Outsourced and Stuck in Marin County
What do you do in Marin County now that you've been outsourced?
(PRWEB) September 12, 2004
You never know what a previously employed computer professional might be up to these days in Marin County. Between 2002 and 2003, 54,390 computer and mathematical professionals lost their jobs in the U. S, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s annual report of Employment Estimates. Today, John Kerry’s website warns “a predicted 3.3 million U. S. tech jobs…might migrate overseas by 2015, with 14 million positions at risk. Many of those in the bull's-eye are white-collar office workers.” The once fully actualized computer professional now answers to the WTO, not the IPO.
Marin had many options for that professional in the boom years—Fair Isaac, Autodesk, Oacis Healthcare Systems, GE Financial, Broderbund, the Learning Company, and more. As in Silicon Valley, if a company’s technology outlasted its people, you could go next door and get another job—for a higher salary, full health benefits, retirement and stock plans, bonus structures, and ‘team-spirit’ perks, like air-hockey, ping-pong, buying sprees at Toys ‘R Us, and all the Peet’s coffee you could drink. Of course, hard work and long hours were expected, but if you were a talented computer professional, the industry was positive reinforcement at its best.
The dot-com boom and 9/11 ended that for many people. Younger, less established workers—or those who blew it all—moved. Census Bureau statistics report 50,000 residents left Santa Clara and San Francisco, and 1,256 Marin in 2001. For the leftovers, gone are the days of popping out for a great meal, shopping for a new suit at Macy’s, or hiring a maid service. According to Pat Belardi of Molly Maid, their Silicon Valley branches suffered a 30 - 40% drop in sales in 2003. On the other hand, Marin Molly Maid—a company well suited to Marin by its compassionate values, shown in the Ms. Molly Foundation (which assists victims and families affected by domestic violence) and by Molly Maid’s service to non-computer professionals—is doing better. Last year, some Marin Molly Maid customers stopped the service due to unemployment, but it only lost 3-4% in sales—picking up customers from other Marin maid services that closed. Unquestionably, many computer professionals who remain in Marin are now doing their own cleaning.
And, everyone is dealing with outsourcing. ItÂ’s not unusual to spend multiple hours on the phone talking to a foreigner dealing with problems that at one time were solved locally. Into the Marin landscape arrives eGain: a company bent on playing by the new rules. In late 2000, it bought Inference, a Customer Relationship Management company, in Novato since 1994. Inference employed around 70 engineers, whose product automated technical support. An Inference customer, Ford, for example, would buy a system, customize it, and train their tech support reps to use it. The support rep would access the database and provide consistent responses to customer problems. FordÂ’s technical support representatives were notably busy hitting their Inference database during the Explorer/Firestone rollover crisis.
Although “canned” tech support responses are usually not welcome, especially from someone who hoodwinks you into thinking that your friendly rep is in a nearby town (notoriously, international representatives check the weather in the place you are calling from), while they’re actually overseas, at least Inference used human beings. Not so eGain, which replaced them with virtual people, or avatars. To see an avatar, go to eGain’s website, click on ‘Eve, the virtual self-help agent for customer care,’ ask where she is, and she types back: ‘Sunnyvale.’ Thanks to Eve, in one year, 65 Inference employees were outsourced, and add to that the number of customer support refs whose jobs are now moving into cyberspace, with ‘Eve.’
Guy, a principle software engineer at Inference, was employed 4 years before eGain arrived. “After the layoffs, they kept five people on for another half year to finish programming the next release. Then, they videotaped me so they could transfer my knowledge to India. When I was laid off, and at one point, they made a big deal about bringing me back so I could give them some more information, but the meeting only lasted 50 minutes.”
While Guy was unemployed for 11 months, his family moved and bought a house in the Sacramento area. “I never expected to be unemployed for that time period. Economically, it was tough, but it was wonderful to be able to spend time with my kid, who is now three. I never would have had the time to be with him if I was working, and in retrospect, that was worth more than money.”
When eGain arrived, Susan was assigned to a six-month project to check that any mention of ‘Inference’ in the code, documentation, and training materials, was changed to ‘eGain.’ “At first, they invited us to parties and sent us on bus rides to Sunnyvale. At one meeting, in a crowded conference room with great pastries, they promised that everyone there remain on the team. Soon after that, a couple of people set up in our office and the layoffs started. They apologized saying that they had miscalculated their finances. The worst part of outsourcing to me is that is I feel like I’m being discriminated against in my own country. My Mom is an immigrant, and I expected that with my Master’s Degree and computer experience, I’d be able to get good work in my own country forever. I was very angry with this particular ethnic group for an entire year, which is not like me, or people in Marin—‘cause we’re known for being tolerant.”
Marin’s rich layer of non-profits historically provided a fabric to the community as well as employment opportunities. Susan has worked at one for 9 months, however, she notes that the typical ethos prevails: lots of turn over, out-of-date paperwork and systems, and low morale. It may be hard for them to entice spoiled computer professionals who wouldn’t consider working “30 hours a week at $15/hour.” However, according to a January 2002 study, by Compasspoint Non-Profit Services of Silicon Valley, the three most common reasons for staff resignation at the non-profits are: a great job offer elsewhere, dissatisfaction with compensation, and the cost of living in the Bay Area. Not having to worry about reason number one, the non-profits could use this opportunity to cultivate the newly outsourced workforce.
Here’s one technique: ”Best Place to Volunteer After You've Been Laid Off: Don't let the dot-bomb get you down. After you've posted to xyzCompany. com and printed your résumé on the back of the officially embossed heavyweight paper once known as your stock certificates, get over to Compumentor and go back to work. Compumentor provides software and technology resources to low-income organizations that are certified 501(c)(3). It needs software to help nonprofits run more smoothly and technology resources like your expertise in planning, hardware repair, and LAN administration. You won't get rich quick, but you weren't in it for the money anyway, right?”
Susan hopes to be able to stay in Marin until her daughter finishes High School. “The housing market is amazing, but after what happened in high-tech, I feel shaky about it, too.” To also make ends meet, Susan hosts an exchange student and has a roommate—in a sense, contributing to Marin’s workforce housing problem. She continues to send out resumes, but, facing competition from younger workers, along with a minor health problem, she doesn’t feel up to getting back into the grind. “I didn’t apply to Google because I’m not up to the stress any more. I want to appreciate my time in other ways.”
Another difference in Susan’s time these days is volunteering. When she finally decided to downsize her insurance, (her agent was the brother of a friend from eGain) she was notified of an outstanding ticket that she received on a college tour with her son. Due to ‘budget cutbacks,’ she wasn’t sent a courtesy notice from Santa Cruz, and she forgot about the ticket. The fine had escalated to $601. “In the past, I could just pay it, but that’s not an option now.” Instead, she opted for 89 hours of Adult Probation. “On the way home from court, I thought I’d have to wear a vest and clean litter off 101.” Instead, she received a list of 145 Eligible Marin Agencies.
One of the best places to find volunteer opportunities in Marin is on the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership’s website. Last May, it implemented a United Way program called “Volunteer Solutions.” A current search lists 557 volunteer opportunities at 454 Marin Agencies. Opportunities can be found by keyword, such as ‘parks’ or ‘women’s,’ by zip code, or by interest, such as community development. You can sign up directly on the CVNL site, save and track the opportunities you like, and log volunteer hours. According to CVNL’s Volunteer Services Coordinator, Liza Schlang, since the new program was implemented, participation in non-profit events, such as the Human Race, has increased.
Susan So far, Susan answered three different ads, which has given her another perspective on the unemployed life in Marin. The first job involved helping make peanut butter bird feeders with families at the Marin County Fair with the Parks Department. The perks were pretty good: it was a beautiful day, she got free admission to the Fair, and she felt good about leveraging some of her bountiful free time.
Sidebar:
Some lucky outsourced computer professionals may be able to leverage some of their past skills into the new international job market. A job posting on craigslist, on 8/19/04, described the following position in Petaluma, with the following requirements:
Outsourcing Program Manager (petaluma)
Today, demand for e-commerce services is at an all-time high. Our company has developed e-commerce technologies and solutions that are becoming the standard for merchandising-centric businesses. We are a leading developer of e-commerce technology and services for IS™ on the Web, provides catalogers, retailers and direct marketers an integrated e-commerce solution including technology, technical integration, design, and marketing services. Our business is expanding to include business-to-business applications and other exciting opportunities.
Our company is a continually growing and highly successful Internet technology company. We recently secured multi-million dollar backing. We offer a stable work environment and the opportunity to participate in the creation of core e-commerce infrastructure and technology for some of the most successful online retailers on the Net. Our employees enjoy a casual but professional atmosphere.
We offer competitive salaries, health, dental, vision, short term disability, long term disability, paid vacation, paid sick leave and a 401K plan.
We are currently seeking an Outsourcing Program Manager to design and implement business processes that will create increased focus and capability for offshore delivery. The Outsourcing Program Manager will be the point of contact between internal e-commerce site producers and offshore implementation teams.
• Responsible for specific cost and operating margin targets for offshore accounts.
• Ownership of all activities for a set of accounts that use offshore resources.
• On-site point of escalation for any client or team issue.
• Facilitate communications between onshore and offshore teams.
• Ensure accurate and timely reporting by offshore teams.
• Press internal resources to produce accurate specifications and project plans.
• Oversee ongoing project management, resource allocation and project staffing.
• Build and maintain highly trained and collaborative global teams.
• Occasional travel required.
Critical Competencies:
• Superior cognitive ability; ability to simplify complex situations and make sound judgments.
• Superior interpersonal skills/team orientation. Ability to interact easily with all levels within the organization. Tactful, mature, flexible. Superb collaboration, negotiation and influencing skills. High energy. Ability to manage pressure.
• Superior presentation and communication skills (written and verbal). Understand importance of frequent and effective communication. Strong negotiator.
• Ability to engender trust and loyalty. Ability to establish personal credibility quickly.
• Burning desire to get things done: demonstrate a sense of urgency to overcome obstacles and achieve measurable results. Resourceful and driven. Rapid learning curve.
• High level of self-confidence: open to other points of view; willing to be accountable and take educated chances. Have the courage to advocate unpopular position. Willing to share credit with others.
Require Experience/Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Management, or related field
• MBA or Master’s Degree in Management preferred
• 8+ years demonstrated success in engineering or services management.
• Extensive experience (at least 7-8 yrs) in managing IT and business solutions. Should have a good understanding of e-commerce concepts in the retail industry vertical.
• Proven track record in meeting/exceeding performance, activity and growth goals (revenues, quotas, etc.)
• Broad, cross-functional expertise in areas of service, negotiations and account management for large IT enterprise solutions.
• Strong business sense and a track record of delivering business growth.
• Leadership: demonstrated ability to lead people and get results through others. Experience leading high-performance, cross-functional teams; training and developing individuals. Strong team player.
• Management: ability to organize and manage multiple priorities, projects, and people. Problem analysis and resolution at both a strategic and functional level.
• Strong vendor orientation. Resourceful. Strong networking skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and engagement skills, including presentation skills.
• High energy, high level of commitment.
• Excellent manage
Copyright Elly Faden 2004
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