Craigslist and looking for a web/php/postgresql guy

[gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On 11/03/2008 07:13 AM, Grant M. wrote:
> I have to agree with the other posters, or at least in general. The
> things that are the most problematic with offshoring is language
> barriers and expertise. The former can be overcome with a bright,
> bilingual project manager, however the latter is why you get "software
> developers at McDonald's wages". It's because your paying McDonald's
> wages, not because they don't want to make more. Back in the mid 80's,
> you could buy a brand-new, dealer-fresh car for only $3990. That car wa=
s
> the Yugo.
>
> I have however worked with folks from overseas that were reasonably
> skilled, listened well, and had a decent grasp of English. However in
> every single one of those cases, those folks tended to leave their home=

> countries and come to the U.S. (or were already here). The offshore
> talent that deserved better than being offshore talent eventually becam=
e
> on-shore talent, which is generally what I would expect (assuming that
> is what they wanted to do). If you're good, someone will offer you a
> position, wherever that might be.
>  =20
Back when I was at Digital,we had a division in Bangalore. One of the=20
engineers came over here to train, but left shortly after he returned=20
because he was able to find a job over here. However we did have quite a =

few other people there. Digital moved the Unix Tools group to India, and =

one thing they found out is that whenever you manage people, you need to =

understand their culture. One problem was that when someone would file a =

problem report, the engineer would treat the problem report as gospel,=20
and apply the fix. But, in many cases, the solution may have fixed the=20
perceived bug, but broken the tool (or violated standards), or that the=20
perceived bug was not really a bug. Remember, especially in the=20
commercial Unix environment, most tools must behave according to the=20
relevant standards, and in our case both Unux9x as well as SVID and=20
POSIX. One thing they ended up doing was to have someone prescreen the=20
problem reports. My personal dealings with the engineers in Bangalore=20
was pretty good, and at the time I thought it was a step up from the=20
people we had in New Jersey. As I alluded, the issue is not only=20
language but also culture. This would be true anywhere, not just India.

--=20
Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id: 537C5846
PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB  CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846