If All the Jobs are Going to India, Should I Move to Bangalore?
By Anne Fisher

(FORTUNE Magazine) – Dear Annie: Maybe I should quit reading newspapers. Everything I'm reading about outsourcing and the global economy is making me incredibly discouraged. I will graduate in the spring from a great university with a top-notch computer-science degree (my GPA is 3.9). I've also done two summer internships that gave me in-depth experience in several aspects of IT. But if all the jobs are going to India, what chance do I have? Would it make sense for me to think about moving to India? There really is nothing holding me here, and I am afraid of ending up just flipping burgers or something. Help! --Windy City

Dear Windy City: Whoa! Deep breath there, buddy. Deep calming breath. There you go. Now. With your resume (attached to your e-mail but not reprinted here: sorry, readers), I'll be amazed if you ever get within flipping distance of a burger. We've all heard scarifying stats on jobs moving overseas, but fleeing the country isn't your only option. There is plenty of research to suggest that in 2004, companies will be hiring increasing numbers of young, smart, state-of-the-art web-server administrators. (That line of work is so vital. Why does it sound so dull?) And then we have security, a major preoccupation of just about everybody.

I'm not saying you won't spend time in India--after you're hired. "Intel, Microsoft, General Motors, and many others are recruiting here for management jobs overseas. Go to these companies' websites and apply for openings that are appropriate to your skills," says Bharat Desai, CEO of Syntel (www.syntelinc.com), which helps U.S. multinationals tackle the logistics of setting up shop abroad. "It really is that simple. They are opening major centers offshore, and to jump-start those, they certainly need talent."

Going global does make sense, particularly right out of school. "International experience gives you broad knowledge and a sense of how things are done elsewhere," Desai says. A few years down the road you could end up getting transferred back to the U.S.--sharper, wiser, and (here's the ticket) more marketable.

Oh, and one more thing: Don't quit reading newspapers. Without newspapers, how would you have become worried enough to start planning? Local TV news, on the other hand, is just depressing (no matter where you live). Don't watch that.

Dear Annie: Your recent column (Dec. 8; see fortune.com) on women trying to get back into the workforce after a few years of raising children caught my eye because I'm thinking of doing the opposite. The thing is, we have a 6-year-old and a 2-year-old, and now my wife and I are about to have twins. This is going to be fun but hard, and I'd like some time off from work to deal with it. My boss and I get along well, but if I ask for paternity leave, I wonder whether I'll be seen as second-rate. --Rock and a Hard Place

Dear RHP: Ah. Well, all the available research suggests that dads do take time off under these circumstances (or, hey, less daunting ones: twins?), but they usually don't call it paternity leave. They call it vacation, personal days, golf, dead car battery, or "none of your business." But they do take it. "The U.S. Department of Labor reported in 2000 that only about one-third of dads admit to taking paternity leave," notes Julie Shields, an attorney and work-life consultant who wrote a book called How to Avoid the Mommy Trap: A Roadmap for Sharing Parenting and Making It Work (Capital Books, $16.95). "Often what happens is one high-performing guy will just say, 'Hey, I'm doing this,' and everyone accepts it. Then you'll see other guys doing the same. But it takes someone to start the ball rolling."

Maybe that guy could be you. Consider: A recent poll of both employers and men who are fathers or fathers-to-be, conducted by the Families and Work Institute (www.familiesandwork.org), found an interesting discrepancy--40% of dads believed their careers would suffer if they took time off for kids, but only 10% of employers said the same. How can you tell if your employer is in the dreaded 10%? "Look around," advises Shields. "If any guy you know took a paternity leave, how did it work out? Are people snickering around the water cooler, or is it no big deal? How does your immediate boss react to it?" Official company policy matters too, of course. Check the employee manual--but also note whether the idea is reinforced by informal reminders like fliers on bulletin boards or even mailings to your home. "Only about 12% of U.S. companies offer paid leave," says Shields. "But if the company is really behind the notion of any leave at all, paid or not, you'll get these other signs of it."

And then, lest we forget, there's federal law. The Family Medical Leave Act--which gives each and every one of us 12 weeks of unpaid furlough if we need to attend to any major medical event in our immediate families--makes no distinction between moms and dads. The law also makes it illegal for your employer to punish you later because you decided to do this now. Your employer's lawyers already know all about this, by the way. If they should momentarily forget, you need only invoke the name of state trooper Kevin Knussman. Eeek! It was a relatively small settlement (recall it? Maryland denied him paternity leave, he sued, the rest was nationwide media blab for at least a week), but it set a precedent that no employer can ignore. Your company doesn't want that kind of trouble. Nor do you. Right?

So take your leave. Kiss those twins for us, would you?