| One of the hot
issues in the election last year was the issue of American jobs
being sent overseas to be done in countries where workers are
paid a small fraction of what their counterparts here are paid.
Most of these jobs in the past have been factory or manual labor
jobs, but no more.
Have you tried getting support for some new
software lately? You are just as likely to get a technician
who speaks very little English as you are someone who is American.
Computer software companies have been “offshoring” these kinds
of jobs for years.
Now, even architectural jobs are being offshored.
According to a recent article in Architectural Record, American
architectural firms are hiring computer draftspeople or architects
in India, China and other foreign companies.
Over the past couple of years I have received
a number of solicitations over the internet from overseas companies
who offered to provide services ordinarily done by architects.
Here are some examples.
Architects often do projects that include remodeling
an existing building, but the building is old enough that its
construction drawings had been done by hand. Since virtually
all architects now use CAD (computer aided drafting), they must
draw the existing building with CAD so that they can draw additional
things on the existing building. Overseas firms offer to copy
the drawings in CAD. You simply send them the old drawings by
overnight service, then they e-mail the drawings back to you
as soon as they are done.
Others offer artwork services, again with CAD.
When an architect needs a color rendering of a project, the
site plan and exterior elevations are e-mailed to the artist,
who then e-mails the rendering back when it is done.
Aside from the bad connotation of sending jobs
overseas, the controversy begins with the legal concept of “responsible
control”. Responsible control means that the architect is to
directly oversee the production of construction drawings. It
is a matter of quality control, which if not maintained, could
lead to a catastrophic collapse that could kill someone. Some
of the overseas firms are offering to provide this service,
which causes some serious concern over the notion of responsible
control.
The practice of offshoring architectural jobs
is not widespread, but it is growing.
Architectural Record conducted a survey of the
25 largest architectural firms in America to get a sample of
how many firms are using offshore service providers. According
to the survey, 8 of the 25 said that they were in the process
of doing so, or had done so in the past. Of those 8 firms, 5
dealt directly with an offshore firm, 4 of them dealt with their
own branch offices in foreign countries, one used a foreign
architectural firm which it regularly used for some time, and
one used a broker to help them find offshore firms to do their
work.
When asked what kind of work they sent to offshore
firms, six of the firms responded. Half of them said that they
sent construction drawing work, and the other half said artwork
and model construction.
Other informal surveys indicate that around
11% of American firms are now offshoring architectural jobs.
The main reason for the practice is money. Foreign
architects (or CAD techs) cost as little as 10% of what workers
in America cost.
There are other reasons this is taking place
also. There are fewer architectural students that are expected
to enter the architectural field over the next few decades,
primarily because it takes about ten years of training required
to get an architectural license. About 6 of those years is college,
and 3-4 years in internship and testing. The pay scale for entry-level
architects is very low in comparison with the time and financial
investment one must make to become an architect. As a result,
fewer students are going to architectural school, and many who
graduate from architectural school are going into more lucrative
jobs, especially those in the field of computers.
There is yet another reason for this growing
practice. Many foreign students come to America to get their
education and work experience, then return to their home countries.
With the ease of communication that the internet affords, it
is easy for an American firm to hire a former employee that
they already know and trust, even when that person is on the
opposite side of the globe.
At this point I don’t, and don’t plan to ever,
offshore jobs. But in this day and age, the market may force
me and other small firms like mine to do so simply to be able
to compete.
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