Movies & Temping

Consider movies. The big studios employed actor, directors, story writers, ... Even owned theaters. The days of the big production studios, whether in Bollywood, or Hollywood, are long over. Earlier directors and actors signed on with a studio. Now they sign on for a movie. They refer to them as projects. They are temps. The big studios have been replaced by a movie-making ecosystem


Consider credit lists. Movies these days have credit lists at the end of the film. And they run for miles. I do not recall earlier movies having credit lists at the end of the movie. I suppose it is a result of the new model of movie making. Temps require to get credit for their work. They need to be acknowledged as having been part of the project.

The same I believe is happening in software. No, neither Infosys, nor TCS, nor ...  are going to disappear any time soon. But they will increasingly resort to temping (I believe some of them already do). Their margins are going to get squeezed. They just will not be able to afford talent sitting on the bench.

My advice to those preparing for a career in software: forget it, there is no career. But there is a profession.

Networking does not mean partying. It means making other professionally more than superficially aware of  your skills; and being more than superficially aware of other professionals' skills. It means getting to know other professionals, professionally.

Be very prudent with your personal finances. Avoid the debt trap. The days of the regular pay-check, for years and years, is over; so are the days of regular increments - be prepared for decrements.

Try and acquire some marketing & sales skills and communication skills. You are a marketing and sales person. The product you are marketing, and selling, is YOU. And be ready to modify the product.

Read & digest The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct For Professional Programmers