Outsourcing is and has been a reality. Instead of complaining injustices, the market is always right; you just have to adapt.
Please. Your assumption that if you are a software engineer you are probably just doing some CRUD app, is flatly wrong.
And I agree with Locke1689, anybody that equals IT with actual software (or system) engineering is ignorant of the space.
Anytime you start doing something novel, you are no longer a software engineer; you are a computational biologist, quant, game designer or computer scientist. It's not about splitting hair but having the domain knowledge in addition to coding skills. (Because let's not kid ourselves, programming is easy) If people insist on elevating themselves, then it's their prerogative. But since the market is right and is programming skills are becoming a commodity, I would rather be rich than popular.
It's not about splitting hair but having the domain knowledge in addition to coding skills.
That one I would have to say is pretty spot on, domain knowledge adds a lot of value to a developer.
As for the it's all CRUD, I think that is a oversimplification at best. Software development can be rolled up into patterns and best practices but to oversimplify it down to it's all CRUD is a little beyond the reality of the duties of the role.
Edit: Actually, there are no CRUD jobs in kernel development. There aren't CRUD jobs in a lot of fields. There aren't any CRUD jobs in database design and development. There aren't any CRUD jobs in compiler design. Any argument to the contrary betrays a fundamental ignorance of what CRUD means[1].
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Create,_read,_update_and_delete
A baker does CRUD with bread, a surgeon does CRUD with people's organs, a dentist does CRUD with teeth, and a physicist simply does low-level CRUD at an atomic level.
By stating it this way it sounds simple, but you know, the devil is always in the details...
IT is a very broad term that can potentially cover most anything primarily related to computing. Rather than arguing what it does or doesn't mean, it's generally preferable to recognize the relevant meaning of the term in context.
Though in this case, he's right, it appears the authors are ignorant about much of the industry and are using the term "IT" to mean traditional corporate "IT departments" responsible for internal infrastructure (pc/email/network)
My point was that if you don't actually know how to do anything you probably won't have a job. This is true of both of the examples you put out but not true of the people I'm talking about.
There's not a global shortage of IT Support people.
The latter is usually the exact opposite of this.
Disclosure: I am in the former group and really want to be part of the latter group.
a) there has never been a "perfect market" left to its own devices.
b) there can never be one in any pragmatic way.
c) Who measured it scientifically, or proved it abstractly that it is "always right"?
It's more like: "we are used to working and bending to the market, so, we won't question it. Oh, and those other folks in USSR had a terrible fate when they fought the market, so we wont try anything stupid".