I am a software developer. I make my living working with businesses to help them automate and improve their business processes. To tell you the honest truth, I make a decent living at it, paid more than the national average wage.

Outsourcing is now standard practice in my industry. In fact, other industries such as call centres, and even television animation have gotten into the act. I heard that the television show The Simpsons is drawn by several teams in India. American artists don't even work on that show any more.

So why am I not scared of outsourcing?

Well first, I do believe the practice has had some impact on my income. My hourly rate could be a lot higher if my talents were scarcer. There is a competition between the amount I make ($X) and the amount an Indian programmer will charge ($X/10 sometimes).

In order to justify the difference, I have to prove my value. Am I worth more than 5 to 10 Indian programmers? In terms of pure code output, no, of course not. 10 programmers can outcode me.

My value comes in the things I can do that a offshore programmer cannot. Is an offshore programmer going to understand every facet of a company's operations (technical and business)? No, generally you give them one task to perform and they do it. Work has to be packaged up.

Is an offshore programmer going to take vague requirements ("I need a daily report on yesterday's activities...") and turn it into exactly what the client needs? No, generally they need specific and very detailed requirements. Work has to be thought out in advance and documented.

And most importantly, can a client ask their Indian programmer to run a project for them, interacting with key employees and making sure the job gets done? No, generally they take the entire job, and don't integrate into an existing team well. They can only work on things independently.

So I feel secure. There will always be a need for me. And I've even worked with overseas programmers, supervising them. So I bring value, and my clients obvious see that too.