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Had two interviews with a company. The first went EXTREMELY well; I left more upbeat than I've ever left an interview before. Got called back to come in for a second interview yesterday, which seemed to go OK. This was primarily with the business side.
Called back today: "the business need changed...we have an offshore group...nothing official on your candidacy but just wanted to let you know so you could continue looking".
Grrrr. Guess I should be thankful they at least let me know.
On the plus side, my old boss got a new Director position (starting Monday), and wants me to come work for him again. I knew my old (and future?) boss was keen on loyalty when he hired me 8 years ago, and I always appreciated that as I'm also a loyal employee (who tries to live by the Golden Rule). So, having gotten the OK for me to work remotely, I have a phone interview with his new boss and the other developer currently there next week, so perhaps everything will work out in the end. Here's hoping.
On the extra plus side, the inept HR people at the old job apparently haven't bothered to cancel our health insurance :)
Called back today: "the business need changed...we have an offshore group...nothing official on your candidacy but just wanted to let you know so you could continue looking".
Grrrr. Guess I should be thankful they at least let me know.
On the plus side, my old boss got a new Director position (starting Monday), and wants me to come work for him again. I knew my old (and future?) boss was keen on loyalty when he hired me 8 years ago, and I always appreciated that as I'm also a loyal employee (who tries to live by the Golden Rule). So, having gotten the OK for me to work remotely, I have a phone interview with his new boss and the other developer currently there next week, so perhaps everything will work out in the end. Here's hoping.
On the extra plus side, the inept HR people at the old job apparently haven't bothered to cancel our health insurance :)
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Programmist
02 June 2011 - 11:24 AM
People who offshore will get what they pay for (i.e. rubbish product). Be glad you didn't get hired by a chincey off-shoring company.
calebjonasson
02 June 2011 - 11:34 AM
It's a good thing that being a loyal employee pays off. There's nothing better than leaving a job with good connections in place.
JackOfAllTrades
02 June 2011 - 03:30 PM
Yeah, my understanding is much of the existing code IS rubbish, and was under the impression that part of my role would have been to help clean it up. But meeting with the business side of things, they seemed to have had me in a Team Lead role, where I would be designing, and developing -- with the assistance of two offshore devs to whom I would be parceling out tasks and supervising -- specific functionalities. Problem may be that even though I've been doing this for so long, I have
1. no supervisory experience; when I was a Team Lead (10 years ago!) it was more in the role of mentor to the junior programmers, as I knew the product inside and out
2. not a lot of experience (especially recently) working directly with PMs
3. no real experience with the (latest buzz word) Agile process
I think those things may have factored into it.
The only downside to this potential new position with the old boss (who was laid off with me and others) is the fact that it's still a remote position. There really is something to be said about being in the same room with your co-workers and bouncing ideas off of each other. Using IM or email just isn't the same.
1. no supervisory experience; when I was a Team Lead (10 years ago!) it was more in the role of mentor to the junior programmers, as I knew the product inside and out
2. not a lot of experience (especially recently) working directly with PMs
3. no real experience with the (latest buzz word) Agile process
I think those things may have factored into it.
The only downside to this potential new position with the old boss (who was laid off with me and others) is the fact that it's still a remote position. There really is something to be said about being in the same room with your co-workers and bouncing ideas off of each other. Using IM or email just isn't the same.
Sergio Tapia
02 June 2011 - 06:18 PMProgrammist, on 02 June 2011 - 02:24 PM, said:
People who offshore will get what they pay for (i.e. rubbish product). Be glad you didn't get hired by a chincey off-shoring company.
You can't generalize like that. I worked for a Bolivian software company here that worked for a BIG company back in the States. I won't mention which one, but it was so big, that I could name the company and 90% of the people here would recognize it.
We wrote very good code, had very strict QA and used pretty new methodologies. We even have bi-monthly free dev meetups to share some new cool things we as devs found. Not every company outside of the US sucks.
JackOfAllTrades
03 June 2011 - 02:24 AM
I will say that the (very) few offshore developers with whom I've worked (in one company) -- who were from Latin America and Ukraine -- all seemed excellent and were also a pleasure to work with. It's all about the hiring and supervision process. When you ship code to some of these remote body shops -- regardless of the size, as I've actually worked for one of the largest companies in the world that provides IT outsourcing -- you're more likely to get these cheaters we see who have scammed their way through school and the interview process, because they actively seek these "freshers" and churn through them at alarming rates. When you're doing that, you're spending a lot of time at the bottom of the barrel.
CTphpnwb
03 June 2011 - 02:18 PMJackOfAllTrades, on 02 June 2011 - 06:30 PM, said:
The only downside to this potential new position with the old boss (who was laid off with me and others) is the fact that it's still a remote position. There really is something to be said about being in the same room with your co-workers and bouncing ideas off of each other. Using IM or email just isn't the same.
I wouldn't call that a downside. Most of our work is done remotely, and I can tell you that when we do go into the office we are always less productive. Too much time is spent getting there and back, getting together, talking about things we're not all working on, etc. I'm not saying it doesn't help to get together once in a while, just that most of the time it not only isn't necessary but is counter productive.
We use Skype or Yahoo voice chat, and it's like talking to the person in the next cube, only there is no cube! No downside there. And because the stress of the commute isn't there we can work longer and more focussed when we need to.
We also save a lot of money on things like gas, parking, oil changes, tires, brakes, etc.
Honestly, since I started this job I've been amazed that more companies aren't getting their workers to telecommute. The company could save money on things like office space and electricity and get more productive workers, while the workers save money on expensive commutes and live better lives.
Shane Hudson
04 June 2011 - 01:06 AM
When dealing with outsourcing to other countries (mostly India), I have noticed that it will always fail unless both sides have very good communication, with good communication it can work very well.
ishkabible
09 June 2011 - 09:29 PM
my uncle hired two programers, 1 from Russia, the other from India. it was a disaster, he said all the did was argue about how to do things. on top of that they never really figured out how to do what my uncle wanted.
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