It's taken me a while to publish the last of my thoughts from my trip to Asia last August. Better late than never.

Will your next job be in Asia? (particularly if you are a manager)

What is clear is that the future of the software industry lies in Asia. China, India and many other Asian countries are producing a lot of computer science and related field graduates. They have demographics in their favor - lots of young talent. They have work ethic in their favor. They have a liking for process and holistic system thinking approach embedded in their culture. They value quality and the pursuit of perfection. And most of all they have low costs (at least for the time being). What they don't have much of is experienced software industry management talent!

Recently, I've known several people working for Motorola or Microsoft who have gone to China to manage teams. Indeed had I not joined Microsoft in 2004, I may well have ended up in Beijing leading a team for Motorola. The Director of Microsoft in Taipei who invited me to his city told me with a wink and a smile, "If you wanted I could find you a job in Taipei starting next week." It seems to me very likely that my next job may well be in Asia. [Just to clarify - I have a big job to do at Corbis and I imagine being there for several years. Don't panic! (particularly Corbis employees reading this) I'm not looking for a new job.]

Are you prepared to up root your family and relocate to Asia even for a few years? If you are a manager then chances are you already have a family, and a spouse with a career. Moving to a whole different culture is disruptive. Would you pull your kids out of school? Would your spouse suspend his or her career? and is it worth it?

Well, think about this! If you are 40 years old now, you probably have 30 years of useful and viable career left ahead of you - don't kid yourself about retirement at 65 or earlier. [However, a "3rd life" option of semi-retirement and work as a consultant may be an option at an earlier age but it doesn't affect what I'm going to say.] During those 30 years most of your industry is going to move to Asia in the way that manufacturing abandoned Western shores in the latter half of the 20th Century. Do you want to be unemployed IT manager in your early 50's with kids to put through college and a mortgage with 15 years left to run? or do you want to have a viable career that will last in to your late 60's? Will getting some Asian experience now assist you with that? Will Asian management experience enable you to have a healthy 3rd life career as a consultant, perhaps living in America but traveling to Asia regularly? Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, Software+Engineering, Management, Asia+Technology