Cisco moves even more to china.

Fri Sep 24 23:49:30 UTC 2004

Thus spake "Nicole" <nmh at daemontech.com>
> On 24-Sep-04 the GW commando coersion squad reported Peter Galbavy said :
>>
>> Nicole wrote:
>>> So.. I guess we will be cranking out those H1b's...Plan to kiss your
>>> raises
>>> and or jobs bye bye to some specialized cheap imported Cisco trained
>>> networking person from China.
>>
>> There is an implicit assumption here that the objective of 100% of these
>> trainees will be to move as economic migrants to "the West". Wrong folks.
>> Very very wrong. Notice how China as a *consumer* is growing faster than
>> anyone else around ? While there may well be some (what's the right word 
>> ?)
>> "retro-sourcing" of cheap labour into the US (and the EU), I suspect that
>> once any initial levelling of the field happens, there will be just as 
>> much,
>> if not more, movement the other way.
>
> China is a communist and closed loop society. Thats teh real problem. The
> company that claims it "runs the internet" (or some such phrase) is now 
> saying
> we prefer communist China than America and American Jobs.

Cisco investing 0.1% of their revenue into China is hardly a preference for 
that country over America.  They spend more than that buying (er, 
contributing to campaigns for) politicians in the US.

This bashing of overseas workers always comes down to Americans not willing 
to accept that demanding obscene salaries will lose them jobs when there are 
people elsewhere willing to work for four figures (or even three); welcome 
to Supply and Demand 101.  Also, having worked there at the time, Cisco 
started moving "sustaining" work on IOS to India because American coders 
simply refused to work on bug-fixing projects and demanded assignments 
working on new features.  If the cost of hiring Americans is hundreds of 
times more, why would any sane company insist on hiring more Americans -- if 
they can even find any to do the work?

The problem with China and several other countries in that region is the 
fact the people are effectively slave laborers -- assigned to jobs by (in 
effect) a military dictatorship and jailed or executed if they complain 
about the work or wages.  We would be rightfully outraged if this were 
happening in the US, and IMHO this is the _only_ legitimate reason to 
complain about Cisco's investment in that particular country.

Cisco's also in a rough position.  Investors and analysts expect Cisco to 
maintain 70% margins overall, and customers want lower prices and more 
aggressive discounts or they'll go to competitors.  The only way Cisco can 
make both sides happy is to find cheaper labor, hence India, Mexico, and 
China.  Before you complain about this, take a close look at your 401k and 
see how much money you have invested in Cisco -- you're probably part of the 
problem, if only indirectly.

> China is very very good and writing into their contacts that most all 
> training
> and workers are Chineese. No one can reasonably assume that any
> number larger than you have fingers and toes will be imported to work on
> Cisco gear. Let alone any other networking.

That's standard practice in int'l business.  Many European countries require 
that on-site techs, engineers, etc. be citizens of that country.  The US 
Govt even does the same on many contracts, requiring foreign companies hire 
a certain percentage of US citizens to work on the project.

> What company woudl not want to hire someone who puts on his resume
> "helped configure and work on the largest new networking buildout since 
> 1993."
> Or "trained in Cisco training center".

When I'm hiring folks, all I care about is whether they're competent at the 
particular job I have a req for.  Typically that requires skills far above 
anything offerred in a Cisco training class; CCNAs in particular are a pain 
to hire since so much of the training is outdated or downright wrong.

S

Stephen Sprunk         "God does not play dice."  --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723         "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS        dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking 