Yes, the large financial services firms like GE Capital first brought in a few Indians to do Y2K and the projects went well because it was cookbook programming. Very little analysis needed. So several companies concluded that programmers are widgets so they fired their programmers and brought in Indians for half the price. It was a disaster for many companies as few Indian programmers understood the insurance applications or how to modify them for new sophisticated products like Variable Universal Life and Variable Annuities.
GE Capital went all in and total turned their IT areas over to Indian consulting firms. It was a total disaster. Within 2 years their wasn't an Indian programmer working on an GE Capital system.
A few other companies had similar experiences but only replaced a portion of their IT staffs.
Without the greedy management and Y2K and Congress messing up the H-1B Visa immigration bill, it's likely there would be more well paid American programmers.
Greed rules the fools. Had no idea of what that sausage-making looked like. Has anybody documented that mess for training what not to do, or has it just been the cost of mismanagement sort of buried and charged off and passed on. The results of that snafu have resonated through the industry for decades and affected those not even born then, seems to me. Guess those ripples are like gravitational waves, traveling to infinityтАж
As an American programmer we were expected to work with and train the Indians. At that time, there was a huge language and cultural barrier. The Indian technical schools taught their students technical skills but when they came to the US they were unable to communicate in English. Many of the programmers I worked with only spoke Hindi and very broken English. (Of course I can't speak a word of Hindi to this day). And they lived and associated only with other Indians so they never assimilated into the American business culture.
But, by the time Y2K happened the Indian consulting firms understood that their programmers needed to fit in and we understood that they were making an effort and are actually very kind people and for the most part easy to work with.
I have worked with over 300 Indian programmers both on-shore and off-shore, and like American programmers, some are better than others. But, they have ALWAYS treated me and my colleagues with respect and kindness.
One last story - I was contracted for a project in South Dakota as part of a team of 30 programmers, analysts and business analysts. I was the only one not born in India. My cubicle was next to a "kid" who was under 30. We joked around and had the same bizarre programmer sense of humor that almost all programmers share. Anyway, I asked him if he could teach me some Hindi. He patiently tried for about an hour. During that time we laughed at least half the time. He may have been an excellent teacher, but I know that as a student, "I sucked."
You know of what you speak. Being in the trenches gives a unique prospective. Has anybody written the taleof Y2K. Anybody who actually knows it intimately??
I've worked with Indians, Russians, Brits, Irish, Mexican, Chinese programmers and analysts. Not to speak ill of any particular race, but Indians for the most part are very good programmers, but not great analysts. If you're lucky you develop a comraderie within a team. You spend more hours with them when you are onsite than with your family so you almost can't help it. You depend on them to do their job otherwise everyone on the team looks bad. And so, you need to pick up the slack so to speak by helping them with the problem solving part of the job or the specs.
When I was in Sioux Falls, SD with the team of 30, I was onsite for 5 weeks and then remote for 2 1/2 years. I was 30-40 years older than most of them and they treated me with the utmost respect. I'm not sure if it was cultural or what, but when I left after the first 5 weeks,they threw a huge going away party for me.
Y2K changed the world in so many ways and that's just what I can see from my little universe.
Time for you to write that story. Y2K title would be a best seller. And you know stuff, you can write, and itтАЩs a story that needs to be told. It changed the world in so many waysтАж
I remember Y2K, Ha. The system is rigged, is it not.
Yes, the large financial services firms like GE Capital first brought in a few Indians to do Y2K and the projects went well because it was cookbook programming. Very little analysis needed. So several companies concluded that programmers are widgets so they fired their programmers and brought in Indians for half the price. It was a disaster for many companies as few Indian programmers understood the insurance applications or how to modify them for new sophisticated products like Variable Universal Life and Variable Annuities.
GE Capital went all in and total turned their IT areas over to Indian consulting firms. It was a total disaster. Within 2 years their wasn't an Indian programmer working on an GE Capital system.
A few other companies had similar experiences but only replaced a portion of their IT staffs.
Without the greedy management and Y2K and Congress messing up the H-1B Visa immigration bill, it's likely there would be more well paid American programmers.
Greed rules the fools. Had no idea of what that sausage-making looked like. Has anybody documented that mess for training what not to do, or has it just been the cost of mismanagement sort of buried and charged off and passed on. The results of that snafu have resonated through the industry for decades and affected those not even born then, seems to me. Guess those ripples are like gravitational waves, traveling to infinityтАж
JD - I glossed over most of it.
As an American programmer we were expected to work with and train the Indians. At that time, there was a huge language and cultural barrier. The Indian technical schools taught their students technical skills but when they came to the US they were unable to communicate in English. Many of the programmers I worked with only spoke Hindi and very broken English. (Of course I can't speak a word of Hindi to this day). And they lived and associated only with other Indians so they never assimilated into the American business culture.
But, by the time Y2K happened the Indian consulting firms understood that their programmers needed to fit in and we understood that they were making an effort and are actually very kind people and for the most part easy to work with.
I have worked with over 300 Indian programmers both on-shore and off-shore, and like American programmers, some are better than others. But, they have ALWAYS treated me and my colleagues with respect and kindness.
One last story - I was contracted for a project in South Dakota as part of a team of 30 programmers, analysts and business analysts. I was the only one not born in India. My cubicle was next to a "kid" who was under 30. We joked around and had the same bizarre programmer sense of humor that almost all programmers share. Anyway, I asked him if he could teach me some Hindi. He patiently tried for about an hour. During that time we laughed at least half the time. He may have been an excellent teacher, but I know that as a student, "I sucked."
You know of what you speak. Being in the trenches gives a unique prospective. Has anybody written the taleof Y2K. Anybody who actually knows it intimately??
That's a good question. I've never seen it.
I've worked with Indians, Russians, Brits, Irish, Mexican, Chinese programmers and analysts. Not to speak ill of any particular race, but Indians for the most part are very good programmers, but not great analysts. If you're lucky you develop a comraderie within a team. You spend more hours with them when you are onsite than with your family so you almost can't help it. You depend on them to do their job otherwise everyone on the team looks bad. And so, you need to pick up the slack so to speak by helping them with the problem solving part of the job or the specs.
When I was in Sioux Falls, SD with the team of 30, I was onsite for 5 weeks and then remote for 2 1/2 years. I was 30-40 years older than most of them and they treated me with the utmost respect. I'm not sure if it was cultural or what, but when I left after the first 5 weeks,they threw a huge going away party for me.
Y2K changed the world in so many ways and that's just what I can see from my little universe.
Time for you to write that story. Y2K title would be a best seller. And you know stuff, you can write, and itтАЩs a story that needs to be told. It changed the world in so many waysтАж