Posted on 04/17/2007 5:48:48 PM PDT by A. Pole
The master plan, it seems, is to move perhaps 40 million high-skill American jobs to other countries. U.S. workers have not been consulted.
Princeton economist Alan Blinder predicts that these choice jobs could be lost in a mere decade or two. We speak of computer programming, bookkeeping, graphic design and other careers once thought firmly planted in American soil. For perspective, 40 million is more than twice the total number of people now employed in manufacturing.
Blinder was taken aback when, sitting in at the business summit in Davos, Switzerland, he heard U.S. executives talk enthusiastically about all the professional jobs they could outsource to lower-wage countries. And he's a free trader.
[...]
Ron Hira has studied the dark side of the H-1B program. A professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, he notes that the top applicants for visas are outsourcing companies, such as Wipro Technologies of India and Bermuda-based Accenture.
The companies bring recruits in from, say, India to learn about American business. After three years here, the workers go home better able to interact with their U.S. customers.
In other cases, companies ask their U.S. employees to train H-1B workers who then replace them at lower pay. "This is euphemistically called, 'knowledge transfer,' " Hira says. "I call it, 'knowledge extraction.' "
[...]
The companies fret that not enough young Americans are studying science and technology. Well, cutting the pay in those fields isn't much of an incentive, is it?
[...]
This vision for a competitive America seems to be a few rich U.S. executives commandeering armies of foreign workers. They don't have to train their domestic workforce. They don't have to raise pay to American standards.
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
We’re out of room and resources.
Let them all move in with you.
Then tell me how wonderful it is.
Workers should be paid what they are worth. The reality is that wages vary a lot. In my IT field, I’ve worked between two guys, one of whom was an absolute genius. He loved his work so much that he would have done it for free, which he almost was at $14,000 per year.
On the other side of me sat a lazy slob consultant at $200/hr charged with recommending the future direction of the company in IT. He did cut and paste from magazines without even reading the articles, and without giving credit to the original authors. He knew nothing about IT. But he sure knew how to BS, and how to negotiate a nice hourly rate.
(I was in the middle, both in rate, and in seating.)
Chicago W suburbs, intelligent young women in their mid 20s, with a little experience unrelated to the high paying positions they obtained, but with the ability (after some mentoring) to market themselves. A big problem is that geek/nerd/pocket-protector types don’t know how to market themselves.
You’d think hiring managers in IT are logical. Big mistake. they are governed by emotional first impressions.
Check people here in FR, or any web site, who whine about them not getting a good job. Go to their homephage/profile and get a first impression. Would you hire that person for a high paying job? They put themselves down. They are pessimistic paradoids. They have spelling and grammar errors. They do a lousy job of organizing data logically.
(please don’t go to my page. But I’d guess my FR page generates 2 or 3 of my 20 emails per week.)
Creator of the Daily Political Limerick.
Please scroll down .....
I have gotten my last few jobs from doing presentation for local user groups. Usually potential employers are there, as it is a great way to seek out potential candidates. And they usually stick around for the presentation. I got so many phone calls from potential employers, that it got to be a nuisance after awhile.
But that is the key to landing a good job, find ways to make them seek you out, instead of the other way around.
You have to take an entrepreneurial approach to your career, whether you like it or not. That’s just the way it is now. Develop a “knowledge portfolio.” Have skills that may not pay as much, but are always useful. Then pick out some cutting-edge areas, and become an expert on them, seek out opportunities to present them to your local user groups, it’s not hard to do. Odds are most won’t pan out financially, but one just might, and you build a reputation as someone who is up to date.
Read, Read, Read!!!! In IT, it’s all about keeping up. When Manning or O’Reilly comes out with new books, it’s a pretty good sign that technology is going to take off. You can usually read one or two chapters for free online.
There are plenty of opportunities out there in IT, but you have to do the legwork to get them.
I don’t want you to think that I’m perfect. My point is to take personal responsibility. I can’t blame a convenient scapegoat for my situation. The problems I face are not the fault of the MSM, nor of illegals, nor of offshoring, nor of my parents lack of perfection, nor of my wife’s lack of perfection.
I’ve made choices in my 63 years, some of which were wise; some of which were not so wise.
This morning I came accross the productivity challenge.
If you can’t do it, then consult to those who can do it.
If you can’t consult, then facilitate the consultants.
If you can’t facilitate than coordinate the facilitators.
If you can’t coordinate, then be the planner who allocates the project hours to the coordinator who coordinates the facilitator who facilitates the consultant who consults to the doer.
If you can’t be the planner, then manage the planners who allocate project hours to the coordinator who coordinates the facilitator who facilitates the consultant who consults to the doer.
I saw that yours contained your resume; I had not thought of using FR as a career tool :-)
Cheers!
Cheers!
Gosh, I don’t know . . . it never has in the past. Maybe not at Free Republic, but I don’t think its hiring.
Some of the job sites that we assume are freee because they are free to us are not free to the employer or recruiter. Those proprietary sites are protected/encrypted so they can make some money.
Some Recruiters, and companies who don’t want to pay recruiters, use search engines to crawl the web. They find most of their good IT prospects in the many IT related chat rooms. But in addition, the IT techies are in those IT related chat rooms. They see your chats, profile, etc and contact you directly. It is a great way to get past HR. One of the big problems in big companies is getting past HR. The hiring managers in IT hate HR and do their best to bypass it and hire directly. HR is a slow moving bureaucracy that does not understand the jobs they are trying to fill. the result is that the hiring manager often fills the job outside HR. (HR hates that.)
How many FReepers have their resume posted at
CONSERVATIVEJOBS.COM ? Why or Why not?
I know its been mentioned often in threads about jobs.
I get about 1 email a week that came through that web site requesting I submit a “more recent resume” or an “application” or just asking if I’m “available”.
Some of the email is for jobs totally unrelated to my skills.
excellent advice.
Once again, the ever-popular private freepmail coming.
The problem is that it cannot be defined outside of ethical perspective. Workers same way as employers and others are human beings and it is the benefit of the actual human beings which is the right objective. No sophistry can hide this fundamental fact.
I believe that as much as material prosperity is good as much the higher wages and profits are good.
A worker is worth what a willing and able seller of his services and a willing and able buyer of his services agree on to be the value.
That definition is simple and the ultimate in ethics. By what right does some politician or bureaucrat (or other) have the moral and ethical right to impose what that price should be without the willing consent of the parties invovled?
Now I work for a consulting firm. I williningly delegate to them the power to negotiate my wage on my behalf. Some (but not all) of my union member friends willingly delegate to the union the power on their behalf. Likewise, the stockholders or other owners of a company willingly delegate to management the ability to negotiate the wage on behalf of the stockholders.
The problem comes in when some elitist/idealist thinks that he is superior than us poor slobs and that due to his superior moral, political or technocratic insight, he should on my (or you) his enlightened view of what we do not willingly do.
Is the free market perfect? Hell no. There are individual anecdotal situations where it definitely is not. But overall, it is far better than leaving decisions to the elitists who end up more interested in their own power, than in altruism.
I was cleaning up old bookmarks on my computer, and came across this thread.
When I saw your comment, something in my head went (QUOTE):
"DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING!"
I'll bet you didn't know you were given to foreknowledge.
Ever hear of the subprime mortgage crisis / housing bubble?
Cheers!
Thank you, thank you-- but if I were truly prescient, I would have added American companies to the things we'd be selling to other countries.
You'll see what may be the fate of the entire country in the near future.
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