blame elsewhere when the finger should be pointing inwards! The entrepreneur refuses to invest in the employees training and development, instead, giving him/her more non-technical "responsibilities".
The gullible employee on the other hand feels this is a "way to the top" and begins to take on more "responsibility"(non technical work). Sometimes the managers give the coders such a hard time while they are coding/doing technical work that the coders revolt and try to become managers themselves. Suddenly we have more and more (and more) managers and fewer coders left in the fray. This becomes a dangerous irrational situation and the entrepreneur is forced to "take a tough decision". {Actually, the average entrepreneur does not really care until the customer tells him that his people are not technical enough for the project}
1. Improve your technical competence continuously
2. Continue to build great software regardless of what people around you are saying. Managers may go about saying "You are just a coder", but please know that they are faking it themselves
3. Learn to say "NO" when you are given non-technical work to do("Responsibilities").
4. Teach other like minded coders and learn from them, continuously
5. Continue to invest in your own education.
6. Understand that the goal of any business that employs you is creation of wealth for its investors and not guaranteeing you a job.
7. God helps those who help themselves
8. Understand that "the few will always rule the many" and try to become the few!What has brought about this nemesis? On an average, Entrepreneurs insist that the blame lies with the employee. Sometimes they claim the issue is about political factors(Donald Trump's anti-outsourcing policies etc). Again, this is a tendency to pin blame elsewhere when the finger should be pointing inwards! The entrepreneur refuses to invest in the employees training and development, instead, giving him/her more non-technical "responsibilities".
The gullible employee on the other hand feels this is a "way to the top" and begins to take on more "responsibility"(non technical work). Sometimes the managers give the coders such a hard time while they are coding/doing technical work that the coders revolt and try to become managers themselves. Suddenly we have more and more (and more) managers and fewer coders left in the fray. This becomes a dangerous irrational situation and the entrepreneur is forced to "take a tough decision". {Actually, the average entrepreneur does not really care until the customer tells him that his people are not technical enough for the project}
Donald Trump and the Offshoring S(c/h)am
Average Entrepreneurs try to deflect the blame from themselves by saying US anti-outsourcing policy has resulted in this mess. Do Indian workers really need to worry if outsourcing stops? Many competent ones can in fact get a H-1 and move to greener pastures for many times their Indian salary which the entrepreneur paid them. Donald Trump is a blessing in disguise for many such competent techies! It is the Entrepreneur himself who is in trouble now, not techies, and for once the shoe is on the other foot!
Automation
The other real reason jobs are disappearing is because of automation not politics! Automation continues its onward wealth creating march as more and more jobs disappear. Thousands of people working in call centers will be replaced with single scaleable chatbot that will run on cloud and answer questions for users who were anyways fed up with fake foreign accents. This is just a canonical example and many jobs and industries are going to be disrupted by automation in the next few years.
Examples of potentially obsolete jobs are taxi drivers, even low end IT jobs, Massively online open classrooms are already disrupting conventional education to some extent or supplementing it. Russia has now built the first AI battle tank, even the future of war is going to change.
Lets ban Automation! some will say. We are losing our jobs! To them I have this to say: "Even if you close your eyes and sit in one place the world continues to move forward!"
There are several issues that Government is going to need to address like taxation on automation, Universal basic income etc.
Advice to Youngsters
What then is the advice I have for budding coders?1. Improve your technical competence continuously
2. Continue to build great software regardless of what people around you are saying. Managers may go about saying "You are just a coder", but please know that they are faking it themselves
3. Learn to say "NO" when you are given non-technical work to do("Responsibilities").
4. Teach other like minded coders and learn from them, continuously
5. Continue to invest in your own education.
6. Understand that the goal of any business that employs you is creation of wealth for its investors and not guaranteeing you a job.
7. God helps those who help themselves
9. Believe that all you really need to succeed is food, shelter, a laptop and a broadband plan, not employment/career etc.