Posted on 06/25/2002 6:14:36 PM PDT by FormerLurker
Related threads on this topic can be found below..
U.S. investigating claims Sun layoffs favored foreign workers (H-1B visas )
For a while you just could not find what you needed, and with all the hype, alot of not so good candidates were sucked up into the vacuum. There's at least a ten to one difference in usefulness between the top programmer and the bottom, and the ones who could deliver the goods were in hot demand.
Now most of the computer companies have downsized, and most of the dot-coms have vanished. Few are hiring. Those who got in late, and didn't have something special (luck, ability or drive) are hurting or collecting unemployment or adapting to a new, lower, life style.
This article, at least in the opening words I skimmed, tries to score rhetorical points by pointing out the contrast between the scarcity of good programmers in the late 1990's and the current overabundance of so-so programmers. No big deal. Just part of the usual boom and bust of this business, and probably of most other rapidly evolving business's.
You've obviously skimmed too fast. The article states facts proving that highly skilled and talented engineers are currently being replaced by foreign workers on H-1B visas. You should go back and read the article, this time without "skimming". These "so-so" programmers as you call them are those engineers who have passed the age of 40. They are being replaced with "so-so" warm bodies from India, Pakistan, China, and a host of other countries. Companies such as Lucent, Nortel, Sun, and many others are laying off American workers to make room for foreign workers who will work long hours for less...
I'm closer to 60 than 40, and still get paid good money, mostly for my programming skills and hard work. Of course, that means I've been continually retraining myself for nearly three decades now.
Perhaps if I get caught up in this trend someday myself, I will think differently, but for now, I have trouble getting to bent out of shape over it. However I suspect that if I did get such a layoff, I'd be too busy searching out the next job to loose sleep over the motivations of the layoff.
There are still one heck of a lot of people, of all stripes, programming. And it's ok by me if companies understand that they aren't there to keep people employed - they're there to make a profit.
And when I am hiring, the more competition for my openings the better.
The point about reeducation is right on the money. At my age it would be pointless to learn Java, Perl, Python, CGI, Javascript or other 'hot' web stuff because there are lots of kids who already know it and managers flatly do not want to hire an older person. And taking classes, no matter what the computer schools say, is pointless. Hiring managers want experience so in practice it is incredibly difficult if not impossible to switch from the ghetto of legacy maintenance to more modern skills.
The net effect is millions of US software engineers will be replaced with Chinese, Indian, and Pakistani "engineers". Many of them filling 'sensitive' positions. Gee, what a good idea that is. You ever wonder how "espionage" REALLY happens? It's when you let those into this country who have motives other than the best interest of the United States, give them a security clearance, and then put them into a "high-tech" position. Even those positions which aren't deemed "sensitive" allow those individuals to pick up our latest technology in ALL facets of our "high-tech" world, be it telecommunications, imaging, or signal processing.
That is not even to mention that those US engineers who are unemployed are currently not spending what they used to spend, so the entire US economy goes into a downward spiral.
Slave labor is always cheap. Then again, you get what you pay for...
And before you know it, the ONLY people who will be able to develop software are FOREIGN NATIONALS.
Those skills aren't too hot right now. .NET is the big thing going on now.
On topic: Hopefully companies will realize over time that their "cheap" foreign programmers cost them more money doing re-work than they save on hourly wage.
As communication is essential to creating applications that meet the needs and desires of clients, H1-Bs and foreign outsourced IT fail to live up to expectations.
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