John: Hey, John Sonmez from simpleprogrammer.com.
I got a question about outsourcing, is outsourcing a threat to American software developers?
This question is from Erick and Erick says, “Hello John, I have a question that maybe
you can address in one of your YouTube videos.
I’m new to web development but I was looking through some freelance websites and it seems
to be dominated by Indian software developers at very low rates.
So I was wondering what you think of outsourcing killing our chances of finding jobs here in
the US.
I mean why hire someone in the US for $70 an hour when some developer in India will
do it for $10 an hour.
This is kind of scary.
Thanks.”
This is a great question Erick.
I think a lot of people are afraid of this.
As someone who hires a lot of people outside of the US to do work for myself I feel like
I can answer this question pretty well from both perspectives here.
First of all, do I think that outsourcing is a threat to American software developers?
Absolutely, it is and you should be scared and I’ll tell you why.
Because if you think that your job is just to write code then you’re going to be outsourced
and you’re going to have someone do your job for $10 an hour.
Your job as software developer is not just to write code, it’s to communicate an idea,
it’s to understand someone’s idea, interpret it into code, it’s to be able to use your
judgment and deliver a product and it’s more than just translating some requirement
into code.
A lot of it is deriving a requirement.
It’s the only extra value that you can add through your services.
I’ll talk about—this is one of those things that I talk about in my How To Market As A
Developer Course.
You can get that here, How To Market Yourself As A Software Developer.
This course is all about building a brand and branding yourself which is the thing that’s
going to make it so that you’re not a commodity.
I’ve done some posts and I’ve talked about—and some emails, the idea of the fact that if
you don’t learn to market yourself as a software developer you’re going to become
a commodity and then you can be easily outsourced, right?
The thing that’s going to make you valuable is going to be all the—everything else that
you attach to your name.
Having a name, building a reputation in the software development industry is going to
make it so that someone is going to hire you and pay your higher rate over someone who
they don’t know who they have trouble communicating with in India for $10 an hour.
But if you don’t have that, if you’re just a regular programmer and you don’t
have a name or reputation, if you haven’t built a blog, if you don’t have that then
you’re going to be competing.
You don’t want to be competing on that level.
You don’t want to be saying that you can produce this software at the same rate as
this other person because that’s something that’s easily comparable.
If you take 2 coders and say, “Okay, can you write this code” the only thing that
they’re going to compare on is dollars just like when you go to the supermarket and you
buy sugar, right?
You don’t say, “Which sugar is better?”
It’s sugar, right?
It’s flour.
It’s not better that one’s not better than the other, but if you went and you went
to the supermarket and you—or let’s say the electronic store and you’re looking
at let’s say computers the $200 computer is a lot different than the $3000 computer,
right?
You can compare those on features.
There’s a lot more to it.
That’s what you want to be able to be.
You don’t want to be a commodity.
In order to not be a commodity you have to build up that reputation, build up a brand.
You have to know more than just writing code.
The other side to this I would say is that you don’t have to worry as much because
a lot of times one of the most variable skills, at least when I hire someone, is communication.
It turns out—we spend more of our time communicating and trying to get people to do—like if I
have a very clearly defined task I might be able to outsource that and get someone to
do that for real cheap but I’d rather pay someone a higher hourly wage if I can communicate
what my intention is and my idea to them and they can execute on that and it doesn’t
require as much explanation.
They can communicate well with me.
I’d rather pay someone double the rate if they can do that than pay half the rate and
waste a whole bunch of time going back and forth and getting the wrong thing delivered,
right?
That’s the key.
It’s up to you.
You can totally be a commodity and choose to be the kind of software developer that
is going to be competing with Indian software developers at $10 an hour or you can be the
kind of software developer that learns how to market themselves.
Again, I’ll tell you really quick my course How To Market Yourself As A Software Developer.
You can get it right there.
On the flip side because I know that there’s a lot of you developers that are listening
from India or Pakistan or some of these other countries you can do the same thing, right?
You can be—I know Indian software developers that are billing $100 an hour.
I guarantee they’re living pretty well in India and they’re billing US clients and
it’s because they’ve developed excellent communication skills.
They’ve actually built up a brand and learned how to market themselves and they’ve invested
in their career.
They’re not billing themselves as just a programmer, they’re someone that can go
into a business and analyze the requirements and can even lead a team of software developers
that can end up building the thing.
Because at the end of the day we don’t hire people to write code, we hire people to take
ideas and to implement them and to make reality out, make them into reality.
That’s the key skill.
If you are in a country that has a lower GDP and you are in a place where people make a
lot less money you can set yourself apart and you can become extremely valuable by remember
that one of the most important things is communication, work on your communication skills and you’ll
definitely build up your rates.
Hopefully that answers your question Erick.
Outsourcing is only something that you need to fear if you are not willing to become more
than just a programmer.
If you’re not, then yeah, then you should fear it and it’s just going to get cheaper
and cheaper as we live in more and more of a global economy.
Anyway, great question.
If you’ve got a question for me email me at john@simpleprogrammer.com.
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Take care.