X-Men

No, I am not talking about the mutant superheros from your Marvel comic books. The X-Men that I am talking about are from country X. On the surface, the impressive skills that they put on their resumes will make almost anyone's jaw drop. Some people know them by another alias, Ah X.

I believe that, anyone who have worked with the X-Men can concur that the truth is far from what it seems. Let me just relate to you my experience working with these X-men. Most that came, have Master degree. Yes a Master degree. But wait.... its not a Master degree in Computer Science. You might say, "That's okay, they have their Computer Science degree to back them up". Opps.. sorry to inform you this.. Most of them also don't have a CS degree too. In fact, its not even any degree remotely related to IT. They either have some sort of engineering degree or a science degree.

So why did so many companies acquire their services then? This is the biggest mystery of the 21st century. The funny thing is a lot of people look highly on the X-Men and most of these people are usually in some high management level position and love to employ these X-Men. Perhaps they think that the X-Men really have mutant skills which the locals don't have.

When you ask those management people why they would go for the X-Men, the usual answers would be there are a ready pool of highly skilled programmers available during the crunch period and they are cost effective. I say these management people don't have a clue on what they are talking about. Ready pool, yes. Highly skill, hmm... Cost effective? These X-Men usually do their costing in USD. How cost effective can they be? To a US company which do their business in USD, X-Men are cost effective but not to a country where the currency exchange is peg 3.8 to the USD.

Let me give an example, a so call "highly skilled" X-Men with an MBA and a degree in Physics who knows shit about Java will probably set you back 5-7K a month. The vast number of jobless IT fresh graduates who are begging for a job will set you back average 2K. By my calculation, I can get 3 IT fresh graduate for the price of 1 "highly skilled" X-Men. I get 3 pairs of hands cracking on the codes. Although these 3 pairs of hands are not as "highly skilled", neither are the X-Men. So would you rather have 3 pairs of hands coding or 1 pair of hands coding?

Technorati Tags: outsourcing + x-men

Its been a while...

Have not been blogging for quite sometime. I was tied up in a project at work. This project is typical of IT projects where most of the coding work are outsource. The outsourcing model that the company I work for opted is onsite outsourcing whereby the programmers will be onsite at the customers place to do the work. These programmers are from a country(lets call this country X) where most media reports would agree is the next silicon valley. Now these so call programmers from country X is giving me major brain damage. They come, they coded and they left. So after they left, we have to pickup the maintenance work. Boy, once you've seen the code that they produced, most will agree with me that they will never ever want to work with any of them.

I've got my GMail!

I've just signed up for the GMail beta testing. Yea....

Nails in the Fence

This is also a piece sent to me during the dotcom era. It was sent to me and all my colleagues by a manager who wanted to apologize for how she treated us.

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.

The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there. “A verbal wound is as bas as a physical one. Friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us.”

Losers

This is a joke sent to me by a friend during the dot com era...

What follows is a transcript of the speech delivered by LarryEllison, CEO of ORACLE (2nd Richest Man on the Planet) at the Yale University last month:

"Graduates of Yale University, I apologize if you have endured this type of prologue before, but I want you to do something for me. Please, take a good look around you. Look at the classmate on your left. Look at the classmate on your right. Now, consider this:

Five years from now, 10 years from now, even 30 thirty years from now, odds are the person on your left is
going to be a loser. The person on your right, meanwhile, will also be a loser. And you, in the middle? What can you expect? Loser. Loserhood. Loser Cum Laude.

"In fact, as I look out before me today, I don't see a thousand hopes for a bright tomorrow. I don't see a thousand future leaders in a thousand industries. I see a thousand losers.

"You're upset. That's understandable. After all, how can I, Lawrence 'Larry' Ellison, college dropout, have the audacity to spout such heresy to the graduating class of one of the nation's most prestigious institutions? I'll tell you why. Because I, Lawrence "Larry" Ellison, second richest man on the planet, am a college dropout, and you are not.

"Because Bill Gates, richest man on the planet -- for now, anyway -- is a college dropout, and you are not.

"Because Paul Allen, the third richest man on the planet, dropped out of college, and you did not.

"And for good measure, because Michael Dell, No. 9 on the list and moving up fast, is a college dropout, and you, yet again, are not."

"Hmm... you're very upset. That's understandable. So let me stroke your egos for a moment by pointing out, quite sincerely, that your diplomas were not attained in vain. Most of you, I imagine, have spent four to five years here, and in many ways what you've learned and endured will serve you well in the years ahead. You've established good work habits. You've established a network of people that will help you down the road. And you've established what will be lifelong relationships with the word 'therapy.' All that of is good. For in truth, you will need that network. You will need those strong work habits. You will need that therapy.

"You will need them because you didn't drop out, and so you will never be among the richest people in the world. Oh sure, you may, perhaps, work your way up to No. 10 or No. 11, like Steve Ballmer. But then, I don't have to tell you who he really works for, do I? And for the record, he dropped out of grad school. Bit of a late bloomer.

"Finally, I realize that many of you, and hopefully by now most of you, are wondering, 'Is there anything I can do? Is there any hope for me at all?' Actually, no. It's too late. You've absorbed too much, think you know too much. You're not 19 anymore. You have a built-in cap, and I'm not referring to the mortar boards on your heads."

"Hmm... you're really very upset. That's understandable. So perhaps this would be a good time to bring up the silver lining. Not for you, Class of '00. You are a write-off, so I'll let you slink off to your pathetic $200,000-a-year jobs, where your checks will be signed by former classmates who dropped out two years ago."

"Instead, I want to give hope to any underclassmen here today. I say to you, and I can't stress this enough: leave. Pack your things and your ideas and don't come back. Drop out. Start up.

"For I can tell you that a cap and gown will keep you down just as surely as these security guards dragging me off this stage are keeping me dow..."