Iron Chef Puerto Rico
So, some of you may have heard about the fact that hundreds and thousands of tech jobs arfe being outsourced every day to places like India and China, because it’s often considerably cheaper to pay an offshore company to develop your software than it is to pay the high salaries that homegrown programmers demand. This, of course, does not bode well for code monkeys such as myself. I’ve found myself having to sit down and seriously consider what career I’m going to choose within the next five years, because it’s quite unlikely that I’ll be able to get a job with any major or even medium tech companies in the future, no matter how many certifications I hold. The local techie job market will be flooded with other desperate programmers, many of whom will have more experience and better education than myself, all competing for increasingly scarce tech jobs. Not an encouraging prospect, let me tell you.
I’ve been considering what other areas I would like to dedicate myself to. What dreams, besides just goofing around on the computer. There was that bit about being a writer, but I just don’t have the mental stamina for it, it seems. I’m fine enough writing random short rants like this one, but I can’t bring myself to sit down and actually complete a narrative of any real substance. So what else is there? Well… one thing: chef.
I’ve always loved cooking, and not just for myself, but for others. I like making meals and presenting them to others, and as a Leo, I particularly enjoy the praise from others when something I’ve cooked comes out particularly well. I enjoy being in the kitchen, mixing spices and flavors, mixing and chopping and frying and boiling. It’s a lot like hacking: you’re given some base tools and raw materials to work with, and while almost anyone can cobble together a serviceable meal given the right ingredients/tools and some instructions, it takes someone with skill to produce something new and interesting from those same roots. Here at home, I’m the one who cooks 90% of the time, and not because I’m forced to, but because I enjoy cooking and preparing meals for Natalie and myself. And the times I worked at the hotel kitchen in Ithaca during my stay at Cornell were actually rather enoyable for the most part (although my job was mostly chopping veggies, mixing dough, and preparing chocolate covered strawberries, but it was still fun watching the real chefs in action).
So, while right now I’m gonna continue the code monkey bit, since I love my current job and my bosses r0xx0rz, and I have to pay the bills while Natalie finishes up her studies again (turns out she can go straight to a Master’s Degree in Graphic Design by piggybacking on her BA in Psych, so she’d end up with a Master’s and she would finish it in less than a yuear and a half (trimesters). Only bad thing is that they’;re all night classes), I’m taking time to oeducate myself more in the finer areas of cooking and food. I bought myself a decent cookbook a couple of days ago and I’ve been devouring it cover to cover, if you’ll excuse the pun. Once Natalie’s better settled in and we can afford it, it’s quite likely that I’m gonna drop out of work to study at a good cooking school to become and actual chef. Who knows, maybe eventually I’ll even be able to open my own restaurant. Now wouldn’t that be nice? 
February 20th, 2004 at 9:56 am
Tell me about it, I’ve also been growing more and more concerned about this “outsourcing” problem recently. My company is playing with the idea of opening an office or two somewhere in South America where they can pay l33t programmers 5 bucks an hour to do pretty much what I do right now. There are two points in my favor, though. The customers for which I work like to interact with a person in person (pardon the redundancy). That is, they don’t like much having to work with a voice that comes out of a speaker phone, they prefer to have an actual person standing in front of them. My company knows this, so if this Latin America thing gets through, they would train employees like me to be this kind of liaison officer between the two parties. Which brings me to my second point in favor. Those five years I spent at Mayaguez to get this Engineering degree actually do pay off. There are many other tasks that I can do besides programming that I am hoping will keep me alive (and keep the cash flowin’
in this industry for a few more years to come. And like you, Katsu, I also have a dream of someday making my own game dev company, so of course you’d be welcome there, even if you just want to cook for the programmers.
So, when are ya gonna cook something up fer me?
GO IRON CHEF PR KATSU!!
=)
February 20th, 2004 at 12:37 pm
All I have to say is “3 million new jobs. . .”. Too bad they all seem to be for the new migrant workers. Not that I have anything against them, as far as I’m concerned the borders should be fully open. (You know, the whole gimme your tired and your poor bit? I wonder how many of those guys patrolling the border now are descended from the same people who made terra firma on Ellis Island or crossed from the south.) Still, as someone who has recently become unemployed once more, and who has a degree in Bourgeois Studies, I too look forward to trying to use my oh-so-deficient skills to get an oh-so-soul-crushing job. I think it’s especially hard for us nice suburban kids with slightly leftist leanings, not only do we want work to keep us solvent, we expect it to feed our souls and help the world and maybe even bring us flowers once in a while. . .
February 21st, 2004 at 1:54 pm
Well, people always got to eat.. and there’s always people looking for somehing more than a cheeseburger.
Plus, being a chef/having a restaurant is actually one of those carreers where you can do some good if you’re up for it. There’s several programs out there that are dedicated to picking up leftover food from retaurants and funneling it into homeless shelters instead of just throwing it away, stuff like that. Good stuff.
And Jan, if your game company ever decides to make, say, ‘Burger Time 2: Would you like fries with that?’, I can be your consultant.