We are going through Global financial melt down. I have been screaming about it for quite some time. I have been born and brought up, as a professional, in this increasingly flattening global economy. I draw an analogy of global economy being an elephant which has been an big fat beast standing on one thick leg, the US economy. What is happening now is that this elephant is unfurling its other three legs. They are Europe, China, India (feel free to disagree with the legs analogy with me here). This is obviously creating a lot of unrest, investors are upset, Feds are under fire, Mortgage market is a drama, US dollar is devaluing
So we are heading towards globalization alright!
When I went for interviews, people often asked me: "How come you changed jobs this quick?" I said :"Globalization!" so lets take walk down the lane and see how I experienced it and tried my best to survive it.
In 2001 - 2002...
I was desperate to find a IT firm to do my curriculam project. Then Osama played a huge role by attacking the World Trade Center. For the first time i have seen the Global melt down. Stock Exchanges were collapsing and i was left clueless. There was no campus interview neither free projects from big firms for the IT students. Fortunately, XIM helped me. Though i went through 6 round of interviews to get one free project from them.
In 2003...
I was out of the College with a certificate, but IT industry was still struggling then, no jobs for freshers. Plenty of small and medium IT firms were started but they just needed someone experienced. Because of my communication skill and interests in Sales i have joined a Call center and became a international telemarketer. First time in my life i heard about firing and pink slips. I survived there for two years and then the next bomb came from the owner of the Call center himself. He was arrested in US for fraud and forgery. They have closed the center and i was on the street again.
In 2005
After 2 years of struggle in another call center. I have decided to shift my career totally into IT industry. ITES was not doing well at that time, several Outbound callcenters were closed their operations, only inbound call centers were able to survive. My interest was only into sales but not in taking technical support calls, so i was shifting my focus into IT Sales and joined a small software development firm for sales (in 2 years i have witnessed the company growing from $10 million to $100 million revenue making one)
In 2008
Another financial crisis, another IT recession and then the Satyam. Well even this time i will survive, we all will survive. I know even my company is going through bad phase (When i joined the firm market share value was Rs. 257 now it is just Rs.16 now). They might close down their operations anytime or sell it to someone (but hesitated investors are not taking risk at this time). Again Globalization...Things will go on, all we need is determination and keep ourself focused on our goal.
In 2010...
IT firms are getting desperate. Some may survive but most will have to face the consequences. The next recession is coming, actually we are already in it!
At first glance, open source companies have the upper hand against their closed-source counterparts during economic slowdowns. Big businesses already are migrating their Unix-based systems to more cost-effective Linux servers. One could argue those migrations will accelerate if corporate IT budgets get cut. And for new projects, IT departments would likely look at open source first because of its initial (and potential long-term) cost advantages over closed-source alternatives.
After 10 years...
The world would look a lot different. We will have almost all of those traditional IT jobs like generalists all gone. You would have to specialize in genome research, astrophysics or anything to get into HPC, you would be attending colleges from your home though, so talent will be picked the minute it would have sprouted. You will not talk in terms of typical applications but more or less like appliances. Internet would be, as it already is, via a Grid Central. We would have idea- and mind-mapping software. We would collaborate without keyboards and mouses. But all this has to mean that we will have to go through yet another painful "change" process. But by then most of the younger generations would have got used to it.
Here are something that we all should do to keep ourself updated at this time.
- Get visibility (blogging, columnist, professional writing like White Papers etc)- Say something unique via these channels: Repeating- Become an expert in Knowledge Discovery: You have no idea how much IP (Intellectual Property) you can dig out of the unstructured mass of data that the web encompasses, its a virtual IP goldmine. find it, re-package it, make it yours! Do note: Add your uniqueness to it, or else anyone can copy it from you!
So we are heading towards globalization alright!
When I went for interviews, people often asked me: "How come you changed jobs this quick?" I said :"Globalization!" so lets take walk down the lane and see how I experienced it and tried my best to survive it.
In 2001 - 2002...
I was desperate to find a IT firm to do my curriculam project. Then Osama played a huge role by attacking the World Trade Center. For the first time i have seen the Global melt down. Stock Exchanges were collapsing and i was left clueless. There was no campus interview neither free projects from big firms for the IT students. Fortunately, XIM helped me. Though i went through 6 round of interviews to get one free project from them.
In 2003...
I was out of the College with a certificate, but IT industry was still struggling then, no jobs for freshers. Plenty of small and medium IT firms were started but they just needed someone experienced. Because of my communication skill and interests in Sales i have joined a Call center and became a international telemarketer. First time in my life i heard about firing and pink slips. I survived there for two years and then the next bomb came from the owner of the Call center himself. He was arrested in US for fraud and forgery. They have closed the center and i was on the street again.
In 2005
After 2 years of struggle in another call center. I have decided to shift my career totally into IT industry. ITES was not doing well at that time, several Outbound callcenters were closed their operations, only inbound call centers were able to survive. My interest was only into sales but not in taking technical support calls, so i was shifting my focus into IT Sales and joined a small software development firm for sales (in 2 years i have witnessed the company growing from $10 million to $100 million revenue making one)
In 2008
Another financial crisis, another IT recession and then the Satyam. Well even this time i will survive, we all will survive. I know even my company is going through bad phase (When i joined the firm market share value was Rs. 257 now it is just Rs.16 now). They might close down their operations anytime or sell it to someone (but hesitated investors are not taking risk at this time). Again Globalization...Things will go on, all we need is determination and keep ourself focused on our goal.
In 2010...
IT firms are getting desperate. Some may survive but most will have to face the consequences. The next recession is coming, actually we are already in it!
At first glance, open source companies have the upper hand against their closed-source counterparts during economic slowdowns. Big businesses already are migrating their Unix-based systems to more cost-effective Linux servers. One could argue those migrations will accelerate if corporate IT budgets get cut. And for new projects, IT departments would likely look at open source first because of its initial (and potential long-term) cost advantages over closed-source alternatives.
After 10 years...
The world would look a lot different. We will have almost all of those traditional IT jobs like generalists all gone. You would have to specialize in genome research, astrophysics or anything to get into HPC, you would be attending colleges from your home though, so talent will be picked the minute it would have sprouted. You will not talk in terms of typical applications but more or less like appliances. Internet would be, as it already is, via a Grid Central. We would have idea- and mind-mapping software. We would collaborate without keyboards and mouses. But all this has to mean that we will have to go through yet another painful "change" process. But by then most of the younger generations would have got used to it.
Here are something that we all should do to keep ourself updated at this time.
- Get visibility (blogging, columnist, professional writing like White Papers etc)- Say something unique via these channels: Repeating- Become an expert in Knowledge Discovery: You have no idea how much IP (Intellectual Property) you can dig out of the unstructured mass of data that the web encompasses, its a virtual IP goldmine. find it, re-package it, make it yours! Do note: Add your uniqueness to it, or else anyone can copy it from you!
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