I have a friend who’s in the STEM business, and who sits in on the hiring interviews. He says there are one of two things that he nearly always finds: (1) the English is so bad that the knowledge is not useful. It can’t be communicated in technical builds. (2) the knowledge is subpar, because so many foreigners live in countries in which certain classes of people are guaranteed passage due to connections, transfer of payments, or caste.
Despite reported differences in the STEM knowledge of our own people, there is a real concern that we are testing ALL of our students while they are testing only those who qualify for academic tracks in their economies. Not everyone continues in school in many other countries and are out in the work force as young as mid teens. If we are test A-F students, and they are testing only A-C students, then you can see there would be a great discrepancy.
Agree on the English. We actually have to approve admins they hire in India based on a telephone conversation about basic administrative tasks. If we can’t understand them, they don’t get hired. That’s pretty sad, if you ask me.
This is also a problem with “leadership.” Even our managers tell us, “Just hire an offshore resource, burn through them, and you can discard them after 3 months.” This is unfortunately the mentality today.