Outsourcing Myths Shattered: My Personal Experience!
One of the most popular hiring trends in recent years has been outsourcing. Some employers would rather hire a company overseas for lower costs and higher quality work. However, some experts believe that this trend is going to slow down or stop completely soon due to several reasons. Many contend that the trend is economically unsustainable because it’s very difficult, if not impossible, for companies to make an adequate profit margin from outsourcing jobs.
In my personal experience with out sourcing I found that it was a win-win situation even when I had no idea what I was doing before hand.
I was hired by a small business in San Francisco to produce three simple Flash animations for a total of $750. I asked the client where he wanted me to work from, and he said that it didn’t matter. I thought, “Wow, this guy’s awesome! He doesn’t care if I work from my basement or his office or from an island off the coast of South America! He only cares about getting the job done!”
As it turned out, this guy didn’t care about anything except getting the job done at as cheap a cost as possible. He had me make the Flash animations for him in Manila, Philippines.
When I got to Manila everything was brand new and foreign. I had never been to the Philippines before, so I goofed off for two weeks until I got familiar with my new surroundings. Then I started making these three Flash animations that this guy wanted done quickly so he could play them at trade shows in San Francisco and New York City.
One of my biggest challenges was learning how to use a local software program called Adobe Animate that the client wanted me to use. The program was very advanced, very complicated, and had a lot of features that I didn’t know anything about.
So I thought, “What the heck! Just give it a shot!” It was going to be awkward learning this new software and working from an unfamiliar location on this mysterious project. But like I said earlier, it didn’t matter where I worked from—I could have been at the North Pole for all the client cared.
In fact, the client wanted me to work in his office with him every day, but after just a few hours of working with him in his office I felt completely out of control. He started giving me orders that were way beyond my skill level. He started changing the way I had been doing things. He wanted me to change some of the little details on these Flash animations, but he didn’t want to pay for the extra time it would take me to do that.
I was really feeling a little bit stressed out at this point because I couldn’t figure out what he was trying to accomplish or why he was being so picky with details that were way beyond my skill level. I just wanted to finish this project and get on with my life. So after a while, I asked him if we could work somewhere else so I could concentrate more efficiently on the project.
He agreed, so we went to this place called a “workstation.” It was an open room in his office where all of his employees worked on projects. So I started working here, but after a week or so I still didn’t have any idea what he was trying to accomplish through all these changes he wanted me to make on the animations. He was just getting on my nerves at this point.
So I decided to ask him bluntly if we could work somewhere else where I didn’t have to deal with him every day and where I wouldn’t have to learn this crazy and very complicated software program called Adobe Animate. I told him that I just needed a quiet place where I could concentrate more efficiently on the project.
He got very angry with me and said, “Well, get it done then!” and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
I had no idea what he meant by that. But I was so frustrated at this point that I just wanted to finish this project and get on with my life. So I kept working in this workstation for another week or so until he finally gave me what he wanted: three animated Flash files that were very similar to his previous Flash files but with a few minor differences and much better quality than before.
Then I asked him for the $750 he had promised me for the project, but he said, “Sorry, I don’t have any more money for you.”
I felt like getting in my car and driving all the way back to San Francisco just so I could kick him in the shin! But at that point, I decided to let it go. I had finished the project and I was happy to move on to my next project.
In fact, I ended up completing another project for this guy two years later for the same amount of money. When I got that check, it was like a big windfall. It felt really good to be making money from my work as an independent contractor.
What’s more, this company wasn’t ever in any trouble with the law or anything else. They treated me just as well as any other employee and they paid me in full on time every time. They have since moved their business from San Francisco to Los Angeles, but they still hire me whenever they need a little extra work done on Flash animations.
Conclusion
It was a very good experience working from Manila, Philippines. And it went a long way in teaching me to trust my instincts. I just knew that when I felt stuck in one situation, I needed to take action and try something new. It’s much easier for me to make money nowadays because of this knowledge, so that’s why I decided to write this letter.
Your turn…
What do you think? What was the experience like for you when you first started out? What did you learn from it? Feel free share your comments below!
References: http://www.finance-digest.