The Offshoring of America's Top Jobs

Many of America's top jobs are moving offshore. Which jobs are most likely to be hit by "offshoring" and what can you do to protect and safeguard your career?

Jobs that are most likely to be moved offshore have these Characteristics:

• Work is highly repetitive (accounting)
• Work is predictable and well defined (customer service)
• Can be broken down into small manageable projects (software development)
• Can be turned into a routine (Tele-marketing)
• Proximity to the end customer is not important (phone based tech support of consumer products)
• End customer has already moved offshore (semiconductor sales)

Jobs that are unlikely to move offshore have these Characteristics?

• High degree of ambiguity (top management positions)
• Unpredictable (hands on technical troubleshooting)
• Understanding of the culture is critical (authoring books, marketing, comedians)
• Time is of the essence (fast product development)
• Requires a high degree of collaboration (making a movie)
• Requires close proximity to the end customer (firefighting, auto repair, dental work)
• Requires high degree of creativity and innovation (creating new products, technical breakthroughs, writing music)

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What can you do to protect and safeguard your Job?

• Be the best in your field. Be much better than the next guy.
• Demonstrate the ability to be creative and innovative.
• Market your accomplishments to your management.
• Get out of any highly repetitive jobs that do not require close proximity to the customer.
• Choose a career where the demand will be so high that even tapping into the huge, low cost labor markets of China and India will not fill all the jobs.
• Choose a career from the "safe" list of jobs below.

Going, Going Gone
Our list of secure jobs and high risk Jobs

The list below shows four categories of jobs:

1. Safe / No Risk: Most of these jobs are safe from offshoring due to the need for being physically close to the customer.
2. Moderate Risk: These jobs might be starting to move offshore. There is no trend yet, but the nature of the work fits the pattern of a job that can be moved out of the US.
3. High Risk: Many of these jobs have already started to move offshore. The nature of these jobs matches those that can be moved easily and managed remotely.
4. Extreme Risk: You would have to be blind to not see that many of these jobs have already moved. The trend towards offshoring has been visible for more than a few years.

Finally, there is good news. The list of jobs that are safe from offshoring is much longer than the lists of jobs that are expected to be hit by offshoring.