Hi all,

I have been in this IT industry for almost 6 yrs now and have landed my
feet in many companies, business sectors, countries and responsibilities.
The comments are purely mine and anyone willing to discuss this can do so
privately with me..

I had a background in Electrical Engg and always wanted to work in that
sector but never got a opportunity to do so. When I graduated and was a
fresher, fortunately software market was booming and I got this wonderful
opportunity to work for world class company. But those days software was
booming in India because of Y2K. So got used the kind of programmers job of
find and replace dates. It did not matter much because the pay was almost
double that of what an average freshman engineer gets in other branches.
But then it got to a situation where Y2K hit my patience nerve and I had to
get out of it. Fortunately I got into Hp3k platforms much before this point
of transition, but unfortunately the company that I worked for never cared
about the kind of work or platform in which I worked as long as they were
billing good money to the clients. They neglected Hp3k the same way as many
others running madly behind money and open technologies. I could not
tolerate it anymore and had to call it a day just because I loved Hp3k too
much.

Concept of Offshoring projects: This happens most of the case in Offshore
companies in India, China, Russia and other countries. With US/UK companies
looking more into cost cutting procedures, offshoring projects was the
cheapest alternative (Also by paying 50% less if they can get the work done
in shorter time with better quality, who would not go for it). I have been
Project leader for a project which actually would have invoice 125K US$ for
3 months if executed in US or UK (with 30% direct savings) but instead
invoiced only 50K US$ (out of this more than 85% is direct savings for the
offshore company after all the standing expenses). Many may have better
results and it would not be surprising for me to see it. I cannot comment
much on the H1b program and US INS policies because I have seen
contradicting reports from INS and US Job market results and I am in
between it.

By coming out of my country to work in countries like UK and USA, I did get
a wonderful opportunity to explore more on the Hp3k and really understand
it better than being in India and work in offshore projects only. But this
had expense.. !! I had to bear about listening to others complaining that
foreigners have taken my job, racial profiling (specially Asian
discrimination), etc in many cases in UK and USA. I don't want to get into
in depth on this human rights violation cases because it will trigger many
many instances of fights but just wanted to explain that all these issues
made me more and more stronger to fight the challenges of life. I am really
happy that I made my way through all these difficult days and I feel its
really worth it because if I had not made those positive decisions during
those days, I would not have been here today in this good days of life. I
have seen great people in this mailing list with much greater patience in
them. It really came into picture only after Sept 2001 when HP had decided
to discontinue Hp3k forever. I really liked the comment someone made in
this mailing list sometime back that "I wanted to retire first before Hp3k
did".

I have been offered 25K UK pounds 4 yrs back and 45K US$ 3 yrs back for
going permanent. At that time I felt it was good and took it. Later
realized that my progress in the company is very tough based on
discriminatory factors and other reasons, I had decided that consulting was
a better option than getting permanent. Others may argue with me on this,
but these are based purely on my conditions and situations.

Coming now to the point of shifting from Hp3k to Java or other platforms. I
am now a recruiter with more marketing and sales skills apart from working
on Hp3k platforms as a independent consultant. Working as a recruiter made
me explore more in the IT industry in other technical fields other than
Hp3k. Since I was not a recruiter 2 yrs back when economy was at its peak,
hence cannot comment on those java programmers who took 150$/hr. But based
on the situation now, its definitely a vast sea with salty water.. !! Rates
are not only low, but contract projects are short and permanent people are
being laid off. Experienced people are taking away freshers job and
reducing their rates just for survival. So shifting platforms is not a good
option either. Now I feel if there is other business sectors like
electrical or other fields which are steady then better to get into it as
long as survival is the most important factor. But if not then I believe
the economy is definitely showing signs of improvement and the good days
are going to be back soon. It may not be the same as what we had seen
during early 1999 but much better than what it was during entire 2001.

For the timebeing, just face the reality. Hope for the best.

With Best Regards
RAGHU. RAO


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