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I think that the article is missing a major point: cultural and soft skills !!! In a ideal world, coding would be just using some fully specified langage to im

I think that the article is missing a major point: cultural and soft skills !!! In a ideal world, coding would be just using some fully specified langage to implement some fully specified specification or feature. However, in real world, a lot is left implicit and the programmer (not talking about more client or contractor facing position, like project manager) will fill the blanks with its own culture... And that's the moment where living in India, Turkey or US will make a difference ! Not on specific coding skills but on a more general cultural appropriation In fact, after a lot of offshoring, some companies brang back the jobs in the country because the friction were annihilating the cost gains So I don't think that the worker pool will grow that much, internationally. However, the competition will grow more inside the different countries, between urban and countryside... and it will be a race to the bottom : why would any company pay 20, 30, 50% more for the same job ?

achow 6y ago
> In fact, after a lot of offshoring, some companies brang back the jobs in the country because the friction were annihilating the cost gains That's because the offshore companies have engineers who are paid probably ~1/25th of the salary than the 'in shore' ones. If the salary parity is 1:1 (or adjusted for cost of living), then there would not be any problems with 'off shoring'. The evidence is in the overseas R&D Centers of USA product companies that are already prospering in places like India, East-Europe, etc. These companies are in the league of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Adobe, Intuit, Oracle,.. and then some from well funded valley startups. The 'culture' or 'soft skills' does not seem to be issue as these organizations are making global products. And above is actually happening now with employees who are getting much less salary (because they are CoL adjusted) even though output and talent are at par. These employees are working out of these locations because of family reasons, or waiting for the right time to emigrate (kids, school, college etc.). When the salary parity is at 1:1 in any location, for many (if not all) valley area or major USA metro area may not hold any more charm.
petra 6y ago
The interesting dynamics don't happen when you're outsourcing for the cheapest labor, just for cost savings But when every job can be remote, suddenly, a company in the middle of nowhere can get access to great technical leaders. One of the jobs of a great technical leader, is to make the work simpler for the rest of the team. And now the company returns on being able to hire lesser skilled employees becomes greater. I'm sure there are other places to be affected by such changes and second-order effects, so i wonder: where will the opportunities lie in a remote-first world ?

achow 6y ago

> In fact, after a lot of offshoring, some companies brang back the jobs in the country because the friction were annihilating the cost gains That's because the offshore companies have engineers who are paid probably ~1/25th of the salary than the 'in shore' ones. If the salary parity is 1:1 (or adjusted for cost of living), then there would not be any problems with 'off shoring'. The evidence is in the overseas R&D Centers of USA product companies that are already prospering in places like India, East-Europe, etc. These companies are in the league of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Adobe, Intuit, Oracle,.. and then some from well funded valley startups. The 'culture' or 'soft skills' does not seem to be issue as these organizations are making global products. And above is actually happening now with employees who are getting much less salary (because they are CoL adjusted) even though output and talent are at par. These employees are working out of these locations because of family reasons, or waiting for the right time to emigrate (kids, school, college etc.). When the salary parity is at 1:1 in any location, for many (if not all) valley area or major USA metro area may not hold any more charm.

petra 6y ago

The interesting dynamics don't happen when you're outsourcing for the cheapest labor, just for cost savings But when every job can be remote, suddenly, a company in the middle of nowhere can get access to great technical leaders. One of the jobs of a great technical leader, is to make the work simpler for the rest of the team. And now the company returns on being able to hire lesser skilled employees becomes greater. I'm sure there are other places to be affected by such changes and second-order effects, so i wonder: where will the opportunities lie in a remote-first world ?