Migrant IT workers 'deprives Britons of jobs’

[dang65]

I spent the last year working in Germany, in a large IT team which included just one German. Maybe the rest of them are in the UK, I dunno.

[rootsnall]

I'm feeling it at the moment as two of my regular sites have Indians in on what I assume are very low rates. I'm just weighing up how low to go in a bid to snare some work when I'm benched in a month or so

[SantaClaus]

I know ex-colleagues who are managing entire Indian programming teams.

The only future for IT in the UK is in management.

[Moscow Mule]

I know ex-colleagues who are managing entire Indian programming teams.

The only future for IT in the UK is in management.

I've had the misfortune to be tech lead to one of these teams.

It was a stressful time, primarily because they are so crap at showing initiative but also because they won't do anything without charging you, even when you are training them!

[OrangeHopper]

I have spent 18 months managing an onsite/offsite team of Indians. I know that, in some cases, the Indians are out of pocket as a result of working here. Many of them want to return home but are pressured to stay put. They do not receive anywhere near the equivalent UK wage. You only have to look at what they wear, what they eat, how they get to work, where and how they live.

The laughable thing about it all was that the outsourcing was a nightmare and effectively stopped all progress on the project for at least a year due to huge communications problems and lack of experience. Even the rates being quoted for work were not far off those being given to the original contractors!

The other major affect was that we went from we-need-it-now-so-we-do-it-now to a we-need-it-now-but-it-will-be-at-least-a-couple-of-months-before-anyone-will-actually-work-on-it-for-at-least-twice-as-long.

[ratewhore]

The only future for IT in the UK is in management.

You are confusing 'IT' and 'programming' and are therefore incorrect...

[sasguru]

Sorry old son, you might not have realised that we are in 2010...

Well I guess his point is that the worm has turned.

[the_duderama]

The laughable thing about it all was that the outsourcing was a nightmare and effectively stopped all progress on the project for at least a year due to huge communications problems and lack of experience. Even the rates being quoted for work were not far off those being given to the original contractors!

I've had similar expereinces with support for a large telco (see if you can guess who). Faults that should only take a day or 2 to resolve end up taking weeks, often to point were we just have to work around it, where as the off-shored/on-shored support staff will swear blind there was no problem.

Of course this would start to delay large projects or major incidents, resulting in penalties and poor relations with the client.

Thing i don't understand is with over 10 years of this going on why do they keep on doing it, it doesn't actually save any money and you end up with really bad service.

[BrilloPad]

"Overall quality of IT staff in UK is weak and this is due to failure of the education system in the UK."

bollux

[threaded]

I've had similar expereinces with support for a large telco (see if you can guess who). Faults that should only take a day or 2 to resolve end up taking weeks, often to point were we just have to work around it, where as the off-shored/on-shored support staff will swear blind there was no problem.

Of course this would start to delay large projects or major incidents, resulting in penalties and poor relations with the client.

Thing i don't understand is with over 10 years of this going on why do they keep on doing it, it doesn't actually save any money and you end up with really bad service.

In the bizarre universe of the management type, it does save money, lots and lots of money. In many companies it puts them into profit and improves their share price. Meaning they can borrow more money to invest in new products.