Preface
Before I left my last company, my immediate leader had a chat with me. In addition to greeting me if I have a good next home, I also urged me not to go to an outsourcing company, otherwise it will leave an indelible stain on my resume.
At that time, I didn't know much about outsourcing companies. I just heard that outsourcing companies were pitted. As for where the pits were, and to what extent, I didn't have a real experience.
It was not until I came to this company that I met a lot of outsourcing colleagues, that I had a deeper understanding of outsourcing companies and a deeper understanding of the meaning of "stain" as the former leader said.
Classification of outsourcing companies
The outsourcing companies I have learned generally fall into two categories, one is on-site outsourcing and the other is non-on-site outsourcing. The difference between the two is whether they need to be dispatched to Party A’s company to work. If necessary, it is resident outsourcing, otherwise it is non-resident outsourcing.
Although both are outsourcing, the difference between the two is quite big.
Let me talk about on-site outsourcing. Due to the need to be dispatched to Party A’s company, they work with the staff of Party A’s company on a daily basis. The projects that are contacted are generally large and complex, and the duration of the project is generally relatively long. The advantage of on-site outsourcing is that you can get in touch with the projects of Party A’s company and you can communicate and learn with the people of Party A’s company. Of course, there are a lot of pits, which will be discussed in detail later.
Let's talk about non-site outsourcing. Personally, it is very similar to the construction team model. If you compare front-line outsourcing personnel to cement workers, then the boss or project manager of the outsourcing company is the contractor. Generally speaking, the personnel of Party A directly connect with the project manager of the outsourcing company. After the project manager understands the requirements, he assigns the requirements to the staff of the outsourcing company to complete. Therefore, non-site outsourcing generally involves working with people from the company, and has less contact with the staff of Party A’s company, or even no contact at all.
What are the pitfalls of outsourcing companies
Outsourcing companies are uneven, but generally speaking, they belong to the category of small companies. Even though the number of outsourcing companies may not be large, they are closer to small workshops in terms of management and operation models, so they are classified as small companies. Since it is a small company, the shortcomings of the small company mentioned in the previous article are not dealt with by the outsourcing company.
However, because the outsourcing company does not have its own core business, it is completely led by Party A. Therefore, the outsourcing company's pitfalls are worse than those of ordinary small companies.
The first pitfall of outsourcing companies is that technology is difficult to settle. Generally speaking, the cycle of an outsourcing project is as short as a few weeks and as long as a few months, and it is difficult to last more than half a year. And each project’s party A is different. Maybe the last project is related to government affairs, the next project is e-commerce, the last project is developed in Java, and the next project will use Node.js. Although there are many projects on the surface, each project is still at the stage of completing the basic functions. As for the subsequent steps of architecture optimization and code refactoring, it is generally not involved. This kind of fancy project management system is a typical "tactical diligence". Apart from making people exhausted, it is not very helpful to the precipitation and accumulation of technology. This is actually a common problem of small companies, but outsourcing companies are more sick.
The second pitfall of outsourcing companies is to stay away from business. The outsourcing company does not have its own business. The only thing that can barely be related to the business is how to deal with the relationship with Party A. However, the resources of Party A’s company are generally in the hands of the boss, and usually do not have much to do with front-line employees. relationship. Many technicians have a misunderstanding, which is to over-enlarge the role of technology and underestimate the value of business. It is true that as a technician, technical strength is the most basic skill, there is no doubt about it, but if you blindly drill into the technology and ignore or even contempt the importance of the business, you can always stay in the front line and act as a screw. , At most a senior engineer, far from reaching the height of an expert. If you have carefully observed the requirements of some high-end positions, you will find that in addition to technical requirements, candidates are usually required to have relevant experience in a certain field. This is actually not difficult to understand. Interlaced like a mountain, the same is the Internet. The business scenarios of financial companies and social companies are as different as the work content of programmers and product managers. Therefore, when some large companies are looking for high-end talents, in addition to their technical level, they also look at the industry background of the candidates. The former can only distinguish junior engineers from senior engineers, and the latter is the watershed between engineers and domain experts. In an outsourcing company, because there is no business of its own, it is impossible to accumulate in a certain business area. Even though I have come into contact with projects from all walks of life, what I learned is just a little bit of fur, which is far from the real business.
The third pitfall of outsourcing companies is that it is difficult to be treated equally. On-site outsourcing should be fully understood. Although everyone is talking about equality everywhere nowadays, a fact that cannot be ignored is that the principle of equal coexistence between Party A and Party B, between internal staff and outsourcing personnel is difficult to work. Maybe everyone is on the surface, but to be honest, in the eyes of many internal staff, outsourcing personnel are "inferior to others" and they should be squeezed. This kind of unequal treatment is more prominent when there are production problems. If there is a problem with the internal staff, the leader generally laughs and teases, but if the problem is with the outsourcing staff, then it is not enough to be scolded. , The serious ones will be expelled. Although the technical level of some outsourcing personnel is not bad, due to the inequality of rights and interests, the outsourcing personnel have generally become victims. Even in some companies, the outsourcing personnel are basically the work, and the internal staff are either in the meeting or on the way to the meeting. Therefore, if you want to go to an outsourcing company, especially on-site outsourcing, you must consider clearly whether you can tolerate this unequal working environment. If not, it is better to stay away from this pit as soon as possible.
What should I do if I join an outsourcing company
Although there are many pitfalls in outsourcing companies, if you really have nowhere to go, you might as well go to the outsourcing company to accumulate some experience first, and then switch to other better companies when the time is right. However, it should be remembered that entering an outsourcing company is only a stopgap measure. Unless you have already entered the management, or are confident of entering the management in the short term, it is not recommended to stay in the outsourcing company for too long. If there are other options, then you should not include the outsourcing company in your consideration. Even if the outsourcing company gives you more money than other companies, you must understand that the extra money needs to be spent on your overtime and Dignity to repay. There is no free lunch in the world. Any gift of fate is actually secretly marked with a price, but you just ignore it.
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