Nothing to fear but fear itself…
Year after year, surveys conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and magazines such as Forbes list software engineering as one of the nation’s most promising careers. The average starting salary for a new college graduate is consistently ranked at or near the top of the list, normally ranging between $55,000 and $60,000. Nevertheless, the trend of Indian outsourcing and the emergence of IIT graduates in the industry, fueled by extensive media attention, has given the impression that the nation’s IT industry is in peril. However, I believe that a more thorough examination shows that there is much more to the issue than what meets the eye.
One of the most commonly cited statistics to support the threat of outsourcing is the so-called “engineering gap,” according to which the US is producing 70,000 engineers a year vs. 350,000 from India and over 600,000 from China. Yet a December 2005 study by Duke University not only refutes this data, but also asserts the superiority of American universities in graduating engineers. The table below shows the number of degrees awarded in the three countries:
Furthermore, this graph shows the data on a per-capita scale, demonstrating America’s ability to produce engineers at a rate that far exceeds its counterparts:
A recent BusinessWire survey shows that of the $750 billion spent globally on engineering services, only $10-15 billion (approx. 2%) is outsourced. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, a department of the US Department of Labor, expects software engineering to be one of the fastest-growing occupations in the next decade, estimating that there will be over 1 million software jobs in 2016, a 38% increase from data gathered in 2006.
So does all this data mean that IT outsourcing poses no threat at all? Of course not. Simple economics will show that if someone offshore will do the same work for less money, Americans are going to lose jobs. The training that Indians receive at top institutions like IIT prepare them extremely well for work in programming and offshore call centers. Their ability to speak English is another driving factor in the popularity of outsourcing.
However, I contend that outsourcing poses no real threat to American engineers unless we enable it to– in other words, we have nothing to fear but fear itself. If students in the US let the issue scare them into pursuing “outsourcing-proof” jobs, we will begin to see a decline in the number of degrees we award and employers will have no choice but to look elsewhere. While IIT engineers do receive top-notch training and possess a proficiency in English, I believe that American engineers overall are a superior choice for top software jobs. In building applications it is not only important to possess the technical skills, but also to have the ability to communicate with a customer and fully understand the client’s individual socio-economic situation. As shown in the 60 Minutes broadcast, IIT engineers take a slate of courses intense in math and science but do not receive the broad, liberal education characteristic of most top American universities. By producing more well-rounded graduates, the US demonstrates its ability to self-sustain the world’s top economy. The US features the world’s best higher education system; we invest more in research, receive more patents, and continuously strive to maintain an innovative curriculum. As long as we trust in our system and refuse to succumb to the fallacies and rhetoric spread by the media, software engineering will continue to grow and thrive as one of the nation’s top occupations.
Chris Bellande
Tags: engineering, India, IT, outsourcing
Awesome entry. Nicely done.