I don't have the answers yet, but I have learned enough to be dangerous, and ask better questions..

When I arrived back at work, the company had laid off 6 people. That takes us down to 22. A little scary...though I am safe. For now.

And of course we have big aggressive plans for the next stage of the product buildout. So what's the answer? How do you do it all with less resources?

OUTSOURCE!

I am sitting through 11 presentations this week from Indian offshoring companies who specialize in software development. Some notes:

1. They've taken the British path that to overcome resistance to perceived incompetence: education is the answer, and more is better. Americans tend to believe in 'doing' more than they believe in education. The Indian teams all have tons of grad / post grad employees. They're better educated than we are.
2. They are anal to a point. American firms are known to try to speed things up, cut corners, and skip process that's too encumbering. The Indian firms, by contrast, have every certification and follow process to a 't'. I'll have to see how that works against the need for speed...

In just my cursory overview, it scares me. These jobs we are outsourcing used to be $40,000 per year for college grads, $70,000 - $150,000 for experienced developers. I think we are paying the Indians something like $25,000 per year for post grad, experienced developers. And they have TONS of schools for this trade. Remember how 'services' used to be such a big percent of our economy? Developing software is both product and service, and those were some of the better paying jobs in our economy. They were the 'engineering' jobs of the 80's, 90's, and 2000's. Now those too are going overseas, following manufacturing in droves. I understand the pressure for businesses to do more with less, increase margins, stay alive, etc..., but I wonder if American businesses have contemplated the effect this has on our own economy?

I think I should have gone into law, or psychology - a profession not likely to be 'outsourced', but perhaps one with interesting client twists and turns as the economy shifts...

Biting my nails...