"Outsourcing has changed the market," I said.

Had this fellow been a client, I would have referred him to one of my newspaper columns (I write on the subject of work for one of the USA's largest newspapers) in which I quoted future thinker Seth Godin saying, "The minute your job can be put in a manual, it will be exported to Banglore."

Now the little inquisition between me and my non-client happened when I was in a mellow mood, so I didn't ask him if there was a difference between a consultant and a coder. In my not so humble opinion, there are consultants who write code, but few coders who engage their minds in actually consulting, or solving problems, as my good friend J would say.

Why did you do what you did? What benefit did that produce to the business? How else could it have been done? These are the most basic of interview questions that some people who call themselves developers can't answer. When that happens, I tell them that they ought to put their careers in hands other than mine because I simply don't know how to sell their skill sets.

Could I sell a machine that follows instructions, maybe, but it wouldn't be my chosen profession.

So back to Documentum-related jobs:

Is the market changing? Yup.

Are skilled developers, engineers and architects still in demand? Yup.

But WebTop development experience, for example, is no longer the ticket that it once was. Too many people have developed an acceptable level of competence.

And though I tend to work with consultants who are brilliant and solve strategic problems, if you are into generating code by following instructions then my advice to you is this: stay on your toes by being an early-adopter. Learn a bleeding-edge technology before the outsourcing machine does. If you're a master at that, and you don't mind the the red-stuff that goes with the green, then I, or someone like me, can probably place you.

If that's not your ticket either, you can be a Bounty-coder (i.e. If you want to work with DCM in a 4.1 environment, I can place you at a good rate...) but after I place you, you must agree to forever hold your peace (because I haven't a clue where your next job would be.)

On the other hand, if you're a true developer, engineer or architect, and are passionate about solving business problems by leveraging "the best" technical solutions call me and let's talk. There are some awesome configurations of Documentum + xxxx + xxxx that are providing solutions that wouldn't have been possible even a year ago.

One last note to anyone who is upset about the Outsourcing thing- India's most intelligent minds do not want your job- check out these paragraphs from The Times of India;

In industry parlance, coders are akin to smart assembly line workers as opposed to programmers who are plant engineers. Programmers are the brains, the glorious visionaries who create things. Large software programs that often run into billions of lines are designed and developed by a handful of programmers.

Coding is also the grime job. It is repetitive and monotonous. Coders know that. They feel stuck in their jobs. They have fallen into the trap of the software hype and now realise that though their status is glorified in the society, intellectually they are stranded.

If you want to read the whole article, go: here

And finally, remember, that it is possible to dead-end yourself while being the most important guy in your specific workplace (think: tunnelvision)

It's also possible to make a BrilliantLeap! into an organization or assignment that leverages your present experience and exposes you to a new, hot configurations and new horizons.

Bottom line: Do your job well and stay in touch. If you could have done what you're doing today last year, your days as an employable, high stakes, commodity are numbered. Unless you want to be the coder at an outsourcing firm, that is. That job will put crumbs on the table until a machine takes it away.

Perhaps I speak to myself as I write this: the enemy is complacency.