Posted on 10/11/2007 7:43:29 AM PDT by traumer
Is there really a labor shortage, or are tech companies lobbying Congress for more visas and green cards simply to avoid paying Americans better wages?
With a B.S. in computer science, an M.A. in information systems management, and 20 years of experience, Rennie Sawade would appear to be a strong candidate for a job as a software development engineer. But all the 44-year-old can find these days are short-term, temporary jobs—like the 15-month contract he's currently on at a Seattle-based medical device company. At Microsoft, the most prominent employer in town, he's had contract jobs and even interviews for permanent positions. But after several failed attempts, he's given up on trying to land a staff position at the software giant. "I feel like my time is being wasted," he says.
Just across town at Microsoft headquarters, in suburban Redmond, Wash., Kevin Schofield is grappling with what he calls a severe shortage of qualified workers. Schofield's job is to help develop recruiting strategies to stay ahead of rivals like Google (GOOG), IBM (IBM), Yahoo! (YHOO), and SAP (SAP). The 40-year-old says Microsoft is desperate to fill 3,000 core technology jobs in the U.S., and there are so few Americans with the specialized skills required that the company needs to bring in more workers from overseas on temporary visas and permanent green cards. "There just aren't enough people," says Schofield.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
The market’s fine here in NY. I have a great gig with a small, Wall Street firm, and I get love letters from headhunters on a daily basis. The market was very bad between late 2002 and late 2003, but picked up nicely in early ‘04.
What is this guy crying about. I am a 44-year old IT person. I quit my full-time job to do contracting as as a single person S-CORP. It pays THREE TIMES AS MUCH!!!! I get to pick my assignments and don’t have to tolerate a bad boss.
This debate is already settled: this has everything to do with low, slave like wages that you can get from foreingers. There are qualified people in the US, but many are turning away from IT because the zeitgeist in the field is to send American jobs hand over fist to places like India.
There, fixed it.
If you look at the mainframe IT industry, getting rid of most of them would help. They still refuse to use technology. They use software from the 60’s and 70’s and use every scare tactics in the book to keep their companies there and not getting any 21st century technology.
They don’t want to do the work and then blame their fellow employees by saying they are too stupid to learn.
It is all about keeping the wages low.
The economy in India is taking off so much that some companies are finding it less expensive to hire American again. At least that is the report I heard on the radio this week.
There are pleanty of Tech Workers... just companies know they can pay an H1B 30% or more less than an american, so they refuse to pay, and lobby congress for more visa’s.
Its an absolutely scam.
Market has picked up in the last year or so, after being very slow.
The other part is companies don’t want to hire, they want to bring someone in for 6 or 18 months, and if you are married raising a family you aren’t as likely to hop around the country every few months.
I would never recommend a kid get into tech today, the entire industry has been destroyed in terms of a career, unless you want to spend your entire life on the road. Go into finance or medical instead.
The other side of the coin is that IT shops through the end of the 90's and into the 00's managed to demand - and get - obscene salary increases and bonuses in comparison to other fields. Face it, this has been a great time to be in IT.
Part of the problem is that some of us started to actually believe that we were worth it.
One of the threads with the infamous “Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified U.S. worker...” video:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1855161/posts
The debate has been over for some time now.
I can assure you that it is the latter.
“Part of the problem is that some of us started to actually believe that we were worth it.”
Some are worth it and some arent. The ones that are arent the issue. Its those that lie and then leave you hanging that get me angry.
I can tell you right now, as a recruiter, the hardest part about recruiting in IT for me right now isn’t the lack of US Citizens that can do the job, it’s finding them sorting through all the H1-B shops.
There are consulting companies that basically hold the H1-B’s for hundreds of foreign nationals and spam their resumes all over Monster and other jobs sites saying they’re authorized to work in the US, problem is they’re all on Visas, so you have to sort through those shops to find the qualified citizens.
And yes, they do cost considerably less, especially from a billing perspective since you know what you’re paying the shop isn’t nearly as much as the tech is making.
It’s really a disgusting situation, especially when you need a citizen for DoD companies, do a search for a .Net developer and you’ll get 1000’s of resumes, but you’re lucky if 100 are citizens.
I’ve called Monster on it and they prefer to ignore it.
But we're supposed to believe that those "specialized skills" are available in some third-world dust farm? That excuse is so transparent a blind man can see through it with his cane.
H1B’s can be a problem though. We’ve had several go on vacation and never come back. They don’t quit jobs. They just disappear.
I work with a few and they are really good people. I am amazed at how much the English skills have improved.
They don’t want to do the work and then blame their fellow employees by saying they are too stupid to learn.
Please tell me you just forgot the "end sarcasm" tag. If not, you forgot the "start idiocy" tag. Apparently it NEVER ends.
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