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Browse Liz's bookshelf Suggested reading from Liz Pulliam Weston | |||||||||||
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Recent articles by Liz Pulliam Weston: • The real victims of deadbeats? Other deadbeats, 9/19/2004 • 10 things you shouldn't buy new, 9/15/2004 • Get the real story on protecting your data, 9/14/2004 More... |
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| Pick a job that wont go overseas | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Professionals now face the same pressure from lower-paid competition that factory workers have long felt. Here's how to compete in the global job market. By Liz Pulliam Weston Starting a new career used to be so simple: Pick something you're good at and go find a job. Now more and more jobs are being shipped overseas to be done by lower-cost labor, and it's unlikely they will ever return. What can you do to protect yourself? Are there careers that are safe from offshoring? If you think about it hard enough, you can imagine a way that almost any job might be vulnerable to offshoring. Doctors, for example, are usually given as an example of the type of hands-on, close-to-the-customer job thats unlikely to be shipped overseas. But some cost-conscious U.S. customers are already having heart transplants done in India and cosmetic surgery performed in Mexico. Meanwhile, technologies have been developed that allow doctors to monitor some patients remotely. So who says it has to be a U.S. doctor who does the monitoring? If it can be done from 10 miles away, said offshoring expert Paul Zellner of executive recruiting firm Russell Reynolds, why not from 10,000 miles away?
Or take prison guards. Youd think they would have some job security as Americas inmate population continues to climb. But what if costs mount to the point that some states decide to outsource their prisons, not just to private companies, but to other countries? How to ride the wave If youre in college or otherwise about to embark on a new career, these exercises in paranoia arent meant to depress you. They are meant to keep you honest about how difficult it will be to find a job thats entirely immune from the offshoring wave. The key is to position yourself as someone who will survive or even thrive on the inevitable changes to come. Consider:
Indias accountants and attorneys, who started with simple returns or briefs for cost-conscious U.S. companies, are taking on more sophisticated projects. Highly-skilled computer programming work is being sent to Eastern Europe and China. Brokerages are hiring stock analysts in Mumbai and Johannesburg, South Africa. The media is joining in: Reuters recently announced it would be moving some reporting and data collecting jobs to Bangalore, India. Related news and commentary Opportunities higher up the ladder Even when the higher-level jobs remain, the outsourcing of so much entry-level work may pose challenges for U.S. college graduates trying to get their foot in the door. That first rung on the (career) ladder might be harder to find, Zellner said. Just because some functions of a profession are being outsourced, however, doesnt mean the career itself is a dead end. The accounting firms that are sending tax preparation overseas, for example, are still hiring lots of new accountants, said Gary Boomer of Boomer Consulting, an expert in accounting offshoring. (See chart below for more jobs less likely to go overseas.) We dont have enough people entering the profession today, Boomer said. With the number of retirements occurring over the next 10 years, I just dont see outsourcing having any negative impact on the profession. Some 'safe' jobs So how can you increase the odds that your career will stay on these shores? It can help if your chosen work falls into one or more of the following broad categories: High-skill, high-touch. If the job involves sitting in front of a computer and talking on the phone, it often can be done almost anywhere. If, on the other hand, most of your day is spent in face-to-face encounters, your job is probably more difficult to outsource. Examples: sales, executive recruiting, police work, teaching, hotel management, health care that involves hands-on interaction with patients. (Warning: Low-skill, high-touch work is susceptible to automation and pressure from immigration. Those self-check machines at some grocery and home improvement stores, for instance, may make the cashier an endangered species). Culturally aware. Work that requires an intimate knowledge of U.S. culture should be relatively resistant to offshoring. Examples: marketing, advertising, some aspects of the entertainment industry. (Its hard to imagine a group of writers in Bangalore creating a hit U.S. sitcom, for example.) Multicultural management. Thanks to offshoring, there will be growing demand for managers who can oversee projects with far-flung workers. These managers will need to be expert communicators and sensitive to the nuances not only of the clients culture but those of the workers countries as well. Keep your mind and options open Even if your field falls outside these zones, theres still a lot you can do to make yourself a valuable player in an increasingly global economy. Some suggestions:
As support for the federal registry grew, however, smart telemarketers started looking for other jobs that used their skills in sales. You, too, should keep in mind that no matter how good you are at your job, you could be out of work if demand for your industry falls. Stay tuned to the trends, and be prepared to change jobs, companies or fields if conditions demand.
Liz Pulliam Weston's column appears every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. She also answers reader questions in the Your Money message board. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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MSN Money's editorial goal is to provide a forum for personal finance and investment ideas. Our articles, columns, message board posts and other features should not be construed as investment advice, nor does their appearance imply an endorsement by Microsoft of any specific security or trading strategy. An investor's best course of action must be based on individual circumstances.