Where To Go If Everything Is Going?
I woke up this morning as usual (actually, the bed seemed extra cuddly, so I hit the snooze a couple times more than usual) and headed for the shower. Amanda was in the bathroom already and after I took off my shirt in preparation for the watery ritual, she stopped me with a “What are those?” Little red raised bumps covering my back, upper arms and stomach. They didn’t itch, and I wasn’t showing any other symptoms, but the wife is now a registered nurse and if she doesn’t like the way the bumps are raised then I’ll be seeing the doctor.
The doctor in this case happened to be a nurse practitioner that we’ve seen before, a very sharp woman named Jane. The bumps turned out to be caused by a harmless virus and would fade in a few days. The visit quickly turned to my occasional cardiac arrhythmias. For the previous few weeks, I had worn a monitor in the hopes that one of these incidents would occur, but as they only occur every few months I had no such luck. “You know,” Jane said, “you need to ensure that your stress level is under control.” I said that I knew she was right, as stress is the most likely candidate for the cause of my heart doing the off-beat hustle, “But with my working in the games industry, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.”
The games industry is notorious for long hours, and I don’t mean you work past dinnertime most nights, or you work 50-60 hours per week. From January to June of 2005, I worked 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. every day, including weekends. Some nights I didn’t sleep at all and days blurred together. Thanks to ea_spouse, the issue has gotten much attention, and hopefully things will improve, but I’ve been writing code in the games industry for the past four years and I don’t see sea change rising on the horizon.
I have fond memories of writing software in the “normal business” world, but really things weren’t that much better. I’ve usually worked for startups, and even when I worked for a medium sized company I often put in similar hours. I felt an old frustration shifting its sore weight, and I found myself justifying why I was writing software at all. “Amanda and I used to teach college-level writing and lit., but that didn’t pay. Universities have been eliminating tenure-track positions for years. When we left the University of Connecticut about 70 percent of all classes were taught by graduate students. They made a measly $2500 per class and didn’t get any benefits. When we taught at the University of Hartford it was worse, only $2200 per class, and when you’re required to assign a minimum five page paper each week and you’re teaching three classes that adds up to a 70 hour week. So we decided to jump into Technology. We loved tinkering on our computers, and we taught ourselves to write some simple code. Once we hit it with a successful startup we’d move back to teaching.”
“But Amanda is a nurse now, isn’t she?” Jane asked. Yeah, after the bubble burst and we had Hazel she changed careers. Now that she’s passed her boards Amanda’s been saying that it’s my turn. And I wonder, about a lot of things.
I remember when I first heard the term offshoring. I was catching up with a friend named Claudio in 2001, one of the best database optimizers in the business, and he was telling me about changes in the New York job market. He said that software engineers were becoming like American auto workers in the 1980s. Jobs were moving overseas where labor was cheaper. Soon enough I saw that Claudio was right, and it wasn’t just software engineers, but accountants and even radiologists. Having an education and highly-specialized skills didn’t mean you were safe in America anymore.
So I started telling Jane about the offshoring trend, and how I wasn’t sure what field was safe. Maybe they’re all safe, and no jobs are actually being lost. Maybe companies are simply hiring more staff then they normally would and not moving jobs away from the U.S. job market. But I doubt that, because I know too many people in software who’ve lost their jobs because it went to India. At least one person I know even had to train his overseas replacement while awaiting the pink slip he knew was as inevitable as death and taxes.
Most medical fields are a safe bet, but I don’t have the stomach for the type of care my wife is comfortable giving, and if fields like radiology are moving overseas then what’s really safe? I’ve been intrigued by bioinformatics since I first heard about it, but wouldn’t that be easy to send away?
I don’t begrudge anyone overseas for the offshoring trend, even if there is a net loss of American jobs. If they’re smart and hard-working then they deserve to get them, and if these jobs raise the standard of living elsewhere then that’s wonderful. I just want to know what careers will be secure if offshoring really takes off in the games industry. Where’s a safe harbor? Where can you go if everything is going?
The doctor in this case happened to be a nurse practitioner that we’ve seen before, a very sharp woman named Jane. The bumps turned out to be caused by a harmless virus and would fade in a few days. The visit quickly turned to my occasional cardiac arrhythmias. For the previous few weeks, I had worn a monitor in the hopes that one of these incidents would occur, but as they only occur every few months I had no such luck. “You know,” Jane said, “you need to ensure that your stress level is under control.” I said that I knew she was right, as stress is the most likely candidate for the cause of my heart doing the off-beat hustle, “But with my working in the games industry, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.”
The games industry is notorious for long hours, and I don’t mean you work past dinnertime most nights, or you work 50-60 hours per week. From January to June of 2005, I worked 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. every day, including weekends. Some nights I didn’t sleep at all and days blurred together. Thanks to ea_spouse, the issue has gotten much attention, and hopefully things will improve, but I’ve been writing code in the games industry for the past four years and I don’t see sea change rising on the horizon.
I have fond memories of writing software in the “normal business” world, but really things weren’t that much better. I’ve usually worked for startups, and even when I worked for a medium sized company I often put in similar hours. I felt an old frustration shifting its sore weight, and I found myself justifying why I was writing software at all. “Amanda and I used to teach college-level writing and lit., but that didn’t pay. Universities have been eliminating tenure-track positions for years. When we left the University of Connecticut about 70 percent of all classes were taught by graduate students. They made a measly $2500 per class and didn’t get any benefits. When we taught at the University of Hartford it was worse, only $2200 per class, and when you’re required to assign a minimum five page paper each week and you’re teaching three classes that adds up to a 70 hour week. So we decided to jump into Technology. We loved tinkering on our computers, and we taught ourselves to write some simple code. Once we hit it with a successful startup we’d move back to teaching.”
“But Amanda is a nurse now, isn’t she?” Jane asked. Yeah, after the bubble burst and we had Hazel she changed careers. Now that she’s passed her boards Amanda’s been saying that it’s my turn. And I wonder, about a lot of things.
I remember when I first heard the term offshoring. I was catching up with a friend named Claudio in 2001, one of the best database optimizers in the business, and he was telling me about changes in the New York job market. He said that software engineers were becoming like American auto workers in the 1980s. Jobs were moving overseas where labor was cheaper. Soon enough I saw that Claudio was right, and it wasn’t just software engineers, but accountants and even radiologists. Having an education and highly-specialized skills didn’t mean you were safe in America anymore.
So I started telling Jane about the offshoring trend, and how I wasn’t sure what field was safe. Maybe they’re all safe, and no jobs are actually being lost. Maybe companies are simply hiring more staff then they normally would and not moving jobs away from the U.S. job market. But I doubt that, because I know too many people in software who’ve lost their jobs because it went to India. At least one person I know even had to train his overseas replacement while awaiting the pink slip he knew was as inevitable as death and taxes.
Most medical fields are a safe bet, but I don’t have the stomach for the type of care my wife is comfortable giving, and if fields like radiology are moving overseas then what’s really safe? I’ve been intrigued by bioinformatics since I first heard about it, but wouldn’t that be easy to send away?
I don’t begrudge anyone overseas for the offshoring trend, even if there is a net loss of American jobs. If they’re smart and hard-working then they deserve to get them, and if these jobs raise the standard of living elsewhere then that’s wonderful. I just want to know what careers will be secure if offshoring really takes off in the games industry. Where’s a safe harbor? Where can you go if everything is going?
posted by Christopher A. Dellario at 8:34 PM
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