Understanding Offshoring

I came across a book by Chad Fowler a week ago, and had to pick it, partly due to the seemingly humerous title, "My Job Went To India". I haven't been affected by offshoring yet, but it has been mentioned, so I thought it would be worth a read. What I found was a little different than I was expecting, but I'm really not sure what I was expecting.

The book is broken up into 52 short sections, each only a page or two. It therefore doesn't cover any one topic in detail, but the information that was covered got me thinking. One of those chapters was one that talked about understanding your business. I'm a programmer, and like most programmers, I tend to stick to my craft and not mess around with that boring business stuff. After reading this book, I am beginning to rethink my avoidence of learning the business speak. Coincidentally, my office had a meeting with the CEO of the company, and I found that even though this book covered very few details, I suddenly found myself understanding what the CEO was referring to when he started talking about "hurdle rates".

This book gave me a lot to think about, and offers pleanty of suggestions for further study and action. It also made me realize that there is more to my job than just programming (although I had a suspicion).