Comment All about skill level (Score 1) 518
It all completely depends on your level of skill. I work for a company that is growing very fast, and my group within the company is growing even faster. We're looking as hard as we can for good qualified programmers/engineers, and we have a very difficult time finding good people. For every 40 or so people we interview, we hire one. The issue is that a lot of undergrads are under-prepared, and we we require people who are top-notch at problem solving, top-notch at engineering, good at C/C++, good at system level concepts, very good w/ graphics HW, and good w/ graphics algorithms. It's very hard to find the skillset we need, and so we pay top dollar for it when we find it. If you have the skills to work at a company like mine, you'll do very, very well. You also have to be willing to work very hard (at least at times). If however you only know how to code HTML and perl (and aren't willing to learn anything else), or if you think that programming knowledge stops w/ what languages you know, or if you don't develop deep expertise in at least one area of computer science (like graphics, databases, language theory/compilers, security, networking, etc.), if you aren't willing to constantly keep learning the latest and greatest new technologies/tools/techniques, then yeah.... you might be in for a rough ride.
My company will hire good programmers wherever they are. At least in my group, we'd prefer to hire US programmers. It's easier if everyone works within a few timezones of each other. It's easier if everyone speaks the same language well. It's easier for engineers to meet w/ customers. There's just less friction overall. However, if we can't find the right people in the US, we will hire from Europe, from India, from China, from wherever. For our team, it has nothing to do with cost, and everything to do with finding the right people.
It's like any industry, if you work hard and make yourself valuable, you will always be employable (and will be able to make VERY good money), but it's just not like it was the late 90s: you actually need to have some skill (and motivation) to survive these days. I have no worry about losing my job to someone from another country, because I am very good at what I do, and it would be very hard to find someone who is willing to work as hard as I am, and who has the level of skill that I do.
My company will hire good programmers wherever they are. At least in my group, we'd prefer to hire US programmers. It's easier if everyone works within a few timezones of each other. It's easier if everyone speaks the same language well. It's easier for engineers to meet w/ customers. There's just less friction overall. However, if we can't find the right people in the US, we will hire from Europe, from India, from China, from wherever. For our team, it has nothing to do with cost, and everything to do with finding the right people.
It's like any industry, if you work hard and make yourself valuable, you will always be employable (and will be able to make VERY good money), but it's just not like it was the late 90s: you actually need to have some skill (and motivation) to survive these days. I have no worry about losing my job to someone from another country, because I am very good at what I do, and it would be very hard to find someone who is willing to work as hard as I am, and who has the level of skill that I do.
